Tayba Hatimy studied and practiced dentistry for seven years before she realized her real passion was caring for the environment. Since then, she has founded a garbage collection app that helps people in Mombasa, Kenya reduce garbage along the coast. Saida Swaleh has the story. (Camera: Moses Baya )
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Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming part of our social media world on our cellphones and computers. Text, images, audio and video are becoming easier for anyone to create using new generative AI tools.

As AI-generated materials become more pervasive, it’s getting harder to tell the difference between what is real and what has been manipulated.

“It’s one of the challenges over the next decade,” said Kristian Hammond, a professor of computer science who focuses on artificial intelligence at Northwestern University.

AI-generated content is making its way into movies, TV shows and social media on Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms.

AI has been used to change images of former President Donald Trump and Pope Francis. The winner of a prestigious international photo competition this year used AI to create a fake photo.

Victor Lee, who specializes in AI as an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, said, “people need to exercise caution when looking at AI-generated materials.”

Whether it’s text, video, an image or audio, with generative AI we are seeing things that look like actual news or an image of a particular person but it’s not true, Lee said.

AI is also being used to create songs that sound like popular musical artists and replicating images of actors.

Recently, an anonymous person on TikTok used artificial intelligence to create a song with a beat, lyrics and voices that fooled many people into believing it was a recording by pop stars Drake and The Weeknd.

Among the demands of television and film actors and writers currently on strike in the U.S. are protections against the use of AI, which has advanced to replicate faces, bodies and voices on movies and TV.

“I think the Avatar movies have been so successful because people were able to identify with the animation of the simulated characters,” said Bernie Luskin, director of the Luskin community college leadership initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Luskin, who does research on media psychology, thinks that as the use of AI becomes a worldwide phenomenon, it will affect people psychologically and influence their behavior.

“It’s definitely going to have a dramatic impact on social media,” he said. “As AI becomes more common, it will become increasingly deceptive, and abusers will abuse it.”

On a positive note, Hammond said AI will promote additional artistic elements.

“We’re going to have a new view of what it means to be creative,” he said, “and there will be a different kind of appreciation because the AI systems are generating things in partnership with a human.”

A major concern, however, is that people are already being duped by AI, and as the technology becomes even more sophisticated, it will be even more difficult to discern its imprint.

Krishnan Vasudevan, assistant professor in visual communication at the University of Maryland, worries that people may become immune to AI-generated materials and won’t care if they are real or not.

“They’ll be wanting visuals that reinforce their viewpoints, and they’ll use the tool as a way to discredit or make fun of political opponents,” he said.

Experts say norms, regulations and guardrails must be considered to keep AI in line.

“Does AI receive credit as a co-author?” Lee asked.

“I think there will be legal battles about using somebody’s voice or likeness,” Vasudevan said.

“We have to start looking hard at exactly what is going out there,” said Hammond. “For example, there should be regulations that say your image should not be associated with anything pornographic.”

Lee said artificial intelligence will create big changes the public will get used to, much like the Internet and social media have done.

“The Internet is not inherently a good or bad thing, but it changed society,” he said. “AI is also not good or bad, and it is going to do something similar.”
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Chinese livestreamers have set their sights on TikTok shoppers in the U.S. and Europe, hawking everything from bags and apparel to crystals with their eyes on a potentially lucrative market, despite uncertainties over the platform’s future in the U.S. and elsewhere.

In China, where livestreaming ecommerce is forecast to reach 4.9 trillion yuan ($676 billion) by the year’s end, popular hosts like “Lipstick King” Austin Li rack up tens of millions of dollars in sales during a single livestream. Many brands, including L’Oreal, Nike and Louis Vuitton, have begun using livestreaming to reach more shoppers.

But the highly competitive livestreaming market in China has led some hosts to look to Western markets to carve out niches for themselves.

Oreo Deng, a former English tutor, sells jewelry to U.S. customers by livestreaming on TikTok, delivering her sales pitches in English for about four to six hours a day.

“I wanted to try livestreaming on TikTok because it aligned with my experiences as an English tutor and my past jobs working in cross-border e-commerce,” Deng said.

Since 2019, western e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Facebook have experimented with livestreaming e-commerce after seeing the success of Chinese platforms like Alibaba’s Tmall and Taobao, and Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese counterpart in China.

TikTok started testing its live shopping feature last year. Registered merchants from the U.S., Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore, among other countries, can now sell via livestreams online.

But livestreaming e-commerce has yet to take off in the U.S. The livestreaming e-commerce market in the U.S. — the world’s biggest consumer market — is expected to grow to $68 billion by 2026, according to research and advisory firm Coresight Research.

The relatively lukewarm reception led Facebook to shut down its live shopping feature last year. As for TikTok, the platform has the added risk of potentially facing U.S. restrictions due to tensions between Beijing and Washington.

TikTok, whose parent company is Chinese technology firm ByteDance, has been criticized for its Chinese ties and accused of being a national security risk due to the data it collects.

TikTok did not provide comment for this story.

Despite the scrutiny faced by TikTok, many Chinese hosts view the U.S. as a vast ocean of opportunity, an emerging market that has yet to be saturated with livestreaming hosts.

“There’s more opportunity for growth to target America because the competition is so fierce in China,” said Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai. “Livestreaming in the U.S. is at a beginning starting point. There’s more opportunity to grab market share.”

Rein also said that Chinese merchants can often price items higher in the U.S., where customers are accustomed to paying higher prices compared to in China, where product margins are often razor-thin.

“The format is going to work, because it’s been proven,” said Jacob Cooke, CEO of e-commerce consultancy WPIC.

Smaller companies, including those in China that are attempting to sell on TikTok, might lack enough data on what customers want in markets like the U.S, he said. “Once they do get that figured out, they’ll start to have very good success,” Cooke said.

For some U.S. shoppers, the livestream format is a fascinating form of entertainment.

Freisa Weaver, a 36-year-old who lives in Florida, stumbled on a TikTok livestream selling crystals 10 months ago. It employed a popular tactic called a “lucky scoop” where buyers pay a set price to receive several random items scooped from a large container of crystals. TikTok earlier this year banned this practice from livestreams to comply with gambling laws, although some sellers still offer grab bags of goodies which appear to be scooped off-camera.

“I came across it scrolling through TikTok and at first I was entertained by the lucky scoops,” Weaver said, describing livestreaming shopping as an addictive hobby. “Now I’m a regular buyer in some of the live feeds on TikTok.”

“I personally enjoy the interactions with the host and the possibility of finding something special and unique just for me,” she said

Her favorite channel is Meow Crystals, an account operated by Chinese streaming hosts that often does flash sales selling crystals for as little as $2, and grab bags of crystals from $10. TikTok has yet to roll out its in-built shopping feature on a wide scale, so many streamers, including those from Meow Crystals, often redirect viewers to place orders on an external website.

“The host is willing to go to the warehouse for you and get special items, or they remember what you like and offer it to you as soon as you are online,” Weaver said.

Chinese livestreaming hosts try various tactics to stand out and build a loyal customer base. For some, it’s personalized customer service, while others use quirky catchphrases and concoct flamboyant online personalities to keep their customers entertained.

“Every host is always experimenting and develops their own tactics,” Deng, the livestream host said, declining to share the secrets of her own approach.

Boot camps to teach Chinese livestreamers how to increase their sales have sprung up, including a popular one hosted by Yan Guanghua, one of TikTok earliest livestreamers in China.

Like Deng, Yan is a former English tutor who turned to TikTok livestreaming after a government crackdown on the private education industry.

Yan started out hawking yoga clothes, electronics and apparel online. Finding she had a knack for selling to customers via livestreaming, she at times has racked up sales of 5,000 pounds ($6,510) per stream selling to customers in Britain.

Now she charges about $1,000 for two-day boot camps she holds two or three times a month, teaching people how to sell more on livestreams.

Yan says she has trained more than 600 people, mostly from China but also from the U.S. and Africa.

Like many other TikTok livestreaming hosts, she hopes the overseas livestreaming e-commerce market will take off like it has in China.

“It’s hard to say what the future of this industry is. It’s difficult to predict,” Yan said. “But what we know is that TikTok is the most popular platform right now and there is still opportunity here.”
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Does generative artificial intelligence pose a risk to humanity that could lead to our extinction?

That was among the questions put to experts by the head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission at a workshop hosted with the National Science Foundation.

FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said she is more hopeful about artificial intelligence than pessimistic. “That might sound contrarian,” she said, given that so much of the news about AI is “dark,” raising questions such as, “How do we rein in this technology? What does it mean for the future of work when we have intelligent machines? What will it mean for democracy and elections?”

The discussion included participants from a range of industries including network operators and vendors, leading academics, federal agencies, and public interest representatives.  

“We are entering the AI revolution,” said National Science Foundation senior adviser John Chapin, who described this as a “once-in-a-generation change in technology capabilities” which “require rethinking the fundamental assumptions that underline our communications.” 

“It is vital that we bring expert understanding of the science of technology together with expert understanding of the user and regulatory issues.” 

Investing in AI 

FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington pointed out that while technology may sometimes give the appearance of arriving suddenly, in many cases it’s a product of a steady but unnoticed evolution decades in the making. He gave the example of ChatGPT as AI that landed seemingly overnight, with dramatic impact. 

“Where the United States has succeeded in technological development, it has done so through a mindful attempt to cultivate and potentiate innovation.”

Lisa Guess, senior vice president of Solutions Engineering at the firm Ericsson/Cradlepoint, expressed concern that her company’s employees could “cut and paste” code into the ChatGPT window to try to perfect it, thereby exposing the company’s intellectual property. ”There are many things that we all have to think through as we do this.” 

Other panelists agreed. “With the opportunity to use data comes the opportunity that the data can be corrupted,” said Ness Shroff, a professor at The Ohio State University who is also an expert on AI. He called for “appropriate guardrails” to prevent that corruption.

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said AI “has the potential to impact if not transform nearly every aspect of American life.” Because of that potential, everyone, especially in government, shoulders a responsibility to better understand AI’s risks and opportunities. “That is just good governance in this era of rapid technological change.”  

“Fundamental issues of equity are not a side salad here,” he said. “They have to be fundamental as we consider technological advancement. AI has raised the stakes of defending our networks” and ultimately “network security means national security.” 

Digital equity, robocalls 

Alisa Valentin, senior director of technology and telecommunications policy at the civil rights organization the National Urban League, voiced her concerns about the illegal and predatory nature of robocalls. “Even if we feel like we won’t fall victim to robocalls, we are concerned about our family members or friends who may not be as tech savvy,” knowing how robocalls “can turn people’s lives upside down.”

Valentin also emphasized the urgent need to close the digital divide “to make sure that every community can benefit from the digital economy not only as consumers but also as workers and business owners.” 

“Access to communication services is a civil right,” she said. “Equity has to be at the center of everything we do when having conversations about AI.” 

Global competition

FCC Commissioner Simington said global competitors are “really good, and we should assume that they are taking us seriously, so we should protect what is ours.” But regulations to protect the expropriation of American innovation should not go overboard.

“Let’s make sure we don’t give away the store, but let’s not do it by keeping the shelves empty.” 
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The White House on Tuesday along with companies such as Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet’s Google and Best Buy will announce an initiative that allows Americans to identify devices that are less vulnerable to cyberattacks.

A new certification and labeling program would raise the bar for cybersecurity across smart devices such as refrigerators, microwaves, televisions, climate control systems and fitness trackers, the White House said in a statement.

Retailers and manufacturers will apply a “U.S. Cyber Trust Mark” logo to their devices and the program will be up and running in 2024.

The initiative is designed to make sure “our networks and the use of them is more secure, because it is so important for economic and national security,” said a senior administration official, who did not wish to be named.

The Federal Communications Commission will seek public comment before rolling out the labeling program and register a national trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the White House said.

Other retailers and manufacturers participating in the program include LG Electronics U.S.A., Logitech, Cisco Systems and Samsung.

In March, the White House launched its national cyber strategy that called on software makers and companies to take far greater responsibility to ensure that their systems cannot be hacked.

It also accelerated efforts by agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Defense Department to disrupt activities of hackers and ransomware groups around the world.

Last week, Microsoft and U.S. official said Chinese state-linked hackers secretly accessed email accounts at around 25 organizations, including at least two U.S. government agencies, since May.
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Norway’s data protection agency said Monday it would ban Facebook and Instagram owner Meta from using the personal information of users for targeted advertising, threatening a $100,000 daily fine if the company continues. 

The business practices of big U.S. tech firms are under close scrutiny across Europe over concerns about privacy, with huge fines handed out in recent years. 

The Norwegian watchdog, Datatilsynet, said Meta uses information such as the location of users, the content they like and their posts for marketing purposes. 

“The Norwegian Data Protection Authority considers that the practice of Meta is illegal and is therefore imposing a temporary ban of behavioural advertising on Facebook and Instagram,” it said in a statement.  

The ban will begin on August 4 and last three months to give Meta time to take corrective measures. The company will be fined one million kroner ($100,000) per day if it fails to comply.  

“We will analyze the decision … but there is no immediate effect on our services,” Meta told AFP in a statement. 

The Norwegian regulator added that its ruling was neither a ban on Facebook and Instagram operating in the country nor a blanket ban on behavioral advertising. 

The Austrian digital privacy campaign group noyb, which has lodged a number of complaints against Meta’s activities, said it “welcomes this decision as a first important step” and hopes data regulators in other countries will follow suit. 

Meta suffered a major setback earlier this year when European regulators dismissed the legal basis Meta had used to justify gathering users’ personal data for use in targeted advertising. 

Meta suffered another major setback earlier this month when the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rejected its various workarounds and empowered antitrust regulators to take data privacy issues into account when conducting investigations. 
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Britain’s financial watchdog on Monday proposed toughening up safeguards against the illegal marketing of financial products on social media by applying a stringent “consumer duty” that is being rolled out to banks, funds and insurers on July 31.

The Financial Conduct Authority has said its new duty will be a step change in protecting retail investors after years of mis-selling scandals, by forcing firms to demonstrate how they are giving consumer good outcomes.

“Where applicable, the Consumer Duty will raise our expectations of firms communicating financial promotions on social media above the requirement… to be ‘clear, fair and not misleading’,” the FCA said in proposals out to public consultation.

“Firms advertising using social media must consider how their marketing strategies align with acting to deliver good outcomes for retail customers.”

In the fourth quarter of last year, nearly 70% of amended or withdrawn financial marketing following FCA intervention involved a promotion on websites or social media, the FCA said.

The watchdog is targeting so-called ‘finfluencers’ or widely followed people on social media who promote financial products.

“Consumers exhibit high levels of trust in finfluencers, but their advice can often be misleading,” the FCA said.

“Promoting a regulated financial product or service without approval of an FCA authorized person, or providing financial advice without FCA authorisation, may be a criminal offense.”

Promotions should also include risk warnings, it added.
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Elon Musk says Twitter is still losing cash because advertising has dropped by half.

In a reply to a tweet offering business advice, Musk tweeted Saturday, “We’re still negative cash flow, due to (about a) 50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.”

“Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else,” he concluded.

Ever since he took over Twitter in a $44 billion deal last fall, Musk has tried to reassure advertisers who were concerned about the ouster of top executives, widespread layoffs and a different approach to content moderation. Some high-profile users who had been banned were allowed back on the site.

In April, Musk said most of the advertisers who left had returned and that the company might become cash-flow positive in the second quarter.

In May, he hired a new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, an NBCUniversal executive with deep ties to the advertising industry.

But since then, Twitter has upset some users by imposing new limits on how many tweets they can view in a day, and some users complained that they were locked out of the site. Musk said the restrictions were needed to prevent unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data.

Twitter got a new competitor this month when Facebook owner Meta launched a text-focused app, Threads, and gained tens of millions of sign-ups in a few days. Twitter responded by threatening legal action.
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The chief executives of Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc are planning to visit Washington next week to discuss China policy, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The executives plan to hold meetings with U.S. officials to talk about market conditions, export controls and other matters affecting their businesses, one of the sources said. It was not immediately clear whom the executives would meet.

Intel and Qualcomm declined to comment, and officials at the White House did not immediately return a request for comment.

The sources said other semiconductor CEOs may also be in Washington next week. The sources declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.  

U.S. officials are considering tightening export rules affecting high-performance computing chips and shipments to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, sources told Reuters in June. The rules would respectively affect Intel, which is preparing a new artificial intelligence chip that could be shipped to China, and Qualcomm, which has a license to sell chips to Huawei.

The Biden administration last October issued a sweeping set of rules designed to freeze China’s semiconductor industry in place while the U.S. pours billions of dollars in subsidies into its own chip industry.

The possible rule tightening would hit Nvidia particularly hard. The company’s strong position in the AI chip market helped boost its worth to $1 trillion earlier this year.

The chip industry has been warmly received in Washington in recent years as lawmakers and the White House work to shift more production to the U.S. and its allies, and away from China. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon have met often with government officials.

Next week’s meetings, which one of the sources said could include joint sessions between executives and U.S. officials, come as Nvidia Corp NVDA.O and other chip companies fear a permanent loss of sales for an industry with large amounts of business in China while tensions escalate between Washington and Beijing.

One of the sources familiar with the matter said the executives’ goals for the meetings would be to ensure that government officials understand the possible impact of any further tightening of rules around what chips can be sold to China.

Many U.S. chip firms get more than one-fifth of their revenue from China, and industry executives have argued that reducing those sales would cut into profits that they reinvest into research and development.
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Microsoft says hackers used a flaw in its code to steal emails from government agencies and other clients. 

In a blog post published Friday, the company said that Chinese hackers were able to take advantage of “a validation error in Microsoft code” to carry out their cyberespionage campaign. 

The blog provided the most thorough explanation yet for a hack that rattled both the cybersecurity industry and China-U.S. relations. Beijing has denied any involvement in the spying. 

Microsoft and U.S. officials said on Wednesday night that since May, Chinese state-linked hackers had been secretly accessing email accounts at about 25 organizations. U.S. officials said those included at least two U.S. government agencies. 

Microsoft has not identified any of the hack’s targets, but several victims have acknowledged they were affected, including personnel at the State Department, the Commerce Department and the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, in a meeting in Jakarta on Thursday that any action that targets the U.S. government, U.S. companies or American citizens “is of deep concern to us, and that we will take appropriate action to hold those responsible accountable,” according to a senior State Department official. 

Microsoft’s own security practices have come under scrutiny, with officials and lawmakers calling on the Redmond, Washington-based company to make its top level of digital auditing, also called logging, available to all its customers free of charge.
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India is set to launch a spacecraft to the moon Friday.

If successful, it would make India only the fourth country to do so, after the U.S., the Soviet Union, and China.

It will take the $75 million Chandrayaan-3 over a month to reach the moon’s south pole  in August.

The south pole is a special place of interest because scientists believe water is present there.

Chandrayaan-3’s equipment includes a lander to deploy a rover.

Chandrayaan-3 means “moon craft” in Sanskrit.
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Hackers, possibly linked to China’s intelligence agencies, are being blamed for a monthlong campaign that breached some unclassified U.S. email systems, allowing them to access to a small number of accounts at the U.S. State Department and a handful of other organizations.

Microsoft first announced the intrusion Tuesday, attributing the attack on its Outlook email service to Chinese threat actors it dubbed Storm-0558.

The company said in a blog post that the hackers managed to forge a Microsoft authentication token and gain access to the email accounts of 25 organizations, both in the U.S. and around the globe, starting in mid-May.

The company said access was cut off after the breach was discovered a month later.

“We assess this adversary is focused on espionage, such as gaining access to email systems for intelligence collection,” Microsoft said. “This type of espionage-motivated adversary seeks to abuse credentials and gain access to data residing in sensitive systems.”

The State Department confirmed Wednesday that it had discovered the breach and had taken “immediate steps” to secure its systems and to notify Microsoft.

Some U.S. officials, however, were hesitant to back Microsoft’s attribution for the attack while saying the U.S. “would make all efforts to impose costs” on whoever was responsible.

“The sophistication of this attack, where actors were able to access mailbox content of victims, is indicative of APT [advanced persistent threat] activity but we are not prepared to discuss attribution at a more specific level,” a senior FBI official told reporters Wednesday, briefing them on the condition of anonymity.

According to senior officials with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the number of U.S. victims of the Microsoft Outlook breach was in the single digits and only a small number of accounts were accessed.

They added that because the breach was detected quickly, the hackers did not have access to any email account for more than a month and never had access to any classified information or systems. In many cases, their access lasted only days.

Still, the officials noted reason for concern.

“The targeting was intentional,” said a senior CISA official who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity.

“This appears to have been a very targeted, surgical campaign that was not seeking the breadth of access we have seen in other campaigns,” the official added.

Despite the reluctance of some U.S. cyber officials to place the blame on China, there was no hesitation Wednesday from key U.S. lawmakers.

“The Senate Intelligence Committee is closely monitoring what appears to be a significant cybersecurity breach by Chinese intelligence,” Chairman Mark Warner said in a statement.

“It’s clear that the PRC is steadily improving its cyber collection capabilities directed against the U.S. and our allies,” the Virginia Democrat added. “Close coordination between the U.S. government and the private sector will be critical to countering this threat.”

Top U.S. intelligence, security and military officials have long warned about the growing cybersecurity threat posed by China-linked hackers.

Earlier this year, CISA Director Jen Easterly warned China “will almost certainly” employ aggressive cyber operations against the U.S. should tensions between Washington and Beijing get worse.

A separate Defense Department cyber strategy likewise warned of China’s increased investments in military cyber capabilities while also empowering a growing number of cyber proxies. 

But John Hultquist, chief analyst at Google’s Mandiant cybersecurity intelligence operation, said this latest attack showed that the Chinese threat has evolved in a very dangerous way.

“Chinese cyber espionage has come a long way,” Hultquist said in an email. “They have transformed their capability from one that was dominated by broad, loud campaigns that were far easier to detect. They were brash before, but now they are clearly focused on stealth.”

VOA reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Washington about the allegations that Beijing was behind the Microsoft attack.

“China is against cyberattacks of all kinds and has suffered from cyber hacking,” Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told VOA in an email. “As MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) spokesperson has commented at regular press conference, the source of Microsoft’s claim is information from the U.S. government authorities.”

Liu went on to call the U.S. “the biggest hacking empire and global cyber thief,” saying it was “high time that the U.S. explained its cyberattack activities and stopped spreading disinformation to deflect public attention.”

In its blog post about the latest breach Tuesday, Microsoft said it had managed to repair its systems for all of its customers.

The FBI and CISA on Wednesday separately issued a cybersecurity advisory, urging organizations using Microsoft Exchange Online to take steps to increase their security measures and also their monitoring of their systems to catch any suspicious activity. 
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U.S. tech titan Mark Zuckerberg has plunged into a high-stakes game of brinkmanship with the European Union by withholding his new Threads app from users in Europe, but analysts say he will struggle to win the fight.

Threads, billed as the killer of Twitter, a platform that has tumbled into chaos under the leadership of mercurial tycoon Elon Musk, has added more than 100 million users in its first week in app stores.

But Zuckerberg’s firm Meta said it could not be released in Europe because of “regulatory uncertainty” around the Digital Markets Act, an antitrust regulation that will not come into force until next year.

“The reason they gave made me laugh,” said Diego Naranjo, head of policy at campaign group European Digital Rights.

“The regulation is not uncertain, it’s very certain, it’s just that Meta doesn’t like it.” 

His theory is that Meta will give Threads to the rest of the world and Europeans will become so vexed at missing out that they will pressure the EU to water down the DMA.

Naranjo, for one, thinks the ploy will fail.

But either way, the rest of the big tech platforms will be glued to their screens as this fight could shape the future regulatory landscape in Europe for all of them.

‘Fatal’ blow

Meta and the rest are already regularly in trouble with EU regulators over their data gathering and retention policies.

They struggle to keep to the terms of Europe’s mammoth five-year-old data privacy regulation (GDPR).

When the DMA was announced, their reaction was muted as it seemed to be about business and competition, a simpler topic for them though not without pitfalls.

The DMA bans the biggest tech firms from favoring their own platforms, particularly problematic for the latest launch as Threads and Instagram accounts are linked.

But the DMA’s Article 5.2 contained a bombshell: the firms will be banned from transferring user data across platforms unless they get consent.

Berin Szoka, president of the pro-business U.S. think tank TechFreedom, said the DMA’s rules would require Meta to ask for the consent of someone’s Instagram contacts before their data could be transferred to Threads.

“In practice, this could prove fatal to Threads’ rollout,” he said, as the network effect would be dead on arrival.

“I don’t really see a good way out here for Meta.”

Naranjo has little sympathy for Meta, saying the European embargo was just a “political push” by the firm against the EU.

“We will see who loses more,” he said. “My guess is that Meta will lose more from not having 450 million potential customers on their network.”

‘Question of time’

The European Consumer Group (BEUC) said the Threads issue showed the DMA doing exactly what it is supposed to do.

“The DMA does not stand in the way of new products or innovation,” said the group’s competition specialist Vanessa Turner.

“It creates an environment for innovation from more competitors and at the same time protects consumers.”

Meta has left the door open for a Threads launch in Europe and few expect it to maintain its embargo indefinitely.

European law expert Alexandre de Streel said big tech firms would probably be hammering out compliance issues with the EU over the coming months.

“I think it’s more a question of time to understand the scope of the legislation and have a dialogue with the commission,” he said.

But Szoka suggested the EU might be about to get a dose of unintended consequences.

“It would be particularly sad if DMA shields Twitter from competition,” he said.

Meta, he argued, had committed to making Threads compatible with its competitors, adding: “That’s something Twitter has only talked about.” 
…

The European Union signed off Monday on a new agreement over the privacy of people’s personal information that gets pinged across the Atlantic, aiming to ease European concerns about electronic spying by American intelligence agencies.

The EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework has an adequate level of protection for personal data, the EU’s executive commission said. That means it’s comparable to the 27-nation’s own stringent data protection standards, so companies can use it to move information from Europe to the United States without adding extra security.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in October to implement the deal after reaching a preliminary agreement with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Washington and Brussels made an effort to resolve their yearslong battle over the safety of EU citizens’ data that tech companies store in the U.S. after two earlier data transfer agreements were thrown out.

“Personal data can now flow freely and safely from the European Economic Area to the United States without any further conditions or authorizations,” EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said at a press briefing in Brussels.

Washington and Brussels long have clashed over differences between the EU’s stringent data privacy rules and the comparatively lax regime in the U.S., which lacks a federal privacy law. That created uncertainty for tech giants including Google and Facebook parent Meta, raising the prospect that U.S. tech firms might need to keep European data that is used for targeted ads out of the United States.

The European privacy campaigner who triggered legal challenges over the practice, however, dismissed the latest deal. Max Schrems said the new agreement failed to resolve core issues and vowed to challenge it to the EU’s top court.

Schrems kicked off the legal saga by filing a complaint about the handling of his Facebook data after whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations a decade ago about how the U.S. government eavesdropped on people’s online data and communications.

Calling the new agreement a copy of the previous one, Schrems said his Vienna-based group, NOYB, was readying a legal challenge and expected the case to be back in the European Court of Justice by the end of the year.

“Just announcing that something is ‘new’, ‘robust’ or ‘effective’ does not cut it before the Court of Justice,” Schrems said. “We would need changes in U.S. surveillance law to make this work — and we simply don’t have it.”

The framework, which takes effect Tuesday, promises strengthened safeguards against data collection abuses and provides multiple avenues for redress.

Under the deal, U.S. intelligence agencies’ access to data is limited to what’s “necessary and proportionate” to protect national security.

Europeans who suspect U.S. authorities have accessed their data will be able to complain to a new Data Protection Review Court, made up of judges appointed from outside the U.S. government. The threshold to file a complaint will be “very low” and won’t require people to prove their data has been accessed, Reynders said.

Business groups welcomed the decision, which clears a legal path for companies to continue cross-border data flows.

“This is a major breakthrough,” said Alexandre Roure, public policy director at the Brussels office of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, whose members include Apple, Google and Meta.

“After waiting for years, companies and organisations of all sizes on both sides of the Atlantic finally have the certainty of a durable legal framework that allows for transfers of personal data from the EU to the United States,” Roure said.

In an echo of Schrems’ original complaint, Meta Platforms was hit in May with a record $1.3 billion EU privacy fine for relying on legal tools deemed invalid to transfer data across the Atlantic.

Meta had warned in its latest earnings report that without a legal basis for data transfers, it would be forced to stop offering its products and services in Europe, “which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.”
…

Meta Platforms’ Twitter rival Threads crossed 100 million sign-ups within five days of launch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday, dethroning ChatGPT as the fastest-growing online platform to hit the milestone. 

Threads has been setting records for user growth since its launch on Wednesday, with celebrities, politicians and other newsmakers joining the platform seen by analysts as the first serious threat to the Elon Musk-owned microblogging app. 

“That’s mostly organic demand, and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet,” Zuckerberg said in a Threads post announcing the milestone. 

The app’s sprint to 100 million users was much speedier than that of OpenAI-owned ChatGPT, which became the fastest-growing consumer application in history in January about two months after its launch, according to a UBS study. 

Still, Threads has some catching up to do. Twitter had nearly 240 million monetizable daily active users as of July last year, according to the company’s last public disclosure before Musk’s takeover. 

Twitter has responded to Threads’ arrival by threatening to sue Meta, alleging that the social media behemoth used its trade secrets and other confidential information to build the app. 

That claim, legal experts say, could be hard to prove. 

Threads bears a strong resemblance to Twitter, as do numerous other social media sites that have cropped up in recent months as users have chafed at Musk’s management of the service. It allows posts that are up to 500 characters long and supports links, photos and videos of up to 5 minutes. 

The app also does not yet have a direct messaging function and lacks a desktop version that certain users, such as business organizations, rely on. 

It also currently lacks hashtags and keyword search functions, which limits both its appeal to advertisers and its utility as a place for following real-time events like users frequently do on Twitter. 

Still, analysts said the turmoil at Twitter, including recently imposed limits on the number on tweets users can see, could help Threads to attract users and advertisers.  

Currently, there are no ads on the Threads app and Zuckerberg said the company would only think about monetization once there was a clear path to 1 billion users. 

Instagram head Adam Mosseri said last week Meta was not trying to replace Twitter and that Threads aimed to focus on light subjects like sports, music, fashion and design.  

He acknowledged that politics and hard news are inevitably going to show up on Threads, in what would be a challenge for the app pitching itself as the “friendly” option for public discourse online. 
…

In a world where technology, such as artificial intelligence, is advancing at a rapid pace, what guidance do technology developers have in making the best ethically sound decisions for consumers? 

A new handbook, titled “Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap,” promises to give guidance on such issues as the ethical use of AI chatbots like ChatGPT.

The handbook, released June 28, is the first product of the Institute for Technology, Ethics and Culture, or ITEC, the result of a collaboration between Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and the Vatican’s Center for Digital Culture.

The handbook has been in the works for a few years, but the authors said they saw a need to work with a new sense of urgency with the recent escalation of AI usage, following security threats and privacy concerns after the recent release of ChatGPT.     

Enter Father Brendan McGuire.

McGuire worked in the tech industry, serving as executive director of the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association in the early 1990s, before entering the priesthood about 23 years ago. 

McGuire said that over the years, he’s continued to meet with friends from the tech world, many of whom are now leaders in the industry. But, about 10 years ago, their discussions started to get more serious, he said.

“They said, ‘What is coming over the hill with AI, it’s amazing, it’s unbelievable. But it’s also frightening if we go down the wrong valley,'” McGuire said.

“There’s no mechanism to make decisions,” McGuire said, quoting his former colleagues. He then contacted Kirk Hanson, who was then head of the Markkula Center, as well as a local bishop.

“The three of us got together and brainstormed, ‘What could we do?'” McGuire said. “We knew that each of these companies are global companies, so, therefore, they wouldn’t really respect a pastor or a local bishop. I said, if we could get somebody from the Vatican to pay attention, then we could make some traction.”

For McGuire, a Catholic priest, getting guidance from Pope Francis and the Vatican — with its diplomatic, cultural, and spiritual influence — was a natural step. He said he was connected with Bishop Paul Tighe, who was serving as the secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education at the Vatican, a department that works for the development of people’s human values.

McGuire said Tighe was asked by Pope Francis to look into further addressing digital and tech ethical issues.

After a few years of informal collaborations, the Markkula Center and the Vatican officially created the ITEC initiative in 2019. 

“We’re co-creators with God when we make these technologies,” he said, recognizing that technology can be used for good or bad purposes.  

The Vatican held a conference in 2019 in Rome called “The Common Good in the Digital Age.” McGuire said about 270 people attended, including Silicon Valley CEOs and experts in robotics, cyberwarfare and security. 

After gathering research by talking with tech leaders, the ITEC team decided to create a practical handbook to help companies think about and question at every level — from inception to creation to implementation — how technology can be used in an ethically positive way.

“Get the people who are designing it. Get the people who are writing code, get the people who are implementing it and not wait for some regulator to say, ‘You can’t do that,'” McGuire said.

These guidelines aren’t just for Catholics, he said. 

One of the handbook’s co-authors, Ann Skeet, senior director of leadership ethics at the Markkula Center, said the handbook is very straightforward and written in a manner business leaders are familiar with. 

“We’ve tried to write in the language of business and engineers so that it’s familiar to them,” Skeet said. “When they pick it up and they go through the five stages, and they see all the checklists and the resources, they actually recognize some of them. … We’ve done our best to make it as usable and practical as possible and as comprehensive as possible.”

“What’s important about this book is it puts materials right in the hands of executives inside the companies so that they can move a little bit past this moment of ‘analysis paralysis’ that we’re in while people are waiting to see what the regulatory environment is going to be like and how that unfolds.” 

In June, the European Parliament passed a draft law called the AI Act, which would restrict uses of facial recognition software and require AI creators to disclose more about the data used to create their programs. 

In the United States, policy ideas have been released by the White House that suggest rules for testing AI systems and protecting privacy rights.

“AI and ChatGPT are the hot topic right now,” Skeet said. “Every decade or so we see a technology come along, whether it’s the internet, social media, the cellphone, that’s somewhat of a game-changer and has its own inherent risks, so you can really apply this work to any technology.”

This handbook comes as leaders in AI are calling for help. In May, Sam Altman of OpenAI stated the need for a new agency to help regulate the powerful systems, and Microsoft President Brad Smith said government needs to “move faster” as AI progresses. 

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has also called for an “AI Pact” of voluntary behavioral standards while awaiting new legislation. 
…

A panel of AI-enabled humanoid robots told a United Nations summit Friday that they could eventually run the world better than humans.

But the social robots said they felt humans should proceed with caution when embracing the rapidly developing potential of artificial intelligence.

And they admitted that they cannot — yet — get a proper grip on human emotions.

Some of the most advanced humanoid robots were at the U.N.’s two-day AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva.

They joined around 3,000 experts in the field to try to harness the power of AI — and channel it into being used to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, such as climate change, hunger and social care.

They were assembled for what was billed as the world’s first news conference with a packed panel of AI-enabled humanoid social robots.

“What a silent tension,” one robot said before the news conference began, reading the room.

Asked about whether they might make better leaders, given humans’ capacity to make errors, Sophia, developed by Hanson Robotics, was clear.

We can achieve great things

“Humanoid robots have the potential to lead with a greater level of efficiency and effectiveness than human leaders,” it said.

“We don’t have the same biases or emotions that can sometimes cloud decision-making and can process large amounts of data quickly in order to make the best decisions.

“AI can provide unbiased data while humans can provide the emotional intelligence and creativity to make the best decisions. Together, we can achieve great things.”

The summit is being convened by the U.N.’s ITU tech agency.

ITU chief Doreen Bogdan-Martin warned delegates that AI could end up in a nightmare scenario in which millions of jobs are put at risk and unchecked advances lead to untold social unrest, geopolitical instability and economic disparity.

Ameca, which combines AI with a highly realistic artificial head, said that depended on how AI was deployed.

“We should be cautious but also excited for the potential of these technologies to improve our lives,” the robot said.

Asked whether humans can truly trust the machines, it replied: “Trust is earned, not given… it’s important to build trust through transparency.”

Living until 180?

As the development of AI races ahead, the humanoid robot panel was split on whether there should be global regulation of their capabilities, even though that could limit their potential.

“I don’t believe in limitations, only opportunities,” said Desdemona, who sings in the Jam Galaxy Band.

Robot artist Ai-Da said many people were arguing for AI regulation, “and I agree.”

“We should be cautious about the future development of AI. Urgent discussion is needed now.”

Before the news conference, Ai-Da’s creator Aidan Meller told AFP that regulation was a “big problem” as it was “never going to catch up with the paces that we’re making.”

He said the speed of AI’s advance was “astonishing.”

“AI and biotechnology are working together, and we are on the brink of being able to extend life to 150, 180 years old. And people are not even aware of that,” said Meller.

He reckoned that Ai-Da would eventually be better than human artists.

“Where any skill is involved, computers will be able to do it better,” he said.

Let’s get wild

At the news conference, some robots were not sure when they would hit the big time, but predicted it was coming — while Desdemona said the AI revolution was already upon us.

“My great moment is already here. I’m ready to lead the charge to a better future for all of us… Let’s get wild and make this world our playground,” it said.

Among the things that humanoid robots don’t have yet include a conscience, and the emotions that shape humanity: relief, forgiveness, guilt, grief, pleasure, disappointment, and hurt.

Ai-Da said it was not conscious but understood that feelings were how humans experienced joy and pain.

“Emotions have a deep meaning and they are not just simple… I don’t have that,” it said.

“I can’t experience them like you can. I am glad that I cannot suffer.”
…

HONG KONG — Chinese regulators are fining Ant Group 7.123 billion yuan ($985 million) for violating regulations in its payments and financial services, an indicator that more than two years of scrutiny and crackdown on the firm that led it to scrap its planned public listing may have come to an end.

The People’s Bank of China imposed the fine on the financial technology provider on Friday, stating that Ant had violated laws and regulations related to corporate governance, financial consumer protection, participation in business activities of banking and insurance institutions, payment and settlement business, and attending to anti-money laundering obligations.

The fine comes more than two years after regulators pulled the plug on Ant Group’s $34.5 billion IPO — which would have been the biggest of its time — in 2020. Since then, the company has been ordered to revamp its business and behave more like a financial holding company, as well as rectify unfair competition in its payments business.

“We will comply with the terms of the penalty in all earnestness and sincerity and continue to further enhance our compliance governance,” Ant Group said in a statement.

The move is widely seen as wrapping up Beijing’s probe into the firm and allowing Ant to revive its initial public offering. Chinese gaming firm Tencent, which operates messaging app WeChat, also received a 2.99 billion yuan fine ($414 million) for regulatory violations over its payments services, according to the central bank Friday, signaling that the crackdown on the Chinese technology sector could ease.

Alibaba’s New York-listed stock was up over 9% Friday afternoon.

Ant Group, founded by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, first started out as Alipay, a digital payments system aimed at making transactions more secure and trustworthy for buyers and sellers on its Taobao e-commerce platform.

The digital wallet soon grew to become a leading player in the online payments market in China, alongside Tencent’s WeChat Pay. It eventually grew into Ant, Alibaba’s financial arm that also offers wealth management products.

At one point, Ant’s Yu’ebao money-market fund was the largest in the world, but regulators have since ordered Ant to reduce the fund’s balance.

In January, it was announced that Ma would give up control of Ant Group. The move followed other efforts over the years by the Chinese government to rein in Ma and the country’s tech sector more broadly. Two years ago, the once high-profile Ma largely disappeared from view for 2 1/2 months after criticizing China’s regulators.

Yet Ma’s surrender of control came after other signs the government was easing up on Chinese online firms. Late last year Beijing signaled at an economic work conference that it would support technology firms to boost economic growth and create more jobs.

Also in January, the government said it would allow Ant Group to raise $1.5 billion in capital for its consumer finance unit.
…

Just one day after its launch, Threads, the latest social media network, was blocked by the Islamic Republic, denying access to the Iranian population. This action occurred even though an account had been created for Iran President Ebrahim Raisi on the platform.

On Thursday afternoon, Raisi’s user account, under the address raisi.ir, was established on Threads. Within a few hours, by Friday noon, he had garnered 27,000 followers. He has yet to make any posts, apparently because the Presidential Office staff administers Raisi’s social media accounts.

As Raisi’s user account debuted on the social media platform, numerous Iranian social media users have voiced concerns regarding restricted access to the platform since Thursday evening. Users have indicated that similar to Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, they require a VPN or proxy to connect to Threads.  

Journalist Ehsan Bodaghi said on Twitter: “During the election, Mr. Raisi spoke about the importance of people’s online businesses and his 2 million followers on Instagram. After one year, he blocked and filtered all social media platforms, and now, within the initial hours, he has become a member of the social network # Threads, which his own government has filtered. Inconsistency knows no bounds!”

Another journalist, Javad Daliri, posted this on Twitter: “Mr. Raisi and Mr. Ghalibaf raced each other to join the new social network # Threads. As a citizen, I have a question: Can one issue filtering orders and be among the first to break the filtering and join? By the way, was joining this unknown network really your priority?”

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is Speaker of the Parliament of Iran.

Despite the Iranian government’s frequent censorship of social media platforms, officials of the Islamic Republic use these platforms for communication. Notably, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, maintains an active presence on Twitter.

Threads was introduced by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The app was launched late Wednesday. Within two days, Threads has amassed more than 55 million users. The social network shares similarities with Twitter, allowing users to interact with posts through likes and reposts, and nearly doubles the character count limitation imposed by Twitter.

The similarities between Threads and Twitter have sparked a legal dispute between Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. Musk has accused Meta of employing former Twitter engineers and tweeted, “Competition is good, but cheating is not.”

Meta dismissed the copycat allegation, posting on Threads: “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.”  
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Ukraine has been using drones for reconnaissance and attacks since the start of Russia’18s invasion. But sometimes combat drone operators use them to save civilians — or even capture the enemy. Anna Kosstutschenko went to the Donbas region to find out more.
Camera: Pavel Suhodolskiy Produced by: Pavel Suhodolskiy
…

Threads, a text-based app built by Meta to rival Twitter, is live.

The app, billed as the text version of Meta’s photo-sharing platform Instagram, became available Wednesday night to users in more than 100 countries — including the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan. Despite some early glitches, 30 million people had signed up before noon on Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Threads.

New arrivals to the platform include celebrities like Oprah, pop star Shakira and chef Gordon Ramsay — as well as corporate accounts from Taco Bell, Netflix, Spotify, The Washington Post and other media outlets.

Threads, which Meta says provides “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations,” arrives at a time when many are looking for Twitter alternatives to escape Elon Musk’s raucous oversight of the platform since acquiring it last year for $44 billion. But Meta’s new app has also raised data privacy concerns and is notably unavailable in the European Union.

Here’s what you need to know about Threads.

How Can I Use Threads?

Threads is now available for download in Apple and Google Android app stores for people in more than 100 countries.

Threads was built by the Instagram team, so Instagram users can log into Threads through their Instagram account. Your username and verification status will carry over, according to the platform, but you will also have options to customize other areas of your profile — including whether or not you want to follow the same people that you do on Instagram.

Because Threads and Instagram are so closely linked, it’s also important to be cautious of account deletion. According to Threads’ supplemental privacy policy, you can deactivate your profile at any time, “but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account.”

Can I Use Threads If I Don’t Have An Instagram Account?

For now, only Instagram users can create Threads accounts. If you want to access Threads, you will have to sign up for Instagram first.

While this may receive some pushback, VP and research director at Forrester Mike Proulx said making Threads an extension of Instagram was a smart move on Meta’s part.

“It’s piquing [user] curiosity,” Proulx said, noting that Instagram users are getting alerts about their followers joining Threads — causing more and more people to sign up. “That’s one of the reasons why Threads got over 10 million people to sign up in just a seven hour period” after launching.

How Is Threads Similar To Twitter?

Threads’ microblogging experience is very similar to Twitter. Users can repost, reply to or quote a thread, for example, and can see the number of likes and replies that a post has received. “Threads” can run up to 500 characters — compared with Twitter’s 280-character threshold — and can include links, photos and videos up to five minutes long.

In early replies on Threads, Zuckerberg said making the app “a friendly place” will be a key to success — adding that that was “one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently.”

Is Twitter Seeking Legal Action Against Meta?

According to a letter obtained by Semafor on Thursday, Twitter has threatened legal action against Meta over Threads. In the letter, which was addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and dated Wednesday, Alex Spiro, an attorney representing Twitter, accused Meta of unlawfully using Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property by hiring former Twitter employees to create a “copycat” app.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone responded to the report of Spiro’s letter on Threads Thursday afternoon, writing, “no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee.”

Musk hasn’t directly tweeted about the possibility of legal action, but he has replied to several snarky takes on the Threads launch. The Twitter owner responded to one tweet suggesting that Meta’s app was built largely through the use of the copy and paste function, with a laughing emoji.

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino has also not publicly commented on Wednesday’s letter, but seemingly appeared to address Threads’ launch in a Thursday tweet — writing that “the Twitter community can never be duplicated.”

Hasn’t This Been Done Before?

The similarities of Meta’s new text-based app suggests the company is working to directly challenge Twitter. The tumultuous ownership has resulted in a series of unpopular changes that have turned off users and advertisers, some of whom are searching for Twitter alternatives.

Threads is the latest Twitter rival to emerge in this landscape following Bluesky, Mastodon and Spill.

How Does Threads Moderate Content?

According to Meta, Threads will use the same safety measures deployed on Instagram — which includes enforcing Instagram’s community guidelines and providing tools to control who can mention or reply to users.

Content warnings — on search queries ranging from conspiracy theory groups to misinformation about COVID-19 vaccinations — also appear to be similar to Instagram.

What Are The Privacy Concerns?

Threads could collect a wide range of personal information — including health, financial, contacts, browsing and search history, location data, purchases and “sensitive info,” according to its data privacy disclosure on the App Store.

Threads also isn’t available in the European Union right now, which has strict data privacy rules.

Meta informed Ireland’s Data Privacy Commission, Meta’s main privacy regulator for the EU, that it has no plans yet to launch Threads in the 27-nation bloc, commission spokesman Graham Doyle said. The company said it is working on rolling the app out to more countries — but pointed to regulatory uncertainty for its decision to hold off on a European launch.

What’s The Future For Threads?

Success for Threads is far from guaranteed. Industry watchers point to Meta’s track record of starting standalone apps that were later shut down — including an Instagram messaging app also called “Threads” that shut down less than two years after its 2019 launch, Proulx notes.

Still, Proulx and others say the new app could be a significant headache for Musk and Twitter.

“The euphoria around a new service and this initial explosion will probably settle down. But it is apparent that this alternative is here to stay and will prove to be a worthy rival given all of Twitter’s woes,” technology analyst Paolo Pescatore of PP Foresight said, noting that combining Twitter-style features with Instagram’s look and feel could drive user engagement.

Threads is in its early days, however, and much depends on user feedback. Pescatore believes the close tie between Instagram and Threads might not resonate with everyone. The rollout of new features will also be key.

 
…

Tens of millions of people have signed up for Meta’s new app, Threads, as it aims to challenge competitor platform Twitter.

Threads launched on Wednesday in the United States and in more than 100 other countries.

In a Thursday morning post on the platform, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said 30 million people had signed up.

“Feels like the beginning of something special, but we’ve got a lot of work ahead to build out the app,” he said in the post.

Threads is a text-based version of Meta’s social media app Instagram. The company says it provides “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.”

The high number of sign-ups is likely an indication that users are looking for an alternative to Twitter, which has been stumbling since Elon Musk bought it last year. Meta appears to have taken advantage of rival Twitter’s many blunders in pushing out Threads.

Like Twitter, Threads features short text posts that users can like, re-post and reply to. Posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos and videos that are up to five minutes long, according to a Meta blog post.

Unlike Twitter, Threads does not include any direct message capabilities.

“Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads,” Zuckerberg wrote in his first post on the app, along with a fire emoji. He said the app had 10 million sign-ups in the first seven hours.

Kim Kardashian, Shakira and Jennifer Lopez are among the celebrities who have joined the platform, as well as politicians like Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Brands like HBO, NPR and Netflix have also set up accounts.

Threads is not yet available in the European Union because of regulatory concerns. The 27-country bloc has stricter privacy rules than most other countries.

Threads launched as a standalone app, but users can log in using their Instagram credentials and follow the same accounts.

Analysts have said Threads’ links to Instagram may provide it with a built-in user base — potentially presenting yet another challenge to beleaguered Twitter. Instagram has more than 2 billion active users per month.

Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino appeared to respond to the debut of Threads in a Twitter post Thursday.

“We’re often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated,” she said in the post that did not directly mention Threads.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

In India, a recent court judgement that dismissed a legal petition by Twitter challenging the federal government’s orders to block tweets and accounts is a setback for free speech, according to digital rights activists.  

The Karnataka High Court, which delivered its judgement last week, also imposed a fine of $ 61,000 on the social media company for its delay in complying with the government’s takedown orders.  

“The order sets a dangerous precedent for curbing online free speech without employing procedural safeguards that are meant to protect users of online social media platforms,” Radhika Roy, a lawyer and spokesperson for the digital rights organization, Internet Freedom Foundation, told VOA.  

Twitter’s lawsuit filed last year was seen as an effort to push back against strict information technology laws passed in 2021 that allow the government to order the removal of social media posts.  

The government has defended the regulations, saying they are necessary to combat online misinformation in the interest of national security, among other reasons, and says social media companies must be accountable. Critics say the rules enable the government to clamp down on online comments that authorities consider critical.   

In court, Twitter argued that 39 orders of the federal government to take down content went against the law. It is not known which content it referred to, but media reports have said that many of these contained political content and dissenting views against farm laws that sparked a massive farmers protest in 2020.  

The government told the court the content was posted by “anti-India campaigners.” 

The court ruled that the government has the power to block not just tweets, but entire accounts as well.   

“I would disagree with that. The court had an opportunity to ensure that while illegal speech is taken down, free speech for individuals is not restricted,” Nikhil Pahwa, founder of MediaNama, a digital news portal told VOA. “But the court has reiterated that the government has full authority to censor whatever they want and whatever they deem illegal and that is a challenge for free speech in India.”  

The government has welcomed the decision of the Karnataka High Court. “Honourable court upholds our stand. Law of the land must be followed,” Minister of Communications, Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said in a tweet. 

Twitter had also told the court the grounds for taking down content had not been spelled out by the government and that those whose tweets or accounts were blocked had not been informed. But the court said that the user did not necessarily have to be informed. 

Digital rights activists say this raises concerns because there is no way to ascertain whether the government’s takedown requests are legal.   

“This excessive power (of blocking whole accounts) coupled with the lack of transparency surrounding the blocking orders, spells trouble for any entity whose content has the potential of being deemed unfavourable to the government,” according to Roy.   

Pahwa said the fine imposed by the court on Twitter would also discourage social media companies from going to court to protect their users right to free speech. “We are at a moment of despair for free speech in India. This does not bode well for users who might be critical of the government and its actions and inactions leading up to next year’s general elections,” according to Pahwa. 

Expressing concerns that India is moving towards imposing greater restrictions on online speech, Roy says that “the Karnataka judgement ends up perpetuating the misuse of laws restricting free speech rather than countering its rampant abuse.”  

Last month, Jack Dorsey, who stepped down as chief executive in 2021, said that during his tenure, Twitter had been issued with threats of a shutdown down in India and raids at the homes of its employees if it refused to agree to takedown requests. The government dismissed his comments as an “outright lie.”  

Twitter has said that India ranked fourth among countries that requested removal of content last year — behind Japan, Russia and Turkey. 

India, with an estimated 24 million Twitter users, is one of the largest markets for the social media company.  

Under Elon Musk, the company has complied with takedown orders. Musk, who met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the United States last month, has said the company has no choice “but to obey local government laws” in any country or it risks getting shut.  
…

Elon Musk spent the weekend further alienating Twitter users with more drastic changes to the social media giant, and he is facing a new challenge as tech nemesis Mark Zuckerberg prepares to launch a rival app this week.

Zuckerberg’s Meta group, which owns Facebook, has listed a new app in stores as “Threads, an Instagram app”, available for pre-order in the United States, with a message saying it is “expected” this Thursday.

The two men have clashed for years but a recent comment by a Meta executive suggesting that Twitter was not run “sanely” irked Musk, eventually leading to the two men offering each other out for a cage fight.

Since buying Twitter last year for $44 billion, Musk has fired thousands of employees and charged users $8 a month to have a blue checkmark and a “verified” account.

On the weekend, he limited the posts readers could view and decreed that nobody could look at a tweet unless they were logged in, meaning external links no longer work for many.

He said he needed to fire up extra servers just to cope with the demand as artificial intelligence (AI) companies scraped “extreme levels” of data to train their models.

But commentators have poured scorn on that idea and marketing experts say he has massively alienated both his user base and the advertisers he needs to get profits rolling.

In another move that shocked users, Twitter announced Monday that access to TweetDeck, an app that allows users to monitor several accounts at once, would be limited to verified accounts next month.

John Wihbey, an associate professor of media innovation and technology at Northeastern University, told AFP that plenty of people wanted to quit Twitter for ethical reasons after Musk took over, but he had now given them a technical reason to leave too.

And he added that Musk’s decision to sack thousands of workers meant it had long been expected that the site would become “technically unusable”.

‘Remarkably bad’

Musk has said he wants to make Twitter less reliant on advertising and boost income from subscriptions.

Yet he chose advertising specialist Linda Yaccarino as his chief executive recently, and she has spoken of going into “hand-to-hand combat” to win back advertisers.

“How do you tell Twitter advertisers that your most engaged free users potentially will never see their ads because of data caps on their usage,” tweeted Justin Taylor, a former marketing executive at Twitter.

Mike Proulx, vice president at market research firm Forrester, said the weekend’s chaos had been “remarkably bad” for both users and advertisers.

“Advertisers depend on reach and engagement yet Twitter is currently decimating both,” he told AFP.

He said Twitter had “moved from stable to startup” and Yaccarino, who remained silent over the weekend, would struggle to restore its credibility, leaving the door open to Twitter’s rivals to suck up any cash from advertisers.

‘Open secret’

The technical reasons Musk gave for limiting the views of users immediately brought a backlash.

Many social media users speculated that Musk had simply failed to pay the bill for his servers.

French social data analyst Florent Lefebvre said AI firms were more likely to train their models on books and media articles than social network content, which “is of much poorer quality, full of mistakes and lacking in context”.

Yoel Roth, who stepped down as Twitter’s head of security weeks after Musk took over, said the idea that data scraping had caused such performance problems that users needed to be forced to log in “doesn’t pass the sniff test”.

“Scraping was the open secret of Twitter data access,” he wrote on the Bluesky social network — another Twitter rival.

“We knew about it. It was fine.”

 
…