Category: Uncategorized

A social media account for popular Chinese e-commerce app Xiaohongshu has been blocked after it issued a post on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

It had posted “Tell me loudly: what’s the date today?” on microblogging platform Weibo.

The post to its 14 million followers was swiftly deleted.

Its Weibo page has been replaced by a message saying it is being investigated for violations of laws and regulations.

Xiaohongshu has yet to comment publicly on the matter. As of Monday morning, its account on Weibo remained locked, but the app – which has an estimated 300 million users – was still working.

It is unclear whether the post was intended to reference the crackdown. One person familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that the post had not been linked to the anniversary.

Xiaohongshu, backed by Chinese internet giants Alibaba and Tencent, has been described as China’s Instagram with e-commerce and is mostly used by young, urban Chinese women.

It shares the same name in Chinese – Little Red Book – as the famous book of quotations by Mao Zedong, the father of Communist China.

Xiaohongshu regularly poses questions in its social media posts and has made similar posts to mark the weekend.

What were the Tiananmen Square protests about?
Hong Kong Tiananmen Square commemorations: In Pictures
The anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown is highly sensitive in China, with the ruling party regularly suppressing efforts to mark the day when Chinese troops crushed pro-democracy protests in Beijing on 4 June 1989.

Estimates of the dead vary from a few hundred to several thousand.

On Friday, Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Chow Hang Tung was arrested for promoting unauthorised assembly. Ms Chow is vice chairwoman of the Hong Kong Alliance which organises annual vigils for victims of the crackdown.

The government is proceeding with the creation of a central store of data from GP records in England next month, despite the NHS suggesting a delay.

The data is moving to a central NHS Digital database, with the Department of Health saying it expects GPs to introduce the system from 1 July.

The NHS wanted a delay until September so patients had more time to learn about the system, the BBC has learned.

Critics worry the data could be misused by third parties.

Under a new system, called General Practice Data for Planning and Research, data from surgeries in England will be added to an NHS Digital database in “near real-time”.

The programme will also extract data from records created up to 10 years ago.

Patients have until 23 June to opt out.

There is widespread agreement that the data could be of great value to research, but doctors are concerned the public is not well enough informed about what is happening.

The British Medical Association and Royal College of General Practitioners have issued a rare joint letter to express their “concerns about the lack of communication with the public”.

The letter calls for NHS Digital to “take immediate action to run a public information campaign”.

Some GPs in east London have reportedly already refused to hand over patient data, citing the lack of an effective information campaign to tell the public about the changes.

Whether to delay, and in what form, has been the subject of intense discussions this week.

But on Thursday night, the Department of Health said in a statement that it expected the system to start on 1 July. It added that the plan would “provide benefits to patients across England” and that it was putting support in place.

“The new programme for collecting data has been developed in collaboration with doctors, patients and data, privacy and ethics experts to build on and improve systems for data collection,” the statement said.

Medical privacy campaign group MedConfidential criticised the decision to proceed as potentially “destroying public trust and harming research in the process”.

Informed consent
Campaigning law group Foxglove is supporting a coalition of organisations to challenge the scheme in court, and has sent a pre-action letter to the Department of Health and NHS Digital.

The letter warns that unless the government pauses the scheme and seeks “meaningful patient consent”, the group will seek an injunction to halt it.

This is not the first time the NHS has sought to extract data from GP records.

In 2016, a scheme called Care.data was abandoned and questions were raised about the adequacy of efforts to inform the public about it.

As part of Care.data, every household in England was sent a leaflet about the programme and the possibility of opting out, although a survey by the BBC suggested that less than a third recalled getting one.

Big data
NHS Digital says it will collect a range of information including data about “physical, mental and sexual health”, while details of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation will also be included.

The NHS says the data will only be used for planning and research purposes, that each application to use it will need approval from advisory groups.

It may not be used “solely” for commercial purposes or for insurance, marketing, promoting or selling products or services, or market research.

However, some private sector organisations will be able to see it with permission, and critics are worried about the type of organisations that may gain access.

They point to the controversial involvement of firms like US data firm Palantir in the analysis of other NHS data.

Research reward
Last year there were more than 300 requests for GP data using “legacy systems”.

NHS Digital says GP data has benefited millions during the pandemic, helping the most vulnerable, rolling out the vaccination programme and identifying live-saving Covid treatments.

Prof Martin Landray, who jointly leads the “Recovery” trial which helped identify treatments for people hospitalised with Covid-19, told the BBC Tech Tent podcast there were many conditions where data needed for research was held only in GP records.

He said researchers could already request data from GPs, but the new system would bring consistency to how it is used and controlled.

“I can understand why at one level ‘all my data is going to be made available’ sounds scary,” he said.

“I don’t think that we should view it in that way.”

Twitter is launching its new subscription service, Twitter Blue, in Australia and Canada on Thursday.

The paid-for extra service will add features such as an “undo tweet” button, bookmarks, and a reader mode, Twitter said.

The limited launch is designed to “gain a deeper understanding” of what customers are looking for.

But the company also said the free-to-use version of the platform would also remain.

“We’ve heard from the people that use Twitter a lot, and we mean a lot, that we don’t always build power features that meet their needs,” the company said in a statement.

“We took this feedback to heart, and are developing and iterating upon a solution that will give the people who use Twitter the most what they are looking for: access to exclusive features and perks that will take their experience on Twitter to the next level.”

Twitter said the new subscription was not designed to undermine the free experience, but to offer “enhanced and complementary” features “for those who want it”.

Twitter adds ‘tip jar’ to pay for good tweeting
Twitter tells users to be nice and think twice
It will cost $3.49 in Canadian dollars and $4.49 in Australian dollars per month, Twitter said.

No date has been announced for other countries, but previous listings in mobile app stores have suggested it will eventually cost $2.99 in the US and £2.49 in the UK.

Blue perks
Twitter said subscribers will get “perks” – giving examples such as customisable app icons for phone home screens and what it calls “fun colour themes” for the app.

But they will also have access to a “dedicated” customer support, the company says.

The additional features that Twitter says were inspired by user requests include:

Bookmark folders, designed to help users organise saved tweets more easily
Undo tweet, which will let users set a timer of up to 30 seconds after posting before it appears publicly – to allow quick correction of obvious mistakes
Reader mode, which turns long threads of tweets into easier-to-read text

“We will be listening to feedback and building out even more features and perks for our subscribers over time,” it said.

It does not, however, include verification in the form of a “blue tick” on a user profile, which cannot be bought.

Twitter recently re-opened its verification applications for the fist time in years, but was forced to shutter the programme for a few days after just a week of accepting them, because it was inundated with requests.

Twitter made no secret of plans to charge its top users a small fee for some extra perks – but it’s only dipping its wing in the water for now.

The much-asked-for undo tweet button is undoubtedly top of the list, for all of us who’ve ever had a screamer of a typo, or – even worse – accidentally tweeted something we meant to search for.

But other features are squarely targeted at the Twitterati elite.

When Twitter bought web reader firm Scroll in May, it made a big deal about Twitter being for news and discussion. Bookmarks and the reader feature for long threads are firmly targeted there.

And for good reason.

Twitter’s growth in active users has slowed in recent years – a potential problem for any social network, where perceived value is often based on numbers. Twitter has never had the users that Facebook has – it boasts hundreds of millions, but not billions.

But many of its biggest users are media personalities, politicians, and business leaders – the type of people for whom a small monthly fee might not be too much to ask.

This is new territory. Unfounded rumours that Facebook might one day ask for a fee have led to digital panic in the past – so Twitter’s two-country opener is a test to see if the idea will fly.

A Russian cyber-criminal group was behind a ransomware attack that has targeted the world’s largest meat processing company, the FBI has said.

The FBI said it would was working to bring the REvil group to justice for the hack on JBS.

The cyber-breach over the weekend shut some JBS operations in the US, Canada and Australia.

REvil – also known as Sodinokibi – is one of the most prolific and profitable cyber-criminal cartels in the world.

“We have attributed the JBS attack to REvil and Sodinokibi and are working diligently to bring the threat actors to justice,” the FBI statement said.

“We continue to focus our efforts on imposing risk and consequences and holding the responsible cyber actors accountable.”

The White House said on Wednesday that US President Joe Biden would bring up the issue of cyber-attacks when he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in two weeks.

“Responsible states do not harbour ransomware criminals,” said press secretary Jen Psaki.

The ransomware surge ruining lives
Colonial Pipeline boss confirms $4.4m ransom paid
Should paying hacker ransoms be banned?
JBS said it was on schedule to resume meatpacking operations on Thursday in the US, where its five biggest beef plants are located.

The company, which identified the ransomware attack on Sunday, has not disclosed whether it paid the hackers.

Ransomware is one of the most prolific forms of cyber-attack. It typically involves hackers gaining access to a computer network and either encrypting files or locking users out of their systems until a ransom is paid.

JBS: From regional player to multinational
JBS is the world’s largest meat supplier with more than 150 plants in 15 countries
It was founded in Brazil in 1953 as a slaughtering business by rancher José Batista Sobrinho
The company now has more than 150,000 employees worldwide
Its customers include supermarkets and fast food outlet McDonald’s
In the US, JBS processes nearly one-quarter of the country’s beef and one-fifth of its pork
line
In 2019, REvil was linked to a co-ordinated attack on nearly two dozen local governments in Texas.

Last month, fuel delivery in the south-east of the US was crippled for several days after a ransomware attack targeted the Colonial Pipeline.

Investigators say that attack was linked to another group, DarkSide, with ties to Russia.

Colonial Pipeline has confirmed it paid a $4.4m (£3.1m) ransom to the cyber-criminal gang responsible.

The US government has recommended in the past that companies do not pay criminals over ransomware attacks, in case they invite further hacks in the future.

Just days after the attack on Colonial Pipeline, a different group of cyber-criminals infected the Irish national health system with ransomware.

An update of HarmonyOS, the operating system developed by Huawei, means it will now be installed in a wider range of products, including its smartphones.

It is due to roll out across Asia following a launch event on 2 June.

There is no date for a global launch yet.

A trade ban imposed by the US last year effectively prevented Huawei devices from working fully with Google’s Android platform because it blocked access to essential apps like Gmail.

However, Huawei said it did not consider Harmony to be a replacement for Android, which accounted for 85.4% of smartphones shipped in 2019.

Apple’s iOS had the remaining 14.6%, according to the research firm IDC.

Other operating systems such as Samsung’s Tizen and Amazon’s Fire have failed to disrupt the handset market.

HarmonyOS has so far only been available in some smart TVs.

The trade ban imposed by former US President Donald Trump did not stop Huawei handsets from using Android altogether but limited their functionality.

It was telling that there was expected to be a host of new products but no new Huawei smartphones unveiled at Tuesday’s launch, with the focus instead on Harmony’s use in other internet connected devices such as tablets, smart speakers and televisions.

“HarmonyOS is designed to provide the glue between a growing array of connected devices that Huawei is targeting,” commented Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.

“Huawei will be hoping that it can follow Apple’s lead, by having a single software platform that extends in all directions, providing a seamless experience to customers that buy into its ecosystem of products.”

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reports that the Shenzhen-based tech giant is anticipating 300 million devices to be equipped with HarmonyOS by the end of the year.

There has been great excitement ahead of the launch inside China, said the BBC’s China media analyst Kerry Allen.

“Social media users have picked up on how the characters for ‘harmony’, ‘hong’ and ‘meng’, mean ‘ambition’, and ‘kindness'”, she said.

“Divisions of China’s youth movement, the Communist Youth League, and even fire rescue and official courthouse accounts, have been promoting the new system. In the last week, more than 17 million Weibo users have read posts that include the hashtag ‘TheHarmonySmartphoneSystemIsHere’.”

Instagram is changing the way it showcases content after being accused of suppressing pro-Palestinian messages during the recent Gaza conflict.

The app had favoured original content in its “stories” feature over existing, re-shared posts, but will now give them equal treatment, it said.

The current system had a “bigger impact than expected” on some types of posts.

But that was an unintended side-effect rather than an attempt to censor any particular viewpoint, Instagram said.

During the recent Gaza conflict, social media platforms were heavily used to spread messages of support on both sides.

Many pro-Palestinian messages were among those widely re-shared – which means they would have received less prominence than original posts under the current system.

How Israeli-Palestinian conflict plays out on social media
The Israel-Palestinian conflict explained
A company spokeswoman said the logic for prioritising original posts was that most Instagram users had more stories to follow than time to check them – and the company believed people were “more interested in original stories from their closest friends”.

“It’s also caused people to believe we were suppressing stories about particular topics or points of view. We want to be really clear – this isn’t the case,” she said.

“This applied to any post that’s re-shared in stories, no matter what it’s about.”

Instagram has seen an increase in how many people are re-sharing posts in general, the platform said – and is now acknowledging that posts not “getting the reach people expect them to” is “not a good experience”.

The spokeswoman also said the company had seen this issue over a long period of time, and it was not solely a reaction to the recent controversy.

Bias allegations
The change follows a number of weeks in which some users – and employees – questioned how Facebook handled posts about the Gaza conflict on its own site and on apps it owns such as Instagram.

Buzzfeed News reported on internal strife about the way Palestinian-related content often had warnings attached, while the Financial Times reported that a group of up to 50 employees had been involved in raising concerns about supposed suppression of pro-Palestinian content.

Many of the issues are believed to have been caused by large-scale automated moderation, rather than deliberate attempts by individuals to restrict content, reports said.

Instagram said this newly announced shift towards equal weighting of original posts and re-shared stories will happen over time, rather than being an instant change.

“We still think people want to see more original stories, so we’re looking at other ways to focus stories on original content through things like new creative tools,” it added.

A new software update for Tesla cars appears to include monitoring of drivers through the car’s internal cameras when Autopilot is in use.

The “self-driving” feature requires drivers to pay attention at all times, but has been criticised as easy to fool.

Users have been able to activate the assist feature and leave the driver’s seat, and video themselves doing so.

But the new feature will detect how attentive the driver actually is.

Tesla’s cars have relied on sensors in the wheel to make sure the driver’s hands remain on it.

Some other car manufacturers have used internal sensors to observe where a driver’s eyes are looking. That means the vehicle can slow down or switch off automated driving features if the driver starts looking at their phone, for example.

A new software update for Tesla cars, reported by several media outlets, reveals that the camera above the car’s rear-view mirror will start performing a similar function.

It “can now detect and alert driver inattentiveness while Autopilot is engaged,” the release notes say.

But Tesla also said that “camera data does not leave the car itself” and no data is transmitted unless data-sharing is enabled in the car’s settings, which can be changed by the user at any time.

Tesla, which disbanded its press team last year, has not issued a statement about the reasons behind the new feature.

But it comes after several recent stories about the company’s so-called “Autopilot” and “full self-driving” features, which are more accurately described as driver-assistance features.

In April, one of the most influential consumer magazines in the United States claimed that Tesla cars could easily be tricked into operating without a driver.

Safety ratings row
That report came days after a fatal crash in Texas, which police initially said happened when no-one was in the driver’s seat – although this is now disputed.

And the new feature coincides with Tesla losing safety endorsements from Consumer Reports – the same magazine which investigated tricking the Autopilot system – and a major insurance group.

Earlier this week, Tesla announced that its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles sold in the US would no longer include radar sensors, but would instead use camera-based systems and more advanced software.

Tesla itself said that its move away from radar would mean some key features would be “temporarily limited or inactive”, and would be “restored” in the coming weeks through software updates.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the US told news agencies it plans to remove its “Top Safety Pick Plus” label for those cars due to the missing radar, while Consumer Reports will also pull its “Top Pick” award for both.

It follows the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – an official public body – removing marks on its website for safety features such as forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking.

Consumer Reports’ Jake Fisher said: “It is extremely rare for an automaker to remove safety features from a vehicle during a production run, even temporarily, but this isn’t the first time that Tesla has done this.”

The magazine pointed to a 2016 issue in which some Model X cars were sold without the automatic emergency braking feature, which took months to fix.

NatWest mobile app users are being directed to a warning screen advising them to beware of cryptocurrency scams.

The bank said it had received a “record number” of reports about such scams between January and March 2021.

The alert warns account holders to make sure they have direct control of any digital wallet that is set up to handle transactions, and to beware of promises of big profits.

One common scam involves fake celebrity endorsement, it said.

Typically, potential investors are prompted to fill in an online contact form and then encouraged over the phone to set up a cryptocurrency wallet – but unknown to them the scammer installs remote access software on their device, granting them access to it as well.

The victim is then persuaded over time to invest ever larger amounts – until the criminal empties the wallet.

Another ruse is the “get rich quick” cryptocurrency investment opportunity, the bank added.

“We have prevented millions of pounds from being sent to crypto-criminals who are exploiting the high levels of interest in the currency. However, consumers should always be alert, especially to the use of fake websites and bogus celebrity endorsements,” said Jason Costain, NatWest’s head of fraud prevention.

The Financial Conduct Authority has a searchable list of unauthorised firms and individuals offering financial services.

People using these will not be protected by the UK’s financial authorities if something goes wrong, the FCA warns.

‘All your money’
The app alert, which NatWest said was an urgent reminder, tells customers:

a “trader” getting in touch with promises of big profits and assistance in setting you up on a scheme “is a scam”
if you can’t access your own crypto-wallet or you did not set it up yourself, you should cease all payments to it
make sure any cryptocurrency seller you want to use is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority
“You could lose all of your money,” without following the advice, it warns.

Cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile in value. This month the price of Bitcoin alone has fluctuated by up to 40% – creating some big winners and losers in the process. It is not regulated by any financial authorities.

There has been a flurry of advertising around crypto-investments on social media, and on Wednesday the Advertising Standards Authority banned an “irresponsible” billboard ad for a cryptocurrency exchange which appeared on London transport.

In the US, cryptocurrency scammers pretending to be Tesla boss Elon Musk made more than $2m (£1.4m) in six months, consumer-protection officials said in May.

Instagram is offering its users the option to hide the number of likes they receive on posts on the app.

The aim is to “depressurize people’s experience” on the platform, the social media giant said.

Users with the feature enabled will now see the username of a follower who has liked the post, “and others”, instead of a number.

The tool has been tested in several countries since 2019, but it is now being rolled out globally.

“This has taken longer than I had hoped, but I am pretty excited about… giving people more control over the experience,” Instagram’s boss Adam Mosseri told the BBC.

Mental health
In its testing and research, Instagram said that removing likes had little impact on behaviour or wellbeing – after concerns that using the platform could be linked to insecurity and poor mental health.

Despite this, Mr Mosseri said Instagram – which is owned by Facebook – introduced the feature to make “people feel good about the time they spend” on the platform.

“I do think there’s more to do in this space,” he added. “The more we can give people the ability to shape Instagram and Facebook into what’s good for them, the better.”

Presentational grey line
How to activate it
The feature can be switched on or off at any time. To change it:

Go to Settings
Enter the new Posts section
Select Hide Like and View Counts
Even if a user has Like Counts enabled, they will not be able to see the number of likes on accounts or posts that have hidden them.

Users will also have the option hide counts on a specific post, before and after it goes live on the platform.

Presentational grey line
‘Less worried’
“The spirit of this is to give people a choice,” Mr Mosseri added, using the example of going through a break-up in a relationship or switching schools.

“Maybe you want to be a little bit less worried about how many likes everyone’s getting for a couple weeks or a couple of months, and then maybe you want to switch back.

“If it’s a one-way door, people tend to get hesitant about using the control.”

Instagram’s algorithm will still take the number of likes into account when promoting posts on the platform, but it also takes into consideration other factors, such as what the user follows or engages with.

Mr Mosseri said there had been a “polarised” reaction from creators – accounts which make money through brand partnerships and advertising on the platform – but that the new feature didn’t affect revenues.

Instagram for children
Earlier this year, concerns were raised over leaked plans to design a version of Instagram for children.

Plans to create an Instagram for under-13s were not “fully fledged”, Mr Mosseri said, explaining that it was difficult to verify ages, as children often didn’t have IDs.

“It has to be more responsible to give parents oversight and transparency than to have kids continue to lie about their age.”

He said the app would “take some time” to create.

Russia’s media watchdog has threatened to slow down the speed of Google if it fails to delete what it calls “unlawful content.”

Roskomnadzor has given Google 24 hours to remove videos it says relate to drugs, violence and extremism.

Google – which owns YouTube – could be fined between 800,000 and 4 million roubles (£7,700 – £38,000) by the service.

The tech firm said it often requires court decisions to react to requests.

Roskomnadzor sent more than 26,000 notices to Google to delete what it called “illegal information,” the watchdog said in a statement reported by state-run news agency TASS.

The statement also accused Google of restricting YouTube access to Russian media outlets, including RT and Sputnik, and supporting “illegal protest activity.”

Google said it receives requests from different government organisations across the world and the laws of each country vary.

The company often responds once a court decision has been reached. But it also said it was important to maintain YouTube as an open platform for various kinds of views.

Internet traffic
If Google does not act, the watchdog said it could also slow down internet speeds for users in Russia trying to access Google.

The state has already used these powers in March, to restrict access to Twitter after Roskomnadzor said it failed to remove around 3,000 posts.

Internet service providers in Russia can limit or block the flow of data to websites, making connections slower when accessing certain pages.

YouTube
Google is currently suing Roskomnadzor over demands that it removes content, according to court documents seen by Reuters.

The case involves twelve YouTube videos which include encouraging minors to join unsanctioned protests in January, in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Mr Navalny has more than 6.5 million subscribers on YouTube, and regularly posts videos on the platform voicing his opposition to President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government.

A hearing has been scheduled for 14 July.