The American Civil Liberties Union sued Los Angeles Monday over the city’s requirement that electric scooter rental companies provide anonymized real-time location data. The Verge reports: The lawsuit centers on the Los Angeles Department of Transportation’s use of a digital tool called the Mobility Data Specification program (MDS), which the agency created as a way to track and regulate electric scooters…
Tag: controversial
Senator Fears Clearview AI Facial Recognition Could Be Used On Protesters
Sen. Edward Markey has raised concerns that police and law enforcement agencies have access to controversial facial recognition app Clearview AI in cities where people are protesting the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died two weeks ago while in the custody of Minneapolis police. CNET reports: Markey, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts and a member of the…
What is antifa?
What’s the history of anti-fascism and why is it controversial? Source: https://www.livescience.com/what-is-antifa.html
UK Willing To Admit Nearly 3 Million From Hong Kong If China Adopts Security Law
schwit1 shares news that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would be willing to allow more than 2.8 million people from Hong Kong to live and work in the country if China implements a controversial proposed national security law on the former British colony. The law could take effect as soon as this month, and would expand mainland China’s control…
Governments and WHO Changed COVID-19 Policy Based On Suspect Data From Tiny US Company
AmiMoJo shares a report from The Guardian The World Health Organization and a number of national governments have changed their Covid-19 policies and treatments on the basis of flawed data from a little-known U.S. healthcare analytics company, also calling into question the integrity of key studies published in some of the world’s most prestigious medical journals. Surgisphere, whose employees appear to…
How ‘Technoprogressive’ Transhumanists Are Enhancing Their Bodies With Technology
Rob Spence installed a wireless video camera in place of his right eye, reports CNN. And 29-year-old James Young’s robotic arm “features a USB port, a screen displaying his Twitter feed and a retractable dock containing a remote-controlled drone…” “As biotechnology advances, so too may our ideas of what it means to be human.” Today, we can alter our bodies in…
Joe Biden Doesn’t Like Trump’s Twitter Order, But Still Wants To Revoke Section 230
Former Vice President Joe Biden still wants to repeal the pivotal internet law that provides social media companies like Facebook and Twitter with broad legal immunity over content posted by their users, a campaign spokesperson told The Verge. Still, the campaign emphasized key disagreements with the executive order signed by the president earlier this week. From a report: Earlier this year,…
Munich Says It’s Now Shifting Back From Microsoft to Open Source Software — Again
Newly-elected politicians in Munich “have decided its administration needs to use open-source software, instead of proprietary products like Microsoft Office,” reports ZDNet: “Where it is technologically and financially possible, the city will put emphasis on open standards and free open-source licensed software,” a new coalition agreement negotiated between the recently elected Green party and the Social Democrats says. The agreement was…
France Passes Law Forcing Online Platforms To Delete Hate-Speech Content Within 24 Hours
France’s lower chamber has passed a controversial law that will require social networks and online platforms remove flagged hate speech within 24 hours. If companies do not comply, they will have to pay hefty fines every time they infringe the law. Other more extreme content, such as terrorist content and child pornography, will require online platforms react within an hour. TechCrunch…
WHO Conditionally Backs Covid-19 Vaccine Trials that Infect People
Controversial trials in which volunteers are intentionally infected with Covid-19 could accelerate vaccine development, according to the World Health Organization, which has released new guidance on how the approach could be ethically justified despite the potential dangers for participants. From a report: So-called challenge trials are a mainstream approach in vaccine development and have been used in malaria, typhoid and flu,…