Episodes
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In this special extended edition of TWICS, co-host Brett Solomon reflects on his 15 years as Executive Director of Access Now.
When he started in the job Facebook and Twitter were just emerging as social media platforms. Since then we've seen the rise of both as powerful tech tools and the internet as a force for good, evil and all the grey areas in between.
What are the challenges ahead for digital rights defenders and how can citizens get involved to protect their data online?
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This Week In Cyberspace, Julian Assange was brought back home to Australian soil in Canberra after a 14 year trial.
The following morning, Senator David Shoebridge organised a press conference in Parliament House with Assange's wife Stella Assange, legal team Jennifer Robinson and Barry Pollock, Senators Zoe Daniel, Murray Watt, Peter Wish-Wilson, and former Senator Scott Ludlam.
TWICS was on the sidelines - 27.6.24
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Episodes manquant?
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We examine the growing battle between tech giants and governments around the world.
In the US, Biden has signed off on an ultimatum to Tik Tok to divest or be banned. In Australia, the eSafety Commissioner has issued an ultimatum to X to either take down the video of the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney or pay a daily fine of $785,000 per day. And then there's the European Union where the digital commissioner says a new ‘task and reward program’ on TikTok Lite could be as ‘addictive as cigarettes’.
It's the age of global digital brinkmanship.
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The Prime Minister of Australia has called him an “arrogant billionaire” who’s “chosen ego and violence over common sense”. In return, Elon Musk has sarcastically thanked the PM for informing the public that his platform "is the only truthful one”.
The battle lines are clearly drawn with the eSaftey Commissioner issuing a court order for X to remove a video of the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney last Monday. It’s a contest between what Musk sees as the right to free speech and what the Australian government claims is a duty to protect its citizens from “extreme violent content”,
So, what goes up? And what comes down? And who decides?
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Lavender. Sounds pretty vanilla right? But it’s actually the name of the Artificial Intelligence machine allegedly targeting Israel’s bombs at Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza. The system has generated “mass target creation and lethality”, especially in the first six weeks of the conflict. But with a 10% error rating, the fallout for Gazan civilians has been horrific.
On the back of a report by +972 Magazine, we probe into the interplay between technology and conflict.
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This Week In Cyberspace we take a look at hate speech online in the context of conflict. With the UN calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and the horrific human toll of Palestinian civilian lives still rising, certain words are coming under intense scrutiny.
META is reviewing the use of the word 'Zionist' on its platforms, while the Arabic term 'Saheed' - the word for martyr - is responsible for the most content takedowns across all of its platforms.
But what are the implications for free speech and rational debate online?
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It's the biggest year of voting in global history. Seventy countries will decide their governance including citizens of no less than twenty-one African nations. But with many of those already on the Election Watchlist for internet interference, how many will claim to be bastions of democracy?
With a humanitarian crisis of apocalyptic proportions underway in the African heartland of Sudan, what role do tech-cos have in navigating a way through this?
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Putin is locked in for a 5th term, largely through the control of information on the internet, while Elon Musk’s quest for world domination also continues apace with the release of the raw computer code behind his new xAI Chatbot.
On top of all that, the Chinese owned company behind TikTok is being forced to sell up in the US, and over in the EU, the AI Act has come into law essentially enabling developers to go for broke.
It's been a busy week in cyberspace!
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Did Kate Middleton actually doctor her own family photograph? Or has she actually been abducted by aliens? How fake images can ignite a bonfire of wild conspiracy theories.
And turncoat Donald Trump once wanted TikTok banished from the USA. Now that he's banned from Facebook for telling lies and inciting his followers to storm the Capitol, he wants the legislation he introduced to be reversed. But with Biden poised to sign off on it, is it all too late for him and TikTok's 150 million American users?
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5 days ago, a strict new anti-LGBTQ+ bill called the Human Sexual rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill was introduced, which threatens to incite a witch hunt against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex people fighting for their rights to express themselves and have privacy in Ghana, both online and off. It's part of a disturbing worldwide trend to vilify and control 'the other', and while it might appease the largely conservative Christian majority, it also threatens $5.8 million in foreign investments in the country. Right now, it's all in the hands of President Nana Akufo-Addo.
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How can we tell if fake news is real when, despite the facts, some people swear by it? And how do we judge the veracity of a artificially generated videos when we see them on Facebook?
Two First Amendment cases started in the US Supreme Court yesterday concerning social media laws in Texas and Florida. The State's claim the platforms are exercising “freewheeling censorship”, while they say they just want to stop conservatives posting lies like they did about the last US Federal election being stolen.
Meanwhile the new text to video AI model SORA is causing waves with its ability to create visuals that can replicate one minute of fiction that looks uncannily like the real thing.
Both of these developments have the potential to transform the internet in ways we can't even imagine. But will it be good for humanity?
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The ex KGB lieutenant colonel has a Presidential election in just under a month, and aside from silencing dissenters, he’s making sure that any information Russian citizens might find on the internet is singing his praises. With the seriously suspicious death of opposition leader Alexi Navalny four days ago and the arrest of around 400 people who came out to mourn him, Putin is going for gold as a digital dictator.
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2023 has been BIG! We’ve covered the Open AI soap opera, the Internet Governance Forum, the Digital Occupation of Gaza and so much more. So where does all this leave us sensitive receptors as we head into the New Year? We wrap the year in wrapping paper and wish it well as we venture forth into unchartered territory.
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Two landmark pieces of international text were agreed upon this week - the final text of COP28’s first global stocktake calling on countries to transition away from fossil fuels, and the European Union’s provisional Act to put a few guardrails around the development of Artificial Intelligence.
With lots of get-out clauses for polluters to lean on, and loopholes for Big Tech to jump through, it's a game of horse-trading behind smoke and mirrors. But in the end, it's all we've got.
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What kind of a future can the United Nations offer us? As COP28 wraps up, we struggle to find any positives. There's the Loss and Damage Fund but no phase out of fossil fuel extraction on the horizon. In the midst of all the the horse-trading, the Australian Government signs on to the pledge to triple renewables while the opposition backs the nuclear option. Meanwhile, Pacific Island Nations threaten to boycott the entire process as their homes are claimed by rising sea levels. All in a day's work on the good ship COP.
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In this episode of TWICS we continue our examination of the UN's climate summit in Dubai. With 2,500 registered delegates connected to the coal, oil and gas industry and the President of COP28 showing a distinct disregard for climate science, the international conference is proceeding on shaky ground. Could it be that snake oil is the biggest commodity being pedalled in the host country this year?
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2023 is set to be the hottest year on record. So how will climate justice be achieved at COP28 when climate activists are relegated to a space far away from the conference and actively surveilled by an authoritarian petro-state? The only way to decouple the world economy from fossil fuels is through an active climate movement. So will free speech, independent media and the right to protest be respected at COP28?
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Not since 1985 when the Apple board got rid of Steve Jobs has there been such an upheaval in the tech sector as there was last Friday when Sam Altman, the 38 year old CEO of Open AI (the not-for-profit that runs CHATGPT), was fired . It was a board coup that also saw the company’s president and three senior researchers resign. Investors were ropeable, especially the CEO of Microsoft who tried to mediate his return to the company. When that failed, Microsoft made Altman an offer he couldn’t refuse. Is this best tech soap opera to date?
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The digital dimension of the conflict in the Middle East is taking a toll as Israel cuts off connectivity to what was already fairly limited access in Gaza. Palestinians are unable to contact family and friends and urgent aid channels are being interrupted.
Internet platforms are not making it any easier. Between October 7 and 18, there was over 103,000 cases of hate speech and/or incitement in Hebrew on X and other platforms.
Can the Declaration of principles for content and platform governance in times of crisis help?
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This Week In Cyberspace we catch up with Brett Solomon in an airport in Ottawa. He’s on his way to Washington DC to find out how human rights online are being factored into Digitalisation Policies by a new breed of Digital Ambassadors. And how do these international policies align with internet freedom?
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