President Trump’s Thursday visit to a manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas, where Apple makes a line of computers, highlighted the iPhone maker’s delicate dance with the Trump administration over China, tariffs and U.S. manufacturing. Michelle Quinn takes a look  at the relationship.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk is taking on the workhorse heavy pickup truck market with his latest electric vehicle.The “cybertruck,” an electric pickup truck, will be in production in 2021, Musk said at the Los Angeles Auto Show Thursday.The pickup, which Musk said will cost $39,900 and up, will have an estimated battery range of more than 500 miles.With the launch, Tesla is edging into the most profitable corner of the U.S. auto market, where buyers tend to have fierce brand loyalty.Brand-loyal buyersMany pickup buyers stick with the same brand for life, choosing a truck based on what their mom or dad drove or what they decided was the toughest model, said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.“They’re very much creatures of habit,” Gordon said. Getting a loyal Ford F-150 buyer to consider switching to another brand such as a Chevy Silverado, “it’s like asking him to leave his family,” he said.Tesla’s pickup is more likely to appeal to weekend warriors who want an electric vehicle that can handle some outdoor adventure. And it could end up cutting into Tesla’s electric vehicle sedan sales instead of winning over traditional pickup truck drivers.“The needs-based truck buyer, the haulers, the towers at the worksites of the world, that’s going to be a much tougher sell,” said Akshay Anand, executive analyst at Kelley Blue Book.However, it will help Musk fill out his portfolio and offer a broader range of electric vehicles.“Elon Musk is trying to not be one-dimensional when it comes to automotive,” said Alyssa Altman, transportation lead at digital consultancy Publicis Sapient. “He doesn’t want to look like he only has a small selection. He wants to build a brand with a diverse offering and in doing that he wants to see where he could enter in the market.”Electric truck competitionMusk stands to face competition when his truck hits the market. Ford, which has long dominated the pickup landscape, plans to launch an all-electric F-150 pickup. General Motors CEO Mary Barra said that its battery-electric pickup will come out by the fall of 2021.Rivian, a startup based near Detroit, plans to begin production in the second half of 2020 on an electric pickup that starts at $69,000 and has a battery range of 400-plus miles (643.7-kilometers). The Rivian truck will be able to tow 11,000 pounds (4,989.5 kilograms), go from zero to 60 mph (96.6 kph) in three seconds and wade into 3 feet (0.91 meters) of water, the company said. Ford said in April it would invest $500 million in Rivian.Tesla has struggled to meet delivery targets for its sedans, and some fear the new vehicle will shift the company’s attention away from the goal of more consistently meeting its targets.“We have yet to see Tesla really make good on some of the very tight deadlines they imposed on themselves, and this has the added challenge of having architecture that is going to be challenging because we haven’t seen an EV pickup before,” said Jeremy Acevedo, manager of industry analysis at Edmunds.
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The U.S. Army is undertaking a security assessment of China-owned social media platform TikTok after a Democratic lawmaker raised national security concerns over the app’s handling of user data, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said Thursday.Speaking to reporters at an event at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, McCarthy said he ordered the assessment after the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate, Chuck Schumer, asked him to investigate the possible risks in the military’s use of the popular video app for recruiting American teenagers.“National security experts have raised concerns about TikTok’s collection and handling of user data, including user content and communications, IP addresses, location-related data, metadata, and other sensitive personal information,” Schumer wrote in a Nov. 7 letter to McCarthy.Schumer said he was especially concerned about Chinese laws requiring domestic companies “to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.”Tik Tok logo is displayed on the smartphone while standing on the U.S. flag in this illustration picture taken, Nov. 8, 2019.The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has launched a national security review of TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance Technology Co.’s $1 billion acquisition of U.S. social media app Musical.ly.TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The company has previously emphasized its independence from China but has failed to assuage congressional concerns about the security of the personal data of U.S. citizens who use the platform and whether content on the platform is subject to any censorship from Beijing.In a Nov. 5 blog post, TikTok’s U.S. general manager, Vanessa Pappas, said that the company’s data centers “are located entirely outside of China.” She said U.S. user data is stored in the United States, with backup redundancy in Singapore.ByteDance is one of China’s fastest-growing startups. About 60% of TikTok’s 26.5 million monthly active users in the United States are between the ages of 16 and 24, the company said this year.Earlier this year, Schumer also called on the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission to conduct a national security and privacy investigation into FaceApp, a face-editing photo app developed in Russia.The potential for the sharing of army information through the use of apps was highlighted after researchers found in 2018 that fitness-tracking app Strava was inadvertently exposing military posts and other sensitive sites.In 2017, the Army ordered its members to stop using drones made by Chinese manufacturer SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd because of “cyber vulnerabilities” in the products.
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U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet on Thursday morning he had asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to look into helping develop telecommunications infrastructure for speedy 5G wireless networks.During my visit yesterday to Austin, Texas, for the startup of the new Mac Pro, & the discussion of a new one $billion campus, also in Texas, I asked Tim Cook to see if he could get Apple involved in building 5G in the U.S. They have it all – Money, Technology, Vision & Cook!l— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2019During his visit to a Texas plant on Wednesday, Trump met with Cook and asked “to see if he could get Apple involved in
building 5G in the U.S.  They have it all – Money, Technology, Vision & Cook!” Trump wrote in a tweet.Apple is not known to have made any investments in 5G telecoms infrastructure to date and is yet to release a 5G
device.  The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump met Cook on Wednesday during his visit to Apple’s upcoming campus in Texas, in the latest sign of a close
relationship between two of America’s most powerful men. This is not the first time Trump has used his Twitter
account to address Cook. In one of his latest tweets, Trump, who uses a government-issued iPhone, lamented the loss of the home button on some iPhone models because it forced users to swipe upward, rather than tap a button to unlock the phone.5G race
Trump has earlier said that the United States intended to deploy 5G services rapidly and plans to cooperate with
“like-minded nations” to promote security in next-generation 5G networks.
5G networks will offer data speeds up to 50 or 100 times faster than the current 4G networks, and serve as critical
infrastructure for a range of industries. Mobile operators have to upgrade their networks with 5G gear
made by the likes of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp, Sweden’s Ericsson and
Finland’s Nokia Oyj.
The United States has been pressing nations not to grant Huawei access to future 5G networks and alleged Huawei’s
equipment could be used by Beijing for spying, which the Chinese company has repeatedly denied.
The U.S. Congress has been considering legislation to authorize up to $1 billion for small and rural wireless
providers to replace network equipment from companies such as Huawei.
Among U.S. firms, Qualcomm Inc is the dominant player in radio chips that help mobiles connect to networks and
Cisco Systems Inc that makes networking gear. Some of Apple’s rivals in the smartphone market – notably
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd – have already released
5G devices.
Apple, which is expected to release its first 5G phones in 2020, will be able to beat Samsung and Huawei to capture the top
spot by the end of next year, according to research firm
Strategy Analytics.Many carriers that are investing heavily to build 5G networks are also likely to put their marketing efforts behind 5G phones. 
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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday after touring a plant that assembles Apple Inc computers that he was considering whether to exempt the U.S. company from tariffs on imports from China.”We’re looking at that,” Trump said in answer to a reporter’s question about the tariffs, after touring a plant in Austin, Texas, with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook that assembles the company’s Mac Pro desktop computers.Cook, who has a strong relationship with Trump, has sought relief for Apple from the U.S. tariffs, which are part of a months-long tit-for-tat trade war between the world’s largest economies.”The problem we have is you have Samsung. It’s a great company but it’s a competitor of Apple, and it’s not fair if, because we have a trade deal with Korea — we made a great trade deal with South Korea — but we have to treat Apple on a somewhat similar basis as we treat Samsung,” Trump said.Apple announced in September it would make its new Mac Pro computers in Austin. The announcement came days after U.S. trade regulators approved 10 out of 15 requests for tariff exemptions filed by Apple amid a broader reprieve on levies on computer parts.Earlier this month, Apple also asked the Trump administration to waive tariffs on Chinese-made Apple Watches, iPhone components and other consumer products.Trump has made boosting the U.S. manufacturing sector one of the goals of his presidency, taking to Twitter to pressure U.S. companies into keeping jobs at home.Earlier on Wednesday, Apple said it had started construction of a new campus in Austin that will employ 5,000 workers, with the capacity to grow to 15,000. It is expected to open in 2022.  
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DARPA, the main research and development arm of the U.S. Department of Defense, is funding researchers to develop wearable devices that would have military applications such as using the mind to control unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, commonly known as drones. Instead of using brain implants to achieve this, DARPA is looking for non-invasive to minutely invasive ways of interfacing with the machine. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee got a close-up look at one team’s work at Rice University. 
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The United States on Monday granted another 90 days for companies to cease doing business with China’s telecoms giant Huawei, saying this would allow service providers to continue to serve rural areas.President Donald Trump in May effectively barred Huawei from American communications networks after Washington found the company had violated US sanctions on Iran and attempted to block a subsequent investigation.The extension, renewing one issued in August, “will allow carriers to continue to service customers in some of the most remote areas of the United States who would otherwise be left in the dark,” US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement.”The department will continue to rigorously monitor sensitive technology exports to ensure that our innovations are not harnessed by those who would threaten our national security.”American officials also claim Huawei is a tool of Beijing’s electronic espionage, making its equipment a threat to US national security — something the company denies.Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of the company’s founder and CEO, was arrested in Canada last year and is now fighting extradition to the United States on fraud and conspiracy charges tied to US sanctions.The battle over Huawei has also landed squarely in the middle of Trump’s trade battle with Beijing.US officials initially said the two were unrelated as the Huawei actions were strictly law enforcement and national security matters but Trump has suggested a resolution could involve some common ground concerning Huawei.Following the near-collapse of US-China trade talks in May, Washington added Huawei to a list of companies effectively barred from purchasing US technology without prior approval from the US government.But, since companies have said they need time to begin to comply with the change, Trump has granted a series of limited reprieves, which officials say allow only “specific, limited” transactions involving exports and re-exports.
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A few Pakistani women friends, working for big tech companies in the U.S., decided they wanted to create the mentoring and professional network they wished they’d had when coming up in the business. The result is the Seattle based Pakistani Women in Computing or PWIC. VOA’s Nadeem Yaqub recently visited the Seattle chapter of PWIC and filed this report.
 
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It’s looking like an anti-robocall bill will be sent to President Donald Trump this year, helping tackle an infuriating problem in the U.S.House and Senate leaders said Friday they’ve reached an agreement in principle on merging their two bills against robocalls.The House bill had gone further than the Senate one. Details about what’s in the final bill are still to come, but legislators say it will require phone companies to verify that phone numbers are real, and to block calls for free. It will also give government agencies more ability to go after scammers.It’s the latest effort in a crackdown, building on steps by state attorneys general and the Federal Communications Commission as well as the phone companies.Phone companies have been rolling out verification tools after prompting from regulators. These reassure customers that the number showing up on their phone is actually the number that called, and not a fraudster “spoofing,” or faking, the number to try to get people to pick it up. Numbers can be faked to look like they’re coming from the IRS, for example, or from a number with the same area code as you. But to combat this successfully, all carriers need to put the anti-spoofing system in place.Telecom companies are also offering call-blocking apps for smartphones and many home phones, although not always for free. The FCC in June gave them permission to turn on call-blocking by default. While tools had been available before, customers might not have known to ask about them.Robocalls have become almost inescapable as the cost of sending them dropped and going after callers is difficult. Tech vendor YouMail said there were 5.7 billion calls from scammers, telemarketers, debt collectors and others in October. Not all those calls are unwanted, though — you might want to get the call from your pharmacy saying your prescription is ready.
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Twitter’s new ban on political ads will cover appeals for votes, solicitations for campaign contributions and any political content. But the company quickly acknowledged Friday that it expects to make mistakes as individuals and groups look for loopholes. Twitter is defining political content to include any ad that references a candidate, political party, government official, ballot measure, or legislative or judicial outcome. The ban also applies to all ads — even non-political ones — from candidates, political parties, and elected or appointed government officials. However, Twitter is allowing ads related to social causes such as climate change, gun control and abortion. People and groups running such ads won’t be able to target those ads down to a user’s ZIP code or use political categories such as conservative'' orliberal.” Rather, targeting must be kept broad, based on a user’s state or province, for instance. News organizations will be exempt so they can promote stories that cover political issues. While Twitter has issued guidelines for what counts as a news organization — single-issue advocacy outlets don’t qualify, for instance — it’s unclear if this will be enough prevent partisan websites from promoting political content. FILE – Attendees walk past a Facebook logo during Facebook Inc.’s F8 developers conference in San Jose, Calif.Twitter announced its worldwide ban on political ads October 30, but didn’t release details until Friday. The policy, which goes into effect next Friday, is in stark contrast to Facebook’s approach of allowing political ads, even if they contain false information. Facebook has said it wants to provide politicians with a level playing field for communication and not intervene when they speak, regardless of what they’re saying. Response to Twitter’s ban has been strong and mixed, with critics questioning the company’s ability to enforce the new policy given its poor history in banning hate speech and abuse from its service. The company acknowledges it will make mistakes but says it’s better to start addressing the issue now rather than wait until all the kinks are worked out. Aside from concerns about foreign interference in elections, the political advertising issue rose to the forefront in recent months as Twitter, along with Facebook and Google, refused to remove a misleading video ad from President Donald Trump’s campaign that targeted Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. In response, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, another presidential hopeful, ran her own ad on Facebook taking aim at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The ad claimed — admittedly falsely to make its point — that Zuckerberg had endorsed Trump for re-election. Over the past several weeks, Facebook has been pressed to change its policy. But it was Twitter instead that jumped in with its bombshell ban. Drew Margolin, a Cornell University communications professor who studies social networks, said Twitter’s broad ban is a reflection that vetting is not realistic and is potentially unfair.'' He said a TV network might be in a position to vet all political ads, but Twitter and Facebook cannot easily do so. While their reliance on automated systems makes online ads easier and cheaper to run, Margolin said, it also makes them anattractive target” for spreading misinformation. Political advertising makes up a small sliver of Twitter’s overall revenue. The company does not break out specific figures each quarter but said political ad spending for the 2018 midterm election was less than $3 million. It reported $824 million in third-quarter revenue. Because of this, the ban is unlikely to have a big effect on overall political advertising, where television still accounts for most of the money spent. In digital ads, Google and Facebook dominate. FILE – A woman walks past the logo for Google at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, Nov. 5, 2018.Unlike Facebook, which has weathered most of the criticism, Google has been relatively quiet on its political ads policy. It has taken a stance similar to that of Facebook and does not review whether political ads tell the truth. Twitter, Facebook and Google already take steps to prevent political manipulation by verifying the identities of some political advertisers — measures prompted by the furor over Moscow’s interference. But the verifying systems, which rely on both humans and automated systems, have not been perfect. 
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U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday he was certain that the awarding of a $10 billion cloud-computing contract to Microsoft instead of Amazon was done fairly.
The Pentagon awarded the contract to Microsoft in late October, and Amazon said there was “unmistakable bias” on the government’s part and it intended to challenge the decision in court.
Esper recused himself from the contract decision because his son had worked for one of the other unsuccessful bidders.
“I am confident that it was conducted freely and fairly without any type of outside influence,” Esper said at a news conference in Seoul, South Korea.
Amazon’s competitive bid for the “war cloud” project drew criticism from President Donald Trump and its business rivals. The project, formally called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, pitted leading tech titans Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle and IBM against one another.
In a statement Thursday, Amazon said “numerous aspects” of the bidding process involved “clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable bias.” It did not elaborate on those allegations but said “it’s important that these matters be examined and rectified.”
Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment. A Defense Department spokeswoman would only say that the Pentagon won’t speculate on potential litigation.
JEDI will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the U.S. military to use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities.
Amazon was long thought to be the front-runner for the contract. Its Amazon Web Services division is far ahead of second-place Microsoft in cloud computing, and Amazon has experience handling highly classified government data.
It survived earlier legal challenges after the Defense Department eliminated Oracle and IBM and whittled the competition to the two Seattle-area tech giants before choosing Microsoft in late October.
The Pentagon was preparing to make its final decision when Trump publicly waded into the fray in July, saying he had heard complaints about the process and that the administration would “take a very long look.” He said other companies told him that the contract “wasn’t competitively bid.” Oracle, in particular, had unsuccessfully argued Pentagon officials unfairly favored Amazon for the winner-take-all contract.
Experts had generally expected Amazon to appeal the award, saying it had little to lose. Steven Schooner, a professor of government procurement law at George Washington University, said Trump’s comments were “inappropriate and improvident,” but said it would be a challenge for Amazon to prove the White House applied undue pressure in a way that made a difference.
Amazon said it filed its protest in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which deals with financial claims against the federal government.
It’s not uncommon for losing bidders to file a protest, either with the U.S. Government Accountability Office or in court. Unlike a review by the GAO, Amazon’s court filing will enable it to seek documents from the government as evidence for its case.
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Facebook Inc signed a lease for over 1.5 million square feet of office space across 30 floors and three buildings in New York City’s Hudson Yards, according to a statement by the luxury and commercial real estate development on Thursday.Hudson Yards is a $25 billion complex of commercial and residential skyscrapers built on Manhattan’s far west side above the rail yards.The deal includes about 1.2 million square feet in 50 Hudson Yards, about 265,000 square feet in 30 Hudson Yards and about 57,000 square feet in 55 Hudson Yards, the statement added.”We’re excited to expand our offices there starting in 2020″, said John Tenanes, vice president of Facebook’s global facilities and real estate.Facebook did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. 
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China invited observers to a successful test Thursday of its Mars lander as the country pushes for inclusion in more global space projects.The demonstration of hovering, obstacle avoidance and deceleration capabilities was conducted at a site outside Beijing simulating conditions on the Red Planet, where the pull of gravity is about one-third that of Earth.China plans to launch a lander and rover to Mars next year to explore parts of the planet in detail.A lander is lifted during a test of hovering, obstacle avoidance and deceleration capabilities at a facility in Huailai in China’s Hebei province, Nov. 14, 2019.Growing space programChina’s burgeoning space program achieved a lunar milestone earlier this year by landing a probe on the mysterious far side of the moon.It has developed rapidly, especially since it conducted its first crewed mission in 2003 and has sought cooperation with space agencies from Europe and elsewhere.The U.S., however, has banned most space cooperation with China out of national security concerns, keeping China from participating in the International Space Station.Despite that, China’s ambitions continue to grow as it seeks to rival the U.S., Russia and Europe in space and cement its position as a regional and global power. It is gradually constructing its own larger, more permanent space station in which it has invited foreign participation.The lander on Thursday successfully avoided ground obstacles during a simulated low-gravity descent, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the Chinese space program’s main contractor.The refrigerator-sized craft was lowered gently on 36 cables through the air for about a minute and used onboard jets spraying rust-colored fumes to alter its downward course.“After the probe is launched, it will take about seven months to reach Mars, and the final procedure of landing will only last about seven minutes, which is the most difficult and the most risky part of the whole mission,” said the Mars mission’s chief designer, Zhang Rongqiao, standing before the 140-meter-(460-foot-) tall testing facility.Recent rover crashes on the moon by Israel and India highlight the difficulties of safe landings from space.The remote Comprehensive Testing Ground for Landing on Extraterrestrial Bodies run by CASC lies an hour north of the Great Wall from Beijing.Guests at Thursday’s event came from 19 countries and included the ambassadors of Brazil, France and Italy.“This event is the first public appearance of China’s Mars exploration mission, also an important measure for China to pragmatically carry out space international exchanges and cooperation,” the China National Space Administration said in a news release.
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Facebook released its Community Standards Enforcement Report on Wednesday, detailing its work in regulating its main app and Instagram from terrorist groups to child porn.The company said it removed more than 3.2 billion fake accounts between April and September, compared with more than 1.5 billion during the same period last year. The company also said it removed 11.4 million pieces of hate speech, compared to 5.4 million in the same six-month period in 2018.InstagramFor the first time, Facebook included Instagram in the report. The company said it made progress in detecting child nudity and sexual exploitation, removing more than 1.2 million pieces of content between April and September.Instagram spokesperson Stephanie Otway told VOA that Instagram previously had different ways of measuring enforcement on their community standards policies.”We brought our methodology in line with Facebook and that alignment meant we were able to share metrics for the first time today,” Otway said.Facebook said it had proactively deleted up to 98% of posts that it recognized as terrorist propaganda in the past two quarters. This included major organizations like Islamic State and al-Qaida and smaller, regional terrorist groups.Messaging servicesLaw enforcement officials are concerned that Facebook’s plans to provide greater privacy to users by encrypting the company’s messaging services (including Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp) will obstruct efforts to fight child abuse.Last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the changes would turn the platforms into a “dream come true for predators and child pornographers.”Facebook said its official policy on child pornography is to remove the content “regardless of the context or the person’s motivation for sharing it.”Posts that violated Facebook’s policies were deleted before many people were able to view them. Facebook estimated that for every 10,000 views on Facebook and Instagram, only four views contained content that violated their policy.Proactive detection of violating content was lower across all categories on Instagram than on Facebook’s main app.Facebook’s apps have a combined total of billions of users across the world that use the apps at least once a day.  
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Microsoft is bringing holograms to the office. The company recently started shipping its 2nd version of HoloLens, a headset that allows users to touch and interact with 3D holograms in everyday settings. Various industries have begun experimenting with the new computing device and VOA’s Tina Trinh had a chance to check it out.
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As the world becomes more connected people are vulnerable of being victims of cybercriminals. Police departments, hospitals, universities and businesses everywhere are also at risk. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee shows how the city of Los Angeles is fighting this problem, by sharing and pooling critical information about cyberattacks.
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Nine privacy, social justice and consumer groups are calling for the U.S. government to block Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of fitness-gadget maker Fitbit, citing antitrust and privacy concerns.They say in a Wednesday letter to the Federal Trade Commission that the deal would consolidate Google’s dominance over internet services like search, advertising and smartphone operating systems.They also worry it’ll add to Google’s store of consumer data. Health information is of particular concern. Google has hired health care executives, hinting at a health-data business to come.Politicians and regulators have been scrutinizing Google and other Silicon Valley companies for how they use customer data and leverage their size to thwart competitors.Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
 
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As the world becomes more connected people are vulnerable of being victims of cybercriminals. Police departments, hospitals, universities and businesses everywhere are also at risk. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee shows how the city of Los Angeles is fighting this problem, by sharing and pooling critical information about cyberattacks.
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SpaceX launched 60 mini satellites Monday, the second batch of an orbiting network meant to provide global internet coverage.The Falcon rocket blasted into the morning sky, marking the unprecedented fourth flight of a booster for SpaceX. The compact flat-panel satellites – just 575 pounds (260 kilograms) each – will join 60 launched in May.SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk wants to put thousands of these Starlink satellites in orbit, to offer high-speed internet service everywhere. He plans to start service next year in the northern U.S. and Canada, with global coverage for populated areas after 24 launches.Last month, Musk used an orbiting Starlink satellite to send a tweet: “Whoa, it worked!!”Employees gathered at company bases on both coasts cheered when the first-stage booster landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic.”These boosters are designed to be used 10 times. Let’s turn it around for a fifth, guys,” company’s launch commentator said.This also marked the first time SpaceX used a previously flown nose cone. The California-based company reuses rocket parts to cut costs.SpaceX employees work on the Crew Dragon spacecraft that will astronauts to and from the International Space Station, from American soil, as part of the agency’s commercial crew Program, in Hawthorne, Calif., Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019.Stacked flat inside the top of the rocket, the newest satellites were going to maneuver even higher following liftoff, using krypton-powered thrusters. SpaceX said there was a potential problem with one of the 60 that could prevent it from moving beyond its initial 174 mile-high (280 kilometer-high) orbit. In that case, the faulty satellite will be commanded to re-enter and burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere.Each satellite has an autonomous system for dodging space junk. In September, however, the European Space Agency had to move one of its satellites out of the way of a Starlink satellite. SpaceX later said it corrected the problem.SpaceX is among several companies interested in providing broadband internet coverage worldwide, especially in areas where it costs too much or is unreliable. Others include OneWeb and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.According to Musk, Starlink revenue can help SpaceX develop rockets and spacecraft for traveling to Mars, his overriding ambition.
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When a wildfire threatened Margie Hanselman’s home in the northern California hills two years ago, the fire department dispatcher told her all the crews were already busy battling another blaze.”That’s when I knew we were really on our own,” she said. “I knew I had to do something differently for the next big emergency.”So Hanselman, her neighbors and fire officials got together and turned to mobile phone apps, social media and communications technology to better share news, emergency updates and preparation advice on threats in their fire-prone community in Sonoma County wine country.This month’s wind-driven Kincade fire, which burned nearly 80,000 acres (32,400 hectares) and destroyed more than 370 structures, stopped just short of Hanselman’s driveway.This time, no one died, unlike two years ago, when the nearby Pocket fire and other windy wildfires north of the San Francisco Bay area killed 43 people.Joining forces to address the growing threat of living in a dry, rural forest area has made the community less stressed and anxious, said Priscilla Abercrombie, a nurse practitioner with a home on the region’s Fitch Mountain.Hanselman and Abercrombie helped put together a local COPE team – Citizens Organized to Prepare for Emergencies – which links residents and authorities to share advice on everything from how to pack evacuation bags to how to find family during a fire.”I feel more empowered. I feel more in control,” said Abercrombie. “I feel better about myself, and I feel better about my community.”Typically, the COPE network might collect and share information such as where doctors live, where a resident might be house-bound or where swimming pools are located that could be used in fighting a fire, organizers said.It was modeled after an original COPE team started a few miles south in Santa Rosa after the deadly 2017 Tubbs fire that killed more than 20 people, they said.’A huge difference’Healdsburg Fire Marshal Linda Collister said she has integrated the local COPE network with GroupMe, a mobile messaging app, to help share information that in the recent Kincade fire helped people evacuate early and smoothly.This time, no one died in the Kincade blaze.”We made a huge difference in this fire, compared to the last one, simply because we were ready for it,” the fire marshall said.Vines surround a burning building as the Kincade Fire burns through the Jimtown community of unincorporated Sonoma County, California, Oct. 24, 2019.As the Kincade fire raged, Collister said she used the communications system to show evacuated residents that their homes were still standing.”I could take a picture of their neighborhood and say it’s still there,” she said.COPE is one of a range of local networks set up to help residents grapple with the stress of living amid the growing threat of wildfires.The Integrative Healers Action Network, created in Sonoma County during the 2017 fires, for instance, draws on the skills of chiropractors, massage therapists and osteopaths to provide crisis care to those in need.Another small group started by a survivor of a 2008 wildfire is building tiny homes – some 200 square feet – provided free for survivors of the Kincade and Paradise blazes.Strengthened community links made an enormous difference this year compared to the fire two years ago, said Hanselman, who sells antiques in picturesque Healdsburg.”Two years ago, none of us had any idea what to do,” she said. “Today I feel much more secure and confident.”That’s something she and other residents are going to need more and more in coming years, she predicted.”(With) climate change, it only gets worse,” she said. “I joke it’s not fall anymore. It’s fire season. Every fall, the anxiety level definitely goes up.”
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On Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s Facebook page, you can find videos ranging from an announcement in Des Moines, Iowa, that her campaign has reached $2 million in donations …Two Million DonationsWe’ve worked hard, sharing plans and building a grassroots movement. And yesterday, we reached a new milestone—two million donations!Posted by Elizabeth Warren on Monday, October 21, 2019… to one with the Massachusetts senator looking into the camera, explaining her plan to help U.S. teachers.My New Plan Would Help Teachers Like KatieBetween town halls last week, I took some time to read a letter I got from Katie, a teacher in North Carolina.

Katie wrote in with her story—so I called her to say thanks for being in the fight. My new public school plan would help Katie and her students: ewar.ren/Public_Education_PlanPosted by FILE – A photo taken July 4, 2019, in Nantes, France, shows logos of the U.S.-based social media platform Facebook. “You are not asking a reporter to change a quote or asking for local news to recut the story,” she said. “You can put the video up that you want; you can put the message up that you want in a way that you want it to be shown to people. That’s often the best way to get truthful information about yourself out there — and to counter bad information.”While the 2018 midterm elections saw an unprecedented number of female candidates win congressional seats, Rebecca Schuller, executive director of Winning for Women, an organization that supports female Republican leaders, said right-of-center female candidates are working to build a similar kind of momentum online.”Maybe they are not getting the attention because they just don’t have the history that some of their male peers have, or maybe they are Republican women in a very purple district and it’s a challenging media environment,” she said.Even then, social media is still a useful tool that enables them “to kind of take the reins and do it for themselves,” Schuller said.While social media can be a great equalizer at a time when women politicians remain underrepresented in traditional media, Virginia-based political consultant Christine Matthews said the success of individual candidates in driving their message on social media depends largely on their skills in the medium.”A candidate who can use it [social media] effectively and authentically is going to be more powerful and have a better message,” Matthews, president of Bellwether Research and Consulting, told VOA.Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., top center, questions Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, foreground, as he appears before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 23, 2019.Matthews points to New York Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, as one who is savvy at using social media. For last month’s pointed cross-examination of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Ocasio-Cortez sought questions from her Twitter followers to ask the tech mogul. Candidates who use social media in a “risk-averse way, I think you’re going to have more difficulties,” she said.Double-edged swordDespite myriad benefits of direct online engagement, broader online exposure can cut both ways, the Global Women’s Leadership initiative study found.Not only are women targeted for harassment on Twitter more frequently than that their male counterparts, but the nature of the criticism is different, the study, headed by Di Meco, found.”Twitter conversations, for example, looked more at their [the women’s] personality and character instead of their policies,” Di Meco said, adding that females also are more likely to be targeted by fake accounts.Consultant Matthews said all candidates — particularly women — should have an established strategy for responding to online harassment before hitting the campaign trail, such as identifying fake accounts and training staff in digital literacy.”What women in particular are going to need to do is think about, What is my strategy for responding to trolls or negative criticism or attacks,’ ” she said. They also need to consider real-time response logistics, from staffing size to specific skillsets of workers, in order to respond effectively, she added.Matthews also said it is imperative that party officials at all levels tell constituents and online commenters that offensive memes and misogynistic attacks, regardless of the target’s political affiliation, aren’t acceptable.Political consultant Jenna Golden, former head of political and advocacy sales at Twitter, said even if candidates face an unbearably toxic environment online, withdrawal from the political arena shouldn’t be the solution.”The solution is not to walk away, the solution is to say, ‘We belong here, this is a place for us, this is an opportunity for us to communicate,’ ” she said during an October panel discussion at American University on challenges facing female candidates.  “As a result, we have to look to all these groups of people and entities and say, ‘How can we come up with a solution together?'”Evolving responsesAnother key finding in Di Meco’s report: Women are increasingly savvy about responding effectively to harassment on the campaign trail.While female candidates have historically been advised to “take the high road” and ignore sexist attacks, Di Meco said new research indicates that many women are seeing an uptick in popularity when responding to harassment by calling it out, whether that’s online or on the campaign trail.”It was found that the better response is, in fact, to call it out, to say that those things aren’t acceptable,” Di Meco said. “When a female politician does that, she recovers in credibility and improves her likability.”Due to technology’s rapid advance, platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are only now offering guidance on navigating social media platforms, partnering with digital-literacy advocates to train political professionals on how to maximize their reach and impact while shielding themselves from attack. The Women and Politics Institute at American University, for example, offers a WeLead training program that offers guidance to young women who want to run for office or run a political campaign.Asked whether the expanded online engagement can translate into more votes, Di Meco said results of the 2018 midterms are a positive sign.”We did see an uptick in the number of female politicians elected. And so I would think that the younger generations are politically active both online and offline,” she said.This story originated in VOA’s Albanian Service. 
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Social media platform Twitter on Monday unveiled its plan for handling deepfake videos and other manipulated media, and called for feedback from the public.In the run-up to the U.S. presidential election in November 2020, social platforms have been under pressure to tackle the threat of manipulated media, including deepfakes, which use artificial intelligence to create realistic videos in which a person appears to say or do something they did not.Twitter’s new proposal, laid out in a blog post, said it might place a notice next to tweets sharing “synthetic or manipulated media,” warn people before they like or share such tweets, or add a link to a news story showing why various sources think the media is synthetic or manipulated.The company also said it might remove tweets with such media if they were misleading and could threaten physical safety or lead to other serious harm.It proposed defining synthetic and manipulated media as any photo, audio or video that has been “significantly altered or fabricated in a way that intends to mislead people or changes its original meaning.” This would include either deepfakes or more manually doctored “shallowfakes.”Twitter last year banned deepfakes in the context of intimate media: its policy prohibits images or videos that digitally manipulate an individual’s face onto another person’s nude body.Pelosi, Zuckerberg videosWhile there has not been a well-crafted deepfake video with major political consequences in the United States, the potential for manipulated video to cause turmoil was demonstrated in May by a clip of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, manually slowed down to make her speech seem slurred.FILE – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives for a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 23, 2019.After the Pelosi video, Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was portrayed in a spoof video on Instagram in which he appears to say “whoever controls the data, controls the future.” Facebook, which owns Instagram, did not to take down the video.In July, U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff wrote to the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet’s Google asking for the companies’ plans to handle the threat of deepfake images and videos ahead of the 2020 elections.Twitter has opened up its new proposal for public input through a survey and tweets with the hashtag #TwitterPolicyFeedback until Nov. 27.Last month, Amazon’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) said it would join Facebook and Microsoft Corp in their “Deepfake Detection Challenge,” a contest to spur research into the area.
 
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Twitter said it would make it easier to report misleading information about the voting process in Britain’s Dec. 12 election, less than a month after its global ban on political advertising comes into force.The microblogging site is a vital tool for candidates, political parties and journalists to break news and fuel debate, but it has also been used to spread fake news, such as manipulated video clips, and to abuse and threaten individuals. It said last month it would stop all political advertising, making the British election one of the first major tests for the new policy.It said on Monday it was also taking additional steps to make sure the British election was “healthy, open and safe”. It is launching a tool for people to report deliberately misleading information about the voting process, for example how to vote or register to vote, or false information about the date
or time for the election.”We’ve established a cross-functional UK elections team that will proactively protect the integrity of the election-related conversation, support partner escalations, and identify potential threats from malicious actors,” it said in a blog post.Users taking part in the election debate will be able to use a customized election emoji that is a visual play on the word “Vote” activated by the use of hashtags including #GE19, it
said.Chief Executive Jack Dorsey said last month that the platform would ban political advertising.He said the company could not credibly say it was working hard to stop people from spreading misleading information and then allow somebody to pay to target and force people to see their political ad in which they could say “whatever they want”.That move increased the pressure on Facebook which is continuing to allow political ads, even if they contain false or misleading claims. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the social media company did not want to stifle political debate. Twitter will publish details of the ban on Nov. 15 and enforce it from Nov. 22.It is also increasing investment in systems that can detect abuse before it is flagged by users, with half of abusive tweets now identified by technology.
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Artificial intelligence or AI, is broadly defined as the technology that allows machines to do tasks that only humans have done in the past. However, as that technology continues to advance there is a growing conversation about ensuring that machines aren’t just making decisions, but making ethical decisions.
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