Canadian officialdom just can’t get past the idea that they and they alone have been gifted with the intelligence and judgment to determine what the public should hear or see on the Internet.
“Surveillance Society”
Brazil’s ban on X is a taste of things to come
X, the social-media giant owned by Elon Musk, has officially been banned in Brazil. Last night, X failed to meet a deadline set by a Supreme Court judge to block vast swathes of content and appoint a local legal representative for the company. It has now gone offline to its 22million Brazilian users – roughly one tenth of the national population.
“There is no place for Orwell’s ‘thought police’ in 21st century Britain”: An Interview with Isabel Vaughn-Spruce
Isabel Vaughn-Spruce is a peaceful, law-abiding woman—but she has been arrested twice for praying silently near an abortion centre in Birmingham, England. In a rare bit of good news for freedom of speech, she has just received a payout of £13,000 from the West Midlands Police “in acknowledgement of her unjust treatment and the breach of her human rights” after she issued a claim alleging “two wrongful arrests and false imprisonments; assault and battery in relation to an intrusive search of her person; and for a breach of her human rights both in respect to the arrests, and to the onerous bail conditions imposed on her.”
Zuckerberg Admits Facebook Wrong to Suppress Hunter Laptop Story, Scolds White House for Covid Censorship
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged Monday that Biden administration officials pressured Facebook into censoring Covid-related content and conceded that his platform was mistaken when it censored the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election.
In an explosive letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), Zuckerberg owned up to Facebook’s decision to go along with the White House’s censorship demands and expressed regret for suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story.
“In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Germany demands Gab identify user who called politician Ricarda Lang fat
The founder of free speech platform Gab has shared a letter from the German government asking the social media site to give up the identity of a user who called an obese female politician fat.
h/t XC
Biometrics in the workplace may be the way of the future. But at what cost?
When Ellie Thomson arrives at work, she doesn’t punch in on a physical clock or even check in on an app. Instead, she scans her finger.
“Seeing everyone else go ahead and do it, it just figured like the right thing to do and there was no issues with it,'” Thomson told Cost of Living.
Thomson is a 21-year-old server and bartender at charbar in Calgary. She’s one of many employees who now use biometric technology such as fingerprint scanning to clock in and out, and that number is rising.
Professor asks top court to review ‘revolutionary’ law curbing spy watchdog members
OTTAWA – A law professor is urging the Supreme Court of Canada to weigh the constitutionality of “revolutionary and unprecedented legislation” that limits members of a prominent spy watchdog from using their parliamentary immunity to speak out.
In an application to the top court, Lakehead University Prof. Ryan Alford says the case raises issues of public importance about the protections afforded to MPs and senators exercising their freedom of speech and debate.
Federal lawyers say in an opposing submission there’s no need for the Supreme Court to wade into the matter.
National Security Agencies Should Detail How They’re Using AI: Federal Advisory Body
A federal advisory body is calling on Canada’s security agencies to publish detailed descriptions of their current and intended uses of artificial intelligence systems and software applications.
In a new report, the National Security Transparency Advisory Group also urges the government to look at amending legislation being considered by Parliament to ensure oversight of how federal agencies use AI.
Your social media is being scraped by who knows who that’s a given.
Australia’s ‘eSafety’ chief wants to censor the whole world
‘Is it time to cut “Big Tech” down to size?’, asked the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship-current affairs programme, Q&A, earlier this week. The focus, as you probably will have guessed, was Elon Musk’s X, known for its more laissez-faire attitude to content moderation than the other tech giants. The answer, from the predictably unbalanced panel, was a clear and resounding ‘yes’.
I believe BCF remains banned in Oz to this day.
HANNAFORD: Canadians should take note, English rioters may have a point
“The Government of Canada will — wrongly — take British riots as validation of their vicious suite of legislation to control how we use the internet here.”
The recent spate of rioting in Great Britain appears to have subsided. However as the smoke clears, two things are left to talk about.
First, could this kind of rioting happen in Canada? Answer, probably not and if it did, it wouldn’t be for quite the same reasons. But the kind of free-speech crackdown employed by Westminster is exactly what Canadians can expect the next time we want to talk about government overreach in — let’s say a pandemic response.
CBSA to Use Facial Recognition App for People Facing Deportation … Which would be great if they could actually locate any of them
OTTAWA—The Canada Border Services Agency plans to implement an app that uses facial recognition technology to keep track of people who have been ordered to be deported from the country.
The mobile reporting app would use biometrics to confirm a person’s identity and record their location data when they use the app to check in. Documents obtained through access-to-information indicate that the CBSA has proposed such an app as far back as 2021.
Not a fab track record … CBSA did not know whereabouts of 34,000 foreign nationals slated for removal: AG report
It will end up being used to assist in the criminalization of citizens by the government.
Secretive Covid-era ‘spy’ agency brought in to monitor social media during riots
A secretive government agency used to “spy on” anti-lockdown campaigners during the Covid pandemic has been deployed to monitor social media amid the riots, The Telegraph has learnt.
The Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU), now rebranded as the National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT), has been given the task just months after MPs called for an independent review of its activities.
Campaigners have expressed concern that NSOIT is playing a central role in the riots response despite outstanding questions over whether it is fit for purpose.
Anyone involved in criminal disorder or violent thuggery on UK streets will have to pay the price 👇 pic.twitter.com/ma44tg7ymO
— Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) August 7, 2024
Brighton, England, Aug. 7 — A huge left-wing crowd has gathered to protest in support of open borders and migrants. pic.twitter.com/Hdftpej64a
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) August 7, 2024
Live Feed at The Telegraph
Live Feed at The Times
Live Feed at The BBC
Ford Seeks Patent for Cars That Monitor Other Drivers’ Speeds, Reports Them to Police
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has published a patent for Ford Motor Company that would allow the manufacturer to build cars that are capable of tracking other drivers’ speeds and send the information to local law enforcement.
The patent for the “speeding violation responder system” was posted on July 18 after Ford filed for the certification in 2023.
European Intelligence Agencies Prepare To Surveil Car Metadata
A powerful network of policing agencies, regulators, and industrialists is deciding on the ethics and regulatory framework by which authorities can use the data gathered from motor vehicles. German intelligence agencies in particular are demanding that Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen insert the required interfaces to enable the surveillance.
According to German press reports, meetings between car manufacturers and law enforcement have been ongoing since spring. Intelligence agencies are demanding real-time data on a car’s location, driver history, and even the number of people sitting in the vehicle at any one time.
AI speed cameras which can ‘spy inside’ cars to be rolled out
AI speed cameras which can “spy inside” cars are set to be rolled out nationwide to catch motorists using mobile phones at the wheel or failing to wear seatbelts.
New AI technology is enabling police not only to catch speeding drivers but also clampdown on motorists “distracted” by their phones even if they have them on their lap while at the wheel.
The move has raised privacy concerns while the AA has warned that AI cameras must not become a substitute for traffic officers stopping suspect motorists who might also be drink driving – an offence which would not be caught by simply snapping images.