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Nationwide AI Mass Surveillance System Takes Root in Another State
A national mass surveillance system boosted by artificial intelligence (AI) took root in another state. The town council of Jackson, Wyoming, agreed in a close vote last month to install the 30 solar-powered license plate recognition (LPR) cameras along their streets and traffic lights, which feeds into a centralized surveillance system managed by the private company Flock Safety. The town is the first in the state of Wyoming to install the cameras.
The cameras in Jackson are part of the “Falcon” line, which sends instant alerts to law enforcement. There are different models of AI surveillance technology, each named after birds: Raven, an audio device for detecting sounds of crime such as gunshots, breaking glass, sawing metal, and screeching tires; Wing, which combs through thousands of hours of footage for specific vehicle identifiers for police; and Condor, which provides a live feed with zooming capabilities. The model names match the company name, Flock Safety, which calls its AI-powered mass surveillance system “TALON.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) characterized Flock Safety’s technology as “Orwellian,” following an investigative report released last year.
Over 2,000 cities across 43 states have installed Flock Safety cameras, according to the company. Civilians may also purchase the cameras and opt to share their footage in real-time with law enforcement; hundreds of homeowners associations (HOAs) have turned to the devices as their preferred security.
Justice Department Requests Stay in Social Media Case: Decision Risks ‘Grave Harm’
The Justice Department on Thursday night requested a stay against a federal judge’s order limiting the Biden administration’s communication with social media companies over free speech concerns.
Lawyers — led by Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general — wrote in a filing before U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty in Louisiana that the order’s “broad scope and ambiguous terms” prevent the government from engaging in a “vast range of lawful and responsible conduct.”
The government’s initiatives with social media companies prevent “grave harm” to the American people and the nation’s democratic processes, Boynton says in the filing.
In a blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to curb disinformation online, Doughty ruled on Tuesday that administration officials cannot contact social media companies regarding “the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social media platforms.”
The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal Wednesday evening, which will go to the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Zuckerberg’s Kindness Pledge for Threads Is ‘Absurd’, Says Molly Russell Charity
A charity launched by the family of Molly Russell has labeled Mark Zuckerberg’s pledge to prioritize kindness on his new Threads app as “absurd”, as the Twitter rival raced past 30 million users less than 24 hours after launch.
Molly, 14, killed herself in 2017 after viewing harmful content on social media platforms including Instagram. An inquest ruled last year that dangerous online material related to self-harm, suicide and depression had contributed to her death. The Molly Rose Foundation said it was concerned that Threads would be linked to Instagram, with users of the new app required to have an Instagram account to log in.
They said of the company that owns Threads and Instagram: “Meta invests a not inconsiderable sum in marketing Instagram as a safe and thoughtful platform for families, but the idea that Mark Zuckerberg is now prioritizing kindness over profit is absurd and contrary to reality.”
“Mark Zuckerberg has some hubris to position himself as the author of kind services given Meta’s appalling record,” the children’s digital safety campaigner Beeban Kidron said. “He is right that there is a market for a less toxic public square and if Threads is it then great. But he still has work to do on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp.”
Musk Calls Out Meta’s ‘Algorithm-Only’ Approach and ‘Social Media Monopoly’ After Threads Hits 30 Million Milestone
Twitter owner Elon Musk continued to criticize Meta’s new rival platform Threads late Thursday, accusing the company of using its algorithms to manipulate information and highlighting its extensive data collection practices, on the backdrop of a potential legal fight between the two social media giants following Threads’ successful launch.
Labeling Threads’ timeline as a “closed source, algorithm-only system,” Musk implied that such an approach leads to undetectable “manipulation of what information people see.”
Musk’s comment was in response to a tweet by Jack Dorsey saying he was not surprised by Threads’ lack of a reverse chronological timeline only featuring accounts that a user follows, adding “They’ve never given people the choice to remove the algorithm.”
Reacting to a tweet about Meta’s existing dominance in the social media space with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, the Twitter executive chairman wrote: “Any social media monopoly is despair.”
Edward Snowden Calls Out Biden Administration’s ‘Historic Scandal’
Edward Snowden responded to a new report about the Biden administration’s attempt to build a case against another high-profile whistleblower, calling it a “historic scandal.”
Snowden’s remarks come a day after Rolling Stone reported that President Joe Biden‘s Justice Department has been pressuring multiple British journalists to cooperate with prosecutors in its efforts to have WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange extradited to the U.S.
Assange is being held in London’s Belmarsh prison on charges related to his involvement with Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who gave Assange classified national defense documents concerning conditions at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
Reflecting on his own decisions, Snowden told The Guardian last month that he had “no regrets” about leaking information about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) scale of surveillance. “Technology has grown to be enormously influential,” he said. “If we think about what we saw in 2013 and the capabilities of governments today, 2013 seems like child’s play.”
Macron Says Social Media Could Be Blocked During Riots, Sparking Furor
French President Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion that the government might need the ability to block social media access during riots has sparked a backlash in the country, with some arguing that France is going the way of authoritarian regimes.
Addressing a meeting of more than 200 mayors of French towns affected by the ongoing protests at the Élysée Palace on Tuesday, Macron accused social media platforms including Snapchat, TikTok and encrypted messenger Telegram of contributing to the riots following the June 27 fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old of North African descent.
Macron proposed that the government regulate or suspend social media when needed, but said this will not take place “in the heat of the moment,” local media reported. The president’s press team confirmed those reports.
The government will “need the authority to suspend them as needed,” government spokesman Olivier Véran added.
Military Pilot Appeals Denial of EI for Refusing COVID Shots
A former Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) captain and helicopter pilot has applied for permission to appeal a denial of his Employment Insurance (EI) benefits after he was terminated from the military for refusing a COVID-19 shot due to his religious beliefs.
Captain Michal Zagol filed an appeal on July 4 to the Social Security Tribunal of Canada (SST) Appeal Division, following a June 9 denial from a lower level of the SST stating he was ineligible for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits on the basis of alleged “misconduct.”
Zagol, who is 35 and Roman Catholic, applied for a religious exemption to the CAF’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy when it was implemented in the fall of 2021, around the time of the federal election.
“I said I was unable to be vaccinated due to my religious beliefs,” he told The Epoch Times on July 4. “My religion is not misconduct as it has been characterized.” He said that despite a number of meetings with his commanding officer, explaining his religious beliefs and discussing why they prevented Mr. Zagol from being vaccinated, he was declined an exemption at the beginning of December 2021.
Wisconsin Health Officials Drop Fine for ‘Nutcracker’ Performance During COVID Restrictions
Health officials in Wisconsin have dropped a fine against a dance studio that staged a performance of “The Nutcracker” in December 2020 despite COVID-19 restrictions on mass gatherings.
Public Health Madison and Dane County canceled the penalty pending against A Leap Above Dance on June 22, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Thursday. The studio is located in Oregon, a Madison suburb.
It’s unclear how much the fine totaled. With each of the 119 counts in the department’s complaint punishable by $200, it could have come to $23,800. But Morgan Finke, a spokesperson for the health department, told the State Journal on Wednesday that the maximum would have been $3,200.
China’s Wuhan, Where COVID Was First Detected, Struggles to Shed Legacy of Pandemic
It has been more than three years since the Chinese city of Wuhan reported the world’s first COVID-19 cases, and underwent the world’s first pandemic lockdown.
Now, about half a year after China reopened its borders, locals have been keen to move on with life. But memories and remnants of the pandemic remain hard to shake off.
Like many other parts of the country, an increasing number of people in Wuhan are choosing to go maskless. The scanning of health codes, once a way of life, is now a thing of the past. However, for some, memories of the lockdown remain and questions persist.
There are also physical reminders of the last three-and-a-half years. The Huanan seafood market in Jianghan district, the epicenter of the outbreak, remains boarded up and inaccessible. It was shuttered in January 2020 when the earliest COVID-19 cases linked to the market were first announced. Today, it remains at the center of a controversial debate over the origins of the virus.
