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Grimes Reveals Elon Musk Is Indeed the Father of Her Baby – Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

It seems one of the most unlikely relationships in the celebrity world may have turned into a blissful love story. When Grimes and Elon Musk first met, nobody would have thought theyd gel considering the formers stance on how she felt about billionaires and political power in general. Then again, since everyone knows opposites usually attract, maybe it wasnt so unusual.

One thing Grimes has said, though, is Musk is more in tune with her beliefs than people think. Apparently this is the reasoning behind her agreeing to get pregnant with him in recent months.

Yes, its now confirmed Musk is indeed the father of Grimes yet-to-be-born and future genderless baby, something creating plenty of online chatter. With Musk already a controversial international figure and Grimes an equal one in music, one might wonder what this child will experience later in life.

In a recent interview with Paper Magazine, Grimes (aka Claire Boucher) said she and Musk are more politically simpatico than some might think. Part of this comes in the extensive work he does in helping the environment and progressing technology/science.

There is a good argument to be made there, despite his billionaire status and penchant for supporting politicians from the Republican party. Grimes says Musk kind of changed her outlook on the good billionaires can do when they have the right purpose in life. It is true Musk has done some good, if also arguably wasting money on things people dont needlike his controversial Tesla Cybertruck.

Living with Musk probably isnt easy either when hes working long days to keep his Tesla company operating at full capacity. Add to that Grimes own full schedule touring around the world and it doesnt seem like a love story headed to a perfect conclusion.

Having children can change everything, though. Once Grimes gives birth to their child this fall, its going to be interesting to see if both will truly settle down for a while.

Those familiar with Grimes songs will know she wrote one called So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth, supposedly mirroring the tragedy of getting pregnant. To her, the whole process is like a violation of the womans body, including sacrificing ones power in capitulation to a man. Clearly, her beliefs in wanting to stay independent of that have changed, particularly due to her admitted love for Musk.

Some might think its an ill-fated situation since Grimes admitted to Page Six she worries how being pregnant will affect her life. Since she says she enjoys working in the night, being pregnant wont be easy on her body. Plus, she also has anxiety about whether her child will inherit her once-wild ways as a teen.

Some billionaires with world influence arent the types to settle down with kids. There isnt any track record of that happening well, or at least without serious breakups later. Then again, Musk does have kids from a prior marriage and claims to be a good dad.

If its true Grimes tamed her wild streak, it seems hard to believe shell be able to tame herself completely either. Everything seems to say these two dynamic notables livingtogether might lead to disaster down the road. Adding a baby to this equation might be the magic formula for couples who really stay together.

Elon Musk Crypto Giveaway Scams are Still Rampant – The Merkle Hash

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Even during this time of crisis and despair for many in the world, the scammers are still hard at work trying to swindle crypto from innocent victims.

If you remember during the crypto boom of 2018, the scammers used to go around twitter using misspelled @elonmusk accounts trying to scam victims into sending them crypto. After the hype died down, most of them crawled back into their caves.

As the world is dealing with the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 the scammers are back at it, exploiting unsuspecting victims. This time they claim Elon Must and Tesla are hosting a crypto giveaway and all you need to do in order to enter is to send them 0.1-10BTC to their address

While most of us crypto OGs wont fall for a scam like that, the average Joe will be easily fooled. Heres an example of such an offer as a reply to one of Donald Trumps tweets:

*backup photo in case tweet gets removed:https://gyazo.com/3d2d2ec879b3ac199025178b8185f635

If you head over to the website bitcoingives.info you will see a medium post supposedly written by Elon Must himself:

If you click the Elon Must profile on the page it will take you to Musks official medium profile, just another tactic to deceive their victims.

Scrolling down you will see links to enter the giveaway. The links are for BTC, ETH, and LTC.

The way the scam works is they ask you to send them roughly $500 worth of BTC, LTC, or ETH in order to enter the fake giveaway.

To trick you even further, if you take a look at the transaction history for each address, you will see a payment of around $500. Heres an example of a $1,600 payment to their ETH address:0x7f0dD36F14f21a10f560caa3d7567f483613BaaF

Dont be fooled! This is just the scammer sending himself money to legitimize his offer.

Before I could even write this article, this domain has been flagged by Google Chrome as a dangerous domain, and will display a warning if you try to access it. We can only hope that these scammers are caught and punished appropriately.

There should be zero tolerance for this kind of behavior during a vulnerable time like this.

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Elon Musk Crypto Giveaway Scams are Still Rampant - The Merkle Hash

virtual minecraft library combats government censorship by housing banned journalism – Designboom

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

a group of designers from have made a library within the video game minecraft that works as an internet loophole to combat censorship. called, the uncensored library, it contains articles and information censored in many countries, but is accessible through the game.

images courtesy of reporters without borders

several countries around the world have imposed strict censorship laws restricting citizens from accessing certain websites, or obtaining certain information. organized for the world day against censorship by reporters without borders (RSF), a press freedom NGO that tracks censorship, legal action against journalists, and disinformation, the uncensored library aims to combat this.

in many countries, free information is hard to access, the group explains. blogs, newspapers and websites are censored. journalists get arrested and have to fear for their lives. such censorship lets many young people grow up in systems with almost no access to independent press. their opinions become heavily manipulated by governmental disinformation campaigns.

for example, yulia berezovskaia, editor-in-chief of the russian news site grani.ru, which is blocked in russia, said shes working with RSF to republish articles from her website on minecraft, which is available. christian mihr, executive director of reporters without borders germany, told the BBC that it chose minecraft because of its huge worldwide reach, even in restrictive countries, and because its not on the radar of censors.

the massive digital library contains more than 12.5 million minecraft blocks, and took 24 builders from 16 different countries over 250 hours to design and build. it houses real articles written by five journalists from censored countries including russia, mexico, egypt, vietnam, and saudi arabia, providing unblocked news to readers who wouldnt otherwise be able to access it.

one of our most ambitious projects to date, the uncensored library is a virtual library, built inside of minecraft to overcome censorship, the group said. in countries without press freedom, where websites are blocked, minecraft is still accessible. we used this loophole to build the uncensored library. the library is filled with books, containing articles that were censored in their country of origin. through this project, censored articles become uncensored books in minecraft.

kieron marchese I designboom

mar 16, 2020

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virtual minecraft library combats government censorship by housing banned journalism - Designboom

‘Love in time of’ coronavirus: Tinder being used to circumnavigate possible Chinese censorship of outbreak – Washington Examiner

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

People around the world are turning to an online dating app for coronavirus information from inside Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the mysterious respiratory illness that has ripped through hospitals and supply chains around the world.

The Chinese government's lack of transparency and top-down limiting of communication to the outside world has led to accusations of state-backed censorship of the virus's impact. In the past two months, several citizen journalists and medical professionals have been punished as a result of their attempts to warn the Chinese people and the global citizenry.

Now, people from Manhattan to Bangkok are utilizing a passport feature from the online dating app Tinder to gain access into the daily lives of Chinese citizens on the front lines of the outbreak.

[Click here for complete coronavirus coverage]

Tinder, one of the world's most widely-used dating apps, features an upgraded "Gold" membership, which allows users to move their phone's location to any spot in the world, including cities and areas in China that are known for their lack of ability to communicate with the outside world. Users from outside China are using the feature to ping into Chinese borders and get a better sense of what is really happening in cities that have been quarantined.

A United States-based Twitter account @drethelin announced he was setting his location to Wuhan in late January so he could "get the real scoop on what's going on." Another Twitter user, @philosophyhater, on Feb. 10, tweeted,"I just bought tinder gold and set my location to wuhan."

One person said their friend matched with a doctor, who told her that a couple hundred patients had recovered. The doctor, who used the name Laughing and whose profile picture featured him wearing a face mask, said he worked at Wuhan Union Hospital. He confirmed that young people who get the virus would likely only experience flu-like symptoms.

"Yes Tinder #LoveInTimeOfCorona," tweeted user @bon_plus. "So a friend shared this with me today, she made good use of her Tinder Gold and tried reaching out to people from Wuhan. Luckily, she was able to talk to a doctor based in Wuhan. PICS of their convo!"

Though the World Health Organization has said the coronavirus is not a sexually transmitted disease, the Centers for Disease Controls has warned that transmission of fluids is a leading cause for infection. To ward off the spread, Tinder has instituted a new warning that pops up on the app, instructing users to wash their hands, avoid touching their faces, and maintain social distance in public gatherings.

The coronavirus has killed more than 4,000 people worldwide and infected over 100,000.

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'Love in time of' coronavirus: Tinder being used to circumnavigate possible Chinese censorship of outbreak - Washington Examiner

Lessons From China on the Coronavirus and the Dangers of App Consolidation – Slate

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

A woman shows payment to a vendor, sent via WeChat on her smartphone, at a street stall in Beijing on June 23, 2017.

Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images

While quarantined in her Wuhan apartment for days on end, the woman who calls herself Sister Ma suddenly found herself blocked from her account on WeChat, a platform used by more than 1 billion people in China. Without WeChat, she was cut off from communication with friends and family, the ability to order critical supplies, and contact with her childrens school. My life is falling apart, she wrote on a now-deleted but archived message on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. Others who found themselves in the same situation described losing all of their digital documents, professional contacts, and access to their digital cash and paid media subscriptions.

As has been well-documented, Tencent, the company that owns WeChat, has been using keywordslike using coronavirus in conjunction with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or epidemic spread plus Xi Jinpingto silence unwanted discussions of the coronavirus on WeChat, with potentially negative effects on health and safety.

But the censorship extends much further than this message-by-message suppression. As Sister Mas story demonstrates, Tencent also has been shutting down and suspending the WeChat accounts of those who critique the governments handling of the virus, and not just in China. Account shutdowns and suspensions in the United States, Europe, and Canada highlight both the growing reachand powerof Chinas chilling suppression apparatus. Once kicked off WeChat, users are often cut off from communiciation with friends and relatives still in China.

These concerns may seem distant to Westerners. But Facebook is seeking to consolidate WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook into a single superapp, to be eventually connected with Libra, the Facebook-developed crypto coin, assuming it can get off the ground. And Mark Zuckerberg has pointed to the China-based behemoth Tencent as his model. While antitrust, anti-competition concerns have been widely aired (and may ultimately lead to the plans downfall), there are also independent-speech and censorship-related reasons to be wary, as Tencents behavior demonstrates.

Once you are banished, there is not much you cando.

Ostensibly a chat app, WeChat is actually a superapp, because it seamlessly integrates many services and products. It is the way the vast majority of Chinese citizens communicate with friends and family. For some, it is a medical scheduling app, used to make and manage doctors appointments. And it is a wallet, the means by which users buy groceries, access their bank accounts, pay their mortgages, and engage in just about any financial transaction.

Shutting down a WeChat account is, in effect, a digital form of banishment for the many users who have opted into its ecosystem. Not only is the user cut off from communicating with friends and family, but in what is increasingly becoming a cashless society, it effectively denies users who have concentrated their money in WeChat Wallet the ability to independently function.

Once you are banished, there is not much you can do. It is technically possible to get a new phone number and then open a new account on WeChat. But WeChat will be able to tell that it is the same user. The only remedy is appeal to Tencent, the company that did the blocking in the first place, presumably at the behest of the Chinese state. As far as we know, no such appeal has ever been successful. And there are no equivalent competitors you can turn to instead.

In February, there was a brief moment in which free speech seemed to flourish, as multitudes expressed their despair over the death of Li Wenliang, the doctor who was silenced as he tried to warn of the governments cover-up of the coronavirus. But that momentary relaxing of the censorship apparatus was followed by a crackdown. Those who raised concerns, including many of those stuck in home quarantine like Sister Ma, found their WeChat accounts suspended and possibly permanently blocked. The exact numbers are unclear.

Tencent has been exercising its market muscles to control speech in a range of other ways as well. In a bold move, it is now seeking to dictate what news outlets can and cannot say about its own business practices. Take the situation facing 36Kr Media, the most read source of tech news in China. 36Kr Media has been reporting on Tencents efforts to ban links to competitors appsincluding those of rival ByteDance (the parent of TikTok)from being shared on WeChat.

In early March, 36Kr reported that Tencent was blocking links leading to Feishu, ByteDances workplace collaboration tool, at a point in time in which there was an increased demand for these kinds of online office tools, thanks again to the coronavirus. (Tencent has a similar, albeit much less popular, product.) In response, Tencent threatened to delete 36Krs WeChat public accountswhich have access to more than 1 million active readersif 36Kr did not take down and stop such reporting. Rather than lose its most important publishing platform, 36Kr complied. Tencent nonetheless felt the need to punish the company for its publication of unflattering news and suspended 36Kr from publishing on WeChat for a day.

This would be akin to Facebook getting the Wall Street Journal to delete all reports about its bad behaviors by threatening to ban the Wall Street Journal from publishing on Facebook.

In this case, it came to light only because the senior management of ByteDance, one of the most powerful tech companies in the world, called Tencent out. Yang Jibin, a senior communications director for ByteDance, described what had happened on his personal WeChat account, calling Tencents practices barbaric. Most smaller companies and individuals affected by similar moves lack the political power or wherewithal to protest. As Yang aptly wrote: 36Kr is a public company listed in the United States. It made me wonder how media outlets far smaller than 36kr are supposed to survive in our era.

To be clear: Facebook is not Tencent., and the U.S. government is not China. Facebook, as Zuckerberg reminded us last October, stands for voice and free expression. And thanks to the First Amendment, the U.S. government cannot, and presumably would not, seek to suppress the kinds of public health discussions and dissent that are censored in China. Nor could it enlist private companies to do so on its behalf.

But Facebook does not operate exclusively in the United States. It, like all multinational tech companies, is obliged to comply with the rules set in the jurisdictions in which it operates. In Thailand, that means no critiques of the Thai monarchy. In Turkey, it means no critiques of depictions of Mustafa Kemal Atatrk. In Germany, that means no hate speecha concept that is imprecisely defined, but undoubtedly encompasses categories of protected speech in the United States. And in Poland, it briefly meant no mention of the countrys role in the Holocaust.

U.S.-based tech companies often deal with these and other wide-ranging country and regional-specific speech restrictions via something known as geo-blocking, which enables them to restrict in one region content that is otherwise permitted by the terms of service and thus accessible elsewhere. Implicit in this approach is a recognition of the obligation to comply with local law, even if it means complying with takedown and keep-off demands that run contrary to free speech commitments elsewhere.

But imagine an increasingly cashless, online world, in which Facebook, or any other tech company, succeeds in its bid to integrate all of its communications services, banking and payment processing services, ride-hailing services, and workplace collaboration tools into one giant seamless appand captures the lions share of the market in the process. And imaginehardly far-fetchedother countries learning from the Chinese censorship model. Now, in addition to demanding that the key tech companies block objectionable communications, which can be done in a geographically segmented way, governments increasingly demand that companies block an unwanted speakers account. In such situations, there is no geographic splitting of the difference. The dissident speaker is simply kicked offdenied access to digitally stored savings, workplace accounts, and news feedsall in one fell swoop. And they are also denied the ability to engage in just about any financial transaction. Just like with WeChat in China.

Even in the United States, where the First Amendment provides core protections for free speech, the trend is toward more and more control and limits on concerning speech and bad actors online. This is a reasonable, and in some key cases critically needed, response to the many harms perpetuated online. But as both the U.S. government and U.S. tech companies themselves take more and more steps to restrict unwanted actors and actions online, only some such decisions are clear-cuthence Facebooks decision to outsource some of the hardest ones to an oversight board. Its already a big enough deal to stifle someones ability to communicate. Its even a bigger deal if, like with Tencent, platforms can also make it near impossible to buy groceries, access ones mortgage, and pay bills.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.

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Lessons From China on the Coronavirus and the Dangers of App Consolidation - Slate

Coronavirus: The new and ingenious ways Chinese citizens are evading censorship to learn about the outbreak – Hong Kong Free Press

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Chinas headlines are full of triumph this week. The countrys pending victory in the war against the coronavirus epidemic, they say, is a testament to the decisive leadership of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, and to the strength and unity of the people.

Xis presence in Wuhan this week, hisfirst visit to the center of the epidemic, was reportedly met with euphoria.The pieceat the top of the officialPeoples Daily, which chronicles Xis tour through a residential community, finishes emotively:

As he left the community, the voices echoed for a long time in the spring sun: Greetings, General Secretary! Go China! Go Wuhan!

A reportfeatured at the top of the newspapers website elevates Xi with the word leader, orlingxiu(), an appellationdredged upfrom the shadows of Chinas Maoist past: The Party and the people are as one, the leaders heart touches the hearts of the people.

Peoples Daily Online on March 11. The top headline: In 1 Month 3 Visits to the Frontlines! The General Secretary is With the People in the War Against the Epidemic.

But beneath this towering wave of propaganda and positivity, another war has unfoldeda guerrilla war for greater openness, honesty and reflection about the tragic events of the past two months.

As Xi Jinping toured through Wuhan this week, a bombshell feature story by reporter Gong Jingqi () in the latest edition of ChinasPeople() magazine made the rounds on social media. The story was based on an interview with Ai Fen, the director of the emergency department at Wuhan Central Hospital, one of the hospitals most directly affected by the epidemic in the provincial capital.

In her account Ai talks about her decision on December 30 last year to share with another health professional an image of a diagnostic report for a patient showing that they had SARS coronavirus.

It was this image, passed between doctors in Wuhan, that resulted in eight doctors,including the now-deceased Li Wenliang, enduring harsh reprimands from local police. At the time, Ai was herself called in by the Disciplinary Office of her hospital and accused of manufacturing rumours.

The cover of the most recent edition of People magazine, the main story on The Doctors of Wuhan.

Ai shares her sense of regret now that she did not choose to speak up loudly and repeatedly, most of all for the sake of her colleagues, several of whom have now died as a result of the virus.

The Gong Jingqi piece is one of the strongest to appear to date in the Chinese media, and it paints a damning picture of how the signs were wilfully ignored by officials at the start of the outbreak, when more might have been done.

During her reprimand, Ai Fen is told by the hospital disciplinary official: When we go out to take part in meetings we cant even raise our heads. This or that director criticises us and talks about how our hospital has that Ai Fen. As the head of the emergency unit at Wuhan Central Hospital, you are a professional. How can you go and stir up a rumour like this without reason, without any organisational discipline?

The story was called, The One Who Handed Out the Whistles, a reference to Ai Fens insistence in her interview that she is not a whistleblower, but that her sharing of the original diagnostic report had enabled others, including Li Wenliang, to blow the whistle.

But, of course, the publication of Gongs piece was just the beginning of its own story. The article was shared feverishly on social media, and just as feverishly expunged by the authorities. For such a report to circulate on the day of Xi Jinpings front-line visit to Wuhan was of course unacceptable.

A notice on WeChat announces that a post on the People magazine feature story has been removed.

The authorities pushed. And Chinese pushed back on social media, with a level of creative defiance that was all at once ingenious, mystifying, heartening and sad. For reference, here is the opening paragraph of the story, translated from the original Chinese.

It was at 5AM on March 1 that I received a text message from Ai Fen, the director of the emergency department of Wuhan Central Hospital, agreeing to an interview. About half an hour later, at 5:32AM on March 1, her colleague Jiang Xueqing, director of the Breast and Thyroid Centre, passed away, having contracted Covid-19. Two days later came the death of Mei Zhongming, her hospitals deputy director of ophthalmology. He and Li Wenliang had been in the same department.

And here is one attempt a user made to share Gong Jingqis story as the original versions were being taken down one after the other. The top of the post reads: That piece, The One Who Handed Out the Whistles. But this is not in Chinese characters, readable by automated filters. Rather, it is in pinyin, a Chinese romanisation system, with tonal marks over the words.

In this form, Gongs article is of course still readable. A method like this may work for a period of time before censors grow wise and remove it, often when it is seen to attract a critical mass of attention.

And when this fails? What then? How do you share that piece, the one everyone is talking about, the one that makes a farce of state propaganda?

Another internet user answered this challenge by posting the entire article in Korean, a language not recognised or prioritised by online censors. The story could then be copied by readers and put through a translation engine.

Gong Jingqis feature story is shared in Korean to evade censorship.

If Korean fails, the article can also be shared paragraph by paragraph through a series of QR codes. Try scanning this and you should see the storys lede.

Still another reader chose to share and preserve this important story by reading it aloud in its entirely and recording it, then posting it to the audio site Ximalaya. He prefaces the piece by saying simply: In this way Ill voice my views and record history.

But the prize for creativity goes perhaps toa WeChat postthat reached back into the history of communication to find new inspiration. The post explains to readers what a telegram is, and its history in China, in which unique four-digit numbers were assigned to Chinese characters, which could then be decrypted. The post follows with a long list of four-digit numbers:

What does this say when you decode it? The first four sets of characters spell out the beginning of Gong Jingqis story as provided above. Here are the codes highlighted with their corresponding Chinese characters.

This is just a taste of the ingenious workarounds that appeared this morning, and which still continue. Taken together they mark a determination not to be silenced, not to allow the truth to be swept away on Xi Jinpings tide of positive energy.

A very brief portion of thePeoplefeature story is translated below.

As of March 9, 2020, four medical staff at the Wuhan Central Hospital had died of Covid-19. Since the coronavirus outbreak, this hospital, located just a few kilometers away from the Huanan Seafood Market, has become one of the hospitals in Wuhan with the largest number of medical staff to become infected by the virus. According to media reports, more than 200 people from the hospital have been infected, including three deputy hospital directors and multiple directors of various departments. Many department directors are currently undergoing ECMO treatment [for acute lung failure].

Embed from Getty Images

The shadow of death hangs over this, the largest of Wuhans three primary hospitals. One doctor tells People that almost no one among the medical staff speaks. They only mourn quietly and discuss privately.

There was at the start an opportunity to avoid this tragedy. On December 30, 2019, Ai Fen received a diagnostic report from a patient with an unknown form of pneumonia, and she drew a red circle around the words SARS coronavirus. When she was asked about the case by a college classmate, she took a photograph of the report and sent it to the fellow doctor. That night, this report made its way among doctors in Wuhan, and among those to share the report were the eight doctors later taken in for questioning by the police.

This created problems for Ai Fen. As the source of the communication, she was called in for a chat with the Disciplinary Office of the hospital and received a harsh and unprecedented reprimand, told that she was manufacturing rumoursas a professional.

Embed from Getty Images

On the afternoon of March 2, Ai Fen was interviewed by People at the Wuhan Central Hospital wing on Nanjing Road. She sat on her own in the emergency room office, and the emergency room that had over the past day received more than 1,500 [coronavirus] patients had now become quiet, with just a single vagrant loitering in the waiting room.

A number of previous reports have said, referring to Ai Fen, that another female doctor who was questioned has surfaced. And some have called her a whistleblower. Ai Fen corrects these accounts, insisting that she is not a whistleblower rather, she is the one who handed out the whistles. In her interview, Ai Fen used the word regret many times. She regrets that after she was reprimanded that first time she did not continue to blow the whistle, especially for those colleagues who have already passed on. Had I known this day would come, I would have cared nothing for their criticism, but would have spoken up wherever I could, right?

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Coronavirus: The new and ingenious ways Chinese citizens are evading censorship to learn about the outbreak - Hong Kong Free Press

Censorship and Propaganda in the Time of the Coronavirus – Qrius

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Paul Gardner, University of Glasgow

Chinas political leaders will be hoping that when concerns about the coronavirus eventually start to recede, memories about the states failings early on in the outbreak will also fade. They will be particularly keen for people to forget the anger many felt after the death from COVID-19 of Dr Li Wenliang, the doctor censured for trying to warn colleagues about the outbreak. After Dr Lis death, the phrase We want freedom of speech was even trending on Chinese social media for several hours before the posts were deleted.

Dr Li had told fellow medical professionals about the new virus in a chat group on 30 December. He was accused of rumour-mongering and officials either ignored or played down the risks well into January. If officials had disclosed information about the epidemic earlier, Dr Li told the New York Times, I think it would have been a lot better. There should be more openness and transparency.

I am currently researching the Chinese party-states efforts to increase legitimacy by controlling the information that reaches its citizens. The lack of openness and transparency in this crucial early phase of the outbreak was partly because officials were gathering for annual meetings of the local Communist Party-run legislatures, when propaganda departments instruct the media not to cover negative stories.

However, the censorship in this period also reflects increasingly tight control over information in China. As Chinese media expert Anne-Marie Brady notes, from the beginning of his presidency, Xi Jinping was clear the media should focus on positive news stories that uphold unity and stability and are encouraging.

The deterioration in the medias limited freedoms under Xi Jinping was underlined by a visit he made to media organisations in 2016, declaring that, All Party media have the surname Party, and demanding loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

There have been a series of good quality investigative reports, notably by the business publication Caixin, since the authorities fully acknowledged the virus. As political scientist Maria Repnikova argues, providing temporary space for the media to report more freely can help the party-state project an image of managed transparency. However, the clampdown has undoubtedly had a significant effect on the medias ability to provide effective investigative reporting, particularly early on in the outbreak.

Online, there have been a succession of measures to limit speech the party deems a threat. These include laws that mean the threat of jail for anyone found guilty of spreading rumours. In an authoritarian regime, stopping rumours limits peoples ability to raise concerns and potentially discover the truth. A point made only too clearly by Dr Lis case.

The party focuses its censorship on problems that might undermine its legitimacy. Part of my ongoing research into information control in China involves an analysis of leaked censorship instructions collected by the US-based China Digital Times. This shows that between 2013 and 2018, over 100 leaked instructions concerned problems about the environment, food safety, health, education, natural disasters and major accidents. The actual number is likely to far exceed this.

For example, after an explosion at a petrochemical factory, media organisations were told to censor negative commentary related to petrochemical projects. And after parents protested about tainted vaccines, the media were instructed that only information provided by official sources could be used on front pages.

State media play a key role in the CCPs efforts to set the agenda online. My research shows that the number of stories featuring problems about the environment and disasters posted by Peoples Daily newspaper on Sina Weibo (Chinas equivalent of Twitter) fell significantly between 2013 and 2018.

Around 4.5% of all People Dailys Weibo posts between 2013 and 2015 were about the environment, but by 2018 had fallen to as low as 1%. Similarly, around 8%-10% of all posts by the newspaper were about disasters and major accidents between 2013 and 2015, but this figure fell to below 4% in the following three years.

The party wants people to focus instead on topics it thinks will enhance its legitimacy. The number of posts by Peoples Daily focusing on nationalism had doubled to 12% of the total by 2018.

As well as investigative reports on the outbreak in parts of the media, some Chinese individuals have also gone to great lengths to communicate information about the virus and conditions in Wuhan. However, the authorities have been steadily silencing significant critical voices and stepping up their efforts to censor other content they deem particularly unhelpful.

The censors do not stop everything, but as the China scholar Margaret E. Roberts suggests, porous censorship can still be very effective. She points out that the Chinese authorities efforts to make it more difficult for people to access critical content that does make it online, while flooding the internet with information the CCP wants them to see, can still be very effective.

When a problem cannot be avoided, my research shows that the propaganda authorities try to control the narrative by ensuring the media focus on the states efforts to tackle the problem. After a landslide at a mine in Tibet, the media were told to cover disaster relief promptly and abundantly. Coverage of such disasters by Peoples Daily focuses on images of heroic rescue workers.

This same propaganda effort is in evidence now. As the China Media Projects David Bandurski notes, media coverage in China is increasingly seeking to portray the Chinese Communist Party as the enabler of miraculous human feats battling the virus.

After Dr Lis death, CCP leaders sought to blame local officials for admonishing him. However, the actions taken against Dr Li were fully consistent with the Partys approach to controlling information under Xi Jinping.

It is impossible to know how many people have died, or might die in future, because people have decided to self-censor, rather than risk punishment for spreading rumours, or because the authorities have sought to avoid information reaching the public. The coronavirus outbreak highlights the risks of a system that puts social stability and ruling party legitimacy above the public interest.

Paul Gardner, PhD Candidate in Chinese Studies and Political Communication, University of Glasgow

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Censorship and Propaganda in the Time of the Coronavirus - Qrius

The first real liberty of the press in Malta 1839 (Part 1) – Times of Malta

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Among the grievances of the Maltese during the first years of British domination was press censorship. As early as 1812, due to the efforts of Marquis Mario Testaferrata, a Royal Commission made up of William aCourt, John Burrows and Sir Hildebrand Oakes (the islands Civil Commissioner) was sent to Malta to report about Maltese grievances, but nothing resulted with regard to press liberty.

In 1831, Camillo Sceberras, Giorgio Mitrovich and other Maltese patriots set up the Comitato Generale Maltese whose aim was to petition for administrative reforms. In 1832, a memorial was sent to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. This memorial was soon to bear fruit.

By 1835, the British government was arriving to the conclusion that there was no real argument in favour of the continuation of censorship at Malta. It was being realised that, if the press were to be regulated by adequate press laws, imperial interests would not be prejudiced and the local Catholic Churchs rights would not be endangered. It was quite natural that any nascent Maltese press laws would be on the British model, but the problem would be to harmonise imperial, religious and rule-of-law exigencies.

Chief Justice of Malta, Sir John Stoddart, drafted two ordinances entitled An Ordinance for establishing the lawful freedom of the press and for guarding against abuses thereof, which incorporated the principle of press liberty with limitations in religious matters and An ordinance for regulating the market, selling and using of printing presses and the printing and publishing newspapers and other like periodicals. However, in July 1835, everything came to a standstill because the matter was to be considered by a Royal Commission which was sent to Malta in 1836.

Meanwhile, in July 1835, Giorgio Mitrovich went personally to London to plead the Maltese cause. Here he published pamphlets calling for the full recognition of the rights of the Maltese. His writings clearly show that the Maltese sought a moderate freedom of the press rather than an absolute freedom that could degenerate into immorality or bring about offences to religious sentiments.

The question of religion was, in fact, one of the greatest headaches to be contended with. Since the advent of British rule over Malta, Protestant bible societies had been trying to distribute bibles in Italian and Maltese among the local populace. This was frustrated by the Catholic clergy who banned the reading of Protestant propaganda. A protest by Bishop Ferdinando Mattei made Governor Sir Thomas Maitland prohibit the use of the printing presses of the American Missionary Society and the Society of English Independents to the detriment of the Catholic religion. However, nothing practical was carried out to enforce this prohibition.

In London, Mitrovich was aided and abetted by various Members of Parliament, especially by William Ewart. Lord Glenelg, Secretary of State for the Colonies, was eventually persuaded to take steps to inquire into the affairs of Malta. In March 1836, Glenelg expressed his wish to administer the affairs in Malta in the free, open, and confiding spirit which is the peculiar excellence of the British constitution, and that consequently the censorship of the press should be abolished and that without delay.

The Acting Lieutenant-Governor, George Cardew, informed Glenelg that the local clergy were against the abolition of censorship because they feared attacks on the Catholic religion; however, he was of the opinion that these high feelings would gradually decrease. Chief Justice Stoddart suggested that religious matters should be left as they were and that only political liberty need be granted because of the difficulties to be faced in determining the religious question.

On March 18, 1836, Bishop Francesco Saverio Caruana requested the governor not to grant freedom of the press in the same measure as it was practised in England because it could result in fatal consequences to the Catholic Church. For the same reason, the Holy See also opposed the freedom of the press in Malta.

Bishop Francesco Saverio Caruana requested the governor not to grant freedom of the press because it could result in fatal consequences to the Catholic Church

Not all Englishmen were in favour of press liberty for Malta. The Duke of Wellington objected on military grounds. He wrote the following in The Times (of London) in 1838: The mania of this Melbourne ministry for the manufacture of commissions has already brought it into trouble, and will bring the noble lords and honourable gentlemen composing it into a great deal more Two gentlemen were sent out as commissioners to Malta, some time in 1836, to examine into all sorts of matters whereto it might be feasible in any manner to attach the name of imputation of abuse There was, so far as yet appears, opportunity enough afforded them on that spot for troublesome and tiresome exertions, but none for extensive or really useful results It is a fortress, a seaport, a great naval arsenal in the Mediterranean The whole island must, from the nature of things, be like a regiment under strict military discipline, otherwise we shall lose our garrison and our harbour.

The duke was referring to the royal commission sent to Malta in 1836, by an order of the King in Council, to inquire into the affairs of the island. One of these affairs was the censorship of the press.

On October 20, 1836, John Austin and George Cornewall Lewis, the two members forming the commission, arrived on the 50-gun frigate HMS Vernon and immediately set themselves to work. The first subject that engaged their attention was precisely the state of the press in Malta. The following includes the salient points of the commissioners report from which only the most important points are being noted. The commissioners considered the following four topics:

I. The legal basis and administration of censorship in Malta: The commissioners, after briefly considering the administration of the press by the British, went on to recount more briefly still the development of the press under the Order of St John and the French. They concluded that a censorship was enforced on the island by these governments monopoly of printing based on an old law enacted by the Order of St John that forbade the setting-up of any business without permission.

They pointed out that the Codice de Rohan of 1784 Book I, c.38, s.15 determined the manner of enforcing it and the officers by whom it was to be enforced. Therefore, according to the commissioners, the legality of the censorship exercised by His Majestys government may be justified by a well-known rule of colonial law, that is, that every institution, existing in a colony at the time of its acquisition by the Crown, continues to exist until it is abolished by His Majesty.

As an argument against censorship, the commission pointed out that the French had abolished censorship and, therefore, when the British remained in Malta after the expulsion of the former, they were not really perpetuating the mentioned rule of colonial law. But they themselves counteracted this argument by stating that the French had spent most of their time defending Valletta and the neighbourhood and did not really establish a regular government while the Maltese insurgent leaders were only concerned with expelling the French from Malta. Moreover, the French did not seem to have done anything inconsistent with censorship.

Moreover, since the King was the supreme legislator and had permitted the exercise of the existing censorship, His Majesty has established it as effectually as if he had created it by an express declaration of his pleasure. They ended this section by declaring that the only safeguard against abuses was the Roman Law relating to libelli famosi, regarded by them to be a very ineffectual restraint on abuses of the liberty of publication.

II. The censorship laws principal inconveniences: The commissioners wrote that these came about both from the government monopoly of printing and from press censorship. The former resulted in high prices and delay in the execution of private work while the latter incurred the hatred of the populace for the government and prevented the diffusion of political knowledge and instructive information.

III. Recommendation to abolish the censorship law and the consideration of objections to the liberty of the press: As substitutes for the censorship then in force, the commissioners suggested either a liberty of printing accompanied by an extension of the present incomplete censorship to printed writings imported into the island or a liberty of printing and publishing, accompanied by a law for preventing its abuses.

The commissioners recommended the latter course and disposed of objections regarding dangerous disclosures concerning the military defences of the island, and attacks on the local and friendly governments, the Catholic Church and on private persons. As part of the law granting press liberty, the commissioners recommended the setting-up of a law of libel to check abuses.

IV. Means to prevent abuses: Together with the legal means to check abuses, the commissioners also made the following recommendations: the abolition of the government printing establishment; the discontinuation of the Malta Government Gazette; the publication of government Acts and notices in newspapers established by private persons; the publication of government Acts and notices which could not be conveniently published in a newspaper; and keeping the government printing materials in case they would be needed in the future.

(To be concluded)

Joseph Grima is retired casual lecturer of history and assistant director of education

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The first real liberty of the press in Malta 1839 (Part 1) - Times of Malta

The big coronavirus cover-up: Fighting truth and coronavirus, the China way – ThePrint

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

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Also read: Coronavirus infodemic people spreading fake news about disease arrested across Asia

The party wants people to focus instead on topics it thinks will enhance its legitimacy. The number of posts by Peoples Daily focusing on nationalism had doubled to 12% of the total by 2018.

Paul Gardner, PhD Candidate in Chinese Studies and Political Communication, University of Glasgow

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Also read: Iran cant be trusted to deal with coronavirus

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The big coronavirus cover-up: Fighting truth and coronavirus, the China way - ThePrint

Should OTT content in India have a censor board to strap creative freedom just like films? – PINKVILLA

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

The recent ban on talk show host John Oliver's video criticising the government's CAA move is a glaring example of how censorship on OTT is not the best idea.

The government reignited the conversation of censorship on web-streaming platforms earlier this month when Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Prakash Javadekar met representatives of Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar, Voot, Zee5, ALTBalaji and SonyLIV, among others. Citing an example of OTT censorship in China, where a set of rules govern online platforms, Javadekar related his experience of watching online content with his family at home and thus asked these web streaming giants to regulate their content for the Indian audiences. He also gave these OTT companies to come to agreeable mutual terms and set up a body and put in motion a code of conduct in the next 100 days.

While Javadekar's OTT-watching experience with his family hints at regulating content due to Indian culture and making it 'safe', the big question that looms over, is do we need to censorship on web-streaming platforms when already content on television and in cinema halls is censored rigorously?

The fact that a minister has cited China as an example -- a country where basic websites are banned for political reasons, it is worrisome. The recent ban on talk show host John Oliver's video criticising the government's CAA move is a glaring example of how censorship on OTT is not the best idea.

Indian filmmakers have had issues with the CBFC since ages. The most explosive example in recent times was for 2016's Udta Punjab -- a film on the serious drug issue in the state. Bizarre demands of the CBFC like removing the name of the state and swear words, led to a debate like no other. In the end, the filmmakers prevailed and the Bombay High Court allowed for the film's release with just one cut from 89.

When it comes to OTT, the audience largely changes. However, in recent times, OTT is turning out to be the money maker with series like Sacred Games, Made In Heaven and Mirzapur changing the game. From teens to the young to the middle-aged, there is something for everyone on web platforms. But does that mean we need to put the content under strict regulation and mute swear words?

Kiara Advani, who recently starred in Netflix's Guilty, rightly told Bollywood Life in an interview, "I feel if people want to watch something, they will find a way to watch it. So rather than allowing someone to take a route which we do not want, why not keep it simple and do the rating system. Everyones responsible when they are making something. Web allows you to keep it real and not be restrictive like films which release in theatres."

We have not even started the debate on OTT censorship and Oliver's episode was already banned. Do you think web platforms need to put their foot down or regulate self censorship?

Let us know in the comments section below.

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Should OTT content in India have a censor board to strap creative freedom just like films? - PINKVILLA

How Editors From Mexico, India, and the UAE Are Covering the Coronavirus – Slate

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

People at the Vive Latino music festival at the Foro Sol in Mexico City, on March 14

ALEJANDRO MELENDEZ/Getty Images

Every week, Future Tense shares articles with four international publishers: Letras Libres in Mexico, the Wire in India, Haykal Media in the United Arab Emirates, and poca in Brazil. As coronavirus news has taken over the globe, we thought it would be a good time to hear from our partners about how the news media are handling the coronavirus in their countries, what trends they are seeing around misinformation and censorship on social media, and more. So on Tuesday, Future Tense editorial director Andrs Martinez; Hamoud Almahmoud, the editor-in-chief of Harvard Business Review Arabia, published by Haykal Media; Vasudevan Mukunth, science editor for the Wire in India; and Emilio Rivaud, senior web editor for Letras Libres in Mexico, went on Slack to discuss the coronavirus and online discussion.

Their conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, is below.

Andrs Martinez: Thanks, everyone for joining today, once yours truly sorted out our respective time zones. Future Tense is fortunate to have publishing partners like you around the globe, and I am eager to compare notes on how we see our various audiences sharing information about the coronavirus, an issue that seems tailor-made to explore all that is positive, and all that is alarming, about the immediacy and ubiquity of online info platforms.

I have been reading The Great Influenza by John Barry, an impressive book about the 1918 pandemic, and I am struck by how in the United States, because the deadly flu coincided with our World War I mobilization, there was no mention of it by federal government, no primetime Woodrow Wilson address, nothing, lest it affect wartime morale. Sometimes crises like these are exploited by governments to advance their own agendas, at other times minimized as in the U.S. 1918 case. Vasudevan, how do you see coronavirus playing in India?

Vasudevan Mukunth: Thus far the government response has been uneven What cases have been identified have been quarantined, but there is no effort to undertake testing for community transmission. The government has been issuing advisories such as inserting a short voice message at the start of every phone call, before it starts ringing, reminding us to wash our hands. But at the same time, just before the outbreak really took off, the government used some far-fetched reasons to suspend access to foreign funds for an important virus research center. The coronavirus outbreak is becoming yet another example of how the country tries to respond to each part of an outbreak instead of developing a cohesive, multisectoral response.

Andrs: Thats really interesting, inserting a short voice message at the start of every phone call. Are public health officials attempting to police the spread of misinformation about the virus on social media in India?

Vasudevan: Well, thats a bit easier said than done thanks to the scale of India. Truth be told, our media is strongly polarized, has been since around 2014. Many right-wing, pro-government news sites have sprung up whose only prerogative seems to be to support the governments viewsand these views include portraying liberals as unpatriotic anti-nationalists. This is a very anti-minority, anti-secular, pro-Hindu government (as the Delhi riots most recently showed). So in this context, there are news sites that are for sure going to play up the governments line on matters like, say, the support for alternative medicinal traditions like Ayurveda and homeopathy to cure COVID-19. In fact, Indias Ministry of AYUSH, whose mandate it is to promote these alternative systems, has been publishing advisories and putting up banners at different places around the country recommending alternative treatments, which have been upheld by news sites that think this is just another point of view instead of something that could harm people.

Misinformation has been part of its political agenda, so when the government is tasked with fighting misinformation to curb the spread of a disease, it becomes a bit of a mess.

Andrs: Alternative treatments do seem to be a rich mine for mischief in situations like this, and its interesting to see how even Facebook is realizing it needs to be more engaged in content moderation on something like this.

Hamoud, when we think of the United Arab Emirates, we think of it as an important global hub, both in terms of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. And, of course, when you think of how the coronavirus spreads, being a hub brings with it its own set of concerns.

Hamoud Almahmoud: The UAE is trying to position itself as a hub to treat the virus. As you may know, the UAE has brought other citizens who were trapped in China to a place called the Humanitarian City, where they can be treated and quarantined. Because of our geography, the Gulf countries have been heavily hit. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are closing doors to many outsiders and shutting down all sorts of public activities, including school.

Vasudevan: The UAEs press isnt exactly free. So has there been any government interference with how UAEs health journalists cover the coronavirus outbreak? Have there been any attempts to, say, make the picture seem rosier than it is? Second, the living conditions of laborers from the Indian subcontinent who went to the Gulf (including the UAE) arent very good, and these laborers often live and work in crammed spaces and/or live in densely packed apartments. These are conditions are somewhat more suited to the spread of an infectious disease. How much awareness is there locally about this as an issue?

Hamoud: Media in the UAE is more of a loyal media. I would say that in general, there isnt much controversy over coverage of the health matter, which is being treated seriously.

Andrs: Emilio, I know that Mexico has experienced one of its most momentous chapters of political activism and mobilization this past week, as women took to the streets, and then struck for a day, to bring attention to sexism and their countrys sad history of violence against women. This is a reminder that something like coronavirus doesnt take place in a vacuum, but overlaps and coincides with other things going on. (Our U.S. presidential election would be another example.) How do you think the governments reaction to the virus, and peoples experience of it as a social media phenomenon, is impacted by the fact that it is taking place at this moment when the country is consumed by other issues?

Emilio Rivaud: Well, the coronavirus is coming at a difficult moment for the government. In January, it started rolling out a health care reform, and it hasnt really run smoothly even without the virus. There have been numerous cases of scarcity of medicines and other scandals that led to protests. So when the first news of the coronavirus came, I think people were predisposed to panic. But the epidemic hasnt really scaled up here (we have seven cases so far) yet. [Editors note: As of Saturday, the number of confirmed cases in Mexico had risen to 41.) So yes, things like the womens march and strike have garnered more attention.

This has allowed for a calm-before-the-storm situation. Too calm, one might think, since both the government and the general public are largely disregarding the importance of preventive measures. [Editors note: This too is beginning to change. On Thursday, Tecnolgico de Monterrey, an important private university, moved to online courses to prevent exposure. And the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, the countrys largest public university, said it would begin to cancel massive events and international travels.]

Andrs: This Poynter story provides some interesting stats and examples of misinformation spreading, including cases from India. What are some of the more interesting or outlandish conspiracy theories you have seen around the virus?

Emilio: Well, we have a soap opera actress/singer called Patricia Navidad, also a famous antivaxer, who has tweeted about the coronavirus being engineered by Big Pharma and the dark elites to make money. You hear these sort of theories every now and then.

Andrs: And to think her last name is Christmas!

Vasudevan: I think the most outlandish theory I have come across is one that the virus may have been engineered. Part of it was based on an academic article preprinted early this year by researchers at the India Institute of Technology Delhi. I think rumors based on this possibility are still in currency in India at the moment. Spring-boarding off your comment about how this disease overlaps and coincides with a bunch of pre-existing political conditionsthe more insidious rumors are the ones combining good hygiene and religious bigotry. Two of them in particular are that the Muslim handshake is less hygienic than the Hindu namaste and that COVID-19 is Gods way of signaling that non-vegetarianism is bad because the virus jumped from animals (bats/civets) to humans.

(And of course theres the usual Hindutva rubbish about how drinking cow urine can get rid of COVID-19.)

Emilio: Interesting. I heard cocaine cured it too.

Vasudevan: Haha!

Andrs: In India, Bloomberg reported that because of social media claims of a link between chickens and the coronavirus, poultry sales have plunged in the country. Wondering if there are other behavioral changes becoming more widespread as a result of these speculations.

(And to be clear, we are not encouraging readers to hedge with cocaine!)

Vasudevan: I think the most noticeable behavioral changes are in terms of stocking up on hand sanitizers and face masks, and trying to avoid crowded places (especially sites of worship).

Emilio: In Mexico we had the H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009. Back then, Mexico City basically shut down for a few days, and we gathered some habits that now come in handy: waving instead of handshaking, stockpiling sanitizing gel, and, for some people, buying lots of mouth covers (which, as we know, dont really keep you safe from the virus).

In Mexico, we have a strong traditional medicine and also a penchant for self-medication. You see a lot of memes talking about how people will fight off the coronavirus with chicken soup, aspirin, herbal infusions, Vaporub, and other common flu remedies. The thing is people here dont go the doctor unless they are very ill. So one can wonder if this is playing a role in the low number of cases so far detected.

Andrs: I am touching my face as I read this! Are we seeing governments tighten outright censorship, capitalizing on this as an excuse? Hamoud, your roots are in Syria, a country already devastated by years of civil war and strife. Does something like the coronavirus get much attention there, under the circumstances? Or is it exploited by regime?

Hamoud: Yes, its a very intense time for journalists and others on social media, as governments dust off old laws to avoid the spread of what they consider misinformation. This is especially true in countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Theres also a lot of geopolitical finger-pointing, with both of those countries blaming Iran for the pandemic. In terms of Syria, there hasnt been much discussion of the virus yet, but you have to be worried, given how many people go back and forth across a very porous border with Irannot just militants in the fight, but also religious people visiting famous shrines.

Vasudevan: In India, the government hasnt lacked excuses to tighten censorship in the last few years. As you may already know, India is now the title-holder for the longest internet shutdown in history, in Kashmir. Plus since the government introduced the highly controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 (unrelated to the outbreak), there have been violence, protests, and censorship across the country on this count alone. So while I personally am not aware of a coronavirus-specific censorship incident, the agents and instruments for overt censorship already exist.

Andrs: Were touching upon what governments do, and how citizens communicate on social media, but I am also curious about your roles in a drama like this, as editors of responsible media outlets. What are you hearing from your readers in terms of what they expect from you on a subject like this, a subject that is both a sweeping global story but also intimate?

Emilio: We have tried to cover the situation form the start, offering solid pieces on virus science and how prepared the country is for it. It really isnt our main topic at the moment. I fear that the situation is going to scale up, but for the moment it is calm. Theres a great deal of reporting, in fact, about the humor being deployed against the virus. Someone made a Coronavirus cumbia, there are countless memes, and people are mostly having a laugh. This is very akin to the Mexican way of being, I think.

Vasudevan: So there are two parts to this response of what were doing as journalists in the face of this challenge. First, were using this as an opportunity to dig deeper into how public health care works in India, what it can do better, etc.For example, we have one story being published about how hospital-acquired infections in India are a big problem. The heightened audience attention on public health allows us to commission more stories like this with more ease than usual, so to speak. (Were almost fully reader-funded, by the way.)

The other part is that the Wire and the Wire Science have maintained a notably anti-establishment stance against the government (the present government is the only government weve operated under; we turn 5 this May) and its tacit endorsement of various self-aggrandizing, pseudoscientific beliefs on matters of public health, infrastructure and socio-economic development. So these adversarial habits, so to speak, are also serving us well now.

Andrs: Hamoud mentioned that some countries are blaming Iran for exporting disease. Reminds me of how some of our members of Congress have been criticized for referring to virus as the Wuhan virus and also of how poor Spain got stuck with the naming rights for the infamous 1918 disease. (Spoiler alert: its actually believed to have started in Kansas.) Are all of you referring to this strictly as the coronavirus or COVID-19 or using different terminology? Have you been struck by other variations used by others?

Vasudevan: I think the most common term in India is actually coronavirus, presumably because many people think this is the name of this virus and not that its a type of a coronavirus. But we (as in the Wire) are switching between novel coronavirus, new coronavirus, and SARS-CoV-2. We used to say Wuhan coronavirus as well, but I think after reading the WHOs note about incidents of racism against Chinese nationals as well as how the mention of SARS might give the wrong impression of the viral characteristics of the new coronavirus, Im sticking to new coronavirus.

Andrs: I would love to keep going all afternoon, but I want to be respectful of the fact that it isnt afternoon where some of you are, but late at night, and all of you have publications to publish. But I cant thank you enough for taking the time to reflect on what youve been seeing with this story, and compare notes with us and each other. I hope we do more of these and in days ahead, and that we can continue to look for ways to broaden and deepen our partnership around these issues. Many thanks!

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.

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How Editors From Mexico, India, and the UAE Are Covering the Coronavirus - Slate

Bitcoin And Crypto Investors: Avoid This New Cryptocurrency Like The Plague – Forbes

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have crashed in the face of the global market rout sparked by the spreading coronavirus.

But one new bitcoin-rival, created by a group of mostly unknown cryptocurrency developers last month and styling itself as "the world's first crypto backed by death," allows traders to bet on the coronavirus epidemicwith the token's value rising as more people fall ill or die.

The World Health Organization has said more than 70% of those infected with coronavirus in China ... [+] have recovered but the virus is still spreading around the world, bringing global stock markets and commodities, as well as bitcoin and major cryptocurrencies, to their knees.

Coronacoin, which is currently being priced at less than $0.01 according to its developer's website, will see its supply fall every two days based on the rate of new cases and the number of people the virus has killed.

There is a fixed supply of the coronavirus-fueled token based on the world's human population: just over 7.6 billion.

"Some people speculate a large portion of the supply will be burned due to the spread of the virus, so they invest," said Sunny Kemp, who was named as one of the developers of the morbid bitcoin-alternative by Reuters, adding: "There are currently active pandemic bonds issued by the World Health Organisation. How is that different?"

The coronacoin team currently counts seven developers, mostly in Europe, according to Reuters, with Kemp indicating more are about to come on board.

Coronacoin is being traded on the allegedly decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Saturn Network, with coronacoin making up almost 60% of its meager volume.

An investigation by cryptocurrency news and analysis website Decrypt found Saturn Network to fall well short of common standards and recommended against using it.

Coronacoin claims that as tokens are burnt when the number of people infected with the coronavirus ... [+] or killed by it rises means it is likely the token will increase in value.

The number of coronavirus infections worldwide is now more than 111,000, with about 3,890 deaths, however the spread of the virus appears to be slowing in China, where it originated.

Italy yesterday extended its coronavirus quarantine measures, which include a ban on public gatherings, to the entire country, while in the U.S. the number of confirmed cases now exceeds 500.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the threat of a pandemic is "very real."

Despite the virus spreading around the world in recent weeks, governments are working hard to contain and minimize it.

Coronacoin is a macabre gimmick, designed to make its developers a quick bucknot to serve as a long-term store of value.

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Bitcoin And Crypto Investors: Avoid This New Cryptocurrency Like The Plague - Forbes

Defining Cryptocurrency Is the Best Way to Kill It – CoinDesk – Coindesk

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

William Mougayar, a CoinDesk columnist, is the author of The Business Blockchain, producer of the Token Summit and a venture investor and adviser.

We should stop trying to define or classify cryptocurrency as if it were a beast from another planet. Rather, we just need to accept it as the future of money. It is a currency, not a security, and it shouldn't be governed by securities laws. The dollar, euro, yuan, pound are not regulated by securities authorities.

There is little value in attempting to define, box-in, segment or categorize cryptocurrency as something that needs to be continuously examined, questioned and analyzed. Instead, lets focus on promoting cryptocurrencys adoption because it is here to flourish and stay.

At a recent DLD 2020 panel, entitled "Virtual Currencies & the Global Financial System," the first question from the moderator consisted of defining cryptocurrencies. Each of the three panelists (painfully) took a shot at suggesting their own definitions. Another panel from Davos 2020, "From Token Assets to a Token Economy," discussed tokens as a type of cryptocurrency. In both panels, the definitions tried to depict tokens and cryptocurrency as a new type of animal.

Is there a point trying to classify the various types of cryptocurrencies, really?

Cryptocurrency is just like any currency, except with more powerful properties. It is that degree of power that is scaring incumbents while exciting new participants.

Over the long term and in the end-state, cryptocurrency is going to be as pervasively used as todays currency, but with a rivaling variety. Today we see cryptocurrency as the future of money, but tomorrow it will be an integral part of money.

Email was new until it wasnt.E-commerce was a novelty until it no longer was. Filing taxes electronically or renewing licenses online was a rarity until it became routine and sometimes the only option. Online banking was innovative until it became routine. Meeting friends online was extraordinary until it became very common. Reading online news was a parallel activity to printed newspapers until it became the norm for billions of people.

Today, cryptocurrency is an anomaly whose usage and understanding are in the hands of the few. Soon enough, it will permeate our society, habits, business, government, and become second nature.

The rabbit hole of classifications

If you go down the rabbit hole of classifications, you quickly realize the resulting madness and confusion from the nomenclature jargon: stablecoins, staked currency, utility tokens, security tokens, native coins, digital rights tokens, non-fungible tokens, etc.

There are stablecoins and market-driven coins. Stablecoins, like the name implies are coins with less volatility (supported by algorithmic or asset-backing stability), whereas non-stablecoins are subject to market supply/demand price fluctuations.

Cryptocurrency can be government or non-government backed. Government-backed cryptocurrency is still a rarity, and the subject of more discussion than action. As an aside, it will end up as a centrally controlled digital currency rather than being decentralized, programmable and native to a given blockchain.

Sadly, we have invented many of these classifications to please regulators.

We also have tokens that are in essence cryptocurrencies with a purpose. Then we enter the legal sphere, where tokens get labeled a utility, or security, based on how they were initially created, who received them and their ultimate functionality. For most tokens, there is a blurred line in demarcating the distinction between exclusive utility and their security-like properties of tokens.

Somewhere between a utility and security, we also have non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that are representations of unique ownership of a digital asset that has no physical equivalent (such as a CryptoKitty or a games related artifact like a special tank or sword.)

Sadly, we have invented many of these classifications to please regulators. With tokens, regulators and governments get agitated because companies can now issue tokens as currency, whereas issuing money used to be the sole right of sovereign governments. But companies have been issuing stock for decades. A stock is another form of value that cryptographic tokens mimic when they function as a security.

Then, we enter discussions about the functionality of these tokens: can they be earned? Sold? Bought? Spent? Awarded? Are they a payment unit? Or a right to a privileged action (like voting or getting access to information). Will their value increase if you dont use them and just store them? Are they native to a blockchain network, or grafted on top of an existing platform or singular application?

The above classifications are what we currently see, and there may be new representations we havent seen yet. While some of these functions are distinct from one another, many of them overlap with each other. That is why classifying cryptocurrency is not that useful, because we are still in the formation stages.

Reality check. Stop defining.

Time for a reality check. Do we still attempt to define the internet? Not anymore. But in its early days, we diduntil we didnt anymore.

Do we define money by its use cases, like something you buy groceries or pay a toll with? Or do we, rather, define money by its properties?

Moneys key properties consist of being a unit and a store of value that is transferable, fungible, verifiable, divisible and scarce.

Cryptocurrency inherits all these properties, in addition to adding unique functions that money doesnt have: its immutability is digital (the physical is gone), it can be fungible or non-fungible, its policy governance doesnt need to be centralized, it has very powerful programmable capabilities with imbedded logic (if-this-then-that), and its transferability is peer-to-peer (without central intermediaries). In essence, cryptocurrency is money on steroids.

Let us start using cryptocurrency according to its most common features first, the ones that it shares with the money we know. Then we can evolve from there. Just like early websites were glorified brochures on a screen, then we evolved way beyond that monochromatic use case into e-commerce, e-business, two-way communications, social interactions and much more.

Using cryptocurrency hasnt been easy for the average person, and thats a valid challenge. But it is getting better.

It is time to give cryptocurrency the place it deserves. If it is to claim a position as the new money, then we need to increase its usage, starting with the easier use cases and gradually increasing the variety and complexity.

We need to bring cryptocurrencies to the fore and make them as popular as regular currency and web are.

Let us stop defining and segmenting cryptocurrency in ways that limit it. Rather, lets start using it in ways that open up the possibilities and allow it to cement itself in our lives and businesses so it is accepted, welcomed and not feared.

Cryptocurrency is the new money and the new currency. It is time it enters the bloodstream of the mainstream.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Defining Cryptocurrency Is the Best Way to Kill It - CoinDesk - Coindesk

Cryptocurrencies see $93.5 billion wiped off value in 24 hours as bitcoin plunges 48% – CNBC

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Bitcoin prices fell sharply amid the global sell-off in equities.

Luke MacGregor | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Cryptocurrencies took a battering following a global sell-off in stocks, with bitcoin seeing a near 40% plunge.

The market capitalization, or total value of the entire cryptocurrency market plummeted around $93.5 billion in the space of 24 hours as of 10:07 a.m. Singapore time, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com.

Bitcoin was down 48% from 24 hours before at 10:24 a.m. Singapore time at $4,001.60, according to data from Coindesk.

The fall in cryptocurrency markets comes amid a broader sell-off in equities as governments worldwide continue to grapple with the new coronavirus that's spreading rapidly across the world. The number of global cases has now exceeded 128,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

In the U.S., theDow Jones Industrial Averageclosed 2,352.60 points lower, or 9.99%, its worst drop since the 1987 "Black Monday" market crash. That selling spilled over into Asiaon Friday morning, where stock markets in Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong saw heavy losses.

Investors are concerned about the global economic fallout from the coronavirus as businesses are disrupted and cities are locked down. Countries have taken different approaches with Italy, one of the worst hit-nations, shuttingdown shops and restaurants, and the U.S. canceling sporting events. Across the world, schools have been shut and people made to work from home.

Over the past few years, bitcoin has been likened to "digital gold" and has been seen by some as a safe haven asset to park money when markets are facing turmoil. But bitcoin, which has now erased all of its gains for the year and is in negative territory, is behaving more like a risk asset such as an equity.

And action by central banks has done little to soothe investors' concerns. This includes a recent emergency interest rate cute from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Englandas well as further easing measures by the European Central Bank.

Other cryptocurrencies suffered similar drops on Friday. Ethereum tanked 49% at 10:24 a.m. Singapore time while XRP was down over 42%.

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Cryptocurrencies see $93.5 billion wiped off value in 24 hours as bitcoin plunges 48% - CNBC

Cryptocurrency in Focus: Outbreak Takes Toll on Bitcoin – TheStreet

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Bitcoin-- probably the most iconic name in cryptocurrencies -- is proving it's not immune to the coronavirus crisis. But it could end up benefiting as a delayed side effect of the outbreak if inflation and tracking measures, in China especially, turn people to cryptocurrencies.

Right now, the problem for Bitcoin is that China, the world's second-largest economy, is a large participant of Bitcoin mining. As the nation is deeply caught up in one of the worst pandemics in recent history, it's taking a toll on Bitcoin, because major mining equipment makers had to delay production due to government imposed quarantines and mining farms were shut down. This has no doubt affected the level of Developer Behavior of the cryptocurrency, as Chinese mining pools control most of the Bitcoin network due to the countrys extremely cheap electricity.

Further, a slight drop in User Activity can be attributed to Bitcoin remaining a highly speculative cryptocurrency, where current investors are easily spooked by an expected drop in price. The fact that the search term bitcoin coronavirus has recently overtaken bitcoin halving on Google Trends is telling of the volatility many people are expecting to see with the spread of the contamination.

Created in 2008, Bitcoin (BTC) is considered the first cryptocurrency to be mined and traded on a decentralized peer-to-peer network. Rather than relying on a central authority to transact money, a decentralized network of nodes all verify transactions. The process of adding verified transactions to the public ledger and unlocking new bitcoins as rewards is called mining, and involves using computer power to solve complex mathematical puzzles, or hash functions.

But the Bitcoin blockchain suffers from important design limitations that make mining very expensive; slow down transaction throughput; and cause high volatility in price. Since the release of bitcoin, over 6,000 "altcoins" -- or alternative variants of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies -- have been created so as to improve the platforms scalability, security and speed.

Bitcoins FCAS has dropped 11-points (-1.23%) since mid-February, driven by an 18-point (-2.13%) decrease in Developer Behavior and 6-point (-0.62%) decline in User Activity. Market Maturity has also dropped 14-points (-1.68%) in the same timeframe.

TheStreet

While current investors might be turning away from Bitcoin, it seems likely that new buyers will start using the token as a safe haven. Right now in China, people are being quarantined based on surveillance of their spending, and punished for spreading news of the contamination. In this environment, and considering Bitcoins widespread use in the country, we can expect the token to gain traction as citizens aim to resist government control.

The Chinese central bank has also ramped up measures to sanitize old money, and plans to inject some $173.8 billion to calm people and markets as coronavirus fears worsen. The inflationary pressure this will cause is likely to drive demand for crypto assets globally, as other nations take similar measures to boost their economy. It will be interesting to see the level of demand Bitcoin will gain in comparison to other tokens.

The FCAS Tracker provides institutional and sophisticated retail investors a top-down approach to tracking 500+ cryptocurrencies fundamentals. FCAS Tracker is currently free to a select group of new users as we continue to develop the product. Visit us here to gain access to Flipside Analytics.

How To Make Money When The Cryptocurrency Market Is Tanking – Forbes

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

KRAKOW, POLAND - 2018/12/25: Bitcoin stock market value is seen on a mobile phone. (Photo by Omar ... [+] Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The crypto market experienced one of its worst days in history with a nearly 50% one-day drop in the price of bitcoin. Economic uncertainties from the coronavirus pandemic and liquidity crunches have caused massive selloffs of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Alt coins and DeFi platforms are experiencing similar issues as well. Not all hope is lost however. A downturn like this presents unique tax saving opportunities, especially in the cryptocurrency space. A brief lesson in the tax code could help you save thousands or more when you file your 2020 taxes.

It is extremely important to know that, claiming losses for tax purposes is different than having a loss in your portfolio. In most cases, the tax code only allows you to deduct realized losses.

It is likely that most of your cryptocurrency positions are in the red. For tax purposes, you can not deduct mere decrease in market value of your positions because they are unrealized. When you sell your position, these losses become realized and you can deduct the losses on your taxes.

For example, lets say David bought 1 bitcoin (BTC) at $10,000 on January 15, 2020. On March 11, 2020, the price of BTC drops to $3,000. In financial terms, he has lost $7,000 worth of value. However, from tax point of view, even though he has lost $7,000 worth of value, he has not realized this loss because he has not sold the position yet. If he were to keep this position without selling, he would NOT be able to deduct any losses for tax purposes despite having a financial loss.

Converting unrealized losses into realized losses allows David to get a deduction when he files his 2020 taxes. In order to realize his losses, he simply has to sell his positions that are at a loss. He also has an option to buy back into the same positions at a much lower price (without compromising the ability deduct losses) because wash sale rules are not applicable to cryptocurrencies under current guidance. Some crypto tax software helps you harvest tax losses.

Realizing some of your losses is super important to offset unexpected capital gains arising from margin liquidations. If you are a margin trader, it is likely that your initial margin has been liquidated due to large swings in prices. If you are trading on high leverage, even slight market fluctuations can trigger liquidations, and may result in capital gains taxes.

For example, assume Jennet deposited 1 BTC into her margin account on February 10, 2020, when the price of BTC was $9,000. She originally obtained this BTC in 2010 at a price of $1,000. She sets the leverage to be 5X so her notional buying power is 5 BTC (1 BTC x 5) or $45,000 ($9,000 x 5). Lets say Jennet goes long on ether with her full notional value of $45,000. At 5X leverage, if the $45,000 position goes down by 20% (notional value down to $36,000) her initial 1 BTC deposit will be liquidated by the exchange.

Assuming the BTC price is $9,000 at the time of the liquidation, she would end up having to pay taxes on $8,000 ($9,000 - $1,000) of capital gains. This is a tricky situation where Jennet actually owes capital gains taxes despite losing her investment.

Under the tax code, you can claim a maximum of $3,000 of capital losses on your tax return. However, the good news is that losses in excess of $3,000 can be carried forward indefinitely to future years. These losses can be used to offset future gains arising from crypto and stock transactions. To get advantage of this provision you need to realize your losses as explained above.

Knowing these simple tricks and executing them before the end of the year can help you get significant tax relief when you file for taxes. For the most part, the tax code only cares about your realized losses, not your real world loss in economic value. Use this to your advantage to reduce your taxes.

Disclaimer: this post is informational only and is not intended as tax advice. For tax advice, please consult a tax professional.

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How To Make Money When The Cryptocurrency Market Is Tanking - Forbes

Over $26 billion wiped off cryptocurrency market in 24 hours after massive oil price plunge – CNBC

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

A visual representation of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin on November 20, 2018 in London, England.

Jordan Mansfield | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Cryptocurrency markets plunged following a plummet in oil prices and further sell-off in stocks.

The market capitalization or entire value of cryptocurrencies was down $26.43 billion from a day earlier at around 1:17 p.m. Singapore time, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com. The sell-off worsened as the day went on.

Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency by value, fell over 10% in 24 hours at around the same time.

The violent sell-off in the cryptocurrency market comes after international oil benchmarkBrent crudefutures plummeted 30% to $31.02 per barrel, its lowest level since Feb. 2016. That was sparked by Saudi Arabia slashing its official selling prices for oil after OPEC failed to agree a deal on production cuts. This has led to fears of an oil price war. Brent has since pared some of its losses.

Meanwhile, stock markets in Japan and Hong Kong fell sharplywhile U.S. stocks are set for a steep drop at start of trading on Monday.

The other big digital coins ethereum, XRP and bitcoin cash, posted double-digit percentage point losses.

Despite the losses posted Monday, bitcoin is up around 9% year-to-date.

Huge moves in cryptocurrency prices are not unusual and these digital coins are known for their volatility. Market players however said this could be an opportunity to buy some bitcoin.

"For those who have long term investment horizons, bitcoin is absolutely a buy during these dips," Jehan Chu, co-founder of Kenetic Capital, an investor in blockchain start-ups toldCNBC. "We can expect more of this volatility sparked by macro health and financial shocks, but ultimately long term investments in the digital future and it's key asset Bitcoin will be a winning strategy"

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Over $26 billion wiped off cryptocurrency market in 24 hours after massive oil price plunge - CNBC

50 Companies Back New Cryptocurrency Project Competing With Facebook’s Libra – Bitcoin News

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

Some members of the Libra Association are now backing a rival project called Celo, which has its own blockchain and cryptocurrency. Over 50 major companies have pledged their support, each pursuing a diverse set of use cases. The project claims that the combined reach of all members exceeds 400 million people.

Also read: Bitcoin Legal in India Exchanges Resume INR Banking Service After Supreme Court Verdict Allows Cryptocurrency

The Celo Foundation announced on Wednesday 50 founding members of the Celo Alliance for Prosperity. Celo is an open platform that makes financial tools accessible to anyone with a mobile phone, its website describes. The project offers a way for developers to build mobile apps based on Celos Ethereum-based blockchain with a stablecoin.

The effort is designed to deliver humanitarian aid, facilitate payments and enable microlending through a cryptocurrency called the Celo Dollar, which is scheduled to launch in April, Bloomberg reported. Chuck Kimble, who heads the Alliance for Prosperity, said in a phone interview with the publication:

The value of the Celo Dollar will be pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by a reserve of other cryptocurrencies It will be available in the U.S., but the alliances focus is on Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Citing that Today less than .5% of global citizens benefit from the speed, transparency, utility, and low cost of using blockchain technology, the foundation detailed, The Alliance members have a plan to change that and are committed to leveraging the power of Celos innovative blockchain technology to create solutions that work across devices, carriers, and countries.

Alliance members are pursuing a diverse set of use cases, including powering mobile and online work, enabling faster and affordable remittances, reducing the operational complexities of delivering humanitarian aid, facilitating payments, and enabling microlending, the foundations announcement explains. Their combined reach is over 400 million people.

The project is dubbed by some as a rival to Facebooks Libra project, which has been scrutinized by regulators worldwide since it was first announced. The Libra project is currently considering redesigning as several key members have left the project, including Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Mercado Pago, Ebay, and Vodafone.

Kimble claims that There are some similarities [with Libra] in terms of mission, which is why there are some people who have joined both alliances. Some Celo Alliance for Prosperity members that are also Libra supporters include Anchorage, Bison Trails Co., Coinbase Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Mercy Corps. However, the Celo project does not have the massive userbase that Facebook has.

Payments in the Celo Dollar stablecoin can be sent to peoples phone numbers rather than complicated addresses, Tech Crunch noted, asserting that The goal is to make delivering utility via blockchain easier by building a flexible network of applications that doesnt scare regulators like Libra has.

Kimble claims, We have met with governments around the globe as well as central banks, we are continually engaging with governments in the many countries which we hope to serve. Diogo Monica, president of Anchorage, which is a part of both the Libra project and the Celo Alliance for Prosperity, said in a statement:

Celo and Libra each have unique focuses and approaches, but they share a goal that Anchorage strongly believes in: banking the unbanked.

What do you think of the Celo project? Do you think regulators worldwide will have a problem with it like they do Facebooks cryptocurrency? Let us know in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the Celo Foundation.

Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here.

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.

The unlikely cryptocurrency bill that went to Congress – Decrypt

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

A new cryptocurrency bill is being floated in front of congress this week. The proposed cryptocurrency act of 2020 intends to split cryptocurrencies into three distinctions: Commodity, Security, and Currency.

According to Marshall Hayner, founder and CEO of crypto payments firm Metal Pay, the bill will "fundamentally restructure" cryptocurrencies in the States.

Along with Rep. Paul Gosar, Hayner is cited as one of the founders of the bill and introduced it in congress on Monday. A day after he explained the proposal to all 541 members of the legislature, Hayner took to Twitter and produced a compressive tweetstorm on the subject.

Per Hayner's thread, the bill seeks to split cryptocurrencies up into three separate classifications: crypto-commodities, crypto-securities, and crypto-currencies.

The first, crypto-commodities, are defined as tradeable, fungible digital assets that exist on the blockchain. These can also represent contracts, utilities, or commodities in the physical world. These would likely include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other such tokens.

The second, crypto-securities, represent a "security-like instrument." According to Hayner, these too exist on a blockchain but often derive their value from external assets. These may pertain to real-world tokenization on the blockchain.

As reported by Decrypt, fast-food chain Fatburger recently issued securities on the Ethereum blockchain. It's likely that such assets would fall under this category.

The third and final classification is cryptocurrency, but as Hayner describes them, it seems to refer to stablecoinscryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currencies. These include Tether, USDC, and the Paxos Standard.

The bill cites them as "basic tools of a digital, global economy," built to resist counterfeiting, money-laundering, and manipulation.

Further, the bill proposes that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provide appropriate oversight for each classification.

While the proposed act intends to bring some clarity and order to the cryptocurrency regulation, it's already been the victim of considerable community backlash.

Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, argued that since the bill concerns multiple regulatory jurisdictions, it would need assent from two committeeswhich would be almost impossible. This, in Brito's view, is made even more challenging by the fact that the bill's co-founder, Rep. Paul Gosar, is not a member of either of the considering committees.

Further, Alex Gladstein, CSO for both the Human Rights Foundation and the Oslo Freedom Forum, raised an issue with the act.

Per the bill, any individual transacting cryptocurrencies with a business will have their information shared with the relevant regulatory agencies. He argued this would be an infringement on everyones financial privacy. Not that blockchains have much privacy anyway.

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The unlikely cryptocurrency bill that went to Congress - Decrypt

Cyber Thieves Using Coronavirus Fears to Steal Bitcoin (BTC) and Cryptocurrency – The Daily Hodl

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Danzig

According to DomainTools senior security engineer Tarik Saleh, the number of coronavirus-themed domain registrations increased following reports of the first cases of COVID-19, and many of these are allegedly scams.

One particular platform, coronavirusapp[.]site, is prompting users to install an Android application for real-time updates on the pandemic. Instead, the app comes bundled with a ransomware aptly called CovidLock.

CovidLock asks for permission to access the lock screen. It then employs a technique known as screen-lock attack, which holds the phone hostage by blocking user access.

The ransomware threatens to erase contacts, pictures and videos on the infected device, as well as leak the victims social media account information and wipe all phone data unless a ransom of $100 is paid in Bitcoin within 48 hours.

Saleh says phones running on the latest Android versions should be fine if the user set a password to unlock the screen.

Since Android Nougat has rolled out, there is protection in place against this type of attack. However, it only works if you have set a password. If you havent set a password on your phone to unlock the screen, youre still vulnerable to the CovidLock ransomware.

DomainTools researchers say theyve already reverse-engineered the decryption key and plan to share it publicly. They are also monitoring the transactions in the Bitcoin wallet used by the ransomware.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Immersion Imagery

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Cyber Thieves Using Coronavirus Fears to Steal Bitcoin (BTC) and Cryptocurrency - The Daily Hodl

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