As many of you know, Iran is one of the most isolated and censored nations in the world. Under strict sharia law, the people can’t enjoy many of the freedoms we Americans take for granted. This includes technology and social media.
The Iranian government blocks social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and You Tube. In recent years, more people have been using global software to access them. Maybe that’s why Iran’s government is making their move. Effective May 29, their government demands messaging apps to turn in the very citizens that use them. A data server will collect the names of the users. Immediately, people are calling foul. People say this new rule violates their privacy rights. The foreign messaging apps have a year to comply with the Iran’s Supreme Council on Cyberspace’s demands. This council is hand picked, member by member, by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Instant messaging service app Telegram is particularly in the bulls eye. Recently, this app has 20 million members. So basically, 1/4 of Iranians are connected to Telegram. Since November 2015, Iran policeman have arrested many Telegram administrators for promoting ‘immoral conduct’. Telegram users aren’t fooled. One user tweeted, “Telegram’s data centers are to be moved inside the country so they can delete what they want and arrest who they want.”
I think the only reason the Ayatollah’s Supreme Council even came up with this law is to go after Telegram and the technological freedom it gives people. For years, the Iranian people have been crying out for freedom. The powers that be don’t like it a bit. When Telegram administrators are getting arrested for ‘immorality’, you can best believe they’re not sharing pornographic websites. These administrators are leading to charge to break the yoke of censorship. The Iran Supreme Council on Cyberspace strikes back. But with the people’s will as strong as it is, I doubt they will prevail. What do you think Telegram’s next move will be?
We at Computer Geeks would like to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day. We say thank you to those who fought for our freedoms. We remember those who never made it home.
Guess where the majority of American adults get most of their news from? You guessed, it, social media sites.
According to the Pew Research Center, 62% of Americans get news on social media. That’s up from 49% back in 2012. In fact, one out of five say they often get their news from social media. Reddit and Facebook lead the charge. Nearly 70% of Reddit users say they get their news there, while 66% of Facebook users get their news there. Twitter came in third with 59%. The surprising statistic is You Tube. Of all You Tube subscribers, only 21% say they get their news there. That’s surprising to me because there are many, many alternative news sites and sources on You Tube. There’s quite a bit of overlap here as well. More than a fourth of Americans get their news from two social media sites. And 10% say they get their news from three or more social media outlets. Adults age 30-49 are the most likely to use social media for news, while those over 65 are less likely.
This is why Facebook needs to be careful with us and we need to be careful with Facebook. Facebook needs to do a better job letting news from all political sides get a fair shot at being broadcast. And we need to do a better job discerning what’s real and what’s not. There have been many, many hoaxes over the years, from joke news to celebrity death hoaxes. Yes, there’s more social media than there was four years ago, so it’s easier to use this as a credible news source. But I think people are sick and tired of mainstream media. Did you know over 90% of all mainstream media is owned by six or five corporations? Social media allows people to see real news from other people’s perspective. Personally, I’m a fan of You Tube alternative news sites. Maybe that’s why I’m surprised You Tube doesn’t rank higher here. What is your favorite social media sites to get news?
Quite some time ago, I wrote a story of a predator who manipulated hundreds of underage girls to take inappropriate photos of themselves. He threatened to blast the photos online to the world if they didn’t send him more inappropriate photos. I wish I could tell you this was an isolated incident.
But I can’t. According to the Justice Department, sextortion is the biggest growing threat to children and underage teens today. Sextortion is enticing someone to commit inappropriate sexual acts online, then threatening to expose the act if the victim doesn’t give in to the culprit’s financial or perverted demands. But victims can be of any age. At George Mason University, two college students are lured into trusting people online. They got the students to broadcast sexual acts on a webcam. The suspects threatened to put the videos on the Internet if the victims didn’t pay $5,000. As early as 2010, a 13-year-old named Amanda Todd was talked into exposing herself, and the online predators demanded more. When she didn’t cooperate, they posted the girl’s pictures to social media. She made a powerful You Tube video addressing her ordeal two years later. Then, she committed suicide. Sadly it’s gotten worse. Between 2010-2013, sextortion complaints have increased 32%. Even President Obama addressed this epidemic in April 2015, calling April to be “National Child Abuse Prevention Month”.
Think about what victims are driven to. Often, victims feel shame, guilt, and isolation. In 2015 alone, two sextortion victims committed suicide and 12 attempted suicide. The victims are often bullied, can’t get friends, a job, housing, hindered from obtaining meaningful relationships. If you’re a perpetrator of such crimes, do you want that on your conscious for the rest of your life? And if you’re a perpetrator of these crimes, you will eventually be found out. Law enforcement on every level is cracking down on this atrocity. Communities are coming together to combat this epidemic. And when you do get caught, it won’t be a speeding ticket. You’ll probably be in prison for decades, if not life. Just ask Lucus Michael Chansler. Is it worth it? I’m sure Chansler doesn’t think so. Everyone failed 13-year-old Amanda Todd: her perpetrators, her peers, her school, her teachers, her parents, the justice system, her community, her town, county, state and nation. Todd ought to be alive and thriving right now. Will we let this precious child’s death be in vain?
You may not have heard much about the Apple vs FBI case in recent weeks. Just because you haven’t heard about it doesn’t mean conflicts between government and tech entities are resolved. In fact, they’re intensifying.
Twitter bars US intelligence from accessing a service that digs through posts of random tweets. It’s believed this method is useful to fight terrorism. News agencies and intelligence leaders suspect Twitter doesn’t want to seem too cozy with the Federal Government. That seems to be a trend in the tech community these days. Then there is the?Dataminr effect. Dataminr is an organization that uses tools to reveal patterns in various tweets. Twitter owns five percent of Dataminr. In fact, they’re the only ones allowed by Twitter to access streaming of public tweets. And it’s Damaminr’s access the intelligence community has been barred from. And Dataminr is doing it’s part to fight terrorism. They’re the ones who alerted Federal authorities about the Paris attacks of November 2015…as they were happening. They’ve gathered critical information on ISIS as well. They’ve even gathered information about Brazil’s many crises on the eve of the Olympic games. Twitter says it’s barring intelligence like this because the company is concerned with digital security and privacy.
I think this part of the beef between tech and government entities. There’s still a lot of mistrust between the two. Tech industries are all too worried about the Feds exploiting data if they get their hands on it. Tech companies know privacy and civil liberties are very important to their customers. What I’d like to see is tech and government entities do is pull their strengths and resources together to fight our real enemies. I’m tired of seeing them turn on each other. If US intelligence and Dataminr work together to fight the real monsters of the world, how would that look?
In the recent past, ride sharing apps Uber and Lyft have had their share of tragedies. They vow to regulate themselves by putting stricter rules on drivers, using fingerprint background checks and emblems on cars. For at least one US city, that’s not enough.
Voters in Austin, Texas rejected their plans. The vote was 56% against Uber and Lyft’s self-regulation, 44% for it. As a result, Uber and Lyft threaten to cut off all service in the Austin/Travis County area. Major Steve Adler wants the companies to remain in Austin and has invited them to the negotiation table. The problem is there are different rules for ride sharing drivers and local cabbies. At first, the city government allowed Uber to perform their own background checks. But in December 2015, the City Council insisted on stricter checks, and Uber and Lyft threatened to leave Austin. In fact, Lyft and Uber stated they will discontinue services for Austin effective Monday, May 9, 2016. Uber and Lyft leaders say the city’s background checks are unnecessary and troublesome. Local leaders say such background checks add an extra layer of security in an insecure world. ?Uber and Lyft spent $8 million dollars on a campaign urging voters to see things their way.
This is a tough call. Yes, you need as much security as you can get in 2016 America. But on the other hand, you want to give businesses room to govern themselves, as long as it’s within reasonable limits. And other major markets, like Los Angeles and Miami, are paying close attention to this Austin situation. I hope mayor Adler can bring both sides to the negotiation table and come to a conclusion. I wouldn’t want Uber or Lyft to pull out one of the fastest-growing cities in the US. What message would that send to other US cities, who are watching this case like hawks? Can Uber and Austin work it out?
A Brazilian judge ordered WhatsApp chat services blocked for 72 hours. For three days, Brazilians were forbidden to send or receive messages through this app. Those who disobey are fined up to $142,000 a day. And you think that speeding ticket you got is bad. But WhatsApp is the most popular method of communication in the country. More than half of Brazil’s population use WhatsApp on a regular basis. The ruling judge uses this as retaliation for WhatsApp, and it’s owner Facebook’s, failure to comply with judicial orders in a drug-trafficking case. But encryption is also a major factor. A Facebook representative commented on this case: “The way that information is encrypted from one cellphone to another, there is no information stored that could be handed over to authorities.? ?Technology companies offer their users ‘end-to-end’ encryption, very popular since the Edward Snowden revelations of 2013. This means the technology companies can’t access the information the consumers are delivering. This means governments can’t access it either. This just breeds conflict between legal systems and technology companies worldwide.
So basically, what the Brazilian government is doing is taking this one case out on over 100 million people. “So you’re not going to do what I want, Facebook? I’ll just take it out on our own people!” That’s the message they’re sending. ?This case and the Apple vs FBI case shows us the struggle of governments against tech companies is far from over. Brazil is enduring a lot of trials form environmental to political crises. And they have to host the 2016 Olympic games this summer. Does Brazil really want to play this game now? Don’t they have enough to clean up in such a short time?
