🌐 Global Roundup - Aug 1, 2024
A biweekly roundup of curated stories and opinions about ethical tech and innovation.
What happens when a Facebook user’s account is located in a country in which same-sex relationships are criminalized? Meta's Oversight Board took up this exact question after human moderators initially determined that no standards were violated after a disturbing video was posted to Facebook. After an appeal and review, the Board succeeded in explaining that a specific policy related to Coordinating Harm and Promoting Crime was indeed violated. This case falls within the Board’s strategic priorities of Hate Speech Against Marginalized Groups and Gender. See the Oversight Board's full case brief here. Oversightboard
Ofcom, the UK's communications industry regulator and competition authority, is currently reviewing its Children’s Code, which is supposed to lay down the law for safeguarding kids on the internet.
But Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children's Commissioner of England said: “In its current form, this is a Children’s Code that protects corporations, not children...Tech giants are still protecting profits rather than kids online and must be slapped with tougher rules."
Read on for the details of Dame Rachel's assessment. The Sun UK
Four big categories of AI use cases emerged when Fast Forward, a scaler and accelerator of tech nonprofit companies, analyzed 100 use cases in the AI powered nonprofit sector: Structuring Data, Advising, Translating, and Platforms. This article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review gets into the details of each. Stanford Social Innovation Review
Singapore's Data Protection Authority published the Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET): Proposed Guide on Synthetic Data Generation. It defines privacy enhancing technology and details a five-step approach to reduce re-identification of synthetic data. Read more here. Data Guidance
Oracle agrees to a $115 million settlement in a consumer privacy lawsuit. It turns out it was tracking user data and selling it to brokers. Read on for the details. CPO Magazine
Actors from the world of gaming went on strike last week, in a row about the use of artificial intelligence and the threat it poses to their livelihoods. It has reignited the debate about how the entertainment industry is adapting to new technology. BBC
The U.S. Senate passes a bill to protect kids online and make tech companies accountable for harmful content. A link to the full text of the bill, nicknamed the Kids Online Safety Act, is shared here. Congress | AP News
Meta to pay $1.4 billion to settle a Texas facial recognition data lawsuit, accusing it of illegally using facial-recognition technology to collect biometric data of millions of Texans without their consent. Reuters
When Elon Musk suggested that he shared a deepfake video of Vice President Kamala Harris because it was a “satire,” the X owner proved how quickly manipulated video can spread online, even when it’s obviously fake. Bloomberg's Sana Pashankar and Jeff Stone elaborate. Bloomberg
Contributor: Sudeshna Mukherjee