Lebanon protesters form nationwide human chain

Yahoo – AFP, Jean-Marc Mojon and Anwar Amro, October 27, 2019

Lebanese protesters hold hands to form a human chain (AFP Photo/
ANWAR AMRO)

Beirut (AFP) - Tens of thousands of Lebanese protesters successfully formed a human chain running north-south across the entire country on Sunday to symbolise newfound national unity.

Demonstrators joined hands from Tripoli to Tyre, a 170-kilometre (105-mile) chain running through the capital Beirut, as part of an unprecedented cross-sectarian mobilisation.

Tension has mounted in recent days between security forces and protesters, who have blocked roads and brought the country to a standstill to press their demands for a complete overhaul of the political system.

Lebanon's reviled political elite has defended a belated package of economic reforms and appeared willing to reshuffle the government, but protesters who have stayed on the streets since October 17 want more.

On foot, by bicycle and on motorbikes, demonstrators and volunteers fanned out along the main north-south highway.

"The idea behind this human chain is to show an image of a Lebanon which, from north to south, rejects any sectarian affiliation," Julie Tegho Bou Nassif, one of the organisers, told AFP.

Lebanese protesters formed a 170-kilometre human chain from the southern port 

of Tyre to Tripoli in the north to underscore their unity against sectarian politics 

(AFP Photo/Patrick BAZ)

"There is no political demand today, we only want to send a message by simply holding hands under the Lebanese flag," the 31-year-old history professor told AFP.

On the Beirut seafront, men, women and children held hands, some carrying Lebanese flags and many singing the national anthem, an AFP photographer said.

'Dignified life'

In the northern city of Tripoli, where more than half the population lives under the poverty line, some had painted the Lebanese national symbol of a cedar tree on their faces, an AFP reporter said.

"We're expressing our demand for a dignified life and our dream as youth for a decent future," 30-year-old participant Tariq Fadli told AFP.

In the southern city of Tyre, protesters standing in a line held the edges of a long Lebanese flag, local television showed.

A young boy played with it, making it billow up and down.

The protests have been remarkable for their territorial reach and the absence of political or sectarian banners, in a country often defined by its divisions.

Protestors join hands in Nahr al-Kalb, north of Beirut, in a symbol of 

anti-government protest and national unity (AFP Photo/JOSEPH EID)

The leaderless protest movement, driven mostly by a young generation of men and women born after the 1975-1990 civil war, has even been described by some as the birth of a Lebanese civic identity.

The army has sought to re-open main roads across the country, where schools and banks have been closed for more than a week.

In one of the most serious incidents, the army opened fire on Friday to confront a group of protesters blocking a road in Tripoli, wounding at least six people.

But the unprecedented protest movement has been relatively incident-free, despite tensions with the armed forces and attempts by party loyalists to stage counter-demonstrations.

Protesters have been demanding the removal of the entire ruling class, which has remained largely unchanged in three decades.

Many of the political heavyweights are former warlords seen as representing little beyond their own sectarian or geographical community.

An aerial view shows Lebanese protesters holding hands to form a human 

chain along the coast (AFP Photo)

Brink of collapse

The protesters see them as corrupt and incompetent and have so far dismissed measures proposed by the political leadership to quell the protests.

"We've had the same people in charge for 30 years," said Elie, a 40-year-old demonstrator walking in central Beirut on Sunday morning with a Lebanese flag.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday announced a package of economic reforms which aims to revive an economy that has been on the brink of collapse for months.

His coalition partners have supported the move and warned that a political vacuum in times of economic peril risked chaos.

But the protesters have accused the political elite of desperately attempting to save their jobs and have stuck to their demands for deep, systemic change.

In a now well-established routine, entire families of volunteers showed up early on the main protest sites Sunday to clean up after another night of protests and parties.

After dusk, the central Martyrs' Square in Beirut and other protest hubs in Lebanon -- including the relatively conservative city of Tripoli -- turn into a vast, open ground where protesters dance, sing or organise political meetings.

'We are reaching out across religions and locations.'

When the Lebanese government tried to tax WhatsApp's free call service they instead sparked protests that have grown to an unprecedented scale https://t.co/MjZYYkvUqo pic.twitter.com/BxN9NpTH9E

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 27 oktober 2019

Facebook's Marcus says Libra won't be controlled by a single company

Yahoo – AFP, October 20, 2019

Executives involved with Facebook's proposed Libra digital currency say they
will work with regulators to address their concerns (AFP Photo/Fabrice COFFRINI)

Washington (AFP) - Facebook executive David Marcus on Sunday tried to calm the fears of officials threatening to block its proposed digital currency, saying Libra won't be controlled by a single company.

The head of Facebook's Libra currency project sought to address the main issue raised by France's Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire: the potential for a company to have the power to undermine a government's control of its currency.

Marcus said it has been "very clear to us from the very beginning that a payment networks such as the Libra network shouldn't be controlled by one company."

Speaking at a forum, hosted by the Group of 30, he repeated the company's commitment to work with regulators to address their concerns.

He added that the Libra Association -- comprised of 21 companies -- will "welcome competition to benefit local access and strive for the lowest cost possible for consumers."

But, he cautioned, "the status quo is not an option any longer."

Central banks and government finance officials have long worried about the challenges posed by digital currencies, and the risk they can be used for money laundering and financing terrorism.

Libra is different from other digital currencies like Bitcoin because it would be a "stablecoin" tied to national currencies.

But Le Maire told reporters on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington last week that European governments "will not allow a private company to have the same power, the same monetary power as sovereign states," and will take steps to block Libra from Europe.

Agustin Carstens, former Mexican central banker and longtime skeptic of digital currencies, agreed that technology can help provide access to the financial system to people who have been excluded.

But Carstens, now head of the Bank for International Settlements, said Sunday that the best course would be to "maximize the use of technology with what we've proven that works, that provides stability."

Marcus remained cautiously optimistic.

"We recognize that a change of this magnitude can't be operating without a great sense of responsibility," he said, but he added: "We can actually work together to solve these issues."

Group behind Facebook's Libra coin push meet in Geneva

RTL – AFP, 14 November 2019

Facebook had hoped backers of its Libra project would swell from an initial 28 to
"well over 100", but instead, several initial supporters have abandoned a
scheme which regulators say threatens the global financial system / © AFP/File

The Libra Association, created by Facebook to launch its new cryptocurrency, kicked off its first council meeting in Geneva on Monday, despite defections by previous supporters like Visa and Mastercard.

The meeting also comes as the planned Libra global currency faces swelling criticism from regulators, and reported warnings from the G7 group of nations that it poses a threat to the global financial system.

Following Monday's meeting, the non-profit association was due to announce its founding membership and provide more details on how it plans to proceed.

Last month, it voiced hope that the number of companies backing it when it opened for business would swell from an initial 28 to "well over 100" companies.

But instead the list has shrunk, after more of its initial backers abandoned the alliance amid swelling criticism from regulators around the world on the planned Libra global currency.

Credit card giants Visa and Mastercard, online marketplace eBay and digital payments firm Stripe each announced Friday they had changed their minds about being founding members of the association, following a similar recent announcement by digital payments firm PayPal.

Libra Association confirmed Friday that the companies would no longer be founding members, but said that it would continue building an alliance of businesses, social-good organisations, and others to implement the cryptocurrency.

Threat to financial stability?

The membership departures came after US senators sent letters to several financial firms noting that they could face "a high level of scrutiny from regulators" if they participated in the new currency plan.

French economy and finance minister Bruno Le Maire has warned that under current circumstances, Libra posed a threat to the "monetary sovereignty" of governments and could not be authorised in Europe.

Facebook executives have, however, claimed the new digital coin could help lower costs for global money transfers and help those without access to the banking system.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify at an October 23 hearing in the US House of Representatives on the Libra plan.

But in a fresh blow, a draft G7 report has outlined nine major risks posed by such digital currencies, according to the BBC.

The report, due to be presented to finance ministers at IMF's annual meeting this week, did not single out Libra but referred to "global stablecoins" with the potential to "scale rapidly" as posing a range of potential problems.

Stablecoins are seen as more steady than cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, since they are pegged to traditional currencies such as the US dollar or the euro.

But the G7 draft report reportedly cautioned that such currencies could pose problems for policymakers setting interest rates, and could threaten financial stability if users suddenly suffer "loss of confidence" in the digital currency.

Randal Quarles, the head of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), which oversees regulation among G20 economies, also sent a letter to G20 finance ministers Sunday warning that "global stablecoins could pose a host of challenges to the regulatory community."

This, he wrote, was "not least because they have the potential to become systemically important, including through the substitution of domestic currencies."

"Stablecoin projects of potentially global reach and magnitude must meet the highest regulatory standards and be subject to prudential supervision and oversight," he insisted.

#UPDATE Facebook should not launch its global digital currency Libra until proper regulations are in place to handle the potential risks, the Group of Seven said https://t.co/bxC3TPd1wD pic.twitter.com/gM84FJ1yZ4

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 18 oktober 2019

China's blacklisted AI firms: what you should know

Yahoo  - AFP, Eva Xiao and Danni Zhu, October 13, 2019

China's AI technology companies are rising stars -- here people have their faces
scanned at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai (AFP Photo/
HECTOR RETAMAL)

Beijing (AFP) - The Chinese high-tech companies blacklisted by Washington over alleged ties to rights abuses are rising stars in China's ambitious drive to overtake the United States in the technology sector.

They make surveillance cameras, facial recognition software and other technology that has become ubiquitous in Xinjiang, the heavily policed northwestern region where an estimated one million mostly Muslim minorities, like ethnic Uighurs, are held in internment camps.

The eight firms were added on Monday to a list of 28 entities that US companies are barred from selling components to without government approval.

Here is a look at the companies targeted:

Hikvision

One of the world's largest suppliers of surveillance equipment, Hikvision is the poster child of Chinese tech firms benefiting from Xinjiang's booming security apparatus.

In 2017, it won at least five security-related contracts totalling 1.85 billion yuan ($260 million) in Xinjiang -- including a "social prevention and control system" featuring tens of thousands of cameras.

But the company also has a global presence, with nearly 30 percent of its revenue last year coming from outside China.

Hikvision has said the US listing lacks "factual basis", and downplayed its impact in a conference call aimed at investors and media on Wednesday.

"Currently, the majority of US components can all be directly replaced or replaced with new designs," said board secretary Huang Fanghong.

"If it's necessary, we will design our own chips."

Hikvision is one of the world's largest suppliers of surveillance equipment

(AFP Photo/FRED DUFOUR)

Megvii

An AI company backed by e-commerce giant Alibaba, Megvii's facial recognition technology is used across a broad range of applications in China, from "smile to pay" mobile payments to identifying individuals for law enforcement.

The firm plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong but one of its joint sponsors, Goldman Sachs, said it was "evaluating" its role in the wake of the blacklisting.

Megvii said the US move "reflects a misunderstanding of our company".

Only one percent of its 2018 revenue was from projects in Xinjiang, and no revenue was generated from the region in the first six months of 2019, it added.

In April, the New York Times reported that several Chinese AI firms, including Megvii, Yitu, and SenseTime, were behind software used to racially profile and track Uighurs.

According to media reports, former US vice president and presidential candidate Joe Biden's son Hunter, who has been accused by President Donald Trump of corruption, is a director at BHR Partners, a fund that invested in Megvii.

SenseTime

SenseTime is backed by an illustrious list of investors, including SoftBank, Alibaba, and US chipmaker Qualcomm.

Founded by MIT alumnus Tang Xiao'ou –- a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong -- the AI company develops facial and image recognition applications, such as crowd monitoring and identity verification for lending apps.

The firm has a research lab in Silicon Valley and is partnering with universities around the world, including MIT, on AI research.

In an emailed statement, MIT said it would "review all existing relationships" with organisations added to Washington's entity list, and "modify any interactions, as necessary".

According to Dahua's 2018 financial report, about 36 percent of the 

Shenzhen-listed company's revenue came from abroad (AFP Photo/STR)

SenseTime said it was "deeply disappointed" by the blacklisting and would "work closely with all relevant authorities to fully understand and resolve the situation".

Dahua

Dahua Technology is another leading video surveillance equipment provider with an increasing footprint overseas and has projects in Brazil, Italy, and other countries.

According to its 2018 financial report, about 36 percent of the Shenzhen-listed company's revenue came from abroad.

In August, the US also formally banned Dahua and Hikvision, along with telecom giant Huawei and other firms, from obtaining government contracts.

Meiya Pico

Meiya Pico, a digital forensics company, drew scrutiny from rights groups after security researchers said the firm was behind "MFSocket" -- an app that enables police to extract contacts, messages, and other personal data from smartphones.

Yitu

Yitu Technology has developed apps for facial and speech recognition, such as identity authentication at banks, cancer screening, and monitoring transport hubs to assist law enforcement.

iFlytek

Shenzhen-listed AI firm iFlytek is one of the top speech recognition companies in China.

In 2017, Human Rights Watch said iFlytek was working with China's public security ministry to collect "voice pattern" samples and develop a surveillance system that could identify targeted voices in phone conversations.

Yixin

Yixin Science and Technology Co. Ltd is a Beijing-based security firm that sells video surveillance, facial recognition, and counter-terrorism products.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the company provided wireless surveillance systems at bus stops to monitor for terrorist attacks.

Five Dutch companies club together to fund university AI researchers

DutchNews, October 10, 2019

Five of the Netherlands’ biggest companies have clubbed together to pay for new professors in Artificial Intelligence, following reports earlier this year that universities are going to limit the number of places because of staff shortages. 

Ahold Delhaize, Philips, KLM, ING and Dutch railway group NS will pay towards the salaries of at least 25 new academics as part of a project dubbed ‘Kickstart AI’. 

By placing the professors partly on corporate payrolls, their salaries can be increased to encourage more to come forward, the Financieele Dagblad said on Thursday. 

The tenures will run for at least five years, and possibly as much as 10, the paper said. Several universities have already begun recruitment drives. 

‘The Netherlands has always been a technology pioneer… but without a national AI strategy, the serious shortage of AI talent will remain one of the biggest obstacles to reach the technology’s full potential,’ said Amsterdam university professor Maarten de Rijke said in a press statement. ‘This initiative underscores the urgency of speeding up AI education and keeping talent.’ 

The initiative is costing tends of millions of euros, Philips chief innovation officer Jeroen Tas told the paper. 

The initiative also includes a competition to find new applications for AI and a campaign to boost public acceptance of AI-related technologies.

Related Article:

The Netherlands ranks top in Europe in WEF global competitiveness index

Innovative Iraqis dodge net blackout to illuminate protest violence

Yahoo – AFP, Maya Gebeily, October 5, 2019

Protesters have used mobile phones to film against a backdrop of tear gas volleys
and live rounds during demonstrations that have gripped Iraq since Tuesday (AFP
Photo/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE)

Baghdad (AFP) - With secret satellites, pricey messages abroad and clandestine file transfers, young Iraqis are circumventing an internet blackout aimed at stifling several days of bloody protests in the capital and beyond.

Authorities restricted access to Facebook and Whatsapp after anti-government demonstrations began on Tuesday, before ordering a total network shutdown on Wednesday.

The termination of Wifi, 3G and 4G access left protestors with just regular phone calls and mobile messages -- a few notable exceptions aside.

Ahmad, 29, works at an internet service provider that helped implement the government's shutdown, but still has internet access at its headquarters.

"I go to the protests in the morning and shoot video on my phone, then use the internet at work to upload them to Facebook or send them to media outside Iraq," he said, using a fake name for fear of retribution or legal action by the government.

Protesters say the internet outage is an attempt to suppress reports of security forces using indiscriminate force including tear gas, live rounds and water cannons.

Ahmad showed AFP footage he planned to send to international media later that evening -- shots could be heard fired across a mostly-empty street in Baghdad as he and fellow protesters took cover behind a concrete barrier.

"Friends are even giving me the footage they shoot on flash drives so everyone outside Iraq can see what's happening here," he said.

Iraqi protesters take cover in Baghdad's central Khellani Square, while using their 

mobile phones - devices that have been key to citizen efforts to record alleged heavy 

handed tactics by security forces (AFP Photo/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE)

Before Tuesday, many Iraqis had taken to Facebook and Instagram to call for initial protests against a range of grievances: unemployment, mass government corruption, nepotism, poor public services, and more.

Images of young men and women marching towards the emblematic Tahrir Square flooded social media the first day, using the hashtag #save_Iraqi_people.

When restrictions on Facebook began, Iraqis acted quickly; many downloaded virtual private network (VPN) applications.

Others even began surreptitiously posting the details of the next protests in the comments section of Cinemana, a popular streaming service in Iraq.

But those avenues were shut off by the systemic shutdown.

Those that could afford to therefore erected costly satellites on their rooftops to get a window into the outside world.

'Follow the gunfire'

Nearly 100 people have died in the demonstrations since Tuesday, most of them protesters but also personnel from the security forces, according to authorities.

"They’re trying to fight us not just with arms, but with this blackout," said 31-year-old protester Osama Mohammad.

"We used to check the different neighbourhoods' Facebook pages to know where to go for protests. Now we just follow the sound of gunfire," Mohammad told AFP.

Live rounds have allegedly repeatedly been fired during the protests, which have 

evolved into calls for fundamental government change (AFP Photo/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE)

"If they cut off regular phone lines, we'll be completely blind," he noted.

For 25-year-old women's rights activist Rasha, taking to the streets carries too much risk, but she says she has found a different way to get involved.

Every day, her male friends text her dozens of updates from protest squares across the country, which she then texts and phones through to friends in the United Arab Emirates and Europe.

"I'm an intermediary. I can’t protest myself so this is the least I can do," she said, telling AFP the phone credit she buys has cost her around $100 (90 euros) per day for the last three days.

Rasha, who comes from Baghdad, is also saving videos and other unpublished material from one of the first protests that turned violent. She attended that initial demonstration.

"They think we'll forget they fired at us, they think people won't know. But I've got the videos and I'll publish everything I saw that day the minute the internet comes back," she said.

Jaafar Raad, an unemployed 29-year-old Iraqi who has frequently protested, is also storing dozens of images and videos to release once the blackout is lifted.

He even records voice notes from the protests themselves in applications like Whatsapp and Facebook, so that the audio messages will automatically send to friends abroad and international media outlets as soon as the internet returns.

"People must know what happened to us. This is so we can hold those behind the violence accountable," he told AFP.

#UPDATE The United Nations urged an end to violence in Iraq, after five days of anti-government rallies marred by the killing of nearly 100 people, mainly protesters https://t.co/BwOOH1xgzN pic.twitter.com/M919mR4vcP

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 5 oktober 2019

Related Article:

“The End of History”, Seattle, Washington, Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll

“… The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification

Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.

I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when "everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy." For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?  ... “

Facebook suffers legal blow in EU court over hate speech

Yahoo – AFP, October 3, 2019

The EU's top court has ruled that national courts in Europe can order Facebook and other
online platforms to remove defamatory content worldwide (AFP Photo/DENIS CHARLET) 

Luxembourg (AFP) - Facebook on Wednesday was dealt a major blow in the EU's top court, which ruled that national courts in Europe can order online platforms to remove defamatory content worldwide.

The decision will be seen as a victory for EU regulators, who are ambitious to see US tech giants meet tightened European standards over hate speech and offensive content.

Last week, the same court decided that Google was not legally compelled to apply the EU's strict "right to be forgotten" rules globally, in a victory for the search giant.

In a closely watched judgment, the European Court of Justice said EU law "does not preclude" courts from ordering "the removal of information or to block access worldwide," a statement said.

The latest case was brought originally to an Austrian court by Greens party politician Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek, who requested the removal of Facebook posts that the judges found defamed her and could be seen by users of the social network around the world.

The complaint also concerned messages from fictitious accounts, which according to the Greens, had called Glawischnig-Piesczek a "corrupt" person and which the social network refused to delete.

A higher Austrian court referred the case to the EU's top court for an opinion and the judgment, which cannot be appealed, will now be used as a reference Europe-wide.

With the decision, Facebook and similar platforms such as Twitter, face a greater obligation to monitor their content and take down content found to be offensive or hateful, even from fake accounts.

Facebook slammed the EU court's decision, saying "it undermines the long-standing principle that one country does not have the right to impose its laws on speech on another country."

It also deplored the obligation to track down "equivalent" content that duplicates offensives or hateful language.

'Chilling effect'

"In order to get this right, national courts will have to set out very clear definitions on what 'identical' and 'equivalent' means in practice," a Facebook statement said

"We hope the courts take a proportionate and measured approach, to avoid having a chilling effect on freedom of expression," it said.

Glawischnig-Piesczek, the victim of the hate speech, hailed the decision as "a historic success for human rights against web giants".

"It in no way infringes freedom of opinion," Glawischnig-Piesczek told the Austrian news agency APA.

EU-wide rules on hate speech are limited.

So far, online giants including Google's Youtube, have agreed to voluntarily take down hateful or dangerous content, including those linked to terrorism, within 24 hours.

However, the EU is expected to propose tougher Europe-wide measures including fines if Facebook and others fail to comply with orders.