Controlling Internet

28/08/2024

Telegram Founder’s Detention Shows ‘Dangerous Trend’ of Online Surveillance

Aug 27, 2024

Western governments are increasingly seeking to deepen their control of online platforms while looking to discredit those like TikTok and Telegram which they perceive to be beyond their control.

The mass adoption of the Internet has widely been seen as a positive phenomenon in encouraging greater openness and accountability in society.

Polling by Pew Research Center in 2022 demonstrates the largely helpful role citizens around the world attribute to the technology, with majorities of people in most countries approving of its impact. Citizens of Central and Eastern European countries like Poland and Hungary are especially approving of social media’s influence on democracy, with respondents claiming it helps them stay informed about world and local events.

The United States, however, is a notable outlier in the research firm’s survey, with 64% of Americans saying social media has had a mostly negative effect on democracy and 79% saying it has created greater political division.

Continue reading at sputnikglobe.com

Meta Shouldn’t Have ‘Demoted’ Hunter Biden Laptop Story on Platform – CEO

Aug 27, 2024

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Meta (banned in Russia for extremism) founder Mark Zuckerberg in a letter to US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan admitted that the Hunter Biden laptop story was not Russian disinformation and should not have been demoted on the social media company’s platform while it was under review.

“”In a separate situation, the FBI warned us about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma in the lead up to the 2020 election… It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story,” Zuckerberg said in the letter.

Arrest of Telegram founder could hurt public understanding of the Ukraine war

By Patrick Tucker

The arrest in France of the controversial Russian-born founder of Telegram—and potential actions against the social media and messaging platform itself—could reduce the public’s ability to fully understand the war in Ukraine.

The site is a key source of analysis and opinion of Russian military bloggers.

“On the Russian side, Telegram is used by all levels of the Russian ministry of defense, from the senior officials down to specific units who report on their progress, the Russian government officials, by regional officials, by volunteers, by private citizens, and many others,” said Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and an adviser at the CNA Corporation.

French authorities have not yet released the reason Pavel Durov was arrested on Sunday by the National Anti-Fraud Office. The Russian embassy said it was taking “immediate steps” to intervene on Durov’s behalf.

Durov, who has been called the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia, sprang to tech fame and fortune in 2006 when he founded the social networking site VKontakte—essentially a Russian version of Facebook, similar down to the cornflower blue-and-white color scheme. He was pushed out of the company in 2014 by allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.