AI-Driven News and Social Credibility Tool Launches in US to Identify and Combat Fake News – PRNewswire

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In the current era of misinformation and fake news,Logically, a credible news curator rooted in artificial intelligence (AI), is making its first foray into the U.S. market bringing credibility and confidence to news and social discourse ahead of the 2020 elections. Well established in both the UK and India, the company today launches its Chrome browser extension to fact check, analyze and evaluate the credibility of online articles and comments on social platforms. Logically is accredited by theInternational Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).

News ArticlesCovering more than 100,000 news sites globally, the Logically extension labels the credibility of any source (low, medium, high) and article (reliable, unreliable) and establishes the sentiment of the story. In addition, Logically also highlights key people, places, topics and institutions behind the headlines to give readers a more Immersive understanding of any story. A Related Articles tab allows users to browse and click through to articles on the same topic from different sources to round out their knowledge on the topic.

Logically will also fact check any claim in any news source for an individual user. Within a specific article, a user just clicks on the Logically extension icon, selects the Fact Check tab, then either selects a claim that has already populated or enters the claim manually. All fact checks returned are evidenced by at least 3 sources/URLs and are shareable to Facebook or Twitter.

With the largest fact checking team in the world, the company will currently turn individual requests within 24 hours. By mid-August, the company will introduce its automated research assistant to suggest credible evidence and prior factchecks for any user requests.

Social PlatformsWorking across Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and YouTube, the Logically extension fact checks and determines the toxicity level of social posts and commentary. If a post is deemed toxic, the post will be labeled and obscured. An icon next to the post helps the user to understand why the post has been obscured and we give our users the power to personalize the level to which they are exposed to these posts in the future. Claims found on social platforms can also be easily fact checked through the extension.

"With the ease of online publishing today, it is becoming harder for people to determine which sources are credible and which aren't, leading the way for toxic news to travel faster than truth," said Lyric Jain, founder and CEO of Logically. "Our goal is to stop the spread of misinformation by empowering people with tools that help them cope with information overload by assessing the credibility and veracity of sources. We want to ensure people see both sides of an issue by providing context, and to keep elections fair by providing facts while mitigating threats and influence operations."

How it WorksLogically uniquely utilizes multiple AI models, alongside natural language processions (NLP), to process, understand and analyze text. Built on a set of modular processes capable of analyzing endless amounts of data, the technology ingests, extracts and structures information to provide context.

The ensemble nature of Logically's AI models differentiates it from any other misinformation or fact checking technology on the market today. Analyzing content from 100,000+ sources and 500,000+ articles per day, the company's AI leaves no stone unturned, evaluating every possible indicator of an article's accuracy, as well as the specific claims contained within the text, to inform more sophisticated conclusions than rival models. Logically analyzes the network, content and metadata to reach its conclusions.

Live in both the UK and India, the company has gained major traction in both markets over the last several years, supporting government and platform partners in both markets through 3 elections and the Covid-19 pandemic. In India, the company identified 50 thousand fake stories during the last election campaign alone.

Logically recently closed its seed round of funding from U.K.-based Mercia and XTX, bringing the company's total raise to nearly $10 million. The company will additionally be bringing its flagship fact-finding app to the U.S. market in the coming weeks, leading up to the U.S. political conventions and election.

About LogicallyFounded in 2017 by MIT and Cambridge alum Lyric Jain, Logically is a social enterprise that leverages artificial and human intelligence to credibly curate news and social discourse today. Working with government bodies and social platforms, and providing consumer products, the company solves for the issue of misinformation that plagues the world today. The company has offices in the U.K. and India, and is opening an office in the U.S. For more information, please visit Logically.ai.

SOURCE Logically

https://www.logically.ai

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AI-Driven News and Social Credibility Tool Launches in US to Identify and Combat Fake News - PRNewswire

Heres one reason youre more likely to believe #fakenews and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 – MarketWatch

Think before you click.

People who get their news from social-media platforms like Facebook FB, -0.67% and Twitter TWTR, -0.02% are more likely to have misperceptions about COVID-19, according to new study led by researchers at McGill University in Montreal. Those that consume more traditional news media have fewer misperceptions and are more likely to follow public health recommendations like social distancing, the paper published in the latest issue of Misinformation Review concluded.

The likes of Twitter and Facebook have increasingly in recent years become the primary sources of news, and misinformation, for people around the world, the study said. In the context of a crisis like COVID-19, however, there is good reason to be concerned about the role that the consumption of social media is playing in boosting misperceptions, says co-author Aengus Bridgman, a Ph.D. candidate in political science at McGill University.

There is good reason to be concerned about the role that the consumption of social media is playing in boosting misperceptions.

Even after adjusting for demographics such as scientific literacy and socioeconomic differences, those who regularly consume social media rather than traditional media were less likely to observe social distancing and to perceive COVID-19 as a threat. There is growing evidence that misinformation circulating on social media poses public health risks, says co-author Taylor Owen, an associate professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University.

The researchers looked at the behavioral effects of exposure to fake news by combining social-media news analysis and survey research. They combed through millions of tweets, thousands of news articles and a nationally representative survey of Canadians to answer: How prevalent is COVID-19 misinformation on social media and in traditional news media? Does it contribute to misperceptions about COVID-19? And does it affect behavior?

The social-media platforms have been criticized for their failures to stop the spread of misinformation, especially concerning elections and the coronavirus pandemic, despite a number of new policies enacted since Russia used the platforms to interfere in the 2016 elections. In May, Twitter marked tweets by President Donald Trump with a fact-check warning label for the first time, after the president falsely claimed mail-in ballots are substantially fraudulent. (He has continued to make such claims on social media and elsewhere.)

Last week, social-media sites attempted to quash a video pushing misleading information about hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment which led to Twitters partially suspending Donald Trump Jr.s account. The video featured doctors calling hydroxychloroquine a drug used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis for decades a cure for COVID, despite a growing body of scientific evidence that has not shown this to be true.

Some outlandish and unsubstantiated rumors about COVID-19 persist. To adherents of such beliefs, its a dastardly bioweapon designed to wreak economic armageddon on the West; a left-wing conspiracy to damage the re-election prospects of Trump; a virus that leaked from a Wuhan, China, laboratory, perhaps with intent. Paranoia serves to politicize a global public health emergency and distract from potentially life-saving measures to contain and/or slow the spread of coronavirus, health professionals say.

In April, the president floated the idea of using ultraviolet light inside the body or a disinfectant by injection as a treatment for coronavirus I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? a suggestion doctors called dangerous. (The next day, Trump claimed he was not being serious: I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen.)

As of Monday, COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, had infected at least 18.1 million people globally and 4.7 million in the U.S. It had killed over 690,413 people worldwide and at least 154,944 in the U.S. Cases in California hit 512,606 and deaths reached 9,400 as it reported 4,381 new cases Sunday and 35 new deaths, down from 7,118 new cases and 134 new deaths Saturday. New York has the most fatalities (32,710) followed by New Jersey (15,836).

The Dow Jones Industrial Index DJIA, +0.89% were trading higher Monday, as investors tracked round two of the potential fiscal stimulus. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.71% and Nasdaq Composite COMP, +1.46% alsoentered the week higher; some of the industrys largest and most powerful players Apple AAPL, +2.52% Facebook FB, -0.67%, Amazon. AMZN, -1.66% and Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, -0.34% GOOG, -0.57% reported their results Friday.

Related:Wrong! Trump and Fauci clash over surge in coronavirus cases, handling of economic shutdown and hydroxychloroquine

Big challenges remain for 21st-century journalism, too. Traditional journalism, according to a study released last year, has been shedding objectivity. Researchers found a major shift occurred between 1989 and 2017 as journalism expanded beyond traditional media, such as newspapers and broadcast networks, to newer media, including 24-hour cable news channels and digital outlets. Notably, these measurable changes vary in extent and nature, they concluded.

Our research provides quantitative evidence for what we all can see in the media landscape, said Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior political scientist at RAND, a nonpartisan think tank in Santa Monica, Calif., and lead author of the report on Truth Decay, on the declining role of facts and analysis in civil discourse. Journalism in the U.S. has become more subjective and consists less of the detailed event- or context-based reporting that used to characterize news coverage.

Journalism in the U.S. has become more subjective and consists less of the detailed event- or context-based reporting that used to characterize news coverage.

The analysis carried out by a RAND text-analytics tool previously used to identify support for and opposition to Islamic terrorists on social media scanned millions of lines of text in print, broadcast and online journalism from 1989 (the first year such data were available via Lexis Nexis) to 2017 to identify usage patterns in words and phrases. Researchers were then able to measure these changes and compare them across all digital, media and print platforms.

Researchers analyzed content from 15 outlets representing print, television and digital journalism. The sample included the New York Times, Washington Post and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, CBS US:CBS, ABC DIS, -0.50%, CNN T, +0.13%, Fox News FOX, +1.86% FOXA, +2.28%, MSNBC CMCSA, +0.18%, Politico, the Blaze, Breitbart, Buzzfeed Politics, the Daily Caller and the Huffington Post. They found a gradual and subtle shift between old and new media toward a more subjective form of journalism.

Before 2000, broadcast-news segments were more likely to include relatively complex academic and precise language, as well as complex reasoning, the researchers said. After 2000, however, broadcast news became more focused on on-air personalities and talking heads debating the news. (The year 2000 is significant as ratings of all three major cable networks in the U.S. began to increase dramatically.)

Traditional newspapers made the least dramatic shift over time, the study observed. Our analysis illustrates that news sources are not interchangeable, but each provides mostly unique content, even when reporting on related issues, said Bill Marcellino, a behavioral and social scientist with RAND and co-author of the report. Given our findings that different types of media present news in different ways, it makes sense that people turn to multiple platforms.

Its not the only report to find a shift toward opinion and subjectivity in news. Tumultuous news cycles have made an impact on global opinions regarding media, according to the 2019 U.S. News & World Reports 2019 countries ranking. Some 63% of people say that there are no longer any objective news sources they can trust. Whats more, more than 50% agree that political and social issues around the world have gotten worse over the past year.

That survey drew on answers from 20,301 people around the world. Republican baby boomers were found to be more likely to share fake news on Facebook in the study. Why? One theory puts the emphasis on this groups age: As they didnt grow up with technology, they may be more susceptible to being fooled in an online environment. (Case in point: the variety of scams that have had success with older Americans by preying on their lack of familiarity with how computers and technology work.)

Key Words: Political-communication scholar has a catchy new name for fake news: V.D.

Heres that chart:

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Heres one reason youre more likely to believe #fakenews and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 - MarketWatch

Covid-19: Misinformation, fake news on coronavirus is proving to be contagious – Hindustan Times

Covid-19:Misinformation, fake news on coronavirus is proving to be contagious - more lifestyle - Hindustan Times "; forYoudata += ""; forYoudata += ""; forYoudata += ""; count++; if (i === 7) { return false; } }); forYouApiResponse=forYoudata; $(forutxt).html('Recommended for you'); $(foruContent).html(forYoudata); } } }); } else if(forYouApiResponse!=''){ $(forutxt).html('Recommended for you'); $(foruContent).html(forYouApiResponse); } } function getUserData(){ $.ajax({ url:"https://www.hindustantimes.com/newsletter/get-active-subscription?usertoken="+user_token, type:"GET", dataType:"json", success: function(res){ if(res.length>0) { $("[id^=loggedin]").each(function(){ $(this).hide(); }); } } }); } function postUserData(payLoad, elm){ var msgelm=$(elm).parents(".subscribe-update").nextAll("#thankumsg"); $.ajax({ url:"https://www.hindustantimes.com/newsletter/subscribe", type:"POST", data:payLoad, contentType: "application/json", dataType: "json", success: function(res){ if(res.success===true){ $(msgelm).show(); 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Covid-19: Misinformation, fake news on coronavirus is proving to be contagious - Hindustan Times

Facebook Complies With Brazilian Judge’s Order To Block 12 Accounts Accused Of Running A Fake News Network – Inventiva

(BRASILIA, Brazil) Facebook announced Saturday it has obeyed a Brazilian judges order for a worldwide block on the accounts of 12 of President Jair Bolsonaros supporters who are under investigation for allegedly running a fake news network.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said Friday night that the company had failed to fully comply with a previous ruling ordering the accounts to be shut down, saying they were still online and publishing by changing their registration to locations outside Brazil.

Facebook issued a statement saying it complied due to the threat of criminal liability for an employee in Brazil.

But it called the new order extreme, saying it poses a threat to freedom of expression outside of Brazils jurisdiction and conflicting with laws and jurisdictions worldwide. The company said it would appeal to the full court.

Facebook also argued it had complied with the previous order by restricting the ability for the target Pages and Profiles to be seen from IP locations in Brazil.

People from IP locations in Brazil were not capable of seeing these Pages and Profiles even if the targets had changed their IP location, the company said.

Moraes said that Facebook ought to pay $ 367,000 in penalties for not complying with his previous decision during the last eight days.

He also had ruled Twitter should block the accounts. While Twitter said then the decision was disproportionated under Brazils freedom of speech rules and that it would appeal, the targeted profiles were disabled.

Moraes is overseeing a controversial investigation to determine whether some of Bolsonaros most ardent allies are running a social media network aimed at spreading threats and fake news against Supreme Court justices.

The probe is one of the main points of confrontation between Bolsonaro and the Supreme Court.

The president himself filed a lawsuit last week demanding the accounts to be unblocked.

Source: Time

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Facebook Complies With Brazilian Judge's Order To Block 12 Accounts Accused Of Running A Fake News Network - Inventiva

Microsoft’s takeover would be a win for TikTok and tech giants not users – The Conversation AU

In what seems to be a common occurrence, Chinese video-sharing app TikTok is once again in the headlines.

After months of speculation about national security risks and users data being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party, US President Donald Trump has announced plans to ban TikTok in the United States any day now.

In response, a deal is being negotiated between TikToks parent company ByteDance and US software giant Microsoft. If successful, Microsoft will take over the apps operations in the US and potentially also in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

A US ban would not be unprecedented. India barred TikTok last month, alongside dozens of other Chinese-owned apps and websites.

According to reports, ByteDance has agreed to sell some of its TikTok operations to Microsoft. The deal, which is unlikely to progress before mid-September, would appease US regulators and could be seen as a way forward for TikTok in Australia.

Microsoft has indicated any takeover would include a complete security review and an offer of:

continuing dialogue with the United States government, including with the president.

Moving ownership to a US company could help address concerns surrounding the perceived influence of the Chinese government over TikTok. But there will need to be strong oversight to ensure existing user data is transferred entirely to Microsofts control.

While Microsoft has pledged to ensure TikTok data are deleted from servers outside the country after it is transferred it would be difficult to prove copies had not been made before control was handed over.

Whats more, a Microsoft-owned TikTok may not appeal to everyone. Some may think Microsoft is too closely tied to the US government, or may consider it a monopoly holder in the personal computing market.

Also, it would be naive to think foreign governments will not be able to covertly access US-stored user data, if they are so inclined.

Should the deal go ahead, it may open an opportunity for the Australian and New Zealand governments to align with a US-supported initiative.

Australia is still deciding how to proceed, with the Senate Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media due to hear from TikTok representatives on August 21. The committee has been tasked to look at the influence of social media on elections and the use of such platforms to distribute misinformation.

TikTok wont be alone though Facebook and Twitter are both due to attend. It is, however, unlikely the Microsoft acquisition will have much influence on the proceedings as the deal is still in the early days of discussion.

Microsofts acquisition may introduce fresh concerns about the US governments influence over TikTok. Although, this is perhaps more politically palatable than potential Chinese government influence over the app given the Chinese Communist Partys unsavoury record of privacy abuses.

Perhaps the only winner from the deal would be ByteDance itself. A product that is increasingly disliked by foreign governments will only become harder to sell with time. It would make sense for ByteDance to cash out its asset sooner rather than later.

The deal would also likely earn it a significant payout, given TikToks millions of users.

Read more: TikTok tries to distance itself from Beijing, but will it be enough to avoid the global blacklist?

Despite ongoing allegations, there is no solid evidence of a threat to either national security or personal data from using TikTok. Many of the concerns hinge on data sovereignty specifically, where data are stored and who can use and access them.

TikTok has responded to allegations by stating its user data are not stored in China and are not subject to Chinese government influence or access.

That said, while TikTok user data may well be stored outside China, it is unclear whether the Chinese government has already secured access, or will seek to do so later through legal channels.

Read more: China could be using TikTok to spy on Australians, but banning it isnt a simple fix

There are, however, other potential issues that may be driving the USs concerns.

For instance, in 2018 an unexpected consequence of sharing fitness tracker data through the Strava website inadvertently revealed the locations of secret US military bases.

Thus, services such as TikTok which are meant to be relatively benign (if used ethically) can, under certain circumstances, present unexpected threats to national security. This may explain why Australias defence forces have banned the app.

Read more: Strava storm: why everyone should check their smart gear security settings before going for a jog

Threats from the US against TikTok are not new.

The countrys Secretary of State Mike Pompeo indicated TikTok was being examined by US authorities in early July. And suggestions of a national security review go as far back as November last year.

However, in regards to Trumps most recent threat, one contributing factor may be the personal feelings of the president himself.

There are theories much of the new hype over TikTok could be a reaction from Trump to an ill-fated political rally in Tulsa.

A number of TikTok users reserved tickets to the Trump rally and didnt show up, as a protest against the president. The rally saw only a few thousand supporters attend, out of hundreds of thousands of allocated tickets.

Continue reading here:

Microsoft's takeover would be a win for TikTok and tech giants not users - The Conversation AU

The Tech Giants Are Dangerous, and Congress Knows It – The Atlantic

By the time the subcommittee called the CEOs, it had amassed deep knowledge and uncovered a damning paper trail. With many of their questions, members seemed to know the inner workings of the companies better than their executives. Asking about anticompetitive practices, Cicilline reduced Googles Sundar Pichai to mumbling incoherently about kettlebells; using specific examples, the subcommittee members Pramila Jayapal and Joe Neguse prodded Amazons Jeff Bezos into admitting instances of his companys anticompetitive behavior.

Ever since the election of President Donald Trump, which revealed the rampant manipulation of social media, the backlash against Silicon Valley has often felt shapeless. Because these companies have tendrils extended into seemingly every aspect of American life, the complaints against them have sprawled. They have been criticized for an insensitivity to privacy, their role in the proliferation of misinformation, their cozy relationship with China, their creation of addictive products, their tax-avoidance schemes, and so on. With such a boundless litany of attacks, the companies have benefited from their critics failure to focus their arguments.

But where Zuckerberg suffered a barrage of disconnected complaints, these hearings got to the nub of the problem: The internet has allowed the creation of a new style of monopoly. Nobody escapes the pull of these dominant firms, which have the power to pick winners and losers, in both the economy and the realm of information. The long, familiar list of complaints about the tech giants was distilled to its most essential elementthe danger that concentrated market power poses to competitive capitalism and democracy.

Franklin Foer: What Big Tech wants out of the pandemic

Like every other occasion in Trumps Washington, the hearings featured instances of partisan sniping. But what made the proceeding so distinctive is the broad agreement they evinced. Hardly any member was willing to defend the companies with anything close to conviction. Even when Trumps devoted defender Jim Jordan launched into conspiracy theories about how Google aims to strangle conservative opinion, he was mouthing a version of Cicillines argument. The companies, Jordan was saying, have become omnipotent gatekeepers with the power to invisibly shape the flow of information however they please.

Invoking a dusty name, several Democrats on the committee spoke reverently about the Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who led the anti-monopoly movement of the early 20th century. By conjuring his ghost, they were aligning themselves with an older, more pugilistic strand of antitrust than has been practiced in Washington the past few generations. They were signaling a broader revolt against the long-dominant Chicago school of political economy, under which the governments worries about monopoly narrow to a standard called consumer welfare. In that paradigm, regulators and courts sought to punish only monopolies that raised prices, which meant that they rarely took any action at all. (And the standard seems antiquated in an era when many tech companies give their products to consumers for free.) But todays hearings represented a return to Brandeisian worries about corporate behemoths, about how they use their size to hurt small businesses, how concentrated economic power can so easily distort the functioning of democracy.

The rest is here:

The Tech Giants Are Dangerous, and Congress Knows It - The Atlantic

Tech CEOs antitrust hearing what awaits the tech giants? – TechHQ

This week, a house panel is inquiring about the state of competition among Silicon Valley giants such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. The CEOs of the infamous tech behemoths will testify at a virtual hearing on Wednesday.

This antitrust investigation fits into a bigger picture of tech giants criticized for their anti-competition practices favoring their own products, monopolizing the market, and choking off competition through the acquisition of startups before they have a chance to take off, creating an imbalance in the tech-verse.

The high-profile hearing proceeds as the industry continues to reel from a widespread backlash against large tech corporations, known as Techlash, that gained momentum in 2018. Recurring issues regarding data privacy, consumer rights, and the power of tech giants in influencing political outcomes, have added fuel to growing weariness and skepticism towards big tech practices.

The hearing will mark the first time Amazons Jeff Bezos (with a net worth of US$171.6 billion) will testify before Congress, but also the first time for all four CEOs will testify at the same congressional hearing. The event is expected to be the first step taken towards laying a blueprint for antitrust regulations in the tech world.

Since last June, the Subcommittee has been investigating the dominance of a small number of digital platforms and the adequacy of existing antitrust laws and enforcement, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and Antitrust Subcommittee ChairmanDavid Cicillinesaid in a joint statement.

Given the central role these corporations play in the lives of the American people, it is critical that their CEOs are forthcoming. As we have said from the start, their testimony is essential for us to complete this investigation.

Californian consumer tech leader Apple is being investigated for the way it manages its apps store after claims were made that the iPhone maker gives preference towards its own apps over third-party entities. Many app developers have called out the firms ironclad control of its App Store, accusing the firm of applying rules inconsistently, particularly for apps that compete with Apples own products. Ultimately, this can lead to higher prices and fewer choices for consumers.

For its part, social media giant Facebook is involved in seemingly endless controversy, but the hearing will focus on allegations over data privacy and its acquisition of large entities such as Instagram and WhatsApp. Taha Yasseri, asenior research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute said, one company owning four of the most popular social networking and communication apps, at best, can be described as a data monopoly.

Combined, the data from multiple platforms can lead to an extremely high level of precision in modeling our traits and behaviors. This amount of power should be regulated. said Yasseri.

However, Facebook haswon a temporary halt to a demand byEU investigators to turn over vast amounts of data, potentially frustrating efforts to build an antitrust case against the US tech giant. Facebooksued the Brussels-based commission on July 15, citing the exceptionally broad nature of the EUs orders.

Tech titan Google will likely be questioned over its unparalleled dominance on the ad and search market, while Amazon will be scrutinized on whether it promotes its own brands ahead of small sellers on its platform, and whether it capitalizes on data from smaller sellers for the benefit of its own business.

Analysts said the hearing marks the initial steps for antitrust laws to be rewritten, ensuring the rules are updated and set for the tech industry today. The hearing could see, for example, Amazon change the way it develops private label products.

So I mean, if you think about the core of anti-trust law, its not illegal. Its not forbidden to become a dominant company or a monopoly, Peter Choi, Vontobel quality growth analyst, toldYahoo Finance. Its more about the way you obtain that dominant position. And do you misuse that to sort of, you know, gain leverage in an adjacent market.

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Tech CEOs antitrust hearing what awaits the tech giants? - TechHQ

How the new Nasdaq-like tech board in Hong Kong will benefit investors and tech giants – CNBC

A pedestrian takes a photograph in front of an electronic ticker board and a screen displaying stock figures outside the Exchange Square complex, which houses the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in Hong Kong, China, on Monday, Feb. 11, 2019.

Justin Chin | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Hong Kong launched a new, Nasdaq-style technology board this week the Hang Seng Tech index which tracks 30 of the largest tech stocks listed in the city.

Analysts say that's likely to lead to more money coming in for those 30 stocks in Hong Kong, adding to a booming year for Chinese tech companies and the Hong Kong market.

There were a few mega initial public offerings in Hong Kongthis year as U.S.-listed Chinese tech giants flocked home for secondary listings. Some examples included gaming giant Netease and e-commerce firm JD.com.

More are likely to return, following tensions between the U.S. and China that led to a U.S. bill that could essentially ban many Chinese companies from listing on American exchanges, analysts predicted.

That spells good news for the Hong Kong market, they said.

Under the new tech index, its constituents are reviewed quarterly and would allow tech companies that are listed in Hong Kong to be included if they meet certain requirements.

Currently, the top five firms listed on the index areAlibaba,Tencent,Meituan Dianping,XiaomiandSunny Optical. Together, they have a combined weighting of more than 40%.

Here's what the new index could mean for investors and the listed companies themselves.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other fund products will probably be launched to track the new index, and that will spur more inflows into the stocks under the index, Morgan Stanley said in a report this week.

More investors haveinrecentyears flocked to such passive investingby putting money into such funds, as opposed to individual stock-picking.

The new index is likely to draw some interest away from the tech-heavy Nasdaq in the U.S. and lead to more turnover at the Hong Kong stock exchange, said Citi analysts in a note on Monday. They also flagged that more index-linked funds could be issued.

The following stocks will likely to enjoy the most inflows, compared to their own daily average trading volume in Hong Kong, according to Morgan Stanley.

For investors looking to decide what funds to get into that track the indexes in Hong Kong, it's worth noting that the new tech index would have achieved higher returns than the main Hang Seng composite index,according to back-testing data by the Hang Seng Indexes company.

That data showed the tech index would have returns of 36.2% for 2019 and 45.5% as of July 17. That compares to 10.95% and -2.44% respectively for the main Hang Seng index.

Alibaba, JD.com and Neteasewill likely benefit from more inflows as mainland investors would now be able to buy these stocks.

Mainland investors currently access Hong Kong-listed stocks via the Stock Connect Southbound channel. The stock connect is a program which links the exchanges of Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen, and allows investors to trade selected securities on the participating platforms through their home exchange.

However Alibaba, JD.com and Netease are not included in the Southbound initiative becausethey all have secondary listings. Their primary listings are in the U.S.

Morgan Stanley pointed out that mainland investors would now be able to invest in funds that track the new tech index via a scheme between Hong Kong and the mainland that would allow them to do so.

CNBC's Saheli Roy Choudhury contributed to this report.

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How the new Nasdaq-like tech board in Hong Kong will benefit investors and tech giants - CNBC

Lawmakers accuse tech giants of using privacy as a weapon to hurt competition – CNET

Tech CEOs swear in to testify to Congress.

In the last few years, onlineprivacy and cybersecurity have become a public concern, with tech giants like Facebook, Google and Apple backing a national law on data privacy regulations. But lawmakers at an antitrust hearing on Wednesday accused the tech companies of being disingenuous with their support for privacy -- arguing that they've used it as an excuse to snub out their competition.

The CEOs of tech giants Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google faced a five-hour series of questions from the House Judiciary's subcommittee on antitrust, specifically on whether or not they engaged in anti-competitive behavior.

Subscribe to the CNET Now newsletter for our editors' picks of the most important stories of the day.

Members of Congress gave several examples of times tech giants took actions that would directly benefit themselves while harming their competitors, like Google announcing it would phase out third-party tracking cookies by 2022 or Apple removing parental control apps shortly after it launched its own "screen time" feature.

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In both of those cases, the companies said the actions were taken to protect the privacy and security of their users, but House members argue that it was specifically to boost their own profits.

"You're using privacy as a shield, and what you're really doing is using it as a cudgel to beat down competition," said Rep. Kelly Armstrong, a Republican from North Dakota. "It's a great word that people care about, but not when it's utilized to control more of the marketplace and squeeze out smaller competitors."

The lawmaker was referring to a 2015 decision from Google to stop allowing third parties to buy YouTube ads, forcing them to buy directly from the company itself. At the time, Google said it was for privacy reasonsand CEO Sundar Pichai defended the change on Wednesday.

"It's a service we provide to our users, we obviously want to make sure we protect the privacy of our users there," Pichai said.

Rep. Lucy McBath, a Democrat from Georgia, called out Apple for removing parental control apps that were in direct competition with Screen Time, a feature the tech giant rolled out in 2018.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said it removed the apps out of a security concern, not to gain a competitive advantage.

"We were concerned, congresswoman, about the privacy and security of kids," Cook said. "The technology that was being used at the time was called MDM, and it had the ability to take over the kid's screen, and a third party could see it and so we were worried about their safety."

Read more:What is Tor? Your guide to using the private browser

Lawmakers and privacy advocates were skeptical of the tech giants' defense.

For example, by phasing out third-party tracking cookies, Google, with its widely popular set of services like YouTube, Google Maps and Android, would have a competitive advantage through its first-party tracking.

Essentially, it would be providing privacy from others, but not from Google itself, experts said. All while benefiting their own profits.

"Because Google knows who you are when you register an account or connect to their software via phone or browser, they don't need cookies to predict your behavior or know who you are," said Liz O'Sullivan, technology director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. "Google has GPS, they have your email, your search history. All of that is way more valuable than a simple cookie. So eliminating them won't even be a drop in the bucket in protecting privacy."

Gabriel Weinberg is a direct competitor to Google, as the CEO of DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused search engine. In 2018, he called out Google for owning the domain name Duck.com, which was redirected to the search giant.

At the time, Weinberg said it frequently confused DuckDuckGo users, and also raised issues with how difficult it was to add the search engine into Chrome.

"Google and Facebook routinely engage in privacy-washing, a deliberate attempt to use privacy to help their brand, but not actually deliver it to users," Weinberg said in a message after the hearing. "It misleads people into a false sense of privacy, and also is a primary contributor to the powerlessness people feel when they find out they aren't really getting what they were promised."

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Lawmakers accuse tech giants of using privacy as a weapon to hurt competition - CNET

Tech giants should not be arbiters of truth – Bangor Daily News

Monday, a group calling themselves Americas Frontline Doctors staged a press conference outside the steps of the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., in order to speak out about their belief that the medication hydroxychloroquine was an effective tool to fight COVID-19.

The star of the show was Dr. Stella Immanuel, a physician at Rehoboth Medical Center in Houston, who spoke about her own experience treating patients. Said Immanuel, In the past few months, after taking in over 350 patients, we have not lost one. Not a diabetic, not somebody with high blood pressure, not somebody with asthma, not an old person.

The video of the press conference was loaded onto social media channels quickly, where it was shared widely by many people, including, of course, President Donald Trump.

Of course, the statements made by Immanuel were contrary to the official position of both the Food and Drug Administration as well as the National Institute of Health, both of which say that hydroxychloroquine is not beneficial in the treatment of COVID. Thus, reporters began looking into her background and left wing outlets had a field day ridiculing her as someone who believes in Alien DNA and Demon Sperm.

Thats when Facebook, Twitter and Youtube jumped into our story by removing the video from their platforms.

The justification for the removal of the video was pretty simple. The tech giants all claimed that the video spread dangerous misinformation, and contradicted the scientific consensus in the medical community.

By my estimation, they are almost certainly right that Immanuel and friends were peddling misinformation, but even if the claims in the video were utter nonsense, that should have been no justification for social media companies taking it down.

The concept of free speech is about so much more than just the Constitutional protection afforded to citizens against government restrictions on speech. It is in fact a bedrock American principle that rightly holds that the free expression of ideas, even if you are wrong, and even if no one agrees with you, is vital to the healthy functioning of our republic.

Yes, even if you are wrong. Because in a free society, progress is always made by those who reject the majority opinion. Scientific advancement is made by those that break the established order, and carve a new path.

That means that a lot of liars, hucksters and morons will have to be heard. We have to tolerate that to ensure that we are able to hear the geniuses and the revolutionaries that are telling us things we arent ready to hear, but one day will be.

Ignaz Semmelweis was an obstetrician, and was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures in medicine. Observing that the mortality rate for women in his ward in Vienna went radically down if he simply washed his hands prior to treating patients, he ultimately published a book of his findings.

Unfortunately, his observations conflicted with established scientific and medical opinions among his contemporaries, and suggested doctors were causing deaths. Thus many in the medical community rejected his advice, condemning untold numbers of women to death.

Of course Semmelweis isnt alone. Aristarchus and then later Copernicus had their theories of heliocentrism widely opposed and dismissed in their time. Gregor Mendel, who conducted pioneering work on genetic inheritance was not taken seriously until more than three decades after his observations were published. The list goes on.

The point of this isnt to suggest that Immanuel is Copernicus. Quite the opposite, as I am rather certain she is no sage of truth.

But that doesnt matter. The point is that when adherence to consensus opinion becomes the thing that allows you to be heard, while contradicting it gets you suppressed and silenced, we are living in a terrifying period in American history.

The answer to troubling speech is not to shut it down. Rather it is more speech. Respond. Reflect. Debate. Engage. But dont erase, and suppress.

Besides, trying to silence unpopular or heterodox opinions just makes that troubling speech far more popular.

Today, trust in authority figures and experts has eroded. Theyve misled us too often, and it seems like their own personal agendas always twist and warp everything.

So when agents of the status quo take action to suppress contrary opinion, even if they are ultimately right, it inspires heightened interest in the thing being hidden. Any teenager who has ever been told that they cant watch a certain movie or listen to an album is well acquainted with this phenomenon.

Tech giants should not be making themselves the arbiters of what is true, and what isnt.

Matthew Gagnon, of Yarmouth, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a free market policy think tank based in Portland. Prior to Maine Heritage, he served as a senior strategist for the Republican Governors Association in Washington, D.C. Originally from Hampden, he has been involved with Maine politics for more than a decade.

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Tech giants should not be arbiters of truth - Bangor Daily News

Billionaire bosses to feel the heat over tech giants’ massive wealth and power – The Guardian

Some of the richest men in history representing the most valuable companies ever created will be grilled by Congress on Wednesday , as US authorities get increasingly serious about whether tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet have become too powerful.

The extraordinary hearing will see Amazons Jeff Bezos, Apples Tim Cook, Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg and Google owner Alphabets Sundar Pichai called to account for the market dominance of their companies dominance that many say was achieved through anti-competitive business practices.

When the US House judiciary committee gavels into order its upcoming antitrust hearing the four star witnesses will represent more than $275bn in combined personal net worth and more than $4.8tn in market value.

Wednesdays hearing follows more than a year of investigation by the House antitrust subcommittee, whose chair, representative David Cicilline, began a broad inquiry into the market power of the tech giants after the Democrats retook control of the House in 2018.

The House investigation, along with separate moves by the Federal Trade Commission and justice department, represents the first time that federal regulators have taken a hard look at the tech industry since the Microsoft case in the 1990s. Over the intervening decades, a new generation of tech behemoths have come to dominate even more aspects of the economy with little if any scrutiny from regulators in the US.

The issues at question are complex and important; the questioning at congressional hearings often is not. When Pichai last testified before the House, one congressman asked him a question about his granddaughters iPhone, giving Pichai a chance to point out that, dominant as Google may be, it is not responsible for Apple products.

Heres a preview of some questions these titans of technology should face on Wednesday:

Amazon is not only the largest retailer in the world, but the largest cloud computing company as well. The company has grown even larger by running a marketplace where third-party companies can sell their products, for a fee. Many critics argue that Amazon should not be allowed to both run the marketplace and compete within it, comparing the situation to Amazon being both player and referee an unfair advantage over the other team. Why should it be allowed to maintain this advantage?

For years, third-party sellers that use Amazons marketplace have suspected that Amazon uses sales data to launch competing products under its own private labels. Last year, an Amazon executive testified under oath that Amazon does not do this; but in April, the Wall Street Journal reported that it was standard operating practice. Did Amazons executive lie?

Amazon is a provider of cloud computing services, and some of its customers are also its competitors. Does it ever use data from its cloud customers to inform decisions about competing products?

Amazon is also an investor. Has Amazon ever used its role as a startup investor to inform the development of competing products?

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in demand, driving Amazons business to near peak holiday season levels. Have Amazon executives discussed taking advantage of the pandemic to move into new markets or extend its dominance of existing markets?

There are 900m iPhone users in the world, and the only way they can download apps to their phones is through the App Store, which Apple controls. Apple gets to decide which apps can be in the store, and takes a substantial cut of their sales. How does that gatekeeping affect consumers?

Apple has repeatedly copied features from third-party apps, incorporating them into its operating system and rendering them obsolete. Why should that practice continue to be allowed?

Last month, the developers behind the email app Hey went public with a chilling complaint: that Apple was requiring it to use its in-app payment tools and fork over a 30% commission or the app would be booted from the App Store. Why does Apple deserve such a large cut of other companies revenues?

Earlier this month, many major US tech companies said they would stop cooperating with law enforcement requests for user data from Hong Kong authorities following the passage of national security laws imposed by Beijing. Apple did not. Does Apples reliance on China as a market and supplier compromise its commitment to human rights? Will Apple provide Beijing with the personal data of dissidents?

Google had $162bn in revenues last year, but that number hardly captures its dominance in products such as maps, email, web browsing and more. It all stems from the first product, search: Google handles more than 90% of all search queries worldwide. How is this a healthy competitive market?

Googles dominance in search gives it unprecedented power to shape the information that reaches billions of people around the world. And Google has at times struggled to ensure that that information is of high quality. How does the company plan to improve search results? And should a single company have that much power in defining what the world gets to read?

For a time, the number of people using Facebook was larger than any other category of humans on Earth other than followers of Christianity; then Facebook grew even bigger. In recent years, Facebook has acquired Instagram, WhatsApp, Onavo, Oculus, CrowdTangle and Giphy. It tried to acquire SnapChat, then copied its most popular feature. It recently launched copycat versions of rivals Houseparty and TikTok. Is there a rival social media app that has gained popularity in recent years that it did not either acquire or copy?

On 26 June, amid a growing ad boycott over Facebooks failure to curb hate speech, Zuckerberg reassured employees that all these advertisers will be back on the platform soon enough. What made him so confident that advertisers would have no choice but to return to the platform, whether or not it fixed the hate speech problem?

Facebook has responded to criticism of its record on hate by pointing to the vast amount of content published every day claiming that it automatically deletes nearly 90% of hate speech before anyone flags it. If Facebook is too big to prevent its product from being used to incite genocide and mob violence, isnt it too big to exist?

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Billionaire bosses to feel the heat over tech giants' massive wealth and power - The Guardian

Lawmakers grill tech giants over their influence on consumers – WSYR

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google testified remotely on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon, defending their business practices as lawmakers questioned how they wield their power over American consumers.

The CEOs Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg fielded questions from lawmakers during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, which comes after a yearlong bipartisan investigation into unfair business practices by the tech giants.

Rep. David Cicilline, D-Rhode Island, argues that their power over the marketplace is killing small businesses across the country.

Simply put: They have too much power, Cicilline said. Any single action by one of these companies can affect hundreds of millions of us.

Why does Google steal content from honest businesses? he asked while questioning Pichai.

We support 1.4 million small businesses, Pichai answered. We see many businesses thrive.

But lawmakers argue theres little room left for competition. The CEOs pushed back, however, arguing that theres still plenty of room for competition and opportunity on their platforms.

We nurture entrepreneurs and startups, Bezos said.

If Apple is a gatekeeper, what we have done is open the gate wider, Cook said.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, questioned Zuckerberg on his companys efforts to crack down on fake accounts spreading misinformation.

Zuckerberg said Facebook invests billions of dollars a year in doing so.

Republican lawmakers also raised concerns over the platforms censorship of conservative voices.

Big techs out to get conservatives thats not a suspicion, thats not a hunch thats a fact, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said.

Zuckerberg argued that his companys goal is to offer a platform for all ideas.

So far, lawmakers havent agreed on the right way to take a more active role in policing the top tech companies.

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Lawmakers grill tech giants over their influence on consumers - WSYR

Billionaire bosses to feel heat over tech giants wealth and power – The Irish Times

Some of the richest men in history representing the most valuable companies ever created will be grilled by Congress on Wednesday , as US authorities get increasingly serious about whether tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet have become too powerful.

The extraordinary hearing will see Amazons Jeff Bezos, Apples Tim Cook, Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg and Google owner Alphabets Sundar Pichai called to account for the market dominance of their companies - dominance that many say was achieved through anti-competitive business practices.

When the US House judiciary committee gavels into order its upcoming antitrust hearing the four star witnesses will represent more than $275 billion (233.8 billion) in combined personal net worth - and more than $4.8trillion in market value.

Wednesdays hearing follows more than a year of investigation by the House antitrust subcommittee, whose chair, representative David Cicilline, began a broad inquiry into the market power of the tech giants after the Democrats retook control of the House in 2018.

The House investigation, along with separate moves by the Federal Trade Commission and justice department, represents the first time that federal regulators have taken a hard look at the tech industry since the Microsoft case in the 1990s. Over the intervening decades, a new generation of tech behemoths have come to dominate even more aspects of the economy with little if any scrutiny from regulators in the US.

The issues at question are complex and important; the questioning at congressional hearings often is not. When Mr Pichai last testified before the House, one congressman asked him a question about his granddaughters iPhone, giving Mr Pichai a chance to point out that, dominant as Google may be, it is not responsible for Apple products.

Preview

Heres a preview of some questions these titans of technology should face on Wednesday:

Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Amazon is not only the largest retailer in the world, but the largest cloud computing company as well. The company has grown even larger by running a marketplace where third-party companies can sell their products, for a fee. Many critics argue that Amazon should not be allowed to both run the marketplace and compete within it, comparing the situation to Amazon being both player and referee - an unfair advantage over the other team. Why should it be allowed to maintain this advantage?

For years, third-party sellers that use Amazons marketplace have suspected that Amazon uses sales data to launch competing products under its own private labels. Last year, an Amazon executive testified under oath that Amazon does not do this; but in April, the Wall Street Journal reported that it was standard operating practice. Did Amazons executive lie?

Amazon is a provider of cloud computing services, and some of its customers are also its competitors. Does it ever use data from its cloud customers to inform decisions about competing products?

Amazon is also an investor. Has Amazon ever used its role as a startup investor to inform the development of competing products?

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in demand, driving Amazons business to near peak holiday season levels. Have Amazon executives discussed taking advantage of the pandemic to move into new markets or extend its dominance of existing markets?

Tim Cook, Apple

There are 900million iPhone users in the world, and the only way they can download apps to their phones is through the App Store, which Apple controls. Apple gets to decide which apps can be in the store, and takes a substantial cut of their sales. How does that gatekeeping affect consumers?

Apple has repeatedly copied features from third-party apps, incorporating them into its operating system and rendering them obsolete. Why should that practice continue to be allowed?

Last month, the developers behind the email app Hey went public with a chilling complaint: that Apple was requiring it to use its in-app payment tools - and fork over a 30 per cent commission - or the app would be booted from the App Store. Why does Apple deserve such a large cut of other companies revenues?

Earlier this month, many major US tech companies said they would stop cooperating with law enforcement requests for user data from Hong Kong authorities following the passage of national security laws imposed by Beijing. Apple did not. Does Apples reliance on China as a market and supplier compromise its commitment to human rights? Will Apple provide Beijing with the personal data of dissidents?

Sundar Pichai, Google

Google had $162 billion in revenues last year, but that number hardly captures its dominance in products such as maps, email, web browsing and more. It all stems from the first product, search: Google handles more than 90 per cent of all search queries worldwide. How is this a healthy competitive market?

Googles dominance in search gives it unprecedented power to shape the information that reaches billions of people around the world. And Google has at times struggled to ensure that that information is of high quality. How does the company plan to improve search results? And should a single company have that much power in defining what the world gets to read?

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

For a time, the number of people using Facebook was larger than any other category of humans on Earth other than followers of Christianity; then Facebook grew even bigger. In recent years, Facebook has acquired Instagram, WhatsApp, Onavo, Oculus, CrowdTangle and Giphy. It tried to acquire SnapChat, then copied its most popular feature. It recently launched copycat versions of rivals Houseparty and TikTok. Is there a rival social media app that has gained popularity in recent years that it did not either acquire or copy?

On June 26th, amid a growing ad boycott over Facebooks failure to curb hate speech, Mr Zuckerberg reassured employees that all these advertisers will be back on the platform soon enough. What made him so confident that advertisers would have no choice but to return to the platform, whether or not it fixed the hate speech problem?

Facebook has responded to criticism of its record on hate by pointing to the vast amount of content published every day claiming that it automatically deletes nearly 90 per cent of hate speech before anyone flags it. If Facebook is too big to prevent its product from being used to incite genocide and mob violence, isnt it too big to exist?

- Guardian News and Media

Continued here:

Billionaire bosses to feel heat over tech giants wealth and power - The Irish Times

How the Tech Giants are Adjusting to Working From Home – Tech.co

Google has announced that its staff will work from home until at least July 2021.

The change will affect nearly all of Googles 200,000 employees, including contractors and full-time workers, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.

In a blog post in May, Google announced it would begin reopening its offices from early July this year. This was only to allow those staff who wanted or needed to come back, and was done on a limited, rotating basis, the blog said.

Google has stressed to its staff that coming back to the office would be voluntary through the end of the year, and we encourage you to continue to work from home if you can.

To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30 2021, for roles that don't need to be in the office. I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months. Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, wrote in an email to employees

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How the Tech Giants are Adjusting to Working From Home - Tech.co

ABC, SBS exclusion from tech giants’ payments a ‘government’ decision – Sydney Morning Herald

Under the draft code Google and Facebook will have three months to negotiate revenue-sharing deals with media companies before independent arbitrators are called in to impose a compulsory arrangement. The platforms will potentially face hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for breaches.

Mr Sims said in March that any revenue that came to the ABC as a result of the new code "would be applied to the delivery of ABC Charter objectives" and that there was a legitimate interst in ensuring that the value was put back into the broadcaster's journalism.

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In a submission to the ACCC about what the code should look like, SBS advocated for a collective bargaining model that would also allow for news media businesses to agree to individual commercial arrangements.

ABC's submission, which was made public on Friday, said that if the digital platforms were gaining value from using ABC news content, the public broadcaster had a "legitimate" interest in ensuring that revenue was reinvested into its journalism.

The ABC is a proven public policy tool for delivering quality news and information. A further argument is that exclusion of the ABC from this aspect of the Code could have the unintended consequence of compromising the effectiveness of the regime, by distorting the playing field in the market for public-interest journalism," its submission said.

But commercial media companies including Nine Entertainment Co (owner of this masthead) argued that the two public broadcasters shouldn't be compensated because they don't rely on advertising to fund journalism and their operating models haven't been undermined by the platforms' dominance. News Corps submission to the inquiry, which is available publicly, lobbied for the ABC to be included.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said on Friday that it was important for Australia's democracy to have a sustainable news media ecosystem and the code was focused on businesses whose viability and news production was threatened by advertising revenue losses.

"That is a policy problem that does not arise for Australia's public broadcasters, which have secure government funding, and accordingly the ABC and SBS are not the policy focus when it comes to remuneration aspects of the proposed mandatory code," he said.

An SBS spokesperson said the broadcaster was "disappointed" to have been excluded from the remuneration provisions.

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"Nearly a third of our funding comes from commercial sources, so it is appropriate that Google and Facebook contribute to investment in our valued news content, which benefits all Australians," the spokesperson said. "We will continue to engage constructively in this process prior to the finalisation of the code." ABC declined to comment.

The ACCC's approach is almost identical to one method proposed by News Corp. Mr Sims said that when the regulator decided to pursue an arbitration model, News Corp proposed "final offer arbitration". The idea was embraced by the ACCC as a proven way of bringing the parties together.

"In the end we thought that was the right way forward," he said. "But [News Corp] suggested it before we did."

Nine and other media organisations had proposed an alternative model whereby the government would calculated, collect and allocate a pool of revenue. Mr Sims said that the Nine proposal was problematic because the government would have too much involvement."You really don't want government determining these things. You want this to be a result of commercial negotiation," he said.

The code was largely welcomed by the industry when it was released, but Google managing director Mel Silva expressed disappointment. Ms Silva said that the code threatened the ability of Google to deliver services effectively to Australian consumers. In other markets where Google has been forced to pay publishers, it has withdrawn some services.

News publishers and the digital platforms are expected to provide responses to the draft legislation by August 28.

Zoe Samios is a media and telecommunications reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Fergus Hunter is an education and communications reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

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ABC, SBS exclusion from tech giants' payments a 'government' decision - Sydney Morning Herald

The Perseverance rover is our best bet for finding life on Mars – TNW

Next spring is going to be a busy time for Mars. In close succession, three spacecraft will arrive at the planet, joining the dozen or so craft already circling Mars. Two of the spacecraft were launched in the past couple of weeks by newcomers to martian exploration: the United Arab Emirates Al-Amal (meaning Hope) and Chinas Tianwen-1 (which means Question to Heaven).

The third vessel will be NASAs Mars 2020, containing the Perseverance rover, which just took off successfully from Florida. While this rover will be just one of many on the red planet, it is our best bet for finding life there for the time being.

The sudden flurry of activity is a result of planetary dynamics: every two or so years, the orbits of Earth and Mars align so that the two bodies are at their closest to each other. This results in a shorter interplanetary transit time, of just over six months. The next such launch window will not be until 2022 when it is expected that the European Space Agencys ExoMars 2022 will join the throng.

It is legitimate to question why we keep sending rockets to Mars. Surely we have acquired enough images of the surface and its landscapes to know that water used to be there, but has now vanished? True enough but there are still mysteries to solve: when did the water go, and why? And, of course, the biggest question of all: is (or was) there life on Mars?

The three missions have different objectives: Hope will orbit the planet for at least two Earth years (one Martian year), acquiring data on Mars weather just like the weather satellites orbiting Earth. Tianwen-1 will orbit Mars and is carrying a rover that will be parachuted down to the surface at Utopia Planitia, where it will analyze the soil and take images of the surface.

Perseverance will arrive almost at the same time but a couple of thousand kilometers away in Jezero Crater. It will be deposited on the surface by sky-crane technology (see the video below), the same method that delivered Curiosity so successfully in 2012.

Perseverance carries a full complement of scientific instruments that will measure all the usual things that get measured on Mars: the chemistry and mineralogy of the rocks and soil, the amount and type or organic material present at and just below the surface, and so on. But there are two other features of the mission that make it unique.

First of all is the helicopter/drone called Ingenuity that will be released from beneath the rover. This will fly from Perseverance and circle around before landing away from the rover. It is not certain what the range of the drone will be although the flight will only last a few minutes and Ingenuity will land only a few meters away from the rover.

The idea behind the flight is to test the concept of atmospheric flight on Mars. Eventually, it is anticipated, drones will be able to fly for much longer and for greater distances. This could help guide rovers, identifying features worth investigating and hazards to avoid.

The ingenuity drone. NASA/JPL-Caltech

The second unique feature is a drilling and caching system. Perseverance is the first rover to have the capability to drill a core, about ten centimeters long and one centimeter in diameter, and extract it intact from the drill hole. Perseverance will take samples from a range of different rock types as it traverses the crater floor. The drill cores will be left in a small pile a cache for collection, possibly in early 2027, and subsequent transport back to Earth (estimated arrival time is still not known, but maybe around spring 2032).

Why is it so important to bring samples back from Mars? The instruments carried by Perseverance will be able to undertake fairly sophisticated chemical analyses of the rocks and soil. But even though the instruments and measurements are a tremendous achievement, they do not have the full range of equipment that we employ on Earth to squeeze every drop of information from a rock.

Tests to check for organic compounds and whether they might have a biological origin require a chain of different analyses that are far too elaborate and complex to be undertaken on Mars. Boiling acids, alcohol rinses, addition of chemicals, subtraction of solids, are steps in the chemistry needed to extract and separate organic molecules from their rocky hosts. This just cannot (as yet) be done on Mars.

The rocks will be weighed and measured practically on a grain-by-grain basis and analyzed, in some cases down to the individual atoms from which the material is composed. This will be an international effort there is already a multi-national panel (called MSPG-2) which will draft the requirements for the first sets of analyses and how the samples will be stored, curated and subsequently distributed to the wider scientific community.

There is another set of reasons to bring samples back from Mars the future of human exploration of Mars. If we send humans to Mars, we have to know how to bring them back again. We have not returned anything directly from another planetary body since the Apollo 17 astronauts left the Moon in December 1972. Yes, we have captured bits from a comet and an asteroid and returned them to Earth but those missions did not land, collect and come back.

We have been investigating Mars for a long time: for over 150 years by telescope, 50 years from orbit and 20 years by rovers. Only another 12 years, then, before we can analyze Mars in our own laboratories.

Perseverance to get things done is a gift of humanity. Heres hoping that the rover will live up to its name.

This article is republished from The ConversationbyMonica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open Universityunder a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The Perseverance rover is our best bet for finding life on Mars - TNW

This Week: Mars in 4K and Silence on Earth – Eos

Bringing Mars Rocks to Earth: Our Greatest Interplanetary Circus Act. With the latest Mars missions heading toward their destination, there is growing anticipation about what all this new robotic instrumentation might soon reveal of the Red Planet. Of course, planetary scientists and engineers have also long had the goal of bringing bits of Mars back to Earth for much closer, hands-on investigations. The complex plan taking shape to do that has a certain Are you kidding me? feel to it yet also sounds just plausible enough to inspire optimism (in this observer at least). Its reminiscent of the rescue effort in The Martian, but just replace Matt Damon with a soccer ball filled with rocks and dust.Timothy Oleson, Science Editor

The Seismic Hush of the Coronavirus.By now weve all seen photos of eerily empty streets and public spaces during regional shutdowns, and earlier this year the media covered the pandemics effect on air quality. But who would have thought that a decrease in human activity would register on seismometers around the world? Well, every seismologist and a lot of other scientists, Im sure, but it hadnt occurred to me. Of particular note, data collected during the pandemic could help scientists distinguish human-caused tremors from natural ones, and seismic monitoring could also be used to monitor human activity during this pandemic and in the future.Faith Ishii, Production Manager

Astro(wildlife)biology.

Just a fun thread of the various critters your everyday astronomer might encounter while studying the universe. My wildlife encounters include moths, spiders, roadrunners, cats and dogs, and *shudder* ladybugs.Kimberly Cartier, Staff Writer

Revealed: Oil Giants Help Fund Powerful Police Groups in Top U.S. Cities. In an investigation by the Public Accountability Initiative, researchers found that big oil and gas companies like Chevron and Shell are funding private police foundations in U.S. cities. The police foundations support local policing groups with training, weapons, equipment, and surveillance technology and face less oversight than publicly funded organizations. These companies have also been accused of producing toxic pollution that disproportionately hurts communities of color. As Black Lives Matter protests renounce state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism, it is important to look at the ties between environmental and racial justice.Jenessa Duncombe, Staff Writer

Trump Administration Says Massive Alaska Gold Mine Wont Cause Major Environmental Harm, Reversing Obama. Controversy about Alaskas proposed Pebble Mine has churned for decades. The site sits in the headwaters of the worlds most productive salmon fishery. There are concerns about faults under the site of a 500-foot (152-meter) earthen dam required to contain the billions of tons of rock expected to be removed during the mines operation. The mining company is angling for approval of a smaller footprint, with the option to expand (to where most of the gold is) later. Locals, who dont see the big payouts from mining that oil offers and are unlikely to be hired by the mining company, are lukewarm on the project. Opponents have complained that the Army Corps of Engineers environmental impact statement isnot scientifically rigorous. Lawsuits expected!Liza Lester, Staff Writer

Mars In 4K.

Mars never looked so good, but its the voice-over that makes this a classic. In a (red) world.Caryl-Sue, Managing Editor

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This Week: Mars in 4K and Silence on Earth - Eos

Return of the extremely elongated cloud on Mars – EarthSky

View larger. | The Mars Express orbiter, which has been studying Mars for the past 16 years, captured these images of a strange, very elongated cloud on Mars on July 17 and 19, 2020. The cloud can reach up to 1,100 miles (1,800 km) in length. Image via ESA.

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For the past couple of years, the Mars Express orbiter of the European Space Agency (ESA) has been keeping an eye on a mysteriously long, thin cloud that periodically shows up over Arsia Mons, the 12-mile-high (20-km-high) volcano on Mars.

In a July 29 statement, ESA said the cloud has appeared again, illustrated by the images above, acquired by the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on Mars Express on July 17 and 19, 2020.

Mars Express first noticed and photographed the cloud in September 2018. A recurrent feature, the cloud is made up of water and ice and can stretch for over 1,100 miles (1,800 km). Despite its location and appearance, scientists say its not a plume linked to volcanic activity. Instead, the curious stream forms as airflow, influenced by the volcanos leeward slope (the side that does not face the wind).

Jorge Hernndez-Bernal, at the University of the Basque Country (Spain), is leader of a team studying the cloud. He said in a statement:

We have been investigating this intriguing phenomenon and were expecting to see such a cloud form around now. This elongated cloud forms every Martian year during this season around the southern solstice, and repeats for 80 days or even more, following a rapid daily cycle. However, we dont know yet if the clouds are always quite this impressive.

A Martian day, or sol, is slightly longer than an Earth day at 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds long. A Martian year consists of 668 sols approximately 687 days so the seasons last for twice as long. The southern solstice is the period of the year when the sun is in the southernmost position in the Martian skies, just like the December 21-22 solstice here on Earth. In the early mornings during this period, this fleeting cloud grows for about three hours, quickly disappearing again just a few hours later.

Most spacecraft in orbit around Mars tend to observe in the Martian afternoon. However, Mars Express is in a position to gather and provide crucial information on this unique effect. Mars Express mission team member Eleni Ravanis works specifically for the VMC instrument. She said:

The extent of this huge cloud cant be seen if your camera only has a narrow field of view, or if youre only observing in the afternoon. Luckily for Mars Express, the highly elliptical orbit of the spacecraft, coupled with the wide field of view of the VMC instrument, lets us take pictures covering a wide area of the planet in the early morning. That means we can catch it!

The Mars Express science team has named the cloud the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud, AMEC. So, how long has it been disappearing and reappearing? Why does it only form in the early morning? Scientists continue to investigate.

Bottom line: Images from the Mars Express spacecraft show that a mysteriously long, thin cloud has again appeared over the Arsia Mons volcano on Mars.

Via ESA

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Return of the extremely elongated cloud on Mars - EarthSky

Ice sheets, not rivers, carved valleys on Mars, new study says – UPI News

Aug. 3 (UPI) -- The majority of Mars' valleys were carved by ice sheets, not flowing rivers, calling the Red Planet's supposed warm, watery past into question, according to new research published Monday in Nature Geoscience.

"Valley networks on Mars have historically been interpreted as surface water flows, either sourced by surface liquid water or by ground water," study lead author Anna Grau Galofre told UPI.

"The problem is that there are thousands of them and they all have very different morphologies," said Grau Galofre, former doctoral student in the department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences at the University of British Columbia.

Earth has similarly diverse valley networks, created by a range of processes. Grau Galofre and her colleagues wondered whether a diversity of processes might be responsible for Mars' varied valley networks, too.

Many of the valleys on Mars reminded Grau Galofre of the subglacial channels found beneath ice sheets on Earth.

"Their patterns, isolation from each other and the fact that some flow uphill, all these are consistent with what we know about subglacial channels on Earth," said Grau Galofre, now a post-doctoral researcher at Arizona State University.

"Introducing this hypothesis then turned out to be a useful perspective to address a longstanding question regarding the climate of early Mars: warm and wet versus cold and icy," she said.

First, Grau Galofre and her research partners performed statistical analysis to identify similarities and differences among valley structures on Mars. After identifying a group of similar-looking valleys not explained by river flows, researchers compared the valleys to subglacial channel patterns found on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic.

According to researchers, Devon Island -- a cold, dry polar desert -- is as close an approximation of Mars' climate as can be found on Earth.

In total, researchers surveyed more than 10,000 Martian valleys. Only a small percentage of the surveyed valleys featured patterns consistent with surface water erosion, suggesting rivers and lakes were less abundant on early Mars than previously hypothesized.

Though Mars is Earth's closest neighbor, it is considerably farther from the sun. At the time that Mars' valleys were forming, 3.8 billion years ago, the sun was dimmer than it is today. Models suggest Mars would have been quite frigid.

While researchers say evidence suggesting the Red Planet's features were mostly formed by glacial activity isn't surprising, the findings don't preclude freshwater environs, nor the possibility of ancient life.

"I would like to highlight that the study finds both evidence for riverine erosion and subglacial erosion among the valley networks," said Grau Galofre. "Sometimes both origins are represented by channels that are close, implying that the climate on early Mars probably changed considerably through time."

Grau Galofre said she would like to see NASA's Martian rovers take a closer look at the geochemical signatures found in clay found on Mars.

"Clays and other hydrated rocks which have been found on Mars also appear in subglacial environments," she said.

If Mars' ancient climate was erratic, as some evidence suggests, subglacial environs might have offered a haven for microbial life.

"The subglacial environment could provide a stable setting, with readily available water, a temperature without large oscillations, and protection from solar energetic particles and radiation without need for a magnetic field," Grau Galofre said.

Researchers have previously identified microbial communities living in subglacial lakes on Earth.

Grau Galofre said she and her research partners hope further comparisons between valley patterns on Mars and Earth will help more precisely model the Red Planet's ancient climate.

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Ice sheets, not rivers, carved valleys on Mars, new study says - UPI News

Lake in Turkey may yield answers on life on Mars – Anadolu Agency

BURDUR, Turkey

Similarities between a lake in southwestern Turkey and the Jezero Crater on Mars has captured the interest of US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in its research on possible life on the Red Planet, according to a scientist.

The mineral makeup between the Martian crater and Lake Salda in Burdur province, Turkey, was established with morphological and remote sensing, Candan Gokceoglu, a professor of geological engineering at Hacettepe University in Turkey's capital Ankara, told Anadolu Agency.

The 28-mile wide Jezero Crater is the planned landing site for NASA's Perseverance rover in February when it will begin a mission set to last for one Mars year, the equivalent of 687 Earth days. The depression is thought to have been home to a large lake -- and perhaps microbial life -- according to the space agency.

Gokceoglu, who is also a member of Turkey's Environmental and Natural Assets Science Board, recalled a recent Twitter post by NASA on Friday, in which it pointed out the similarities between Jezero and Salda.

"Though located a world away, Lake Salda, #Turkey, has geological similarities to Jezero Crater on #Mars. In fact, researchers even did field work at Lake Salda to prepare for #CountdownToMars," it said, juxtaposing top-view images of Jezero and Salda.

"You may not be able to travel to Jezero Crater on Mars, but you can visit the next best thing: Lake Salda, Turkey," said NASA's Earth Observatory.

"Though it is located a world away, Lake Salda shares similar mineralogy and geology as the dry Martian lakebed."

Gokceoglu explained that scientists had found similarities between a kind of sediment found in Salda that is formed by algae -- microorganisms critical to the creation of suitable atmospheric conditions for life formation -- and minerals detected in Jezero.

NASA is now trying to understand if Mars is now similar to Earth the way was 3.5 billion years ago, he said.

"So, the samples that the spacecraft will bring to Earth about whether there is really activity of primitive lifeforms will provide a full understanding of this," he said.

Emphasizing that Lake Salda is unique both visually and scientifically, Gokceoglu stressed that it must be conserved for its scientific value as well.

He noted that Salda is under the highest conservation regime as a "Special Environmental Protection Area."

"We shouldn't just leave the protection activity to the state, we as individuals should do our part."

Salda may become more popular in the world in mid-2022, he said, after the research conducted by NASA's Perseverance rover.

"If it is truly mineralogically similar, then human beings will be able to say, 'Now, Mars is 3.5 billion years younger than the earth, it's on its way to become a planet like Earth.'"

He said the research on the Mars samples and Salda would be "the most important proof of this."

Also known as Turkey's Maldives, the lake in Turkey's central Burdur province has been a popular destination for tourists in recent years with its white beach and clear water.

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Lake in Turkey may yield answers on life on Mars - Anadolu Agency