19-25 February 2018 - 16 new-min

4
19 - 25 February, 2018
T
World
UK unveils new
technology to fight
extremist content online
he British government is unveiling
new technology designed to remove
extremist material from social media,
amid mounting pressure on companies like
Facebook and Twitter to do more to remove
such content from their platforms.
The software, developed by ASI Data
Science with funding from the government,
was announced by Home Secretary Amber
Rudd ahead of meetings with technology
executives and U.S. Secretary of Homeland
Security Kirstjen Nielsen this week in
Silicon Valley. The program will be shared
with smaller companies that don’t have the
resources to develop such technology, the
agency said.
“I hope this new technology the Home Office
has helped develop can support others to go
further and faster,” Rudd said before the
meetings. “The purpose of these videos is to
incite violence in our communities, recruit
people to their cause, and attempt to spread
fear in our society.”
Governments and law enforcement agencies
have been pressing social media companies
to do more to prevent extremists from using
their sites to promote violence and hatred.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has
called on internet companies to remove
extremist propaganda from their sites in less
than two hours.
But extremist content is only one type of
objectionable content on the internet, with
governments struggling to stem the flow
of everything from child pornography to
so-called fake news. The importance of the
battle was underscored during the 2016 U.S.
presidential election, during which Russian
entities sought to influence to outcome by
placing thousands of ads on social media
that reached some 10 million people on
Facebook alone.
Social media companies have struggled
to respond. Because the companies see
themselves not as publishers but as platforms
for other people to share information, they
have traditionally been cautious about
taking down material.
Amid growing pressure, Facebook, Twitter,
Google and its unit YouTube last year
created the Global Internet Forum to Combat
Terrorism, which says it is committed
to developing new content-detection
technology, helping smaller companies
www.NewDelhiTimes.com
Photo Credit : AP Photo
combat extremism and promoting “counterspeech,”
content meant to blunt the impact
of extremist material.
Unilever, a global consumer products
company and one of the world’s largest
advertisers has demanded results, saying it
wouldn’t advertise on platforms that do not
make a positive contribution to society. Its
chief marketing officer, Keith Weed, said
he’s told Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snap,
and Amazon that Unilever wants to change
the conversation.
“Consumers ... care about fraudulent
practice, fake news, and Russians
influencing the U.S. election,” he said at a
digital advertising conference, according to
excerpts of a speech provided by Unilever.
“They don’t care about good value for
advertisers. But they do care when they see
their brands being placed next to ads funding
terror, or exploiting children.”
So far, though, the technology needed
to detect and remove dangerous posts
hasn’t kept up with the threat, experts say.
Removing such material still requires
judgment, and artificial intelligence has
not proved good enough to determine the
difference, for example, between an article
about the so-called Islamic State and posts
from the group itself.
The software being unveiled is
aimed at stopping the vast bulk of
material before it goes online.
Marc Warner, CEO ASI Data
Science, which helped developed
the technology, said the social
media giants can’t solve this
problem alone.
“The way to fight that is to cut the
propaganda off at the source,” he
said. “We need to prevent all of
these horrible videos ever getting
to the sort of people that can be
influenced by them.”
Tests of the program show it can identify 94
percent of IS propaganda videos, according
to the Home Office, which provided some
600,000 pounds ($833,000) to fund the
software’s development.
But experts on extremist material say even if
the software works perfectly it will not even
come close to removing all Islamic State
material on line.
Charlie Winter, Senior Research Fellow at
the International Center for the Study of
Radicalization at King’s College London,
said the program only focuses on video and
video is only a small portion of “the Islamic
state corpus.”
“I think it’s a positive step but it shouldn’t
be considered a solution the problem,” he
said. “There’s so much more that needs to
be done.”
Credit : Associated Press (AP)
NEW DELHI TIMES
US intel sees signs of Russian
meddling in midterms
T
hree of the nation’s top intelligence
officials confirmed that they have
seen evidence of Russian meddling in
the upcoming midterm elections — part
of what they say is Moscow’s escalating
cyber assault on American and European
democracies.
“We have seen Russian activity and
intentions to have an impact on the next
election cycle,” CIA Director Mike Pompeo
told the Senate intelligence committee.
National Intelligence Director Dan Coats
and Adm. Mike Rogers, the head of the
National Security Agency, agreed that
Russia’s interference is ongoing. “This is not
going to change or stop,” Rogers said.
They didn’t describe the activity, other
than to say it was related to information
warfare. “This is pervasive,” Coats said.
“The Russians have a strategy that goes
well beyond what is happening in the United
States. While they have historically tried to
do these types of things, clearly in 2016 they
upped their game. They took advantage, a
sophisticated advantage of social media.
They are doing that not only in the United
States but doing it throughout Europe
and perhaps elsewhere.” U.S. intelligence
concluded Moscow interfered in the 2016
presidential election, which has led to the
current FBI investigation into possible
Trump campaign connections. Russia denies
the allegations and President Donald Trump
has called the FBI probe a witch hunt.
The three testified in Congress on the same
day that the intelligence community released
its annual report on global threats. The report
predicted Russian intelligence agencies
will disseminate more false information
over Russian state-controlled media and
through fake online personas to spread anti-
American views and exacerbate social and
political divides in the United States.
Pompeo had said earlier that he expected that
P
Russia would insert itself in the midterms in
which Republicans and Democrats will vie
for control of the House and Senate. And last
week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told
Fox News that the U.S. is seeing “certain
behaviors” of Russian meddling in elections
in the Northern Hemisphere, including “in
the U.S.” this year. But the latest testimony
actually confirmed that it is occurring.
Coats said the details of any meddling needs
to be shared with the American people. He
said there should be a national outcry — that
people need to stand up and say, “We’re not
going to allow some Russian to tell us how
to vote, how to run our country.”
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking
Democrat on the committee, said it’s been
more than a year since the 2016 election, but
the U.S. still has no plan to battle foreign
interference in elections. He criticized
Trump for not issuing more sanctions against
Russia in response to the meddling.
“He hasn’t even tweeted a single concern,”
Warner said. It’s unclear what the U.S. is
doing covertly to battle back.
But Coats acknowledged that the U.S.
is “behind the curve” in coming up with
policies to penalize those who hack
America’s critical infrastructure, interfere
with elections, undermine the government
or hit financial institutions.
Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, said he thinks
the American people are better prepared to
deal with Russian influence campaigns in
the upcoming midterms and beyond. They
have started to look askance at social media
and attempts to influence their opinion, he
said.
“The American people are smart people,”
Risch said. “They realize that there’s
people attempting to manipulate them, both
domestically and foreign.”
Credit : Associated Press (AP)
Polish PM pledges $10 m in aid to
Syrian refugees in Lebanon
oland’s prime minister has visited a
school and clinic for Syrian refugees
in northern Lebanon, reiterating his
country’s position that aiding those uprooted
by the war should take place closer to their
home.
A statement issued by Mateusz Morawiecki’s
office said he has declared $10 million
to help Lebanon build housing for 1,000
refugees from Syria.
Morawiecki said aid to refugees close to the
countries they want to return to is the most
efficient form of aid.
Citing security concerns, Poland’s conservative
government rejected a European Union plan
to distribute refugees currently in Greece
and Italy to countries around Europe.
Poland has come under criticism and
warning of sanctions from EU leaders.
Lebanon hosts over 1 million Syrian refugees
and asks the international community to
share the burden.
Credit : Associated Press (AP)
Photo Credit : AP Photo
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