The Barents Observer ☛ Unavailable in Russia, users report
Users all over the country complaining about the difficulty in accessing YouTube, according to the YouTube monitoring website and users The Barents Observer spoke to.
The Record ☛ UN cybercrime treaty passes in unanimous vote
In an interview with Recorded Future News following the vote, he cited concerns that have been echoed by several other human rights and digital freedoms organizations.“We think this convention text that has advanced is insufficient in its human rights commitments,” Singh Chima said.
“It does not have strong safeguards to prevent misuse of digital investigation and digital evidence powers in the 21st century,” he added. “It, in fact, would enable more surveillance and enable data access in a way that undermines people's trust in computers and in digital technology and directly puts people at risk.”
Vox ☛ Why Elon Musk’s X filed an antitrust lawsuit against advertisers
Since having to buy the site for a painful $44 billion in 2022, Musk has tried to turn it into a haven of unmoderated speech. Critics have argued that the site, often called a “hellsite” for how toxic it could be even before the Musk era, became an unusable cesspit of vitriol and incoherent p*rn bots. Advertisers fled, because businesses don’t want to risk their ads showing up next to objectionable or outright illegal content, like child sexual abuse material. This is very bad for X, since, like other social media companies, it would go belly up without ad money. X contends this cessation of business is a “naked restraint of trade” because advertisers collectively forced the site to adhere to their content standards. It even had to lower its ad prices, the filing alleges.
See AlsoIsraeli airstrike on a Gaza school used as a shelter kills at least 80, Palestinian officials sayWho is Tim Walz? Things to know about Kamala Harris' choice for vice presidentWe Asked 13 Artists How Spotify's 'Tip Jar' Is Working Out for ThemWhat Makes Spotify Promotion So Expensive for Artists?The lawsuit places the bulk of the blame on the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), an initiative launched in 2019 to establish a standard for brand safety across ad platforms. GARM’s membership, which was listed on the site as of August 6, includes consumer brands, ad agencies, and media companies where ads are served (such as Spotify and, up until recently, X), asking them to commit to a shared understanding of what counts as harmful or risky content that shouldn’t be monetized by ads. Membership is voluntary, and GARM says that individual advertisers ultimately decide how and where they advertise. It did not reply to a request for comment.
El País ☛ The siege on Google intensifies on both sides of the Atlantic
After Monday’s U.S. ruling, whose penalties have yet to be announced, the spotlight is currently on Alphabet and its search engine. In its statement on the ruling, the company said: “This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine. Given this, and that people are increasingly looking for information in more and more ways, we plan to appeal,” it announced.
India Times ☛ digital transformation deals: Digital transformation deals back in play for IT industry with a cost twist
Infosys and Wipro also secured deals from Sweden’s Ikea and Finland’s Nokia.
Axios ☛ Scoop: X files antitrust lawsuit against ad industry group GARM
Why it matters: The lawsuit is part of a broader effort by conservative lawmakers and media companies to go after GARM, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media.
Catch up quick: GARM was created by members of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) in 2019 to set standards around brand safety for digital advertisers. Members include major tech companies, advertisers, agencies, ad tech firms and advertising coalitions.
Sumana Harihareswara ☛ Tim Walz's Policy Approach
A number of people on Bluesky, in the Fediverse, and elsewhere have been pointing to a recent speech of his. He spoke to a geographic information systems (GIS) conference run by the behemoth Esri on July 16th, discussing his personal story as a high school geography teacher and Esri user, and how maps and geographic data inform his policy work. Video's available on Esri's site and on YouTube, and the Minnesota Reformer has a text summary.
Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
-
The Guardian UK ☛ Trump lashes out at Harris and falsely claims no one was killed on January 6
Struggling in the polls and charged with running a lackluster presidential campaign, Donald Trump faced reporters on Thursday for an hour-long press conference that swiftly descended into a familiar mess of freewheeling invective, outlandish claims and outright lies.
-
US News And World Report ☛ FACT FOCUS: A Look at Claims Made by Trump at News Conference
In his first news conference since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for president, former President Donald Trump said he would debate her on Sept. 10 and pushed for two more debates. The Republican presidential nominee spoke for more than an hour, discussing a number of issues facing the country and then taking questions from reporters. He made a number of false and misleading claims. Many of them have been made before.
-
RFA ☛ Did a South Korean legislator propose changing the country’s name?
A claim has been repeatedly shared in Chinese-language social media posts that a South Korean politician proposed changing the country’s name to a transliteration of the English word “Korea”.
But the claim is false. No such proposal has been made. The claim has circulated online since as early as 2008.
-
India Times ☛ Elon Musk stirs UK divisions, sparks calls for faster rollout of online safety laws
Elon Musk has been accused of exacerbating tensions after a week of far-right rioting in Britain, sparking calls for the government to speed up the rollout of laws policing harmful online content.
Misinformation and calls to violence have spread on social media over the past week after far-right and anti-Muslim groups seized on the fatal stabbing of three young girls in the English town of Southport.
