Author: April Cowels

Dateline: London, 30th November 2023.One thing we know about the future of fintech is the everything is going to be connected, even if intermittently. The Internet-of-Things (IoT) will be a platform for payments, for sure. Even credit cards themselves. Here’s an example. American Express is launching a card with built-in communications in South Korea so that customers will never leave home without it by accident! In addition to credit card payments and Bluetooth location finding, the KB Kookmin Card will also help you to find a your mobile phone with a ringtone through the smart button at the bottom of the card and it also gives an in-app push notification when disconnecting (in case you walk away and forget your card). The card, which can be charged through wireless charging, seems to me to be to an interesting example of what economists refers to as the “Sailing Ship Effect”.ShareSailing AwayThe Sailing Ship Effect refers to the impact of steamships in Victorian times. While in the long run, sailing ships were replaced by steamships, except for leisure, when the steamships first came on to the scene they led to a final burst of innovation from the sailing ship world, which was then stimulated into building some great ships (eg, the famous “Cutty Sark” that you can see in London). Perhaps we are now seeing this in the world of smart cards, as they enter their final age before being overtaken by smart phones, the cloud, blockchains or whatever.The KB Kookmin Card is integrated into…What Does “Lost” Mean Daddy? What Does “Card” Mean Mummy?

Gary Barker believes parents are inadvertently ceding too much ground to digital culture influencers who may not have their sons’ best interests at heart. As the president and CEO of the nonprofit think tank Equimundo, which promotes gender equality, Barker spends much of his time thinking about this problem. Some of what young boys encounter online can be purely engaging, fun, and confidence-building. And then there’s the “manosphere,” which loosely describes the online ecosystem of influencer content built around traditional masculine norms of self-sufficiency, dominance, toughness, and stoicism. Some of the content in the manosphere can be harmless and enjoyable, appealing to boys and men by offering well-intended health or well-being tips. But the harmful, serious content that surfaces is frequently tied to racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, and in some cases, violent rhetoric. If you think your son would reject such ideas out of hand, consider that the gateway to the more dangerous aspects of the manosphere is often absurd or irreverent content designed for maximum laughs rather than indoctrination. Other content in this space, like specious advice about money, dating, or politics, makes boys feel like they have knowledge about how the world really works — and teaches them how to take advantage of that insight. SEE ALSO: 5 social-emotional skills for parents In other words, the manosphere represents a unique parenting challenge: helping boys develop critical thinking skills about digital content they find entertaining and fulfilling without alienating them by passing strong judgment of their media consumption…How to help your son navigate the manosphere

Gary Barker believes parents are inadvertently ceding too much ground to digital culture influencers who may not have their sons’ best interests at heart. As the president and CEO of the nonprofit think tank Equimundo, which promotes gender equality, Barker spends much of his time thinking about this problem. Some of what young boys encounter online can be purely engaging, fun, and confidence-building. And then there’s the “manosphere,” which loosely describes the online ecosystem of influencer content built around traditional masculine norms of self-sufficiency, dominance, toughness, and stoicism. Some of the content in the manosphere can be harmless and enjoyable, appealing to boys and men by offering well-intended health or well-being tips. But the harmful, serious content that surfaces is frequently tied to racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, and in some cases, violent rhetoric. If you think your son would reject such ideas out of hand, consider that the gateway to the more dangerous aspects of the manosphere is often absurd or irreverent content designed for maximum laughs rather than indoctrination. Other content in this space, like specious advice about money, dating, or politics, makes boys feel like they have knowledge about how the world really works — and teaches them how to take advantage of that insight. SEE ALSO: 5 social-emotional skills for parents In other words, the manosphere represents a unique parenting challenge: helping boys develop critical thinking skills about digital content they find entertaining and fulfilling without alienating them by passing strong judgment of their media consumption…How to help your son navigate the manosphere

Gary Barker believes parents are inadvertently ceding too much ground to digital culture influencers who may not have their sons’ best interests at heart. As the president and CEO of the nonprofit think tank Equimundo, which promotes gender equality, Barker spends much of his time thinking about this problem. Some of what young boys encounter online can be purely engaging, fun, and confidence-building. And then there’s the “manosphere,” which loosely describes the online ecosystem of influencer content built around traditional masculine norms of self-sufficiency, dominance, toughness, and stoicism. Some of the content in the manosphere can be harmless and enjoyable, appealing to boys and men by offering well-intended health or well-being tips. But the harmful, serious content that surfaces is frequently tied to racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, and in some cases, violent rhetoric. If you think your son would reject such ideas out of hand, consider that the gateway to the more dangerous aspects of the manosphere is often absurd or irreverent content designed for maximum laughs rather than indoctrination. Other content in this space, like specious advice about money, dating, or politics, makes boys feel like they have knowledge about how the world really works — and teaches them how to take advantage of that insight. SEE ALSO: 5 social-emotional skills for parents In other words, the manosphere represents a unique parenting challenge: helping boys develop critical thinking skills about digital content they find entertaining and fulfilling without alienating them by passing strong judgment of their media consumption…How to help your son navigate the manosphere

When Elon Musk took over X, formerly known as Twitter, one of his first moves was to overhaul the company’s content moderation policies. When it comes to misinformation, Musk depends on X’s users to deal with the problem in the form of Community Notes, a program that allows approved users to add context to posts that contain inaccuracies or falsehoods.Unfortunately, for Musk and company, this crowdsourced solution doesn’t appear to be working. And the influx of misinformation since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, and Israel subsequently began bombing Gaza, has only made matters worse.X punts content moderation to Community NotesX’s misinformation problem during the past few months has been so prominent that the EU threatened to take action against the company, launching an investigation that could result in X facing hefty fines. Last month, X announced several overhauls to Community Notes in an attempt to placate EU officials. X CEO Linda Yaccarino published two dozen non-reply, non-retweet posts in October. Nine of those posts were about updates to the Community Notes program. That same month, X executive Joe Benarroch reached out to Mashable to provide a press release concerning the Community Notes updates, marking the first time Mashable heard from X since Elon Musk acquired the company last year.X has made it clear in all of the above that it depends on Community Notes to fight misinformation. But, Community Notes is failing.According to a report from NBC News last month, and a recent report Bloomberg last week, X often failed…Most users on X never see Community Notes correcting misinformation

Simran Agarwal is a doctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Excellence for Culture Industries and Artistic Creation (LabEx ICCA), Sorbonne Paris Nord University in France. Shubhangi Heda is a PhD student with the Digital Media Research Centre at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia.  The fresh off-the-desk draft of the Broadcasting Services (Regulations) Bill released on November 10th, 2023 is yet another addition to a recent slew of new media and technology regulations in India. The government has repeatedly used the rationale of ‘parity,’ ‘level playing field,’ and ‘streamlining’ when instituting new laws, executive rules and guidelines for digital media. In light of these, it is important to reflect on the intentions underlying the claims of parity, and to assess if and how the new media regulations can actually achieve these lofty goals? In an effort to bring regulatory parity across media industries, the BJP government’s interventions in the media space have taken two, often simultaneous, routes.  Revamp and replace First, the state achieves parity through ‘revamping’ and ‘replacing’ earlier laws that are inept for sufficiently governing current media realities. In this case, parity is achieved by creating a unified law (or rule) for all the different media industries. This umbrella regulatory approach is evident in the draft Telecommunication Bill, proposed in 2022 to replace the Indian Telegraph Act (1885), Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act (1933) and The Telegraph Wire (Unlawful Protection) Act (1950). The Bill brings under one governing umbrella a broad range of telecommunication services which have been redefined to include …Media Regulations in India: Government Overreach Disguised as ‘Parity’

Kadijatou (Kadija) Diallo is a researcher focused on the intersection of technology, governance and human rights, including the ethical and responsible development of emerging technologies, especially in the Global South. Most recently she was a Fellow with Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Vice President Kamala Harris joins President Joe Biden at the signing of an Executive Order on artificial intelligence, October 30, 2023. At the end of October, President Joe Biden signed a sweeping Executive Order addressing the safe deployment and use of artificial intelligence (AI), marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of US technology regulation and laying the foundation for future federal oversight on AI regulation, development, and deployment. The Executive Order joins a growing list of policies that countries around the world are adopting in an effort to regulate this rapidly advancing sector. While the Executive Order and similar proposals for the general regulation of AI are crucial and necessary, it is imperative for the US not to lose sight of the importance of improving use-case regulation for AI and other emerging technologies. General regulation efforts, such as those underway at the White House and in Congress, play a vital role in establishing baseline protections and terms of development. However, the dynamic nature of AI necessitates legislation that is not only flexible enough to adapt to technological changes but also stringent enough to maintain consistent and robust protections for users. The misrepresentation of AI threats often leads to misconceptions about the immediate risks posed…The US Must Prioritize Use-Case AI Regulation

If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. New information has shed light on a previously undisclosed collaboration between the Biden administration and YouTube to tackle alleged “misinformation” on the COVID-19 pandemic and its related vaccinations in 2021. While this has been known for some time, due to previous revelations in the lawsuit against President Biden’s administration for social media censorship pressure, more details have emerged. This information has been acquired through documents obtained from a source close with the House Judiciary Committee and shared with Fox Business. Certain internal emails indicate that the Biden administration, with its officials led by then White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty, joined hands with the teams of the Google-owned platform to further their efforts in controlling the spread of the pandemic by promoting vaccination campaigns. Today, Flaherty is a part of Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign as a Deputy Campaign Manager. Correspondence established between Flaherty and Google in April 2021 discuss not only their collaborative efforts to combat hesitancy towards vaccines, but also their collective crackdown on misleading information surrounding vaccines. Flaherty requested data on common trends of allegedly misleading information about vaccines, while offering to partner with dedicated COVID-19 experts from the administration with YouTube for product development. Email exchanges within Google reveal that the administration’s interest extended beyond the realm of explicit misinformation and crossed into the domain of “borderline content.” Such content, though not essentially violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines, supposedly comes…Former Biden Official Rob Flaherty Is Subpoenaed To Testify on Government-Directed Social Media Censorship As More Evidence Comes to Light

If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. New information has shed light on a previously undisclosed collaboration between the Biden administration and YouTube to tackle alleged “misinformation” on the COVID-19 pandemic and its related vaccinations in 2021. While this has been known for some time, due to previous revelations in the lawsuit against President Biden’s administration for social media censorship pressure, more details have emerged. This information has been acquired through documents obtained from a source close with the House Judiciary Committee and shared with Fox Business. Certain internal emails indicate that the Biden administration, with its officials led by then White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty, joined hands with the teams of the Google-owned platform to further their efforts in controlling the spread of the pandemic by promoting vaccination campaigns. Today, Flaherty is a part of Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign as a Deputy Campaign Manager. Correspondence established between Flaherty and Google in April 2021 discuss not only their collaborative efforts to combat hesitancy towards vaccines, but also their collective crackdown on misleading information surrounding vaccines. Flaherty requested data on common trends of allegedly misleading information about vaccines, while offering to partner with dedicated COVID-19 experts from the administration with YouTube for product development. Email exchanges within Google reveal that the administration’s interest extended beyond the realm of explicit misinformation and crossed into the domain of “borderline content.” Such content, though not essentially violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines, supposedly comes…Former Biden Official Rob Flaherty Is Subpoenaed To Testify on Government-Directed Social Media Censorship As More Evidence Comes to Light

If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A whistleblower has come out with information pertaining to a group known as the Cyber Threat Intelligence League (CTIL), made up of a number of government officials, including at least a dozen from the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The whistleblower allowed Michael Shellenberger, Alex Gutentag, and Matt Taibbi access to documents corroborating his claims, and the three presented it to the public in a detailed report. The significance of CTIL is that some observers believe it turned out to be the “censorship ground zero” that grew to unprecedented size on both sides of the Atlantic, spawning an entire industry “dealing” with suppressing free speech on anything from Brexit to Covid, and the 2020 election. According to the whistleblower, CTIL was essentially prompted into existence with Donald Trump’s 2016 election as president and involved representatives of both US and UK authorities, and private military contractors. The same source claims that co-leader of CTIL is former UK defense researcher, contractor Sara-Jayne Terp, and that the group’s goal was to be preventing “a repeat of 2016” under the guise of fighting disinformation. Meanwhile the overall ambition was to incorporate CTIL into the federal government, thus formalizing and cementing its role. This is why some see this particular set of documented evidence of the early days of the now notorious online censorship era, principally in the US, but also in Europe, as even…Exposed: Cyber Threat Intelligence League’s Censorship Empire – A Whistleblower’s Revelation of Covert Operations and Free Speech Suppression