WEBVTT - Tech News: Big Tech, Big Problems 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:14.880 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.080 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.800 And how the tech are you? It's time for the 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:25.160 tech news for Thursday, March one, twenty two. We should 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:29.160 all be thankful that a news episode did not fall 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:33.000 on April one, because who knows what would have happened. Then. 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.080 I do know what's gonna happen. Now. We're gonna complain 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:38.760 a lot about big tech because there are a lot 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:43.040 of stories that just continue to put a lot of 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.560 companies in a pretty bad light. And I would love 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:49.520 for that not to be the case. But here we are, 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:54.560 so let's get started. Now. A lot of the news, 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:56.280 like I said, is going to be about big tech 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.800 shenanigans in this episode, not as many as as I 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.400 originally had lined up. In fact, I threw out a 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:06.560 ton of stories because the episode was starting to go 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.039 too long, and and also it just I was starting 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.360 to get beaten down by it. So anyway, one of 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.080 the things that I read about today which I found 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:20.880 interesting is an organization called the Tech Oversight Project that 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:24.520 has created a wiki specifically to help folks read up 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.840 on the various issues surrounding big tech over the last 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:30.880 several years, like things that big tech companies have done 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:35.200 that have been, you know, not good. The wiki is 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:39.240 fittingly called the big Tech Wiki, and you can read 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.920 a great article about this resource and the organization behind 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:47.240 it over on gizmoto dot com. The article is titled 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:52.800 Watchdog Group publishes Encyclopedia of all the nasty things big 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:57.200 Tech has done, and it's by Mac Dagaron. But one 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:01.320 caveat because the article itself reveals this, it's not actually 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:04.840 all the nasty things big tech has done, because even 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:09.079 with more than ninety pages of documentation, it's just scratching 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:13.440 the surface. But the wiki collects this documentation about things 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:17.799 like anti competitive practices, UH, the spread of misinformation, how 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:21.480 these companies are funding political lobbying groups to shape legislation 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:25.880 in their favor, and controversial partnerships with other entities, such 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:29.480 as for example, Google's work with the U. S Military, 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:33.680 and stuff like facial recognition which could potentially be weaponized. 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:37.040 And it's a good article, so I do recommend you 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.359 check it out, and the resource, the actual wiki itself, 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:42.680 can help you catch up on all the exhausting amount 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:44.880 of skullduggery that's been going on in the big tech 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:48.480 sector for quite some time. I should also add that 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:53.519 the project receives funds from the Ahmadyar Network, which politically 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.640 is a left leaning organization. Now, I say that simply 0:02:57.680 --> 0:02:59.400 because I think it's always good to keep in mind 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:05.200 the perspective that was used to cover certain issues. I mean, 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:08.799 for that matter, I actually, no surprise, I leaned pretty 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:12.200 hard left myself, So I'm not saying that my perspective 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.680 is the correct one. I don't necessarily believe that I 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:18.400 know how I feel, but I would. It would be 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:21.120 way too much hubris for me to say my way 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.520 is the right way. But you should check out the 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:26.760 article and the wiki if you want to get angry 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:30.720 at big companies like Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, those kind 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:36.440 of things. Now, along those lines, CNBC published an article 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:41.280 titled how Google and Amazon bankrolled a grassroots activist group 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:45.840 of small business owners to lobby against big tech oversight. 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.880 There's a heck of a long headline, and that's just 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.320 the kind of thing that the Big Tech Wiki would cover. 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:56.400 So in that article, CNBC reporters reveal that the lobbying 0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:01.160 group is called the Connected Commerce Council, and it's supposed 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:05.000 to represent small businesses and Amazon and Google are simply 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.400 referred to as partners in the group. But apparently at 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.000 least some of the business is listed as members of 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:16.000 the group never actually joined it. Many had not even 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.800 heard of the group, according to them, and yet their 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:23.960 businesses were listed on the roster. Now, the implication is 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:28.440 that this makes this a an AstroTurf campaign. AstroTurf is 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.080 a term used to describe a situation where companies create 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:37.160 what is supposed to look like a grassroots political movement, 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:42.040 but is an actuality an attempt to push against legislation 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:46.320 that would restrict or regulate the companies, or in some case, 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.920 push for legislation that would give those companies more advantages. 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:55.120 And astroturfing is pretty insidious. It's also a pretty common tactic. 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.359 We've also seen big tech companies try to leverage small 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.719 business in a way to excuse certain policies and practices. 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.640 Meta has done this a lot as well, claiming that 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:09.200 certain restrictions to its advertising strategy would harm small businesses. 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:11.520 You know, they try to position it so it's not 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:15.080 about hurting the bottom line of the big company, but 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.640 rather it's the equivalent of think of the children. Is 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.160 really what it comes down to, and it can be 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:25.240 pretty shady stuff. Now that being said, this article also 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:30.520 mentions that there are legitimate small businesses that are really 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:34.560 part of the organization, so it's not like just a 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:38.839 dummy group or anything like that. There are actual small 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:41.760 businesses represented in the ranks that really do want to 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.040 be there, and there are several that are in favor 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:47.640 of the group and the group's policies, and they say 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:49.840 that the group keeps them up to date on proposed 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:54.279 legislation that could impact their businesses. So you might say, 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.000 is this a real AstroTurf case or does it only 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.920 appear that way due to the involvement of big tech 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:04.000 companies that are particularly politically active, And I honestly don't 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.200 know the answer to that. In a similar story, the 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.839 Washington Post published an article revealing that Meta has been 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:16.320 paying a consulting firm called Targeted Victory, and Targeted Victory 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:22.279 primarily caters to US Republican candidates during election cycles. Specifically, 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:25.400 Meta has hired on the consulting firm in order to 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:29.839 create a kind of smear campaign against rival social media 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:33.719 platform TikTok. Now, according to the Post, the goal was 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:37.360 to reach out to various news outlets, and we're primarily 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:41.679 talking about regional or local news outlets, and then convince 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:45.840 them to run pieces criticizing TikTok and making various claims 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:50.760 about TikTok's potential for harm, particularly for younger people. Now, 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.160 some of those claims I think have some merit to them. 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:58.280 I do think social platforms can facilitate harm, not that 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:02.600 they're necessarily harmful just by themselves, but that you know, 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:08.919 they are very effective at transmitting harm. In fact, Meta 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:11.720 thinks this too about its own platforms, according to those 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:16.520 internal documents that Francis Hogan leaked last year. But some 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.880 of the narratives pushed by Targeted Victory are at best 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:24.520 insincere and at worst are an outright form of misinformation. 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:28.280 According to the Post, some of the stories Targeted Victory 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.080 pushed were about harmful trends that had supposedly originated and 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:36.000 propagated across TikTok, when, in fact, and at least a 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:40.080 couple of those cases, those trends actually got their start 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:44.440 on Facebook. So, in other words, the stuff Facebook was 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:50.680 indirectly accusing TikTok of through targeted victory, we're actually examples 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:56.760 of Facebook's own shortcomings. Now, to be fair, Meta slash 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:01.760 Facebook does have some distance from these efforts because it's 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:05.280 essentially paid Targeted Victory to do the dirty work, so 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:09.840 Facebook's not directly involved, and the goals of that dirty 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.360 work are twofold. One is to try to level the 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:15.840 playing field a little bit between Meta and TikTok, because, 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:20.600 as we've seen with Meta's financial report earlier this year, 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.200 the company has been struggling to attract younger users and 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.560 has cited TikTok as being one of the big reasons 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:31.680 for that. Now, another goal is to deflect attention away 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:36.600 from Meta and onto someone else, because Meta's been in 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.440 the center of a of a target for a while 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:43.800 now for good reason. But the company would really rather 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:46.400 someone else take that place, and TikTok would sure be 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.880 a nice substitute. And you know, TikTok, being a company 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:54.120 that's owned by a larger Chinese conglomerate is a pretty 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.199 good target if that's your goal. I mean, there are 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:00.480 some legitimate concerns to have about TikTok, so it's not 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:05.360 like all of these attacks have no substance to them. 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:08.160 There are reasons to be concerned. Now, my own point 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:12.320 of view is TikTok isn't that great and it does 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.959 merit some scrutiny, But then I say the same thing 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:22.319 about Meta. Both of them need to be scrutinized, potentially regulated, 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:26.320 uh certainly held accountable for when they do things that 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:31.439 are harmful. Anyway, it's interesting to see big tech behaving 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.800 more and more like the ugliest facets of the political process. 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:42.319 And by interesting I mean discouraging but not surprising. Staying 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.719 on this topic a bit longer, Global Witness, which has 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:49.480 frequently been a thorn and Meta's side, released a report 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:54.040 yesterday saying Facebook's algorithm appears to be amplifying climate denial 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.520 posts rather than offering up links to more reliable sources 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:01.240 on the subject of climate change. So they actually ran 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.400 a bit of an experiment. They created a couple of 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:08.319 dummy accounts, Jane and John, both of which were supposed 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:15.079 to represent climate skeptics. Now, the John account was set 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:19.800 to follow legit scientific organizations, so it was liking pages 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:28.040 that belonged to actually actual credible scientific groups and and institutions. 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:33.200 The Jane account was directed to like a couple of 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:37.840 pages that related to climate change skepticism. Then they sat 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.600 back and looked to see what kind of content was 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:44.640 being recommended in the respective news feeds, and they saw 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:48.240 that Jane's news feed began creating, you know, seeing way 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.800 more climate denial content in that feed. And on top 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.559 of that, two thirds of the pages that included climate 0:10:55.679 --> 0:11:00.280 change misinformation were not labeled as such, so there was 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:03.400 no warning. They're saying, you know, this is not necessarily 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.640 reliable information and you should really look to such and 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:11.240 such a place to get more reliable info. Now, the 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:14.200 feed for John didn't have this problem. John didn't get 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:19.600 the notifications of um, you know, posts that included climate 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:23.439 denialism in it. So while John was seeing more information 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:28.440 from legitimate sources, Jane saw progressively extremist content on the subject. 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:31.880 So once again we see how Facebook's algorithm, coupled with 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:37.800 Meta's insufficient flagging process leads to the amplification of misinformation. 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.760 Will be coming back to that in just a moment, 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:44.400 because we have another story that that touches on this. 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:48.080 But before we get to that, let's take a quick break. 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.880 So before the break, I talked about how Meta was 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:05.280 failing to sufficiently label climate change misinformation as such, while 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:07.559 it's not doing much better when it comes to preventing 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:12.400 disinformation about the ongoing war in Ukraine either. According to 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:17.160 the Center for Countering Digital Hate the c c d H, 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:22.200 Facebook only manages to label about of all posts pushing 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:27.640 misinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding that the ongoing war in Ukraine, 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:30.960 so that means eighty percent of those posts are just 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.840 slipping by unlabeled, and these include messages such as a 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:38.360 claim that the United States has been supplying bioweaponry to 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:43.000 the Ukraine to use against Russian soldiers, a claim that 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.959 has no basis in evidence or real support, and yet 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:50.440 is a conspiracy theory that is propagating pretty quickly across 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.559 social platforms like Facebook. So four out of the five 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:58.520 posts that are pushing this in similar misinformation campaigns are 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.480 going through without Facebook abling the post without so much 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:05.400 as a missing context label, let alone and outright false 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:09.280 information label. Im Ron Ahmed, the head of the c 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.480 c d H, said, if our researchers can identify false 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:17.600 information about Ukraine openly circulating on its platform, it is 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:21.559 within Meta's capability to do the same. That's a pretty 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.319 sick burn because I mean it's hard to argue against 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:26.600 that statement. Right, if some outside group can come in 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:29.720 and say, look, we're finding it all over your your platform, 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.160 and it's your platform, clearly you should be able to 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:36.280 find it too, how do you how do you argue 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:40.000 against that? So Ahmed went on to reiterate the platforms 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.440 like Facebook profit off of misinformation, which I kind of 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.319 touched on before the break, and you know, we've said 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:51.560 it many times. Misinformation quote unquote drives engagement and that 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:56.000 is a major metric that Facebook relies upon while executing 0:13:56.000 --> 0:14:01.800 its revenue strategy. So engagement from revenue standpoint is good, 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:05.400 and you know, you just have to distance yourself from 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:09.360 what type of engagement you're talking about. It's unfortunate and 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.280 it's something again, it's not new. We've talked about this 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:16.760 many times on this show. And we are not yet 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:20.720 done with Meta, the company and another one called Sama 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:25.280 s a m A which Meta contracts with in order 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:31.160 to run content moderation operations in Africa on Facebook. They 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.560 have been named in a lawsuit in Kenya, and the plaintiff, 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:41.440 Daniel Motog says that Sama violated Kenya's laws around employee health, 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:45.600 safety and privacy. So content moderation on Facebook is a 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:49.320 really tough gig, and in some regions it can be 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:54.560 downright traumatizing because it's your job to look through stuff 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.080 that gets flat flagged on Facebook and figure out, okay, 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.280 does this in fact violate books policies? And in some 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:06.680 cases it is incredibly evident that it violates policies. But 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:10.240 in the process of reviewing the content, you're exposed to 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:14.760 some really dreadful stuff. Motong says that the first video 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:19.120 he remembers moderating had a video of a beheading in it. 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.320 Now I know that if I were exposed to that 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:27.160 kind of content, it would definitely have a massively negative 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:31.240 psychological impact on me, to put it lightly. Motan says 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:34.320 that Somema deceived employees. It gave them kind of a 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:38.600 bait and switch offer. According to Motong, the employees were 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:40.480 told they were going to work at a call center, 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:44.120 and then once they signed on, they found out, no, 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:46.040 it's not a call center, You're actually going to do 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:50.480 content moderation on Facebook. Motong also says that some mfl 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:54.000 far short of Kenya's requirements for employers to offer sufficient 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:57.440 mental health resources to their employees. And this is not 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.600 the first time we've seen complaints relating to data and 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:02.640 the mental health of people who are tasked with the 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:07.200 job of content moderation. Um, So we'll have to see 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:11.080 what the outcome of this particular lawsuit is and whether 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:15.040 or not it will precipitate any meaningful change in the 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:18.440 process of content moderation and how the companies that are 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:24.480 tasked with doing that are held accountable for employee welfare. Okay, 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.920 while we add Apple into the mix of stories here, 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.520 we're still, by the way, also he being criticism on 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:35.560 Meta and Facebook, or at least pointing out something that's troubling. 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:40.760 Bloomberg reports that both Meta and Apple have handed over 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:47.200 user data to hackers who fraudulently submitted emergency data requests. Now, 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.440 tech companies generally try to hold off on just handing 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:54.400 user data over to authorities as a means of establishing 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:56.880 trust with users. Right, if you find out that a 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:03.239 particular platform is frequently sharing user information with any agency 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:05.720 out there, it's probably gonna make you get the he 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.960 b gebs. Well, when companies are compelled by law, they 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.320 will do it. I mean, obviously they don't want to 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:16.200 break the law, and an emergency data request represents an 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:18.520 urgent need for information. It could be in a case 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:21.120 where a person has gone missing, for example, it could 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:25.080 literally be life or death. So emergency data requests, unlike 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.560 other types of authority data requests, do not require a 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:32.200 court order, and a hacker group called Recursion Team are 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:36.720 thought to be at least partly responsible for these fraudulent requests. Now, 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.680 on the one hand, it's easy to accuse the companies 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.520 of Apple and Meta of not doing due diligence to 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:46.560 ensure that incoming requests are actually legitimate. But on the 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:50.399 other hand, the very nature of emergency requests indicates that 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:54.760 a speedy response can be absolutely critical. I think in 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.960 this particular case, the real problem lies in the process 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:01.480 more than with Apple and met as actions, and the 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:03.879 fact that it was possible for hackers to compromise that 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:07.639 process is something we should really look at. Over in 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:11.919 the UK case involving a Twitter user reminded me of 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:14.600 the limits of free speech and how they are different 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:18.200 in different parts of the world. Joseph Kelly was found 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:22.560 guilty of sending a quote unquote grossly offensive tweet and 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:26.720 a judge subsequently has sentenced Kelly to one hundred fifty 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:30.840 hours of community service. So you might wonder, well, what 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:36.119 was this tweet that merited uh, that kind of sentence. Well, 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:38.840 it had to do with Sir Tom Moore, who was 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.479 a man who, leading up to his one birthday, was 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.240 doing laps around his garden. He did a hundred laps 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:48.359 around his garden and it was all in a way 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:52.479 to raise money for the UK's National Health Service in 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:55.520 the early days of the pandemic. Sir Tom more than 0:18:56.560 --> 0:19:00.280 not too long later passed away, and one day after 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.600 his passing, Kelly posted his tweet, which was the only 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:08.639 good brit soldier is a deed one burn, old fella 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:13.560 burn because he's you know, tweeting in a Scottish accent, 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.000 which I will not do because I can't. Now I 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:20.720 think anyone could agree that that tweet was at the 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:26.239 very least in very poor taste. Two uh to you know, 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:31.320 you had a country in mourning because Tom, Sir Tom 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:34.880 had had really inspired a lot of people, and so 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:39.040 then he he ends up saying this very you know, uh, 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:43.160 unsympathetic thing. Now the question is did that break the law? 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:50.240 Specifically didn't break Section on seven of the UK's Communications Act. Now, 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.639 when that Act was passed, that section was originally meant 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:57.840 to create accountability for people who were doing stuff like 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:02.560 making obscene telephone call. That's what it was to refer to. 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.400 But in the years since it has expanded to cover 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:10.480 social media posts as well. The grossly offensive part really 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.880 becomes tricky simply because you have to decide what are 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:18.600 the criteria you're using to determine if something is grossly offensive. 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:23.040 I mean, grossly offensive is a subjective thing, right, You 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:25.479 might be offended by something I'm not offended by, and 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:30.840 vice versa. Kelly, by the way, he deleted his message 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:34.639 just twenty minutes after he posted it, and his lawyer 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:37.359 in the trial argued that Kelly had made the tweet 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.879 while he was intoxicated, like he wasn't you know, sober 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:43.439 when he did it. But none of that managed to 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:47.160 get him off the hook. And so now he's sentenced 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:50.680 to do a hundred fifty hours of community service. Uh. 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:53.520 For people in the United States, that probably comes as 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:57.480 a shock because here we could tweet something like that 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:01.320 and yeah, we might be called out for being insensitive 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:05.520 or or you know, having really bad taste or just 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.479 being tacky or whatever it may be. But you wouldn't 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:12.080 expect anyone to be held accountable and have to do 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:16.040 community service in return for doing that. Now, in the UK, 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:19.080 there is an a new bill that will be coming 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:21.680 law later on. It will becoming effective soon. It's called 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:24.760 the Online Safety Bill that will end up replacing the 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:29.920 old UK's Communications Act, So that will end up having 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:32.639 a new set of rules. However, there's still measures in 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:36.720 place where there's pretty vague language that you know, how 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:41.080 the the nation could handle messages that are considered to 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:46.320 be quote unquote harmful, Like who determines what constitutes harm 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:49.640 and how do you determine accountability for those things. So 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:53.320 if you are in the UK and you can't tweet 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:59.680 something nice, don't tweet anything at all. I guess okay. 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:03.239 I have a couple more stories that are less you know, 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:07.560 the triolic, But we're gonna take another quick break and 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:17.879 we'll be right back. All right, Let's get to the 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.399 last couple of news stories for this episode. One of 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:25.920 those is that Canadian politicians have drafted an emissions reduction 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:30.200 plan that will require all new cars sold in Canada 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:35.080 to be zero emission vehicles by the year twenty five. Uh, 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:38.960 that's passenger cars, I should add, And this would put 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:41.640 Canada on a growing list of countries that are setting 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:45.560 similar deadlines for when car companies will no longer be 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:50.600 allowed to sell new internal combustion engine vehicles in those countries. UH. 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:53.640 That list notably does not include the United States. There 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:59.240 is no federal mandate that follows this trend, but there 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:02.480 have been a and orso states that have listed their 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:07.000 own state deadlines for that. And honestly, once you start 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:13.800 getting to a certain tipping point, there becomes a a 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:17.840 movement within the automotive industry where you would expect everyone 0:23:17.920 --> 0:23:21.639 to switch over to electric anyway or some other zero 0:23:21.720 --> 0:23:25.560 emission vehicle design anyway, because it would just make more 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:28.880 sense from a manufacturing standpoint to go that way rather 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:33.119 than divide it up. So it may be that we 0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:37.440 don't ever see the US create a similar national policy, 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:42.800 but if enough states follow that trend, then the effect 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:45.200 will be the same. And like I said, it only 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:49.680 applies to passenger cars, you know Canada's policy. Uh. In 0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:52.920 industry cars like things that are being used for enterprise purposes, 0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:57.040 they will have a longer timeline in order to convert 0:23:57.080 --> 0:23:59.240 over to zero emissions, which makes sense. I mean, like, 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:02.720 if you're talking about things like heavy duty hauling vehicles 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:07.040 or really strong construction vehicles, you're talking about stuff that 0:24:07.080 --> 0:24:09.760 has power needs that you know might not be met 0:24:09.840 --> 0:24:14.920 with current zero emission systems in place. So that does 0:24:15.000 --> 0:24:18.240 make a little more sense. But yes, we are seeing 0:24:18.320 --> 0:24:23.480 another country say no more internal combustion engine vehicles here, 0:24:23.640 --> 0:24:28.600 at least no new ones after a certain date. And finally, 0:24:29.160 --> 0:24:32.800 some security researchers demonstrated that it's possible to hack into 0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:36.879 a communications satellite and broadcast a video feed to a 0:24:37.000 --> 0:24:41.239 large region. Now, to be clear, the researchers did this 0:24:41.280 --> 0:24:44.440 with permission, so it's not like they were secretly hacking 0:24:44.480 --> 0:24:47.640 into a satellite feed and taking it over and creating 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:53.720 pirate satellite television. But they were given the opportunity to 0:24:53.840 --> 0:24:57.680 attempt to access a Canadian satellite that was no longer 0:24:57.760 --> 0:24:59.880 going to be used. It had passed out of its 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:04.120 useful life expectancy, but it had not yet been transferred 0:25:04.280 --> 0:25:08.720 to a graveyard orbit. I talked about this briefly earlier 0:25:08.760 --> 0:25:12.480 this week in an episode about orbits. A graveyard orbit 0:25:12.840 --> 0:25:15.800 is an orbit where you just you push stuff when 0:25:15.840 --> 0:25:19.320 you're when it's no longer useful, and it gets it 0:25:19.359 --> 0:25:21.120 out of the way so that you can put more 0:25:21.240 --> 0:25:25.080 useful stuff in that orbit. And it typically is is 0:25:25.240 --> 0:25:29.840 at an orbit that just isn't really well suited for 0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:34.960 any practical purposes here on Earth. So pushing a communication 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:37.280 satellite out to a graveyard orbit means that would no 0:25:37.320 --> 0:25:40.719 longer really align properly to transmit back to Earth. So 0:25:40.760 --> 0:25:43.840 if if they had waited longer, this really wouldn't have 0:25:43.880 --> 0:25:47.879 been a possibility. But because that satellite was no longer 0:25:48.280 --> 0:25:52.040 in service but still reachable, it also meant there were 0:25:52.040 --> 0:25:55.840 no competing signals being sent to that satellite. So if 0:25:55.880 --> 0:25:58.880 you could send a signal to the satellite, it could 0:25:58.960 --> 0:26:03.159 then be it back down to Earth. Now, accessing the 0:26:03.200 --> 0:26:07.280 satellite required using an uplink facility. This is essentially a 0:26:07.320 --> 0:26:11.480 place that has a powerful satellite dish antenna and a 0:26:11.600 --> 0:26:15.640 really powerful amplifier and sending the right kind of signal 0:26:15.920 --> 0:26:18.880 that was strong enough to reach the satellite in question. 0:26:19.359 --> 0:26:22.959 Like you couldn't just do this with a simple radio 0:26:23.000 --> 0:26:25.159 antenna or something like that. You have to have a 0:26:25.240 --> 0:26:30.960 very concentrated, powerful beam of of signal to go up 0:26:31.080 --> 0:26:34.040