Israel tech ‘threat to world’, say activists after hacking report

Tal Hanan. (video grab)
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Updated 18 February 2023
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Israel tech ‘threat to world’, say activists after hacking report

  • Undercover journalists posed as potential clients to gather information on the firm’s methods and capabilities
  • Notorious British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica — since shut down — was allegedly used to develop software steering voters toward Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement said Israel’s tech sector was “a threat to the world, not just Palestinians” Friday, after a report accused an Israeli firm of manipulating public opinion.
The Wednesday report by an international consortium of journalists led by French non-profit Forbidden Stories said a private Israeli firm sought to influence more than 30 elections around the world through hacking, sabotage and spreading disinformation.
“Israeli repression tech is a threat to the world, not just Palestinians,” said a statement from the BDS movement, which calls for a boycott of Israel over what it describes as the “oppression” of Palestinians.
BDS “reiterates the call to impose an immediate military embargo” on Israel, the statement said, calling for “cutting US military funding and banning trade in Israeli arms and spyware.”
The firm, dubbed “Team Jorge” by the team of investigating journalists, was led by former Israeli special forces operative Tal Hanan, who has denied “any wrongdoing.”
Undercover journalists posed as potential clients to gather information on the firm’s methods and capabilities.
Other similar companies have been named in media reports or sanctioned by Western governments in recent years over their role in trying to influence elections and public opinion.
Notorious British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica — since shut down — was allegedly used to develop software steering voters toward Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election.
Following the latest revelations, Israel might also face increased pressure to rein in its cutting-edge cyberware and technology sector which was spotlighted in another media investigation led by Forbidden Stories in 2021.
It highlighted how the powerful Israeli-made Pegasus spyware had been sold by the cyber intelligence company NSO Group Technologies to governments and used against at least 50,000 people around the world.
Some of the alleged targets included human rights defenders and religious leaders, as well as politicians such as French President Emmanuel Macron.
Forbidden Stories is a collaborative platform set up in 2017 at the initiative of French documentary maker Laurent Richard, with the support of Reporters Without Borders, and brings together more than 30 different media outlets from around the world.
 

 


Twitch adds ‘Zionist’ to hate speech policy amid war tensions

Updated 39 sec ago
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Twitch adds ‘Zionist’ to hate speech policy amid war tensions

  • Amazon-owned streaming platform said term will still be allowed in discussions about political movement as long as they do not target individuals
  • Decision follows pressure by US lawmakers and ADL, who accuse Twitch of failing to curb antisemitism on its platform

LONDON: Streaming platform Twitch has updated its hate speech policy to include the term “Zionist” as a potential slur, reflecting heightened sensitivity in online moderation amid escalating tensions stemming from Israel’s war on Gaza and Lebanon.

“Starting today, using the term ‘Zionist’ to attack or demean another individual or group of people on the basis of their background or religious belief is against our rules,” Twitch, owned by Amazon, announced in a blog post.

The platform, widely popular among video gamers, clarified that as “Zionist” and “Zionism” are political terms, they will still be allowed in discussions about the political movement, whether supportive or critical, provided the language does not target individuals.

“Our goal isn’t to stifle conversation about or criticism of an institution or ideology, but to prevent coded hate directed at individuals and groups of people,” the company said.

The policy update comes amid a spike in hateful content on social media platforms following the Oct. 7 attacks.

A report released in June by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue highlighted alarming increases in antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric online, including a 51-fold surge in antisemitic comments on YouTube and a 422 percent rise in anti-Muslim hate speech on X.

Twitch’s move follows pressure from US Congressman Ritchie Torres and the Anti-Defamation League.

In a letter to Twitch executives, Torres criticized the platform’s handling of hate speech, singling out prominent Turkish-American streamer Hasan Piker as a “poster child” for what he described as “terrorism apologist” comments following the Oct. 7 events.

Torres, who recently secured re-election with significant support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, accused Twitch of failing to adequately address antisemitic content and called for stricter moderation.

Twitch’s announcement aligns it with other platforms tightening their moderation policies.

In July, Meta began removing posts targeting “Zionists” when the term was used to demean Jewish people or Israelis, rather than in reference to the political movement.

This step followed allegations that Meta mishandled pro-Palestinian content, including findings from an Arab News investigation last year.


Netflix says 50 million households worldwide tuned in for Paul-Tyson match

Updated 17 November 2024
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Netflix says 50 million households worldwide tuned in for Paul-Tyson match

Netflix said on Saturday that 60 million households worldwide had tuned in for the highly anticipated boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, and the event peaked at 65 million streams, according to a statement.
The bout between the 27-year-old social media influencer-turned-prize fighter Paul and the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Tyson, which Paul won, was streamed live on Netflix.
Nearly 50 million households tuned in for the co-main event between Ireland’s lightweight champion Katie Taylor and Puerto Rico’s featherweight champion Amanda Serrano, according to Netflix.
“The bout is likely to be the most watched professional women’s sporting event in US history,” Netflix said in its statement.
There were some hiccups during the live-stream of the match, with over 90,000 users reporting problems on Netflix at its peak, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.
However, the streaming platform was back up on Saturday after the outage that lasted roughly 6 hours in the United States.


Renowned Lebanese journalist quits MTV over death threats by alleged Hezbollah supporters

Updated 16 November 2024
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Renowned Lebanese journalist quits MTV over death threats by alleged Hezbollah supporters

  • ‘I decided to leave MTV because of the intimidations that reached the point of death threats,’ says Dr. Eman Shweikh on X
  • Samir Kassir Eyes Center reports that since Nov. 12 Shweikh had been subjected to a campaign of threats, incitement, accusations of treason

DUBAI: A renowned Lebanese journalist has taken to social media platform X to announce her departure from MTV following alleged death threats believed to have been made by supporters of Hezbollah.
Not mentioning the Iran-backed group by name, Dr. Eman Shweikh, a TV presenter at MTV, journalist and university professor, wrote: “I decided to leave MTV because of the intimidations that reached the point of death threats and the harassment that I am exposed to, which reached the point of following me home and chasing me on the road, in addition to harassing my family.”
The Samir Kassir Eyes Center reported that since Nov. 12 Shweikh had been subjected to a campaign of threats, incitement and accusations of treason due to her political opinions that she publishes on X, and because of her work for MTV.
The purported threats and harassment prompted her to leave her job at the channel.
The TV presenter added in her tweet: “The (Lebanese) state is absent, and laws are inexistent, and I do not want to expose my life and the lives of my family to danger. I want to live in safety and peace. Thank you to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of MTV Michel Murr.”
Shweikh’s tweet received thousands of likes and hundreds of retweets and comments.
Replying to her tweet, advocate Tarek Chindeb said: “The threat to kill journalist Eman Shweikh makes us believe at every moment that we cannot build a state in Lebanon in the presence of illegal weapons and militias outside accountability.”
Expressing solidarity, Chindeb hoped that the Lebanese security and judicial authorities would do their duty to protect her, and arrest the culprits.
Political analyst Magdi Khalil also replied to Shweikh’s tweet, saying: “Ideological militias do not know participation, but rather overpowering. They do not know dialogue, but rather the threat of violence.”
MTV journalist Nawal Berry and cameraman Dany Tanios were attacked in July while attempting to cover the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold.
It was not the first time Berry and her team had been assaulted by Hezbollah loyalists. During the early days of the Oct. 17 revolution in 2019, she and her team faced a violent attack and had their camera smashed.
Supporters of Hezbollah have a history of assaulting and threatening journalists. Targets have included Layal Alekhtiar, who received death threats in 2021 and faced legal action last year for interviewing an Israeli spokesperson; Dima Sadek; Ali Al-Amin; and others.
At the time of publishing, Shweikh could not be reached for comment.


What is Bluesky, the fast-growing social platform welcoming fleeing X users?

Updated 16 November 2024
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What is Bluesky, the fast-growing social platform welcoming fleeing X users?

  • Bluesky said in mid-November that its total users surged to 15 million, up from roughly 13 million at the end of October, as some X users look for an alternative platform to post their thoughts and talk to others online

SAN FRANCISCO: Disgruntled X users are again flocking to Bluesky, a newer social media platform that grew out of the former Twitter before billionaire Elon Musk took it over in 2022. While it remains small compared to established online spaces such as X, it has emerged as an alternative for those looking for a different mood, lighter and friendlier and less influenced by Musk.
What is Bluesky?
Championed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Bluesky was an invitation-only space until it opened to the public in February. That invite-only period gave the site time to build out moderation tools and other features. The platform resembles Musk’s X, with a “discover” feed and a chronological feed for accounts that users follow. Users can send direct messages and pin posts, as well as find “starter packs” that provide a curated list of people and custom feeds to follow.
Why is Bluesky growing?
Bluesky said in mid-November that its total users surged to 15 million, up from roughly 13 million at the end of October, as some X users look for an alternative platform to post their thoughts and talk to others online. The post-election uptick in users isn’t the first time Bluesky has benefited from people leaving X. The platform gained 2.6 million users in the week after X was banned in Brazil in August — 85 percent of them from Brazil, the company said. About 500,000 new users signed up in one day in October, when X signaled that blocked accounts would be able to see a user’s public posts.
Across the platform, new users — among them journalists, left-leaning politicians and celebrities — have posted memes and shared that they were looking forward to using a space free from advertisements and hate speech. Some said it reminded them of the early days of Twitter more than a decade ago.
Despite Bluesky’s growth, X posted after the election that it had “dominated the global conversation on the US election” and had set new records.
Beyond social networking
Bluesky, though, has bigger ambitions than to supplant X. Beyond the platform itself, it is building a technical foundation — what it calls “a protocol for public conversation” — that could make social networks work across different platforms — also known as interoperability — like email, blogs or phone numbers.
Currently, you can’t cross between social platforms to leave a comment on someone’s account. Twitter users must stay on Twitter and TikTok users must stay on TikTok if they want to interact with accounts on those services. Big Tech companies have largely built moats around their online properties, which helps serve their advertising-focused business models.
Bluesky is trying to reimagine all of this and working toward interoperability.

 


Media group IMI and UAE Media Council sign deal to recruit and train local talent

Updated 14 November 2024
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Media group IMI and UAE Media Council sign deal to recruit and train local talent

  • Collaboration is part of the Media Apprenticeship Program launched last year by the Media Council and the Emirati Talent Competitiveness Council
  • It targets existing Emirati media professionals, as well as graduates and final-year students in media-related studies

DUBAI: IMI, a media group in the UAE formerly known as International Media Investments, has signed a cooperation agreement with the UAE Media Council to train and recruit local talent and develop media infrastructure in the country.

The initiative is part of the Media Apprenticeship Program, an initiative launched in May 2023 by the UAE Media Council and the Emirati Talent Competitiveness Council. It targets existing Emirati media professionals, as well as graduates and final-year students in media-related studies, with the aim of developing the next generation of talent in the nation’s media sector.

The agreement was signed at IMI’s new headquarters in Abu Dhabi by Mohammed Saeed Al-Shehhi, secretary-general of the UAE Media Council, and Rani Raad, CEO of the recently rebranded IMI Group, which owns several news outlets including Sky News Arabia, The National newspaper, Al-Ain News and CNN Business Arabic.

“We are proud to be the first global media group in the UAE to partner with the UAE Media Council on this initiative,” said Raad.

IMI Group, he added, can offer “aspiring Emirati talent unique opportunities to learn about the best media assets and standards” through its network of companies and the IMI Media Academy.

Launched in September, the IMI Media Academy employs the latest learning methodologies and offers an advanced curriculum focusing on the media industry, journalism and content creation.

Al-Shehhi highlighted the need to forge stronger partnerships with private media companies, and for cohesive country-wide efforts to develop the sector.

He said the partnership with IMI demonstrates the Media Council’s “commitment to empowering the media sector to attain global leadership by investing in the development of national skills and talents and equipping them with the latest media tools and technologies.”

It also aligns with the council’s desire “to nurture a new generation of talents capable of spearheading the sector and achieving significant accomplishments in the future,” he added.