Daily Archives: May 14, 2021

Everything you need to know about casino bonuses – Telemedia Online

Posted: May 14, 2021 at 6:54 am

We all know that offering mobile payment technologies is an excellent was to engage and onboard new customers, but what about retention? Well this piece provides a quick reminder of how you can keep customers coming back for more using a program of bonus incentives:

Q. Are you making the most of your online casino experience? Did you know that you could be playing with some extra cash or landing those reels with free spins? The need-to-know secret of online casinos is that there are plenty of promotions and bonuses on offer that will enhance your gameplay, especially if youre a beginner.

If this is news to your ears, then its well worth understanding all about online casino promotions. So, read on as in this guide we will explain just that, and how these casino bonuses can work to your advantage!

What is it?

Before we delve into the different types of casino bonuses, lets go back to basics. In its simplest form, a casino bonus or promotion is a form of reward offered by a casino site, like on the Paddy Power casino website for example. There are usually some requirements involved to gain access to the bonus, such as a certain deposit or creating a specific account.Q.

Online casinos often have a dedicated page to the promotions on offer, which can vary over time, so its worth keeping an eye out here for any updates. Both new and regular casino players can benefit from casino bonuses, but they may differ in terms of what you are rewarded, depending on what stage you are at in your gaming experience.

Now weve covered the definition of a casino bonuses, lets look at the types of promotions youre likely to see on an online casino:

This type of bonus only applies to new players to the site, as its usually awarded for signing up or creating an account at the casino, for the first time. Sometimes new players are gifted bonus cash with no limitations, but youre most likely to find that extra cash is given when you make an initial deposit of a certain amount.

If youre new to Slots, then you may well take advantage of a free spins promotion, which does exactly what it says. With this offer, youll be able to play with some spins that dont take away from your credit, but still reap the benefits of any winning combinations you land. This can come with its conditions though, and may only be available on certain games or with a specific amount wagered, for example.

Regular players of online casino arent left out when it comes to promotions. Ranging from cash rewards and free spins, there are usually plenty of bonuses you can make the most of as a seasoned player just keep an eye on the promotions page to see which ones you fit the requirements for.

As someone with a casino account already, youve most likely signed up to the casino site, so any special promotions will get sent directly to your inbox. Depending on your preferred site, the casino may even offer a rewards club or VIP programme, where you can achieve extra bonuses from the amount you deposit, or the type and number of games you play.

This type of promotion will certainly boost your balance, as it tends to have no limitations which apply to it, just free credit added to your account. You can then use this towards any game you wish, whenever you like. These are quite a rarity on a casino site, as youre most likely to come across deposit bonuses.

A sub-category of this is a no-deposit bonus, which similarly doesnt require you to deposit a certain wager, but may require you to play a specific game or refer a friend. This type of bonus also doesnt always imply a cash reward, but can be in the form of free spins on slot games.

As aforementioned, this bonus is the most common casino promotion, and requires you to place a certain amount of deposit in your account in order to receive the reward. The reward can take the form of extra cash or credit, or some free spins on the Slots. Again, anything won through these bonuses are yours to keep!

You are sure to see your casino games taken to the next level, now you know everything there is to know about casino bonuses!

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Play and Win with Parimatch Casino – LA Progressive

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If you want to enjoy exciting games and try your luck, but you are afraid to meet fraudulent websites, Parimatch Casino is exactly what you are looking for. This Australian gambling facility was registered only in 2021, but it has already proved its reliability and good reputation.

A little time has passed since the Parimatch platform (http://parimatchcasino.online) started its functioning, but it is already possible to find a great number of positive reviews of the Parimatch Casino service from gamblers all around the world.

Parimatchwin Casino provides a strong security system. The platform assures the safety of clients personal data and financial transactions.

The Australian gaming resource carries a transparent business. Every registered gamer receives information about provided transactions (deposit making, withdrawal) as a report on a personal account.

Moreover, the Australian gaming resource carries a transparent business. Every registered gamer receives information about provided transactions (deposit making, withdrawal) as a report on a personal account.

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Furthermore, Parimatch Casino provides an interesting process of earning money due to the wide variety of exciting casino games. With the Parimatch collection of rounds, you have no chance to get bored.

The collection of casino games on the Australian platform includes more than 1,000 propositions:

You should not worry about the quality of sounds, graphics, speed of downloading, etc. because all games in the Parimatch collection are designed by the best casino game producers such as Truelab, CT GAMING, Goldenrace, Bet2tech, and others.

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WSOP Launch Expected Within Months For Michigan And Pennsylvania – OnlinePokerReport.com

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In a first quarter trading update for investors, 888 CEO Itai Pazner said that the company would soon launch online poker in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

We are excited about the US, where we plan to roll out sports into further states in the next few months, and launch our upgraded poker platform into further states in partnership with Caesars and their leading and hugely popular WSOP brand.

Michigan and Pennsylvania are two states that went all the way when it came to legalizing online gambling. They not only legalized online sports betting, but added online casino and poker to the mix. However, while operators jumped in quickly to the online sports betting market, online poker has followed on at a more sedate pace.

PokerStars initially held a monopoly in both states for nearly a year and a half in the case of Pennsylvania. BetMGM was second on the scene in both cases, launching first in Michigan then in Pennsylvania in rapid succession this spring.

Now it looks like the Keystone State and the Wolverine State will get to enjoy three-way competition in their online poker markets. In an investor call Pazner said that launch would be in a couple of months.

WSOP is a longstanding fixture in the US online poker market. As the only operator to actively benefit from the Multi-State Internet Gambling Agreement (MSIGA), it became the top US poker operator by revenue when the market consisted only of New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada.

PokerStars overtook WSOP for the top spot after launching in the newer states. Now WSOP is fighting back, with new launches of its own. At the same time, it plans to bring 888s new Poker8 platform to the US for the first time.

888 credits the Poker8 software with helping it to secure significant growth in the international market. Pazner told investors:

Poker revenues increased by 10%, and were consistent with the fourth quarter of 2020, with ongoing strong customer reaction to the award-winning Poker8 product, and sustained successful marketing with the Made to Play marketing campaign.

The new platform is at the center of what 888 calls an entertainment-led mobile first poker offering. The most immediately visible impact is that players can play online poker in portrait mode on their cell phones. Previously the graphics only allowed landscape mode.

Other entertainment friendly attributes of Poker8 include throwable items, avatars, emojis, player tags, gift drops. Less entertaining but perhaps more important is that the new software loads twice as fast as the old client.

States that restrict online gaming to sports betting miss out on the extra revenues that online casino and online poker bring. More importantly, they leave part of the market in the hands of offshore operators. European regulators have long realized that channeling players to the legal market means competing with offshore sites. Prices and game offers must be competitive.

Pennsylvania and Michigan joined New Jersey and West Virginia in understanding this dynamic. Online operators also know the commercial value of a fully featured product offering.

For 888, poker is an additional marketing channel that can feed extra revenues to its sports betting and casino products. In the new states, its poker product will serve a similar purpose for its partner Caesars, which owns WSOP. 888 does have plans to launch its sportsbook in additional states, but PA and MI arent on the list.

In 2020 new customers for online poker increased by 50%, and 60% for casino. Sports betting was the laggard with growth of only 14%. The new platform is part of a strategy to do even better in the sports betting vertical.

Pennsylvania regulators have said that they are in talks about joining the MSIGA. The law explicitly allows for such interstate player pool sharing. Michigan online poker is in a similar position. The hesitation for both states is the ongoing situation re the DOJ interpretation of the Wire Act.

Two levels of federal courts have now ruled that this interpretation is wrong. All that remains is for the DOJ to either accept the ruling or to try to bring it before the Supreme Court. The Biden administration has implied that it will not do so. That will be the big green light for both states to join the MSIGA, and it could come soon.

If so, 888 and WSOP could look forward to a massively increased player pool for online bracelet events, one of the brands biggest selling points.

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EGBA: despite the progress some countries are ‘very much out of step’ – Casino Beats

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The European Gaming and Betting Association has voiced encouragement at the continents multi-licensing uptake, but has also issued fresh warnings to those still very much out of step with the rest of Europe.

With new analysis by the Brussels-based trade association finding that 25 out of 29 European countries have introduced a multi-licensing mode, the EGBA has again cautioned on the ineffective nature of gambling monopolies.

It says that the former, which allows both private and publicly owned companies to obtain a license to offer online gambling in a country, has become Europes clear and preferred basis for regulation, with the latter narrowing choice and heightening the attractiveness of unlicensed offerings.

Its encouraging that the majority of European countries have now moved towards multi-licensing regulation for all online gambling products in recognition that it is by far the most effective model for regulating online gambling, noted Maarten Haijer, secretary general of the EGBA.

Despite this progress, its notable that some countries, particularly Finland and Norway, are still very much out of step with the rest of Europe and continue to cling to outdated online gambling monopolies

The analysis found that Finland and Norway are the only countries which still retain an exclusive state-owned monopoly for all online gambling, with four countries having a mixed licensing system with a monopoly for either sports betting (Hungary and Slovenia) or casino gaming and poker (Austria and Poland), and multi-licensing for all other online gambling products.

Ireland is expected to introduce multi-licensing for online gambling in 2021/22, Cyprus (casino gaming and poker) and France (casino gaming) both impose product prohibitions in online gambling, and Luxembourg currently has no specific licensing regulations for online gambling

Evidence shows us that online gambling monopolies are ineffective and, by narrowing consumer choice, they make unlicensed websites more attractive, Haijer continued

Unlike monopolies, the benefits of full multi-licensing are very clear: better protection for consumers, more tax revenues for the state, and better control for regulators over their online gambling markets. The majority of European countries have already realised this when will the others?

In 2009, only seven countries, namely Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Malta, and the UK, had a multi-licensing regulation for online gambling.

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What is Jitsi Meet and how does it work the best free open source alternative to Zoom and Google Meet | Technology Explica .co – Explica

Posted: at 6:53 am

A year ago, video calling tools became part of everyday life for many people. Few were spared having meetings with family, friends and co-workers, several in a single day. The advance of the pandemic and the containment measures have relaxed that situation, but they are still very much needed.

If we ask, everyone has their favorite tool, either because they already have the application installed, it is the one they use at work, because it allows them to record meetings, or because it offers more games and funds to have a good time. Google Meet, Microsoft Team, Skype or Zoom they are many and very similar, but Jitsi Meet has gone more unnoticed, despite having been available for years and offer a lot for free.

You never know, maybe after giving it a try you decide that this is your new platform for making video calls. We are going to tell you about its main functions, everything we can do with it completely free and the security measures it offers.

If you are away from your friends, family or co-workers, this is no excuse for not maintaining communication with them. Here are five apps that allow you to make group video calls to keep talking to those people.

This program is the brainchild of Emil Ivov, a student at the University of Strasbourg, who has evolved over the years. In 2015, the Australian company Atlassian bought its technology. Today Jipsi Meet has more than 20 million active users around the world.

It is a platform mainly free and open source so it gives users the ability to create new tools and functions to improve the system as needed. A freer project, with almost no limits of use for its users and that has a lot of personality. Here you have a gallery with several images for you to consult its design.

From your computers browser, this platform is very easy to use. You open the Jitsi Meet website and write the name of the room (the one you have invented or the one that has been passed to you). If the meeting already exists, you will instantly enter it, even if you have not been invited, and if not, you will create it automatically.

As surprising as it may seem, it is that simple, without names or email to identify us. Of course, the platform requires a series of permissions both on the phone and on the computer. Please read carefully and accept if you agree, these are very normal requests to use the camera and microphone.

Once inside we see a series of symbols that represent the main functions, we list them below:

Activate or deactivate the microphone so as not to disturb others Activate or deactivate the camera: It is possible to use an external camera or the mobile one to achieve a higher quality. Here we explain how to do it and we recommend some applications for it. Share screen: To share the screen, it gives us the option to share the full screen and all our movements, only a specific window or only the chrome tab that you choose, which is very practical to avoid revealing personal data by mistake. Open the chat section to send a message to all participants Raise your hand to ask to speak Organize the participant view as a grid Invite more participants Other functions that we show you below Hang up and log out Meeting name and Video quality (top of screen) Your profile and rotate image function (upper right corner): As in most platforms, the image is by default with mirror mode, that is, the program turns our image to see us as if we were looking into a mirror, our right is the left and vice versa. This is so because people are more used to seeing themselves reflected in the mirror and not how others see us.

These are all the options that are quickly available on the main screen. Within the three-point section there are more. For example, video conferences can be recorded and the video uploaded to your Dropbox account. We can also start a live broadcast on YouTube.

All participants are moderators. This democratic option is not frequent in other applications, Jitsi alleges that in the face-to-face meetings that were held before this pandemic there were no people with exclusive privileges that allowed them to silence the rest and the meetings were carried out with education on most occasions, which that should move to the digital realm.

The company ensures that it is better for all participants to be able to silence the rest, so that anyone can block the microphone of another participant who has not realized that it makes too much noise and makes communication difficult. However, since these respectful environments are not everywhere, Jitsi offers its code in Docker and create a more private configuration. This is one of the advantages of open source programs, although only for users with advanced computer skills.

Another interesting option is all the keyboard shortcuts that you can use to navigate the meeting more quickly. You have a list with everyone within the options. It is more practical if you have to be moderating the meeting or you are directing a live show.

It also allows you to blur the screen or include a different background such as views of a city or a mountain. It doesnt offer many funds, but it lets you upload it from your computer, so you can choose the one you like the most. Even so, the quality of the cut leaves to be desired (as in almost all) and depending on the situation it can be more confusing than practical.

It is necessary to download the application on our phone, either Android or iOS, to create a meeting. Once installed, its use is very simple, with almost no need to enter data to create a new meeting, just put a name and invite anyone through an email or by sharing the link. As we have already mentioned before, one of the advantages of this platform is that it does not have time limits or users, you can hold endless and massive meetings.

The functions are practically the same in a smaller screen format. Being able to silence, expel and prioritize any of the participants in the meeting. In the same way, we have an integration with Google Calendar to schedule work meetings and view a call history.

If we do not have the application downloaded, we have the possibility to send the link or the phone number for the other participants to join without any hassle through the browser or as a traditional voice call.

In calls, the video quality can be adjusted, this makes it easier not to saturate the device or the internet connection with an excessive workload. They can also be video or voice, if you do not have a WiFi network at hand this function prevents you from consuming all your mobile data at once. They also provide you with a personalized web address and phone number so that you can join the meeting without the need for a computer.

Video calls host all kinds of conversations that should be private, many companies expose business data that must be protected, so security in these applications is essential. Jitsi has strengths and weaknesses that are important for you to know.

Your meetings are private, created when the first participant enters and deleted when the last participant leaves. If someone rejoins the same room, a new meeting with the same name is created and there is no connection with any previous meeting that has been held with the same name, they explain in their use and privacy policy.

Jitsy does not require the creation of any personal account to use its services, so it is only necessary to indicate a name (it can be invented) to identify ourselves to the rest of the participants during the meeting. Data such as name or email address are, in principle, optional and the platform ensures that they are deleted after the video call ends.

Also other data such as conversations shared by chat or speaker statistics are deleted at the end. However, the recordings are first kept on the Jitsy servers and then saved in the Dropbox account that we have entered. If the system does not find space to upload the recording to your Dropbox, it will keep it for 24 hours and then delete it. That is why it is important to make sure that we have plenty of space in Dropbox so that the recording is stored correctly.

On the other hand, Jitsi Meet uses Google Analytics on its website. As they explain, they only use it to check which functions are most popular and the possible errors. Even so, the function can be disabled if you decide to be the server to enforce privacy with this code that other developers have created.

For greater security, video calling platforms have resorted to a protection system that we can also find in messaging applications such as WhatsApp or Signal, end-to-end encryption.

With this encryption, communication goes from the sender to the receiver encrypted, so that no one can decrypt it along the way. Jitsi offers this possibility, but it is necessary to activate it in the settings of the tool and make sure that all participants fill in the same password or phrase in the Password section.

It is also necessary to use a browser based on Chromium 83 and higher, that is, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Brave and Opera. You can also use Electron, which supports it out of the box.

In any case, it must be clear that this protection system tends to fail when video calls are recorded, the recordings remain on the Jitsi servers unencrypted and then uploaded to your Dropbox account, which can also be hacked.

Being an experimental class system it can give errors. During the tests that we have carried out, the image and sound have failed on more than one occasion when the end-to-end encryption is activated and a mobile phone with little power is being used.

All these aspects are very important, but perhaps its greatest weakness is in the meeting creation system, by indicating a name you are already in a meeting. So that strangers do not sneak in without any difficulty, the platform has a series of tips that you should follow:

Be careful of where do you share meeting information and how you invite the other participants. Posting the data on social networks can be a very high risk, even if you want to do a live on YouTube. Pick an unusual name For the meeting, Yoga, Coffee or Family Reunion, they are very common. The chances of random uninvited people joining are very, very high, they explain. You can use your random name generator. They are also working on an unsafe name detector to help users create them. Activate the waiting room in the security functions to check who wants to join your meeting and give them permission or not. Set a password for the meeting and share it with participants over a secure network. From the outset, you have already seen that all video calls are open to anyone who knows their name. Passwords enforce privacy and are reset when the meeting is closed.

This is Jitsi Meet, a video calling platform that gives you much more freedom than the main brands like Google or Zoom. It will take less than five minutes to get your design and how it works and if you dont like something you can always find the solution among the many versions that other developers have created thanks to its open source.

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Rand Paul clashes with Fauci over coronavirus origins | TheHill – The Hill

Posted: at 6:50 am

Anthony FauciAnthony FauciFauci says school should be open 'full blast' five days a week in the fall Watch live: White House holds briefing with COVID-19 response team The Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - Colonial pays hackers as service is restored MORE on Tuesday clashed with Sen. Rand PaulRandal (Rand) Howard PaulFauci on Rand Paul: 'I just don't understand what the problem is with him' Buckingham Palace requests 'Trump Train' remove image of queen from bus The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - Cheney poised to be ousted; Biden to host big meeting MORE (R-Ky.) over the role of the Wuhan, China, virology lab in the origins of COVID-19.

During a Senate hearing on the pandemic response, Paul alleged that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had been sending funding to the Wuhan lab, which then "juiced up" a virus that was originally found in bats to create a supervirus that can infect human cells.

Paulpressed Fauci on the theory that the novel coronavirus was created in the Wuhan lab, and then somehow escaped, either because of an accident or because it was deliberately released.

"Sen. Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely, entirely and completely incorrect," Fauci said. "The NIH has not ever, and does not now, fund 'gain of function research' in the Wuhan Institute."

Paul continued to argue with Fauci, who is the director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), accusing him of cooperating with the Chinese government, and supporting the laboratory that bioengineered a deadly virus.

Fauci noted that although the NIH did fund a project at the Wuhan lab, it was not meant for "gain of function" research into human-made superviruses.

The NIH gave a grant to a group called EcoHealth Alliance, which hired the virology lab in Wuhan to conduct genetic analyses of bat coronaviruses and examine how they spread to humans. The Trump administration last year forced the NIH to terminatethe grant.

The false link between Fauci, the NIH and the Wuhan lab has been circulating amongright-wing media and politicians likePaul and Sen. Ron JohnsonRonald (Ron) Harold JohnsonImmigration experts say GOP senators questioned DHS secretary with misleading chart GOP split on counteroffer to Biden's spending Rand Paul clashes with Fauci over coronavirus origins MORE (R-Wis.) for months.

"Let me explain to you why that was done, the SARS COV-1 originated in bats in China. It would have been irresponsible of us if we did not investigate the bat viruses and the serology to see who might have been infected," Fauci said.

Gain of function research is a controversial form of study that involves boosting the infectivity and lethality of a pathogen. Fauci has advocated for the research in the past, but he denied that the NIH was funding it in China.

But Paul interrupted him, and hinted that not only was the virus introduced to the world because of a lab accident, it was also biologically engineered.

"Government scientists like yourself who favor gain function Paulsaid.

I dont favor gain of function research in China and you are saying things that are not correct, Fauciinterrupted.

The White House said it believes that China has "not been transparent" in releasing its findings on the origins of COVID-19, and the World Health Organization was severely limited in its investigation.

Fauci said he supports further investigation into the origin of the virus, but denied the NIH had any role in funding controversial research.

"I do not have any accounting of what the Chinese may have done, and I'm fully in favor of any further investigation of what went on in China," Fauci said."However, I will repeat again, the NIH andNIAID categoricallyhasnot funded gain of function research to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute."

Paul, a libertarian ophthalmologist, has clashed repeatedly with Fauci throughout the pandemic on a wide range of topics including the idea of herd immunity and the effectiveness of restrictions.

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Fact and fiction in a fake news epidemic – The Hindu

Posted: at 6:50 am

Was this the smoking gun? Chinese military scientists discussed weaponising SARS coronaviruses was the headline of a report in The Australian, which flashed on my WhatsApp one morning this week. Before noon, Id received the report from half a dozen people with the familiar prescription: Must read!

The report said it had unearthed a leaked document written by Chinese military scientists speaking of weaponising coronaviruses, confirming what has for long been suspected by conspiracy theorists ever since the pandemic began in Wuhan, China.

But there was a small catch. The secret document cited in the report was from a not-so-secret book published in China in 2015, which is still available in Chinese bookstores. It also turned out that the authors, including Xu Dezhong, formerly a professor at the Air Force Medical University, were speaking of the first SARS epidemic being weaponised not by China, but by foreign powers unleashing a virus on the Chinese population. Not that these two details made much of a difference as the story continued to go, well, viral.

The belated publicity was not entirely bad news for Mr. Xu. On one online Chinese bookstore, Dangdang, there was a 10-fold increase in the price of the book, observed Pan Chengxin, a professor at Deakin University in Australia. The book, by most accounts, wasnt taken very seriously in China perhaps until this week.

Shortly before The Australian report, another article on the origins of COVID-19 evoked discussion. A 10,000-word essay by Nicholas Wade, previously a science reporter for The New York Times, made a strong case for why a laboratory accident couldnt be ruled out, citing, among other things, the outbreak beginning in Wuhan, home to the premier Chinese lab studying coronaviruses; the absence of a natural bat population there; and the inability to find an intermediate animal host, as was found after the first SARS epidemic, establishing its natural origins. Mr. Wade went a step further, suggesting there were scientific reasons to suggest this virus was not natural. That claim was, however, rebutted by many virologists including Kristian Andersen, who pointed out that his argument of an unusual furin cleavage site being a smoking gun was the only specific argument put forward to support a lab leak and was false.

If you are confused at this point, you are not alone. For news reporters trying to separate fact from fiction, furin cleavage sites and codons might as well be Latin or Greek.

What Mr. Wade did, however, get right is his conclusion that there is no clear evidence either to support or rule out whether the virus came from nature or a lab. Indeed, a lab accident and natural origins are not mutually exclusive possibilities, considering we may never know if the natural source was in a cave or in a cage.

Further muddying the search for origins is the politics. If the Trump administration in the U.S. prematurely wanted to claim the virus was lab-made despite thin evidence, China has spread its own conspiracy theories, with one Foreign Ministry spokesperson claiming that the virus was brought by the U.S. army to Wuhan. China has also been far from forthcoming, delaying access to Wuhan and not providing a WHO team with raw data. And forget about foreign researchers ever getting unrestricted access to the insides of Wuhans labs, all of which will only lead to more doubts.

Ultimately, only science, free from politics, can give us a clear answer. But good science takes time, which is in short supply in an age where we demand immediate answers.

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Jeff Bezos exposed as the king of fake news – New York Post

Posted: at 6:50 am

Wow: It now looks like Jeff Bezos and his damage-control team just made up not one but two whole stories to deflect coverage of his affair with a then-married woman: one, a claim that the Saudis had hacked his phone to get telling texts and revealing photos; two, charges that the National Enquirer tried to blackmail him into halting his investigation into how the shots had leaked.

Eventually, the world learned that the guy who sold the info to the Enquirer was Bezos girlfriends brother, a Hollywood press agent no hacking required and nothing to make the Enquirer fear any investigation.

Brad Stones new book, Amazon Unbound, excerpted for Bloomberg News, details how a consulting firm helped the Amazon CEO assemble his false counterstory, which relied on the suggestion that hed been targeted because his Washington Post was so critical of both the Saudi regime and then-President Donald Trump and allowed him to reveal the affair himself while pretending he was being heroic by refusing to be blackmailed.

Pretty masterful while it lasted . . . except that the owner of The Washington Post (Democracy dies in darkness is its self-righteous Bezos-era motto) now stands exposed as a cynical purveyor of fake news who even tried to frame a media outlet to protect his own image.

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Jeff Bezos exposed as the king of fake news - New York Post

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Covid-19: How fake news is hampering Ivory Coasts vaccination efforts – FRANCE 24 English

Posted: at 6:50 am

Issued on: 11/05/2021 - 16:01

Disinformation online has led to a sluggish vaccine roll-out in Ivory Coast. Ivorian and international health authorities have told FRANCE 24 that they are concerned about the pandemic of fake news. While this problem is not unique to Ivory Coast, the West African state is lagging behind a number of other countries in the region when it comes to vaccination rates.

When you get vaccinated, you become sick, said Anderson Dago, an unemployed 25-year-old standing in a potholed street in Abidjans Yopougon neighborhood. I read on social media that people who are vaccinated get controlled by 5G."His view is typical of people living in the area.

I dont believe Covid-19 exists, said Camara Djaka Sissoko who runs a small boutique. White people cannot even handle a bit of malaria. We are tougher. We can resist Covid-19.

Ivory Coast is facing a pandemic of disinformation. The country has received 504,000 doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine under the Covax scheme an initiative coordinated by the World Health Organization and others, to ensure that less developed countries have access to Covid-19 vaccines.They arrived in Ivory Coast in late February and will expire in September. So far, just over half the vaccines (252,317)have been used. Ivory Coast also has 50,000 vaccines donated by the Indian embassy, which currently lie dormant in a refrigerator these will expire in October. The roll-out here has been slower than in neighbouring countries such as Ghana.

'There is so much fake news'

At the INHP vaccination center in Yopougon, Estelle Yapi cuts a lonely figure.The 47-year-old social worker, retrained as a nurse to help deliver jabs during this crisis, sits under a white tarpaulin as the afternoon sun beats down. Rows of chairs, set up for those waiting to receive inoculation, sit empty.

It is normally busier in the morning, she concedes.

Yapi estimates that at full capacity, this centre could deliver 200-300 doses a day.While demand has been picking up, on one day in March,soon after the vaccination programme had begun, just 14 shots were delivered.

The centres logistic director offered a direct explanation. People inform themselves online. There is so much fake news, said Jean-Baptists Yat Ell.

In April 2020, residents of the area destroyed a Covid-19 testing centre that was being built close by.The protesters were at least in part triggered by a Facebook post from a pro-opposition cyberactivist, known online as Serge Koffi Le Drne, who suggested that the site would be used to house sick Covid-19 patients and was a government conspiracy to kill people in the area.

Yat said the link is clear.There was a communications problem. There was disinformation that made people revolt, he said.

A wave of scepticism

Astudyreleased by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in March surveyed 15 African countries, including Ivory Coast, interviewing close to 16,000 people. It noted that online channels, particularly on social media, tend to be the most trusted source of information among vaccine-sceptic groups.

>> Suspicion mars Ivory Coast's vaccine drive

In fact, 54 per cent of Ivorians surveyed said they had seen disinformation online more than the 41 percent average across the 15 countries. Two-in-three Ivorians believe that the threat of coronavirus is exaggerated; two-in-five believe that Covid-19 is a planned event by foreign actors; and 38 percent believe that Africans are being used as guinea pigs in vaccine trials, according to the study.

Dr Richard Mihigo, coordinator of immunisation and vaccine development for the WHOs Africa arm said that disinformation was higher in countries where there is higher penetration of internet usage.

This is not a phenomenon that is only a problem for Africa. Unfortunately, with Covid-19, weve seen a global scepticism around vaccination for Covid-19 in general, he said.

When you put that in our contexts when we didnt go through the first waves in a severe situation like was witnessed in the West, people started to think about why they [governments and international health authorities] are insisting so much on something which is not really a problem for us.

'We dont give a damn about Corona!'

In 2020, a number of high-profile incidents saw the Ivorian authorities receive backlash online for alleged hypocrisy over Covid-19 policy.

In March that year a number of public figures close to the government were exempted from a stay in a quarantine centre after a personal intervention from the Prime Minister. The banning of public protests in the run up to the presidential election, under the Covid-19-induced state of emergency, was seen as political manipulation of the crisis. This sentiment deepened in August when a clip of President Alassane Ouattara went viral where he was seen saying We dont give a damn about Corona! during his swearing-in as the candidate for the ruling RHDP party.

The influence of French media should also not be understated according to Professor Daniel Ekra, head of the countrys vaccination programme.

This vaccination campaign was preceded by lots of rumours and disinformation.In Africa and especially in Ivory Coast, this was triggered in April or May [2020] by someone during a TV debate in France saying that we should test the vaccine in Africa, he said, referring to thisincident.

In Ivory Coast, the government is scrambling to boost interest in vaccination with social media campaigns and Facebook Live events. Patrick Achi, the current PM, was the first person to get vaccinated in the country in an event covered by the media. But it may be some time before the tide of fake news can be turned.

People make up their own minds. It is a question of communication, said Ekra.

Link:

Covid-19: How fake news is hampering Ivory Coasts vaccination efforts - FRANCE 24 English

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Facebook says it removed 12 million pieces of fake news on Covid-19 globally – HT Tech

Posted: at 6:50 am

Facebook today said that it removed 12 million pieces of misinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic globally from its family of apps, which includes Facebook and Instagram.

The company also said that it put warning labels on over 167 million posts marked as false by third-party fact-checkers. The social media giant said that when people see warning labels, about 95% of the time they do not go on to view the original content.

In addition to this, Facebook said that in the coming weeks it would be rolling out a new campaign in India in a bid to educate and inform its users in India on ways to detect misinformation pertaining to the pandemic. The social media giant said that this endeavour will enable users to make qualified decisions about the information that they get online.

As a part of this campaign, the company will show tips and tricks to users via creative advertisements and link to a dedicated microsite, http://www.fightcovidmisinfo.com/india/ to get verified information. Facebook said that this campaign and the website will be rolled out in English and nine Indian languages, which includes Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati and Bengali.

Lastly, Facebook said that it has also initiated a campaign in association with some of the leading doctors in the country. This campaign includes a series of 12 videos wherein doctors will address the most commonly asked questions on Covid-19. The video series titled #DoctorKiSuno will be available on https://www.facebook.com/FacebookIndia and it will cover various topics like Covid-19 in children, diabetes and Covid-19, the mental health impacts of Covid-19 among other things.

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Facebook says it removed 12 million pieces of fake news on Covid-19 globally - HT Tech

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