You’ll find ample evidence about this issue across many media platforms and the source is the UN, just FYI.

Thanks, I’ll need to look into that.

This is sadly true. There’s a lot wrong with Cloudflare and I also knew they control the on-ramps to bitcoin, but I didn’t know that they have already blocked persons.

I think crypto as a technology is not a very good store of value

I fully agree. That’s why I use it as a means of payment rather than as value investment -:)

Blockchain is revolutionary, but blockchain projects need to have utility

Absolutely, that’s what is missing at 99.9% of blockchain projects unfortunately (but I still hope for the 0.1% :-))

Yeah, your post wasn’t yet visible to me when I posted mine a few minutes ago, but I am thinking the very same. The next big thing is here and they need to train the chat bots :-)

I have been using some crypto as a means of payment and find it often easier and cheaper than banking services in the fiat system.

Developers -and possibly others- could use it to monetize their work and becoming less dependant from commercial app stores. The blockchain can be a good tool for proof of provenance (although the latter doesn’t necessarily come with a currency).

By using crypto, we can cut the middleman.

There are some use cases for crypto imho, but only a few companies try to exploit its potential.

But, yeah, it seems we already have the next big thing:

Tech chief says the development of chatbots is a more worthwhile use of processing power than crypto mining

Fair. The article is not specifically about TikTok, though. For example, it mentions the case of Whitney Duan and her ex-husband (here’s an article about it) who wrote a book about that topic. One book review reads:

The Chinese Communist Party depicted in Shum’s firsthand account is the epitome of capitalist excess, with the sons and daughters of high-ranking party officials going on global shopping and gambling sprees, spending the vast sums their parents and relatives amassed through rampant corruption, influence-peddling, ruthless political maneuvering and backstabbing.

But just read the book yourself.

For those interested there are two interesting articles on this topic:

The Mind Is a Battlefield: Lessons from Japan’s Security Policy on Cognitive Warfare

It says:

The cognitive domain, which encompasses emotions, beliefs, values, and other intangible aspects of human cognition, has emerged as a crucial front in today’s wars. China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recognizes the strategic importance of cognitive factors in winning information wars, and has devoted considerable research to this area: they aim to gain superiority in the cognitive domain by influencing public opinion, applying psychological pressure on key figures and ultimately influencing decision-making to win wars with minimal cost – or even without fighting. This perspective has been integrated into Beijing’s military strategy …

The Future of China’s Cognitive Warfare: Lessons from the War in Ukraine

There is also a lot of academic research, e.g., How China’s Cognitive Warfare Works: A Frontline Perspective of Taiwan’s Anti-Disinformation Wars

I just read an article on how cybercriminals use ChatGPT that is perfect for this thread (-:

Yes, it’s bad if people are that naive, and it’s even worse when others appear to exploit the despair of people. The app has 32 permissions and contains 4 trackers that openly say that they would collect behavioral data and advertise their trackers using slogans like “we help marketers make better decisions”.

dont think its controversial to think that governement officials shouldnt have any form of social media on their government issued phones. Its insane that governements have worse digital practices than a lot of mid size businesses

Yes. And what makes this thread even more weird is the fact that Tiktok is not even available in China. ByteDance offers a similar service, Douyin, that looks and works just like it, but the Western version is unavailable, and not just for government officials but the entire population.

Furthermore, a lot of other social media is blocked in China not just for officials but for the entire population, e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and many others. Not that I think these apps are needed, I just don’t understand the critics for blocking Tiktok here.

… an attempt to take over the territorial waters of other countries

Sometimes this appears to happen in somewhat irritating ways as reports say: Micronesia’s President David Panuelo has accused China of making ‘direct threats against my personal safety’

National cybersecurity agency deems TikTok a threat to Czechia

The Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB) has today warned Czechs against downloading the Chinese video application TikTok. It has labeled the app a “security threat” and said the public should “think twice” before using it.

Danish public broadcaster advises staff against using TikTok

LOL

Yeah, especially from Facebook and other big tech. They never sell user data. Never. Pinky swear.

According to the survey cited in the article, the participating experts say that AI will also have useful implications, although the majority agrees that they will be outweighed by negative effects.

I am personally convinced of the latter and agree with Alejandro Pisanty saying that “the future is to be determined by the agendas of commercial interests and governments, to our chagrin”. The biggest problem imho is that this topic is almost exclusively discussed within professional circles. The wider public is completely unaware what lies ahead.

What we urgently needed is a broad discussion across the entire society, and this requires to communicate the relevant topics in a language the wider “non-tech” public can understand.

We need to ignite real public conversations to help people fully understand the stakes of these developments

I fully agree with this quote by Kathryn Bouskill.

This is likely only for US people living in the Boston area: Journalists in the Boston area

This is strongly related: ‘It makes me want to cry’: inside crumbling courts as judges wrestle with rise in rent eviction cases

Edit for an addition:

In a lobbying campaign targeting politicians, press, the Bank of England and the government, Ben Beadle, the chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), had in recent months warned “landlords are selling because of punitive taxation” and of “decimated” supply hitting tenants. […]

But Beadle this month told an industry webinar: “Actually the truth is that while some landlords are leaving the sector, this sector is actually still increasing. That’s not terribly helpful to our argument to be honest with you. But in the context of cost of living and rising costs we have to tell that story and link the two.”

Source: Landlords accused of ‘making up stories’ in drive to change UK tax rules

A new study published just yesterday:

For the first time researchers have proven a clear correlation between deforestation and regional precipitation. […] The paper, published in the journal Nature, adds to fears that the degradation of the Amazon is approaching a tipping point after which the rainforest will no longer be able to generate its own rainfall and the vegetation will dry up.

People living in deforested areas have long provided anecdotal evidence that their microclimates became drier with lower tree cover.

Here is the link to the article, here the link to the study.

Edit for additional article: Overconsumption by the rich must be tackled, says acting UN biodiversity chief

I don’t know the person who wrote this post, but accusing someone of extremism (no matter if it’s left or right) because of linking to a news article like this is unnecessary to say the least.

The linked article describes more than “a few incidents”. I think we all read about the death of Mahsa Amini because she refused to wear a hijab or about the 16-year-old Asra Panahi who was beaten to death for refusing to sing pro-regime anthem.

It’s rather a systemic opression as women and girls as well as other minorities are treated like second-class citizens in Iran, and the situation in 2022 has worsened.

A few isolated incidents? How women and girls are treated in Iran has been covered by multiple media “in the west” and everywhere else. You can also ask Iranian women who were able to emigrate and learn more about these “few isolated incidents”.

And, no, this is not a cultural issue nor a ideological one.

A related story is Amazon Develops Algorithm to Improve Collaboration Between Robots and Humans for those interested.

The cited study provides a lot of evidence. Just in case you don’t have time to read it or don’t trust the source for whatever reason, have a look here, here, here or here, for example.

I wouldn’t say medieval, but there appears to be a strong tendency to autocratic and backward-looking, conservative rules - and not only in the “anglo-saxon” world. We see this in countries like China (see here and here, for example) and many other. For example, see here.

Edit for an addition: Just read that Anthony Albanese becomes first Australian PM to march in Sydney Mardi Gras LOL

Bei Client-side Scanning (was die Online Bill in UK und die geplante Chat Control in der EU vorsehen) nützt die Verschlüsselung nichts. Unklar ist mir, wie Signal den Rückzug vollziehen will. Man kann zwar einen Download von einer britischen IP-Adresse grundsätzlich verbieten, aber das können User und Userinnen umgehen.

Aber ja, das ganze Gesetz ist in vielerlei Hinsicht nicht durchdacht.

Hai ragione, stanno sempre in ombra, ma a torto. Le donne hanno fatto (e fanno) molto nella storia dell’informatica.

Ada Lovelace, Evelyn Boyd Granville, Radia Perlman, Joan Ball, Karen Spärck Jones, Stephanie Shirley, Adele Goldberg, Angelica Ross, Susan Kare, Williamina Fleming, Elizabeth Feinler, Grace Hopper, Annie Easley, Mary Allen Wilkes, Carol Shaw, Victoria Alonso, Donna Dubinsky, Megan Smith, e molte altre donne … :-)

Compare Alex Morgan’s statements now to her male colleagues’ behaviour during the football world cup in Qatar last year …

I don’t know which study you are refering to. Is it available somewhere?

c’è grave bug a livello di sistema operativo che ha colpito il fornitore esterno responsabile del nuovo servizio di storage introdotto nelle scorse settimane

Dicono che prima che la situazione ritorni a livelli normali servirà ancora un po’ di pazienza, con una finestra temporale di risoluzione stimata nelle 24/48 ore.

Hai ragione. Purtroppo ci sono tanti politici nel mondo che agiscono in modo simile.

Yes, only customers seem to be affected. I corrected the headline to make that clear. Sorry.

A tutti … forse è davvero troppo complesso per un articolo, ma anche i commenti sono molto interessanti. L’unica cosa certa è che la matematica è open source, giusto? 😄

This appears to be one of the hottest market trends with China having the most extensive public surveillance system, but we may assume other regions to gain ground.

Two weeks ago, the EU offered China free vaccines, but China said its supply were “adequate”.