Monthly Archives: August 2020

Security Inspection Equipment Market 2020 Analysis by Geographical Regions, Type and Application Till 2025 with Top Key Players:Astrophysics, Smiths…

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Security Inspection Equipment Market Overview 2020 2025

This has brought along several changes in This report also covers the impact of COVID-19 on the global market.

The risingtechnology in Security Inspection Equipment Marketis also depicted in thisresearchreport. Factors that are boosting the growth of the market, and giving a positive push to thrive in the global market is explained in detail.

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Key Competitors of the Global Security Inspection Equipment Market are: , Astrophysics, Smiths Detection, Garrett, C.E.I.A., Rapiscan Systems

Historical data available in the report elaborates on the development of the Security Inspection Equipment on national, regional and international levels. Security Inspection Equipment Market Research Report presents a detailed analysis based on the thorough research of the overall market, particularly on questions that border on the market size, growth scenario, potential opportunities, operation landscape, trend analysis, and competitive analysis.

Major Product Types covered are:FixedPortable

Major Applications of Security Inspection Equipment covered are:AirportSubwayStadiumOthers

This study report on global Security Inspection Equipment market throws light on the crucial trends and dynamics impacting the development of the market, including the restraints, drivers, and opportunities.

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The fundamental purpose of Security Inspection Equipment Market report is to provide a correct and strategic analysis of the Security Inspection Equipment industry. The report scrutinizes each segment and sub-segments presents before you a 360-degree view of the said market.

Market Scenario:

The report further highlights the development trends in the global Security Inspection Equipment market. Factors that are driving the market growth and fueling its segments are also analyzed in the report. The report also highlights on its applications, types, deployments, components, developments of this market.

Highlights following key factors:

:-Business descriptionA detailed description of the companys operations and business divisions.:-Corporate strategyAnalysts summarization of the companys business strategy.:-SWOT AnalysisA detailed analysis of the companys strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats.:-Company historyProgression of key events associated with the company.:-Major products and servicesA list of major products, services and brands of the company.:-Key competitorsA list of key competitors to the company.:-Important locations and subsidiariesA list and contact details of key locations and subsidiaries of the company.:-Detailed financial ratios for the past five yearsThe latest financial ratios derived from the annual financial statements published by the company with 5 years history.

Our report offers:

Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments. Market share analysis of the top industry players. Strategic recommendations for the new entrants. Market forecasts for a minimum of 9 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets. Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations). Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations. Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends. Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments. Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancements.

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Security Inspection Equipment Market 2020 Analysis by Geographical Regions, Type and Application Till 2025 with Top Key Players:Astrophysics, Smiths...

Adapting to the Times, Whittier Birthplace Names Par to Newly Created Post of Executive Director – WHAV News

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Kaleigh Par has been named to the newly created position of executive director of Haverhills Whittier Birthplace.

Par, an experienced museum professional, specializing in historic sites, was previously associated with the Buttonwoods Museum, Ipswich Museum and, most recently, as director of the Patton Homestead in Hamilton, where she will continue to assume a leadership role.

Making strategic hires like this is essential in supporting our core strategy to become a premier museum in Essex County, said Arthur H. Veasey, president of the trustees of the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead. During these challenging times, we remain focused on our mission to perpetuate the reputation, visibility and popularity of our museum and grounds as a destination for visitors and as a welcoming venue for special events, he added.

The homestead and museum is at 305 Whittier Road in Haverhill. The historic land and buildings, a fixture among the citys cultural treasures, was deeded to the trustees by James H. Carleton in 1892 to preserve as nearly possible the natural features of the landscape and buildings as when occupied by a young Whittier, who was later renowned as a fireside poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States.

Par is a Haverhill native and a graduate of Bates College. She received a Master of Liberal Arts specializing in Museum Studies from Harvard University.

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Adapting to the Times, Whittier Birthplace Names Par to Newly Created Post of Executive Director - WHAV News

Marriage officers should have the right to object on religious grounds – Mail and Guardian

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The Civil Union Amendment Bill that has recently been submitted to the president of South Africa for consideration is cause for grave concern. South Africa is regarded as a fully-fledged democracy, which naturally implies a commitment towards the advancement of diversity; diversity in the deepest sense of the word.

The Bill discards the right of state-employed officers and magistrates to object to the solemnisation of same-sex marriages based on their right to freedom of belief. Should the president decide to sign the Bill into law it would mean that state-employed marriage officers and magistrates who conscientiously object against the solemnisation of same-sex marriages would run the risk of, among others, having to find other employment.

The Constitution affords the president the right to refer the Bill to the National Assembly for reconsideration, instead of signing it into law. Why should the latter approach be the preferred choice?

The answer to this lies in the importance of the protection of the right to freedom of religious belief (as is the case with non-religious belief) against the background of the nature of the public sphere, which also substantively overlaps with a proper understanding of the relevance of the advancement of diversity.

A reading of section 15 of the Constitution confirms the right to freedom, not only of religious beliefs but also of non-religious beliefs, and the inextricable relationship between these beliefs and opinions, thoughts as well as convictions. This then also relates to our views on morality and justice.

This, in turn, finds application pertaining to views on, for example, the origin and meaning of human life; the teaching of sexual morality in schools and the purpose of education in general; forms of punishment to be meted out for crimes committed; the parameters of tax exemptions; the redistribution of land to previously disadvantaged groups; trade in pornographic material and modes of entertainment; government subsidisation of private schools; the degree of autonomy to be awarded to religious associations; and restrictions imposed by the authorities during the outbreak of a pandemic.

Accompanying this are the different meanings accorded by persons and groups to freedom, equality, harm, fairness and human dignity. In this regard, it is not only the individual that ascribes to specific views, but also the civil authorities and the laws of the land. This is illustrated in the following example: not providing subsidies to private schools that teach and practise a specific religious ethos (as opposed to public schools who may not formally ascribe to a specific religious ethos) is indicative of a government taking a specific moral stance on the teaching of religion in basic education.

In this regard, the governments interpretation of, for example, harm and human dignity, exudes the view that it does not regard this approach as being profoundly violatory towards the human dignity of a pupil who comes from a religious home. The parents of the said pupil, however, may view this as unfair and constitutive of a gross violation of their right to freedom of religion, which in turn is inextricably related to having an adverse effect on their and their childs human dignity.

This explains the fact that democratic societies (including the civil authorities and the laws of the land) are permeated with a multitude of differing views and related practices on matters of moral importance and the exercise of justice; views that ascribe to some or other platform that rests on belief, whether religious or non-religious, and which guides interpretations of morality, justice, freedom, harm, equality, fairness and human dignity.

The spaces that we enter on leaving the home (spaces that are constitutive of the public sphere) is as much a space for the religious believer to occupy and experience in all sorts of ways as it is for the non-religious believer. Just as the non-religious believer is accompanied by her or his moral convictions and views on justice and allowed the freedom to exercise these accordingly when in the public domain, so then the same should apply to the religious believer. Yet, not only is religion substantively relegated to the private sphere in liberal democracies around the world; it is also dominated by a type of liberalism that propagates a subjective measure (or single morality), a liberalism that philosopher John Gray sternly warns against.

This type of A B C D liberalism understands toleration as an instrument of rational consensus, and a diversity of ways of life is endured in the faith that it is destined to disappear. An ideal of ultimate convergence on values is typified by this liberalism. In contrast to this, there is a liberalism that views toleration as a condition of peace and that different ways of living are welcomed as features of diversity in the good life and the coexistence of conflicting views is supported.

An example is Grays, Two Faces of Liberalism. It is this latter type of liberalism that signifies the advancement of diversity. This slots in with John Inazus call for the pushing of the boundaries for freedom of diversity against the background of government and community needing to make concerted efforts to allow for freedom not only of difference, but also of substantial difference, except where extreme disadvantage (such as violence) threatens.

Bearing in mind Grays cautioning against a type of liberalism that seeks ultimate consensus and convergence of values, cognisance needs to be taken of the risk of having the law assist in this regard. To allow for the law to envelope the whole of society in a specified moral understanding regarding matters that lend themselves to deeply layered moral views is a smack in the face of the advancement of diversity as an essential attribute of an effective democracy.

In the words of Iain Benson, we are in danger of the law extending its ambit beyond where it should go to a kind of juristic theocracy if we are not careful. We are at risk of comprehensive law that fails to understand its competence and its jurisdiction and that would thus threaten the various plural goods that a richly federated state needs to nurture.

This does not purport to suggest an absolute exclusion of limitations to be levelled at the right to freedom of religion. Limitations should indeed be warranted in instances where it is, to quote section 18(3) of the International Convention on Political and Civil Rights, prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others the gist of which is supported by the Constitution.

The preamble of the Constitution includes the following: We, the people of South Africa Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity , and it is especially rights in and of themselves which are included in the Constitution such as freedom of religion, as well as freedom of cultural practices that are indicative of the Constitutions endeavour towards the advancement of diversity.

In addition to the Constitutional Courts affirmation of the importance of religion, for example in Christian Education South Africa v Minister of Education 2000, it also emphasises the importance of diversity. Also bolstering the prominence of diversity and the voice of religion in South Africa is the South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms, which was formulated and endorsed by representatives of all the mainline religions in the country (signing of this charter took place in 2010). This initiative flows from section 234 of the Constitution (although it still needs to be passed into law).

The option provided for by the Constitution allowing for the president to refer the Bill to the National Assembly for reconsideration (as alluded to earlier) should therefore be the preferred route to follow. The solemnisation of a marriage constitutes an act that is inextricably related to substantive and deeply layered moral and religious views regarding an intimate (in various ways) relationship between human beings. Also, beliefs and convictions rested on religion should be allowed the freedom awarded by the law to substantively share the public sphere with all the other non-religious beliefs and convictions.

Consequently, the required protection should be awarded to the marriage officer or magistrate who objects to solemnise same-sex marriages, an objection based on a conscientiously prescribed conviction. Related to this, the civil authorities, as tasked by the Constitution itself, must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights in the Bill of Rights.

The final outcome in this matter will clearly indicate the degree of commitment and urgency by the government to truly advance diversity and by doing so, to live up to one of the central doctrines proclaimed by liberal democracies themselves, namely the advancement of the different meanings of freedom itself.

In an article published by the Mail & Guardian on August 4, Ropafadzo Maphosa argues that public officials must treat all marriages equally. Read the article below.

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Marriage officers should have the right to object on religious grounds - Mail and Guardian

COSO offers guidance on blockchain and internal control – Accounting Today

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The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission has released a new paper offering its views on how blockchain technology can be used with an organizations internal controls over financial reporting.

The committee, known as COSO, includes organizations such as the American Institute of CPAs, the American Accounting Association, Financial Executives International, the Institute of Management Accountants and the Institute of Internal Auditors.

COSOs paper, "Blockchain and Internal Control: The COSO Perspective," explains how COSOs internal control framework can be used to design and implement controls to address the risks associated with blockchain technology, which relies on distributed ledgers to track information about assets such as digital currencies.

The paper shows how with careful implementation and integration of blockchain, the unique features of the technology can be leveraged to better manage risk and create more robust controls for organizations.

The project, commissioned by COSO and sponsored by Deloitte, offers guidance on using the COSO Internal Control Integrated Framework (2013) to evaluate the risks related to the use of blockchain in the context of financial reporting and to design and implement controls to address such risks. The paper aims to help make decisions about the oversight, risks, and internal control over financial reporting in a blockchain environment.

The paper was co-authored by Deloitte & Touche partners Jennifer Burns and Amy Steele, along with Eric Cohen of Cohen Computer Consulting and Sri Ramamoorti, an associate professor at the University of Dayton.

Blockchain-enhanced tools have the potential to promote operational efficiency and effectiveness, improve reliability and responsiveness of financial and other reporting, and improve compliance with laws and regulations. At the same time, blockchain creates new risks and the need for new controls, said COSO chairman Paul Sobel (pictured) in a statement Tuesday. When an organization evaluates the use of blockchain through a COSO lens, it enables the board of directors and senior executives to better understand the context and make more informed assessments of the technologys potential and applicability with respect to internal control.The COSO paper discusses some of the challenges associated with blockchain along with the opportunities. Even as blockchain technology keeps evolving, the financial reporting community can work together to better understand the challenges and risks, ways to remediate, and leading practices to fully realize the potential benefits, according to the paper.

Many businesses, industries and governments are investing in and exploring how blockchain could positively impact the achievement of their objectives, said Amy Steele, a partner in the Audit & Assurance Services group of Deloitte & Touche LLP and co-chair of the AICPA Digital Assets Working Group, in a statement. Stakeholders must realize that adoption is likely to move forward. And, if efforts are not made now, the knowledge, learning and application gap will widen; and more effort will be required later to react to the challenges with the technology and its adoption.

The paper is available at http://www.COSO.org.

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COSO offers guidance on blockchain and internal control - Accounting Today

What’s New in the Next Generation of Oracle Blockchain Platform Cloud Service – Database Trends and Applications

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Oracle has announced an update to the Oracle Blockchain Platform Cloud Service, leveraging the advantages of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and new improvements by the Hyperledger community in Hyperledger Fabric.

According to Oracle, its blockchain customers are increasingly moving their applications into production, and existing production customers are scaling up their deployments and ramping up their transaction volumes.

This new release responds to their needs with increased resilience and higher availability, dynamic scale-up and scale-out to handle ever growing workloads, stronger access controls for sharing confidential information, superior price/performance, greater decentralization capabilities for blockchain consortiums, and stronger auditability when rich history database feature is used in conjunction withOracle Database Blockchain Tables.

The announcement was made in an Oracle Blockchain Blog post by Mary Hall, director, Oracle Blockchain product marketing, and Mark Rakhmilevich,senior director,blockchain product management.

Oracle will provide a migration capability to the new releasewhich features a new transaction-based pricing modelwith no loss of ledger data or configuration information.

Customers with business-critical blockchain applications benefit from this new releases ability to automatically deploy its components across three Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Availability Domains (and in the regions with a single Availability Domain, three Fault Domains) to provide stronger resilience and recoverability, with the SLA for the Enterprise SKUs of at least 99.95%. As customer workloads grow, this release enables them to dynamically scale up and scale out the new instances to quickly extend their cloud resources and equips them to handle the increased workloads.

This release also offers a new blockchain consensus mechanism based onRAFT protocol,which supports greater decentralization for business networks and enables multiple participants to run and contribute orderer nodes to the network for more shared governance.

With this release, Oracle advances the Oracle Blockchain Platform Cloud Service to a new level of dynamic scalability, high availability, and quick deployment for enterprise blockchain applications running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, said Frank Xiong, Group Group VP, Blockchain Product Development, Oracle. Its designed and developed to meet our customers growing demand for a more resilient, secure, and scalable platform thats ready for growing workloads of enterprise blockchain applications in numerous use cases across various industries.

Enhancements in this release include the following: The ability to choose between development-oriented Standard SKU and production-grade Enterprise SKU, which provides multiple shapes, high availability, and supports dynamic scalability On-demand storage capacity Automatic deployment and replication Geo-redundant ordering cluster Anoperations audit log for control plane operationsto track any administrative access or configuration changescharacteristics of on-chain data to the database tables used for analytics/BI. Support for "bring your own license/ BYOL pricing", which enables customers with on-premiseOracle Blockchain Platform Enterprise Editionlicenses to use them instead for a cloud deployment.

For more details, visit theWhat's New for Oracle Blockchain Platform on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (Gen 2) on the Oracle site.

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What's New in the Next Generation of Oracle Blockchain Platform Cloud Service - Database Trends and Applications

ASX set to move into industry-wide testing of blockchain-based settelement system – Finextra

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Over 90% of CHESS users can meet the proposed go-live date of April 2022; ASX now reviewing consultation feedback.

ASX is now carefully reviewing the consultation feedback and following up with some CHESS users on points of detail they raised in order to meet the proposed implementation timetable.

Early results show an overwhelming majority of CHESS users can meet the proposed timetable for implementing CHESS. Despite the high number of positive responses, no final decision on the revised schedule has been made. It remains subject to a detailed review of all submissions and any other relevant considerations before being finalised by ASX.

As at Tuesday, 4 August: * 88 submissions have been received, representing 92% of the 96 CHESS users*91% of CHESS users who made submissions can meet the revised go-live date for CHESS replacement of April 2022 *The few exceptions not yet able to confirm readiness have asked for more information on particular issues, which ASX will assist with in the near-term.

CHESS users are those organisations that plan to connect to the new system, including clearing and settlement participants, product issuer settlement participants, approved market operators, back office software developers, payment providers and share registries.

ASX is currently following up with CHESS users that havent responded to ensure as much input as possible is received from those organisations that must accredit their systems and/or attest to their operational readiness prior to go-live. Their feedback is important for the safe and timely transition to the new system.

ASX will publish its response and a summary of the feedback once all submissions have been reviewed. We will also engage with the regulatory agencies on the revised project timetable prior to its public release.

Dominic Stevens, ASX Managing Director and CEO said: We appreciate the input and responses weve received from the market - not just for this consultation but for the CHESS replacement project overall. The project has taken on even greater significance in recent months, with the accelerating need for more innovation, digitisation and straight-through processing of transactions and corporate actions.

The CHESS replacement project has involved the most interaction ASX has ever undertaken with the market. Were grateful that so many CHESS users have responded constructively to this consultation. This provides us with a sound starting point as we now carefully consider all submissions.

Mr Stevens continued: While recognising there is still much for everyone to do, we are excited by the fact we are close to 100% complete on customer functionality and set to move into industry-wide testing in the coming months.

Background

ASX and a broad stakeholder community have been working together since 2016 to successfully deliver the system to replace CHESS. This has involved significant collaboration on business requirements, adoption and mapping of ISO 20022 messaging, solution design for new features, and connectivity to the new system.

At its core, the new system will deliver existing services; new functionality; high availability, reliability and performance; and underpin Australias financial markets for the next decade and beyond.

In developing the consultation paper published on 30 June that set out a proposed 12-month extension, ASX considered several factors. These included the ongoing impact of COVID-19, functionality changes requested by users, and additional time for ASX and CHESS users to complete development and readiness activities.

The project is progressing well, with 90% of the core clearing and settlement functionality used by customers already deployed in the Customer Development Environment.

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ASX set to move into industry-wide testing of blockchain-based settelement system - Finextra

Tencent takes on bootleggers with blockchain-backed wine-tracker – Decrypt

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Shenzhen-based tech giant Tencent has announced plans to create a wine traceability platform using blockchain, in partnership with one of Chinas largest wine producers.

The collaboration with Changyu Pioneer Wine hopes to find a solution to China's booming counterfeit wine industry.

Bin Ma, vice president of Tencent, told Chinese media that the wine blockchain traceability system could help improve the domestic wine industrys standards.

According to Tencent, each bottle of wine would be issued a unique traceability certificate which would be recorded on their blockchain platform. Consumers could then check the wines authenticity by scanning a QR code which tracks the wines production and distribution process.

Chinas is the fifth-largest wine consumer in the world, imbibing 1.76 billion liters of it in 2018. Counterfeit wine is a billion-dollar industry around the world, but particularly in China where the market is flooded with fake wine, according to experts.

Unfortunately, buyers in nascent markets are not as knowledgeable of what to ask about or look for with provenance, nor any aspect of wine authentication, leaving this market a prime target for counterfeiters and those selling counterfeits. As much as 50% of the fine wines in China are believed to be fake, said Maureen Downey, an expert on fake wine.

As reported on by media partner Forkast.news, blockchain has often been proposed as a way to help improve transparency in a number of industries in China, including food supply.

In June, Chinas southwestern Yunnan Province launched a similar blockchain traceability platform, but for puer teaa type of fermented tea that is popular in Asia. In this case, consumers can also scan a QR code on the product to trace the origins of the tea as recorded on the blockchain platform run by the local government.

Another alcohol-related application is Chinese baijiu a clear liquor made from fermented sorghum. The fiery drink may not be ubiquitous outside China, but it is the worlds most consumed hard liquor.

Earlier this year, Chinese technology company Sina partnered with baijiu producer Wuliangye Yibin to employ blockchain in the liquor industry. As with previous examples listed here, the use of blockchain is designed to ensure quality and traceability.

But like wine, baijius value increases with time, making it a potential candidate to be treated as a baijiu futures through blockchain. Decrypt has previously reported how Vin Xnow Vinsent are using blockchain to disrupt the wine industry through wine futures.

This story was produced in collaboration with our friends atForkast, a content platform focused on emerging technology at the intersection of business, economy, and politics, from Asia to the world.

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Tencent takes on bootleggers with blockchain-backed wine-tracker - Decrypt

Electric Capital Launches $110 Million Fund Focused on Cryptonetworks and Blockchain Businesses – PRNewswire

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SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Electric Capital today announced the closing of its second fund, a $110 million Seed and Series A fund, focused on cryptonetworks and blockchain enabled businesses. The firm is led by co-founders Avichal Garg and Curtis Spencer. The founders are serial entrepreneurs, prior executives at Facebook and Google, and investors in companies such as Airtable, Boom, Cruise, Figma, Newfront Insurance, Notion, and others. Electric Capital is partnered with world-renowned university endowments and philanthropic foundations for its second fund.

Fund II Continues to Focus on "Programmable Money"Electric Capital has three areas of focus:

"We support early founders from their first investment and love working closely with them for many years," said Garg. "We've scaled products from zero to one billion users and teams from zero to hundreds of engineers. We help founders on scaling their organization, building products, cultivating communities and developer ecosystems, and more."

"Today, a handful of big technology companies dominate the technology landscape. Everything has a price: in exchange for efficiency, we gave up platform independence, control, transparency, and our privacy. These are the exact dimensions on which cryptonetworks are better than legacy systems. Cryptonetworks represent a fundamentally new way of writing software," said Spencer. "With our new fund, we hope to facilitate the building of new platforms based on these principles."

About Electric CapitalElectric Capital is a venture firm that invests in cryptocurrencies, blockchain based businesses, fintech companies, and marketplaces. We compile code, profile nodes, analyze blockchains and open source projects, help secure cryptonetworks, and write software to help our portfolio companies understand their ecosystems. We publish an annual Developer Report that is the industry standard for understanding the developer ecosystems across cryptonetworks. Electric Capital and its founders have invested in crypto companies such as Anchorage, Bitwise, Celo, Coda, Derivadex, Elrond, Mobilecoin, Oasis, and NEAR.

About Avichal GargAvichal is a successful serial entrepreneur with executive experience at Google and Facebook, which acquired his previous company in 2012. At Facebook, he was Director of Product Management for the Local product group. Avichal is an investor in companies and protocols such as Anchorage, Bitwise, Celo, Coda, Dapper Labs/Cryptokittes, dYdX, Lightning Labs, and many technology companies outside of crypto such as Airtable, Boom Supersonic, Color Genomics, Cruise, Figma, Newfront Insurance, Notion, Optimizely, and Threads.

About Curtis SpencerBefore Electric, Curtis was CTO at Cruxlux, a semantic search company acquired by Kosmix/Walmart Labs and CTO at Spool, a mobile infrastructure company acquired by Facebook. At Facebook, he was an engineering lead on News Feed, Events, and Developer Experience during his tenure. He was an early investor in Bitcoin and Ethereum and has invested in various frontier technology companies such as Cruise Automation, Boom Supersonic, and SpaceX.

Media Contact: Priscilla Reed [emailprotected]

SOURCE Electric Capital

http://www.electriccapital.com

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Electric Capital Launches $110 Million Fund Focused on Cryptonetworks and Blockchain Businesses - PRNewswire

Drones, blockchain, bots, artificial intelligencethe new auditors on the block – Economic Times

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Experts say that apart from the jazzy tech like drones, some of the auditors are also using artificial intelligence and bots for auditing.

Auditors fear that at a time when they are working from home and unable to hit the ground, technology could be the only solution that could give them comfort as the fear of fraud increases due to movement restrictions and inability to do physical checks.

Mumbai: Though change came late to the musty world of auditing, it has finally arrived. Thanks to Covid-19, some of the top firms are using drones, robotics, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to complete their auditing assignments during the pandemic.The eye in the sky that is the drone will now be used for cross-check whether inventory in a power companys financials tallies with the actual position of the stock of coal on

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Drones, blockchain, bots, artificial intelligencethe new auditors on the block - Economic Times

For Big Tech, Theres No Winning This Round – WIRED

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Representative David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island), the chairman of the subcommittee, shifted the conversation to the conspiracies about Covid-19 that flourish on Facebook, and he didnt mince words, insisting that the platform contains deadly contentthat is, content that leads the public to dangerous actions, whether its trying unsafe cures or resisting prudent measures like wearing a mask. But Zuckerbergs insistence that Facebook has a relatively good track record of fighting and taking down lots of false content as well as putting up authoritative information fails to placate users and legislators when it concerns a plague that has left 150,000 dead and counting, as opposed to, say, leaks of personal data.

To be fair, the major platforms have always insisted that there were two exceptions to their hands-off approach to the hate and misinformation that appear on their platforms: public health and democracy. Until now, they could assume that those third rails wouldnt be breached in the United States in such harmful and undeniable ways. Facebook, for example, has been credibly accused of aiding genocide in Myanmar, but that was on the other side of the globe; and Amazon and YouTube, as well as Facebook, have helped promote campaigns against vaccination of children, endangering young lives, but at nowhere near the scale of misery from Covid-19. Simply put, there is no moving on from this presidency or pandemic to the next scandal.

In January, Zuckerbergs close confidant and VP of augmented and virtual reality at Facebook, Andrew Bosworth, wrote a forthright take about his companys role in getting Trump into office. So was Facebook responsible for Donald Trump getting elected? Bosworth asked. I think the answer is yes, but not for the reasons anyone thinks. He didnt get elected because of Russia or misinformation or Cambridge Analytica. He got elected because he ran the single best digital ad campaign Ive ever seen from any advertiser. Period.

Six months later, with a deadly virus spreading unabated in the United States and a president questioning whether to hold an election, I dont think Bosworth would again write those words, never mind in such an offhand way. If polls are to be believed, Trump is substantially more disliked, and in more profound ways, now than he was at the beginning of the year. But it is interesting to get a glimpse of Bosworths thought process. Citing the moral philosopher John Rawls, he asserts that the moral way to decide something is to remove yourself entirely from the specifics of any one person involved, and this reasoning prevents him from limiting the reach of publications who have earned their audience, as distasteful as their content may be to me and even to the moral philosophy I hold so dear.

He quickly added the familiar caveats: That doesnt mean there is no line. Things like incitement of violence, voter suppression, and more are things that same moral philosophy would safely allow me to rule out.

Accountability is coming for Big Tech. Not just because Congress had an impressive hearing, but because the confluence of crises now demands action, even by these companies own hands-off logic. There is no choice but to reclaim the unchecked power these platforms wield. This is about more than Facebook spreading fake cures and voter suppression, or YouTube sending its users down rabbit holes of conspiracy and hate, or Apple and Amazon becoming so central in how we get news and entertainment and how we conduct commerce. This is about how a nation protects its people.

Perhaps in better times we could assume the best of these platforms and be swayed by their promises to fix whatever problem crops up. But when our nation is tested as it is now, we cant accept band-aid fixes and assurances that they already have a way to do better next time.

Mike Tyson had a good way of explaining Silicon Valleys current inadequacy in the face of the crises theyre up against: Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

Photographs: Graeme Jennings/Getty Images; LMPC/Getty Images

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For Big Tech, Theres No Winning This Round - WIRED

Big Tech antitrust hearing: breaking down the most important moments – The Verge

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On July 29th, the long-awaited Big Tech antitrust hearing from the House Judiciarys antitrust subcommittee was held. For several hours, four of the biggest figures in tech Apples Tim Cook, Amazons Jeff Bezos, Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg, and Googles Sundar Pichai were grilled by lawmakers.

This week on The Vergecast, The Verges Nilay Patel, Makena Kelly, Adi Robertson, and Casey Newson dedicated an entire episode to the important moments from the six-hour hearing, the notable emails and internal documents made available from the investigation, and how effective the panel was in laying out a case for regulating big tech companies in the US.

The day after the hearing, all of those companies released their quarterly earnings. The Vergecast crew also discusses the difference in messaging from the companies resistance to claims of being a monopoly and to the profits they made during a pandemic and recession.

You can listen to all of that here or in your preferred podcast player.

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Big Tech antitrust hearing: breaking down the most important moments - The Verge

Big Tech and antitrust: Pay attention to the math behind the curtain – Brookings Institution

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It was the Wizard of Oz in digital format as the four titans of Big Tech testified via video before the House Antitrust Subcommittee. Just like in the movie, what the subcommittee saw was controlled by a force hidden from view. The wizard in this casethe reason these four companies are so powerfulis the math that takes our private information and turns it into their corporate asset.

The hearing was the next step in the subcommittees year-long investigation of Big Techs effect on a competitive market and the effectiveness of Americas antitrust laws. The witnesses, subcommittee chairman David Cicilline (D-RI) said, were gatekeepers to the economy[with] the power to pick winners and losers, shake down small businesses and enrich themselves while choking off competitors.

During nearly six hours of testimony the CEOs of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet (Google) dealt with a litany of diverse topics. Republicans saw an opportunity to work the referees and complain about alleged bias by social media. The subcommittees Democratic majority, however, was clearly prepared. The CEOs were forced to defend practices as diverse as their relationship with China, their acquisitions of other companies, and the myth that they protect consumer privacy.

This was a hearing to explore antitrust policies, and as such, it focused on the effects of the companies market power. Left mostly unaddressedand remaining behind the curtainwas the source of that power. That source is the collection and hoarding of the digital data that fuels the software algorithms that deliver the companies services. It is the 21st century equivalent of Rockefellers 20th century monopoly over oil.

Except that the data asset is far more valuable than industrial assets such as oil. As a result, the monopolistic control of data is even more onerous than industrial monopolies such as Rockefellers. Unlike industrial assets such as oil, data is reusable. Data is also iterative, as its use in a product creates new data. Additionally, data is non-rivalrous, in that its use by one party does not preclude its use by another.

The internet platform barons assembled at the hearing are, as a result of the nature of the asset they monopolize, infinitely more powerful that Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan or the industrial barons of the early 20th century. It is all about the math that is hiding behind the curtain.

The math machinescomputer algorithmsbecome more valuable and more precise as they are fed more data. Whoever controls that data, therefore, controls the market. Mark Zuckerberg, for instance, was able to take on the reigning social media service Myspace only 15 years ago, because the use of social media data to target advertising was in its infancy. Today, even if an startup had a better product, the new companys ability to sell advertising would be constrained by the amount of data Facebook collects from a user base of almost one-third of the people on the planet and the precision that data provides.

And the data that Big Tech holds in their computers is locked away behind the wizards curtain, unavailable to innovators and the potential of new competition.

But not all datathank goodnessis hoarded like Big Tech does. If scientific data were hidden away like Big Tech hoards consumer data, the COVID-19 crisis would be much worse. Sharing data and working collaboratively across an ecosystem has been a major reason why scientists have been able to ramp up vaccine efforts. Called Deep Tech, the open availability of data about coronavirus has allowed a combination of universities and startups to search for solutions. On January 7 China published the COVID genome; a month later, Moderna had the first candidate vaccine; by March 16 the first test dose had been administeredall because of access to the necessary data.

The same holds true for artificial intelligence (AI). While the Big Tech companies are developing their own AI algorithms, their fiduciary responsibilities focus the effort on the needs of the company and shareholders, not necessarily the expansion of knowledge. Yet, since AI is nothing more than algorithms sifting through vast amounts of data to reach a conclusion, the United States success in the international race to develop AI would be greatly aided if the vast amounts of data hoarded by Big Tech were shared with Little Tech companies pursuing their own innovative ideas.

Chairman Cicilline and his subcommittee are to be commended for their antitrust investigation and the important public hearing. The subcommittee has promised a report with recommendations in August. It will be an important step towards bringing antitrust law into the digital reality of the 21st century. It is not an end in-and-of-itself, however; it is also time for the federal government to pull back the curtain and investigate the abusive hoarding of the consumers personal information and its effect on a competitive market.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are general, unrestricted donors to the Brookings Institution. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions posted in this piece are solely those of the author and not influenced by any donation.

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Big Tech and antitrust: Pay attention to the math behind the curtain - Brookings Institution

What factors will shape Big Tech regulation? | TheHill – The Hill

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The House Judiciary Committees antitrust subcommittee hearing Wednesday established clearly that Big Tech will be regulated and held accountable. As noted by Rep. David CicillineDavid Nicola CicillineFive takeaways from Big Tech's blowout earnings What factors will shape Big Tech regulation? Hillicon Valley: House panel grills tech CEOs during much anticipated antitrust hearing | TikTok to make code public as it pushes back against 'misinformation' | House Intel panel expands access to foreign disinformation evidence MORE (D-R.I.) while the names have changed from Rockefeller and Carnegie to Big Tech the story is the same. As Cicilline said, Big Tech platforms form the arteries of our economic activity and democracy and have abused their power as the railroads of the new economy. Regulation is imminent.

The hearings established common troubling patterns across Big Tech. There is abundant evidence that Big Tech companies are exploiting data and market power to act in ways that are harmful to competition, society and individuals. They monitor and control the competition under the guise of improving the product for which they have user consent, when in fact, their questionable business practices stifle competition, invade privacy, steal intellectual property (IP) and undermine democracy.

While the problem is obvious, the solution is not. There is a lot at stake. How should we think about regulation? Are there useful precedents? And what is unique about current digital platforms that should be considered? Fortunately, we have starting points on both fronts for regulators to consider.

Thefinancial services industry provides a good initial blueprintfor thinking about the regulation of digital platforms. Such regulation provides a few central tenets that apply to digital platforms. For starters, the operator of a marketplace cannot selectively reward or punish its participants at will or steal their intellectual property (IP). In contrast to financial marketplaces, Google operates both as a buyer and a seller in the ad marketplace, which it controls. Similarly, Amazon competes with its sellers, sometimes driving them out of business. The same is true of Apple, which uses differential pricing to thwart its competitors.

Secondly, financial institutions must know their customers (called KYC), and why they are paying you. Banks, brokers and asset managers must be able to demonstrate that their actions are in the best interests of customers. When asked by Rep. Lucy Kay McBath (D-Ga.) how Amazon knows whether its sellers information is correct, Bezos answer was we dont. Neither does Facebook, as long as it gets paid. As far as we know, Amazon could be supporting stolen goods and child labor exploitation without realizing it, as noted by McBath. Would we allow banks to turn a blind eye towards their customers?

These kinds of problems plague the Wild West digital platforms of today. Thus far, the pace of technology has outpaced our ability to control it. That must change.

But it is equally important to consider what is unique about digital platforms, especially the Big Tech platforms of today.

The first is the inherent tendency of digital platforms towards winner takeall outcomes, which leads to monopolies. It is therefore difficult to create competition. But the railroad analogy is appealing: Why not treat digital platforms like railroads and let innovation and growth occur along their rails? After all, the internet is a utility, freely available toeveryone. Why not other basic services in a digital economy?

Equally importantly, there is a unique twist that artificial intelligence Big Tech platforms create, namely, their ability for cross industry disruption due to the economies of scope they create. In an increasingly virtual world where only a few observe almost all of human activity as data in the physical and digital worlds, the knowledge acquired and its scope of application is staggering, and the incentive systems are rife for misuse. In addition, as noted by Rep. Mary Gay ScanlonMary Gay ScanlonWhat factors will shape Big Tech regulation? Hillicon Valley: House panel grills tech CEOs during much anticipated antitrust hearing | TikTok to make code public as it pushes back against 'misinformation' | House Intel panel expands access to foreign disinformation evidence Five takeaways as panel grills tech CEOs MORE (D-Pa.), their size enables them to eliminate entire industries by subsidizing massive losses via profits in their monopolies. To put their size in perspective, Facebooks market cap is roughly$15 million per employee compared to $200,000 per employee for Best Buyand similar physical economy companies. Industrial era companies ran into limits to growth naturally, whereas digital platforms have exactly the opposite propertytheir machines allow them toscale up theirsupply ondemand,virtually for free.

In effect, the Big Tech platforms have tremendous market power to enter entirely new industries like transportation and finance, while potentiallyeliminatingbanks,automanufacturers and eventransportation service providers. They have no traditional industry boundaries. What industry is Amazon in? How about Google? Or Apple? The very notion of industry has become obsolete. Regulation must recognize this shift in market structure when considering the meaning of competition in the digital economy.

Finally, given the inherent monopolistic nature of digital platforms, it makes sense to consider what parts of such platforms might be considered digital utilities that are regulated accordingly to promote equal access to these commodity services and encourage innovation. India, for example, has already adopted this position towards payments and authentication, which it considers digital utilities available to all at low prices, and the creation of data fiduciaries that enable control of data by their creators.

Utility providers operate by a strict set of standards and transparent procedures. If we all rely on a single search algorithm, for example, should we care if the operator of that algorithm changes its ranking criterion at will? How would we feel if someone rearranged the merchants on our streets every day according to what would maximize the revenues of our city, or favor some at the expense of others depending on the preferences of their operators? What risks do such capabilities impose on business and society? These questions will receive more scrutiny going forward.

I am encouraged that regulators have realized the threats by Big Tech to the economy, our political systems and individuals. As Cicilline said, quoting Louis Brandeis, in his closing remarks: We mayhave democracy, or we mayhave wealthconcentrated in thehandsof afew,but we can't have both.

VasantDharis a professor atNew York Universitys Stern School of Businessand the director of the PhD program at the Center for Data Science.

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Night Sky: The Neowise Comet, the Perseids Meteor Shower, and other Highlights for August – Island Free Press

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Hopefully You Got a Chance to See Neowise!

During July, we got a rare, close visit from the comet Neowise. Neowise came within 64 million miles of Earth on July 23. This picture was taken on July 21, using my 5 telescope. But you didnt need a telescope to see this beauty. At its brightest point in early July, you could easily see it with the naked eye. My brother-in-law in Utah went camping in the Uintah Mountains last weekend, and got spectacular views of Neowise.

If you missed Neowise, you can still view it as it pulls away from Earth. On August 1, Neowise will be located about 30 above the WNW horizon at 10:00 p.m. With a visual magnitude of +5.9, you will probably need binoculars to see it. Neowise will continue to show up in the west for the next week or two, growing dimmer every night. But try looking for it on August 8, and with a little luck you might be able to see another comet, Panstarrs at the same time. The two comets will appear about 22 above the western horizon at 10 p.m. Neither comet will be visible with the naked eye. Neowise will be the brighter of the two, with a visual magnitude of +7.8. Panstarrs is much fainter, with a visual magnitude of +10, but you might be able to see it with very good binoculars.

What you can look for in Augusts Night Skies

Venus is still doing a great job as the Morning Star! On August 1, it will rise at 2:55 a.m. With a visual magnitude of -4.4, you wont confuse it with anything else. Mercury is also visible in the morning skies. Mercury has a magnitude of -0.8, so you might get it confused with the Gemini Twins, Castor and Pollux, which also appear in the early morning eastern skies. Castor, the upper twin, rises just after 4:00 a.m., and Pollux rises half an hour later. Mercury rises at 4:55 a.m., so it lags behind the twins, but it is substantially brighter.

The evening skies still feature Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. On August 1, both Jupiter and Saturn rise before the sun sets. Jupiter will appear to ride the nearly full moon across the sky, while Saturn lags slightly behind. Mars rises at 11:18 p.m.

As a reminder, you still might be able to see comet Neowise with the naked eye on August 1. At this point in time, it will have a visual magnitude of +6.1. That means you will need really good eyes and a very clear night. Having a good a pair of binoculars handy is a good idea. At 9:00 p.m. on August 1, the comet will be about 35 degrees above the Western horizon.

The Perseids meteor shower peaks on August 12. This is a major meteor shower featuring up to 100 meteors per hour. The Perseids have been known produce a few fireballs, too. The best time to view this meteor shower is around 4:00 a.m. But, the Perseids are above the horizon all night long throughout August. So you can look for them anytime you have a clear, dark sky. They are easy to find too; simply look to the ENE after sundown. On August 12,, the Perseids will start the night very close to the ENE horizon, but as the night passes, they will arc across the sky and be about 60 above the horizon at their peak.

Moon Phases:1st Quarter is August 25Full Moon is August 3Last Quarter is August 11New Moon is August 18

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Night Sky: The Neowise Comet, the Perseids Meteor Shower, and other Highlights for August - Island Free Press

Astronomer Maria Mitchell Discovered A Comet And Fought The Gender Pay Gap – Forbes

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Maria Mitchell was the third of 10 children.

Astronomer Maria Mitchell discovered a new comet in the night sky over Nantucket on October 1, 1847. Over the next few nights, a handful of other observers around the world spotted the same celestial visitor, but Mitchell had been the first. She published her findings in January 1848; a month later, she followed up with her calculations describing the length and period of the comets orbit. Today, comet C/1847 T1 is nicknamed Miss Mitchells Comet, and the discovery gained Maria Mitchell a place among the stars of astronomy.

Born on August 1, 1818, Mitchell was the daughter of a librarian and a teacher with surprisingly egalitarian ideas about educating their daughters. Mitchell grew up helping her father, an amateur astronomer, with his observations and calculations. By her teenage years, she could operate a chronometer, a sextant, and several kinds of telescope; she could predict the timing of a solar eclipse or figure precise latitude and longitude based on the positions of the stars and planets.

Mitchell spent most of her young adulthood teaching, first as her fathers assistant and later at a private school she founded which caused a stir by being racially integrated at a time when even the abolition of American slavery was still considered a radical position. But the 1847 discovery of Miss Mitchells comet eventually put her on a new trajectory as a professional astronomer.

She received a flurry of recognition and publicity for her discovery, ranging from an 1849 gold medal from the King of Denmark (whose predecessor had, back in 1831, promised a gold medal to anyone who discovered a new comet) and recognition at the first womens rights conference in Seneca Falls, NY in July 1848, to wordwide newspaper headlines and visits from leading scholars and thinkers of the mid-1800s. The very public addition to her astronomical resume probably helped Mitchell land a job with the U.S. Coast Survey (still in business as the National Geodetic Survey, under NOAA) in 1849; the Survey was putting together navigational tables with the positions of stars and planets in different places at certain times, and it was Mitchells job to do the calculations.

And in 1865, she became a professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at the newly-founded Vassar College in New York. Few years later, she and a colleague fought and won a protracted battle with the Colleges administration for equal pay. Mitchell and her female colleague discovered in 1871 that they were being paid slightly less than half the annual salary of their male counterparts; even when they factored in the cost of housing provided by the College, the female professors were still coming up short. The lady professors refused to back down and were eventually granted equal pay and benefits.

Mitchell taught astronomy and studied the night sky at Vassar College until 1888, about a year before her death. She was also a lifelong advocate for womens suffrage and for the abolition of slavery.

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Astronomer Maria Mitchell Discovered A Comet And Fought The Gender Pay Gap - Forbes

The Most Notable Major Chains That Have Filed for Bankruptcy During the Pandemic – Entrepreneur

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Some have been able to file for Chapter 11 and reorganize, while others have liquidated and closed stores for good.

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August3, 20202 min read

As Congress continues to kick the can on a second round of federal stimulus, national retail, recreation and restaurant franchises remain vulnerable to closures and liquidations (which is to say nothing of smaller, independently owned businesses). Lord & Taylor, Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A Bank (the latter two owned by the same parent company, Tailored Brands) all filed for Chapter 11 bankrupty protection over the weekend. The three department stores join a list of major American chains across industries that were already teetering priorto the pandemic but have buckled amid stay-at-home orders and continued surges in coronavirus infection.

Below is a list, by sector, of noteworthy brick-and-mortar powerhouses that have been forced to reorder their finances, search for new ownership orliquidate some or all assets since March. (Click each brand's hyperlink for more information.)We will update the list ifneeded.

Related:Microsoft Is Permanently Closing Its Retail Stores

Related:GNC Is Closing 248 Stores After Filing for Bankruptcy. Here's the Full List

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The Most Notable Major Chains That Have Filed for Bankruptcy During the Pandemic - Entrepreneur

Love’s Furniture hiring to staff some of former Levin’s sites acquired in bankruptcy court – TribLIVE

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Love's Furniture hiring to staff some of former Levin's sites acquired in bankruptcy court - TribLIVE

Hollywood Is "Increasingly Normalizing" Self-Censorship for China, Report Finds – Hollywood Reporter

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On Aug. 5, PEN America published an explosive report that may put Hollywood on the defensive. Titled "Made in Hollywood, Censored by Beijing," the 94-page study details how the major studios and A-list directors increasingly are making decisions including cast, plot, dialogue and settings "based on an effort to avoid antagonizing Chinese officials."

The nonprofit that champions free expression cites examples of the studios inviting Chinese government regulators onto their film sets to advise "on how to avoid tripping the censors' wires," including on Marvel's 2013 film Iron Man 3. (The studios did not respond to PEN America when asked about claims in its report.)

The report which chronicles creative choices on such films as Dr. Strange, World War Z and the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick coincides with criticism from the White House that the studios routinely "kowtow" to the authoritarian government's censorship demands. In addition, Richard Gere the most high-profile actor to feel China's wrath because of his pro-Tibet statements appeared before a Senate committee June 30.

In his testimony, Gere suggested that economic interests drive studios to avoid social issues that Hollywood once addressed, including Tibet. "Imagine Marty Scorsese's Kundun, about the life of the Dalai Lama, or my own film Red Corner, which is highly critical of the Chinese legal system," Gere said. "Imagine them being made today. It wouldn't happen."

Back in 1998, then-Disney chief Michael Eisner apologized for Kundun, which depicted Chinese oppression of the Tibetan people, calling it "a form of insult to our friends," and the studio hired former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to help with the fallout of the movie. To this day, the film remains radioactive for the studio. (Kundun is not available on Disney+, and the studio did not respond when asked if it plans to add it to the platform.)

Appeasement means profits. American movies earned $2.6 billion in China in 2019, with Disney's Avengers: Endgame pulling in $614 million there alone. Perhaps considering the stakes, Disney stayed silent when Mulan star Liu Yifei drew fire last August for posting on social media during the Hong Kong protests: "I support Hong Kong's police, you can beat me up now."

The Trump administration also has been on the attack. In a July 16 policy speech, U.S. Attorney General William Barr took aim at studios, saying they have provided "a massive propaganda coup for the Chinese Communist Party." Barr added that Paramount told producers of 2013's World War Z to remove a scene in which characters speculate that a virus, which triggered a zombie apocalypse, may have originated in China. The film, which grossed $540 million globally, never received a release in China, likely because the government frowns upon themes of the undead, ghosts or time travel. (A knowledgeable source says China's zombie film ban is the biggest reason that Paramount wouldn't greenlight a $200 million David Fincher-Brad Pitt pairing for a sequel.)

Though PEN and Barr fall on the same side of the fence on China's influence on Hollywood, the nonprofit is no friend of the Trump administration. In 2018, PEN sued President Trump in federal court in an effort to prevent him from using the machinery of the government to retaliate or threaten reprisals against journalists and media outlets for coverage he dislikes (a federal judge in New York ruled in March that the suit can proceed). In a 2017 open letter written by PEN, 65 writers and artists blasted Trumps visa ban covering seven Muslim-majority countries.

The report lays out the growing phenomenon of self-censorship among the studios, fearful of having their films denied entry in the lucrative market and the ways in which flattering the government has become a powerful incentive as it can lead to better release dates, preferential advertising arrangements and a more friendly relationship with Chinese investors and regulators.

"Our biggest concern is that Hollywood is increasingly normalizing preemptive self-censorship in anticipation of what the Beijing censor is looking for," says James Tager, PEN deputy director of free expression policy and research and the report's author. USC professor Stan Rosen, an expert on China's film industry, calls the censorship criticism "a perfect storm" that will put a spotlight on the entertainment industry. "It's going to get harder and harder for Hollywood to not respond," Rosen notes.

For those working to raise awareness about human rights abuses when it comes to China's 61-year occupation of Tibet, Hollywood was once a friend and is now a foe. Films like the 1997 Brad Pitt starrer Seven Years in Tibet have been replaced by movies like DreamWorks Animation's 2019 film Abominable, which reinforces Beijing's territorial claims to the South China Sea. For 2016's Doctor Strange, Disney's Marvel was willing to face criticism for whitewashing an Asian character played by Tilda Swinton, and in the process avoided featuring a character who was Tibetan in the comic books. And Skydance/Paramount's Top Gun: Maverick was criticized, as the PEN report notes, for the "mysterious disappearance of the Taiwanese flag" on a flight jacket that was seen in the 1986 original.

"If Hollywood is siding with the money, sooner or later they will be on the wrong side and lose money because the general public will stop watching [all] movies," says Washington-based activist Tenzing Barshee, who is president of the Capital Area Tibetan Association.

Even more immediate, the industry could be stuck with a damning label when it comes to its relationship with China: hypocritical. Says Tager: "Hollywood enjoys a reputation as being willing to speak truth to power with its own government, which we applaud. We just want that standard to be applied to the rest of the world."

This story first appeared in the Aug. 5 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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Hollywood Is "Increasingly Normalizing" Self-Censorship for China, Report Finds - Hollywood Reporter

Rep. Buck wants Twitter’s Jack Dorsey to testify about ‘censorship of conservatives’ and ‘cozy’ relationshi… – Fox News

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Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., on Thursday called forTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify before Congress to address allegations of conservative content censorship and political bias.

Fox News spoke with Buck and asked if there were any plans to subpoena Dorsey, based on the fact that he was not present during a House subcommittee hearingwith America's big tech CEOs last month.

"Twitter was notably absent from the big tech hearing last month," Buck told Fox News. "It's time we hear from Jack Dorsey on Twitter's blatant censorship of conservative voices and willingness to protect the Chinese Communist Party's outright lies about the spread of thecoronavirus."

Google's Sundar Pichai, Amazon'sJeff Bezos, Apple'sTim CookandFacebook'sMark Zuckerberghad all been present to give testimony on Capitol Hill. In 2018, Dorsey said his company does not "shadowban" users based on their political beliefs in testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules. We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially, Dorsey said at that time.

Buck's also tweeted about the issueand included a side by side photo of two different headlines from The Hill. One said Twitter would be banning the Trump campaign until it removed a video promoting COVID-19 misinformation -- while the other headline claimed Twitter was allowing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to go unchecked with regard to facts and figures.

REP. KEN BUCK CALLS OUT GOOGLE'S CHINA CONNECTIONS FOLLOWING BIG TECH CEO HEARING ON CAPITOL HILL

"Congress needs to hear from@jack about Twitters clear censorship of conservatives and coziness to the Chinese Communist Party," he tweeted.

Buck has been an outspoken critic of the CCP's tactics and saidthere wasa consensus among both parties that the July hearing revealed nefarious efforts on behalf of big tech, meant tostifle innovation andcompetition within the free marketplace.

"It's absolutely clear that these platforms are using their position to stifle innovation and you hear it from both sides of the aisle," the Colorado Republican told Fox last month. "You hear the CEOs unable to speak to thespecific examples that they are being faced with."

Twitter did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.

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"Theseissues of censorship and bias would not be as big of a deal if Twitter didn't have such monopolistic control over the marketplace," Buck added.

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Rep. Buck wants Twitter's Jack Dorsey to testify about 'censorship of conservatives' and 'cozy' relationshi... - Fox News

Lee says Google, Facebook and Twitter are censoring conservative voices – Deseret News

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SALT LAKE CITY Sen. Mike Lee used his new Parler account to tout the fight hes picking with Google, Facebook, Twitter and Squarespace over how each internet platform moderates content in general, and potentially targets conservative voices

Somehow, Im willing to be(t) this will get more likes and shares on Parer (sic) than it will on Facebook and Twitter combined. In any event, I picked a big fight today with Google, Facebook, and Twitter, Lee posted to his @SenMikeLee Parler account Thursday evening.

Parler has emerged as the social media darling of some conservative U.S. politicians and commentators, and Lee has even worked to pump up the platform by issuing an invitation to President Donald Trump to join the party. Ironically, that invitation was proffered on Twitter, where the president enjoys a follower list north of 80 million accounts.

Not surprisingly, Parler was not one of the addressees of Lees letter Thursday that instead went to the CEOs of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Squarespace.

Lee, who earlier this week announced the Senate antitrust committee he chairs will host a hearing focused on Google and its online advertising practices, said he is most concerned with company conduct he believes is based on political bias rather than consistent, across-the-board content policies.

I am specifically concerned about corporations wielding their power unilaterally to silence opinions they dislike, and thus warp the public debates their platforms present to the American people, Lee wrote. In recent years, conservative voices like The Federalist, PragerU, President Trump, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, Jr., churches, religious groups, Christian schools and others have found themselves deplatformed, demonetized or otherwise penalized for expressing their opinions.

Lees concerns mirror some lines of questioning that arose during a House antitrust hearing this week that featured the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.

During that virtual hearing, Congressman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio reeled off a list of instances of purported censoring of, or content warnings issued to, conservative social media posters.

Jordan accused the group of tech executives of selectively censoring those expressing politically conservative opinions and cautioned them that If it doesnt end, there have to be consequences.

Lee issued his own admonishment of big tech companies and the power he says theyre using inappropriately.

I view your heavy-handed censorship as a sign of exactly the sort of degraded quality one expects from a monopolist, Lee wrote. In any other business you would never dream of treating your customers the way you treat those with views you dont like.

In another Parler post on Thursday evening, Utahs senior senator linked to a story posted by right-wing website Breitbart News claiming Google has been censoring the outlets content from search results since the 2016 election. Attached to the post was Lees comment, This is not ok, and it has to stop.

In his letter, Lee also called out tech leaders for their roles in taking down video content that circulated earlier this week that showed what was characterized as a press conference by a group calling itself Americas Frontline Doctors.

CNN reported that the video, which had not been viewed by the Deseret News, was published by Breitbart News and included a quote from a woman claiming to be a doctor who said This virus has a cure, its called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax, and You dont need masks, there is a cure.

Lee declined to take a position on the content of the video, but said he supported a social media arena of open dialogue.

While Im not in a position to endorse or refute any of the doctors comments, I believe that we should err on the side of encouraging more speech, not less, Lee wrote.

The heart of the letter goes to 11 questions seeking details of how each of the platforms manages content moderation in the stipulated areas of COVID-19; violent riots and how they are distinguished from peaceful protests; hate speech; protections of the unborn; misinformation; and terrorist influence.

The questions include how content standards are established, the scope of processes designed to screen moderators for bias, whether user consent about content moderation is appropriately established, if platforms coordinate with each other on content moderation and other issues.

Deseret News requests for comment via email and social media direct messaging to Google, Facebook, Twitter and Squarespace were not immediately responded to.

While Lee rattled the saber of bringing antitrust regulations to bear on the behaviors of U.S. tech monoliths, Sen. Mitt Romney struck a somewhat more measured tone in comments he made Thursday at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

I know theres great interest, sometimes politically, to go after some of the big tech companies, Google, Amazon and so forth and Facebook, and berate them for their market power, Romney said. And if they violate American antitrust laws, why, thats totally appropriate.

But I would note that were in a global competition. And China has been successful in driving a lot of Western companies out of business. Theyve not been successful in driving companies like these out of business. These are thriving and succeeding. The last thing we ought to be doing is trying to knock down businesses in the United States that are succeeding on a global stage.

Romney referenced the U.S. dominance, thus far, of China when it comes to innovation industries but cautioned against overreach when it comes to the companies that have solidified the countrys current high tech upper hand.

So, we need to be careful not to flex our muscle to berate those entities that are successful and are beating China, Romney said. Alibaba would like to replace Amazon. TikTok would like to replace Instagram. It just an area of concern.

Contributing: Dennis Romboy

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Lee says Google, Facebook and Twitter are censoring conservative voices - Deseret News