Dominique Luchart's Blog, page 603
June 5, 2021
Twitter blocked in Nigeria after deleting a tweet by its president,
Twitter is suspended “indefinitely” in Nigeria, “for the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence,” according to a statement (threaded on Twitter) from the country’s minister of information and culture. The move comes days after the platform removed a threatening tweet by president Muhammadu Buhari which Twitter said violated its “abusive behavior” policy.
On Saturday, the office of Nigeria’s attorney general and ministry of justice said it would arrest and prosecute anyone who tried to get around the block, CNN reported, and directed government agencies to cooperate with prosecutors “to ensure the speedy prosecution of offenders without any further delay.” Several news reports said people within Nigeria were using VPNs to try to avoid the ban and continue using Twitter.
The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.
— Fed Min of Info & Cu (@FMICNigeria)
In Buhari’s deleted tweet, he suggested he would punish secessionists. “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Biafra war,” he wrote. “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.” Buhari was a major general during the Biafra war, which left more than a million people dead.
Twitter’s Public Policy team said in a statement Saturday it was “deeply concerned” and would work to restore access in Nigeria. Reuters reported Saturday that Twitter’s website was not accessible on some of Nigeria’s mobile carriers, but appeared to be working sporadically on other carriers in Lagos and Abuja, two of the country’s biggest cities.
We are deeply concerned by the blocking of Twitter in Nigeria. Access to the free and #OpenInternet is an essential human right in modern society.
We will work to restore access for all those in Nigeria who rely on Twitter to communicate and connect with the world. #KeepitOn
— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy)
“Suspending Twitter in Nigeria is just one more way of stating that people’s rights do not matter just what the State wants,” Osai Ojigho, director of Amnesty International in Nigeria tweeted. “This is a dangerous precedent and must be called out for what it is.” Amnesty called on Nigerian authorities to immediately reverse the suspension, “and other plans to gag the media, repress civic space, and undermine Nigerians’ human rights.”
In April, Twitter opened its first office in Africa in Ghana, which some in Nigeria considered a snub. In its announcement, Twitter cited Ghana’s support of free speech, online freedom and the Open Internet as the reasons for its decision. Nigeria’s information minister said at the time that Twitter’s decision not to locate its Africa offices in Nigeria was due to misrepresentation of the country by the media.
According to a 2020 report from Amnesty International, Nigerian authorities “used repressive laws to harass, intimidate, arrest and detain human rights defenders, activists, media workers and perceived critics. Non-state actors also subjected journalists to intimidation, harassment and beatings.”
Update June 5th, 4:44PM ET: Adds that the Nigerian government plans to arrest and prosecute people who try to get around the Twitter ban.
The post Twitter blocked in Nigeria after deleting a tweet by its president, appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Justice Department has charged a Latvian woman it says helped develop Trickbot malware,
The US Department of Justice has charged a Latvian woman for her role in allegedly developing the Trickbot malware, which was responsible for infecting millions of computers, targeting schools, hospitals, public utilities, and governments, the agency said in a news release.
The DOJ alleges that Alla Witte was part of a criminal organization known as the Trickbot Group that operated in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Suriname. She allegedly helped develop the malware which was used to enable ransomware demands and payments. Victims would receive a notice that their computers were encrypted, the DOJ said, and were directed to buy special software through a bitcoin address linked to the Trickbot Group to have their files decrypted.
According to the DOJ, the Trickbot malware was designed to capture online banking login credentials to gain access to other personal information including credit card numbers, emails, passwords, Social Security numbers, and addresses. The group allegedly used stolen personal information “to gain access to online bank accounts, execute unauthorized electronic funds transfers and launder the money through U.S. and foreign beneficiary accounts,” the DOJ said.
Federal law enforcement agencies warned hospitals and healthcare providers last October of a credible ransomware threat by attackers using Trickbot to deploy ransomware such as Ryuk and Conti.
Witte was arrested February 6th in Miami. She is charged with 19 counts including conspiracy to commit computer fraud and aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud affecting a financial institution, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The post Justice Department has charged a Latvian woman it says helped develop Trickbot malware, appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Justice Department has charged a Latvian woman it says helped develop Trickbot malware, Kim Lyons
Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeThe US Department of Justice has charged a Latvian woman for her role in allegedly developing the Trickbot malware, which was responsible for infecting millions of computers, targeting schools, hospitals, public utilities, and governments, the agency said in a news release.
The DOJ alleges that Alla Witte was part of a criminal organization known as the Trickbot Group that operated in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Suriname. She allegedly helped develop the malware which was used to enable ransomware demands and payments. Victims would receive a notice that their computers were encrypted, the DOJ said, and were directed to buy special software through a bitcoin address linked to the Trickbot Group to have their files decrypted.
A…
The post Justice Department has charged a Latvian woman it says helped develop Trickbot malware, Kim Lyons appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Square will invest $5 million to build solar-powered bitcoin mining facility,
Financial services firm Square Inc. will partner with blockchain technology provider Blockstream Mining to build an open-source, solar-powered bitcoin mining facility, Blockstream announced in a press release Saturday. Square confirmed the news in a tweet, saying it was “committed to driving further adoption and efficiency of renewables within the bitcoin ecosystem.”
According to the release, Square will invest $5 million in the facility, which will be a “proof-of-concept for a 100% renewable energy Bitcoin mine at scale,” and will be built at one of Blockstream’s sites in the US. “We hope to show that a renewable mining facility in the real world is not only possible but also prove empirically that Bitcoin accelerates the world toward a sustainable future,” the release states.
Together, we’ll be creating a public-facing dashboard to serve as a transparent case study for renewable energy and bitcoin mining. As we continue to explore the synergies between the two, we’re excited to share our ongoing learnings and real world data points. (2/2)
— Square (@Square)
Bitcoin mining uses a lot of electricity, and the pursuit of sustainable methods for mining it is top of mind for many in the industry. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in April the automaker would stop accepting bitcoin as payment for vehicles (after having the policy in place for roughly a month), noting that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin “come at great costs to the environment.” He met with bitcoin miners in May, and the group agreed to form a Bitcoin Mining Council, “to promote energy usage transparency [and] accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide.”
Square CEO Jack Dorsey, who is also CEO of Twitter, is another big proponent of bitcoin (it’s the only word in his Twitter bio at the moment), saying in 2018 that he thinks bitcoin will become the world’s single currency within 10 years. Square invested $50 million in bitcoin in October , adding another $170 million in February. Users of Square’s Cash app can use it to buy bitcoin. And during remote testimony before Congress in March, a bitcoin clock could be seen in the background of Dorsey’s video stream.
On Friday, Dorsey tweeted that Square was “considering making a hardware wallet for bitcoin” building it entirely in the open and in collaboration with the community.
The post Square will invest $5 million to build solar-powered bitcoin mining facility, appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Square will invest $5 million to build solar-powered bitcoin mining facility, Kim Lyons
Square and Blockstream are partnering on a solar-powered bitcoin mining facility | BlockstreamFinancial services firm Square Inc. will partner with blockchain technology provider Blockstream Mining to build an open-source, solar-powered bitcoin mining facility, Blockstream announced in a press release Saturday. Square confirmed the news in a tweet, saying it was “committed to driving further adoption and efficiency of renewables within the bitcoin ecosystem.”
According to the release, Square will invest $5 million in the facility, which will be a “proof-of-concept for a 100% renewable energy Bitcoin mine at scale,” and will be built at one of Blockstream’s sites in the US. “We hope to show that a renewable mining facility in the real world is not only possible but also prove empirically that Bitcoin accelerates the world toward a…
The post Square will invest $5 million to build solar-powered bitcoin mining facility, Kim Lyons appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
India reportedly warns Twitter of ‘unintended consequences’ if it fails to follow new rules, Kim Lyons
Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeIndia’s government has told Twitter it could face “unintended consequences” if it fails to comply with the country’s new social media rules, Reuters reported. India’s technology minister wrote in a June 5th letter to Twitter that the company’s responses to previous government letters about the new rules did not confirm whether Twitter was in full compliance, according to Reuters.
Under India’s Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, which took effect in May, social media companies could be subject to legal action if they fail to follow the code’s provisions, which are aimed at regulating the platforms’ content. The new rules call for platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp to remove content within 36 hours of…
The post India reportedly warns Twitter of ‘unintended consequences’ if it fails to follow new rules, Kim Lyons appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
India reportedly warns Twitter of ‘unintended consequences’ if it fails to follow new rules,
India’s government has told Twitter it could face “unintended consequences” if it fails to comply with the country’s new social media rules, Reuters reported. India’s technology minister wrote in a June 5th letter to Twitter that the company’s responses to previous government letters about the new rules did not confirm whether Twitter was in full compliance, according to Reuters.
Under India’s Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, which took effect in May, social media companies could be subject to legal action if they fail to follow the code’s provisions, which are aimed at regulating the platforms’ content. The new rules call for platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp to remove content within 36 hours of receiving a legal order.
The rules also require the companies to have a grievance officer who acknowledges users’ complaints within 24 hours, a chief compliance officer, and a contact person who would be available to law enforcement agencies 24 hours a day.
The June 5th letter to Twitter said the company had not yet met the requirements for the new roles, Reuters reported, and could results in India holding Twitter legally liable for content on its platform. But the letter stated that “as gesture of goodwill, Twitter Inc is hereby given one last notice to immediately comply with the Rules.”
Twitter has tangled with the Indian government on several fronts in recent months. In April, the social platform removed tweets critical of the Indian government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and did so at the government’s request. And late last month, police in the Indian cities of Delhi and Guragon raided Twitter offices there as part of an investigation into why some tweets by government officials were labeled as “manipulated media” under Twitter’s policy. There were no employees in the offices at the time, as Twitter employees in India were working remotely.
Twitter declined to comment Saturday.
The post India reportedly warns Twitter of ‘unintended consequences’ if it fails to follow new rules, appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Report: NASA investigating UFO sightings, agency chief says, ,
NASA is now on the perplexing UFO case.
NASA chief Bill Nelson, who assumed his post just last month, has asked agency researchers to look into the spate of UFO sightings that U.S. Navy pilots have reported over the past two decades, CNN reported.
“Now that I’m here at NASA, I’ve turned to our scientists and I’ve said, ‘Would you, looking at it from a scientific standpoint, see if you can determine [what these objects are], so that we can have a better idea?'” Nelson told CNN’s Rachel Crane in an interview that the network posted online Friday (June 4).
“The bottom line is, we want to know,” he added. “And that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Related: 7 things most often mistaken for UFOs
News of the UFO encounters broke in late 2017, when The New York Times and Politico reported that Navy pilots had repeatedly spotted strange objects performing maneuvers that were far more advanced than anything their own jets could do.
These stories also revealed that, in 2007, the U.S. Department of Defense created the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) to investigate sightings of UFOs — or UAPs (“unidentified aerial phenomena”), as the military recently rebranded them. AATIP was officially phased out in 2012, but the Pentagon stood up a successor task force last summer.
And the drive to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery has continued to grow. In December 2020, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — at the time the chair of the Senate’s intelligence committee — asked the Pentagon and the U.S. director of national intelligence to deliver an unclassified report about the UFO sightings to Congress within six months.
“I want us to take it seriously and have a process to take it seriously,” Rubio told reporter Bill Whitaker during an interview that aired last month on the CBS news program “60 Minutes,” stressing that any unknown object spotted in U.S. airspace could be a threat to national security.
“I want us to have a process to analyze the data every time it comes in — that there be a place where this is cataloged and constantly analyzed until we get some answers,” Rubio added. “Maybe it has a very simple answer. Maybe it doesn’t.”
The six-month deadline is almost up. And we’ve already gotten a sneak peak at the investigation’s findings, thanks to The New York Times, which talked to sources familiar with it. We shouldn’t expect a blockbuster announcement, according to the Times story; its headline is “U.S. finds no evidence of alien technology in flying objects, but can’t rule it out, either.”
Mike Wall is the author of “ Out There ” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
The post Report: NASA investigating UFO sightings, agency chief says, , appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Virgin Galactic to launch science communicator and researcher to space, ,
Virgin Galactic will launch Kellie Gerardi, an aerospace researcher and science communicator who’s captured the world’s attention with books and TikTok videos, to space as a payload specialist on an upcoming mission.
The suborbital spaceflight on a Virgin Galactic space plane will send Gerardi, author of “Not Necessarily Rocket Science: A Beginner’s Guide to Life in the Space Age” (Mango Media, 2020), on a dedicated research flight to test new technologies related to human health amid other experiments. In addition to her communication work, Gerardi is a researcher at the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS), which will collaborate with Virgin Galactic along with “academic and government partners,” to plan the flight and onboard research activities, according to a statement.
“This is, obviously. a dream come true for me,” Gerardi, told Space.com about the selection. “But I think it’s also a really important precedent for the next generation of researchers and scientists and astronauts who are going to be able to use these platforms like Virgin Galactic to achieve all of their research goals and their personal goals of becoming astronauts and flying to space and doing something that in the past, only handfuls of humans have had the opportunity to do.”
Related: How Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo works (infographic)
[image error]
The reveal for Virgin Galactic’s upcoming new spaceplane SpaceShip III. Virgin Galactic announced in June 2021 that science communicator and researcher Kellie Gerardi will fly with Virgin Galactic on a research flight. (Image credit: Virgin Galactic/Twitter)The flight will last anywhere between approximately 60 and 75 minutes and both takeoff and land back at Virgin Galactic’s hub of commercial operations, Spaceport America in New Mexico, Sirisha Bandla, vice president of government affairs at Virgin Galactic, told Space.com.
Virgin Galactic has developed a series of space planes, most recently newly announced SpaceShip III (which follows its predecessor SpaceShipTwo). They are designed to carry two pilots and up to six passengers on suborbital trips to space, and are launched from the air by the VMS Eve, a huge carrier plane
“We have a hybrid system with an aircraft and spacecraft,” Bandla said. “So the aircraft will carry up our spaceship class of vehicles to high altitude release, the spacecraft will then light its rocket motor for 60 seconds. And that is enough to take SpaceShip to apogee. And there, we’ll have three to four minutes of microgravity time where Kelly’s going to do her work and her research.”
During these minutes of weightlessness, Gerardi will unbuckle from her seat and complete her research objectives. While they cannot reveal all of the specifics yet of what will be brought on board, Gerardi shared that she will be conducting fluid dynamics research and collecting data using a wearable device called the Astroskin Bio-Monitor. Despite the tight timeline with just minutes of weightlessness, Gerardi said that she will be “baking in at least a full minute in that choreography just to look out the window and be in space.”
At this moment, Bandla said, Virgin Galactic cannot release any information about when this mission might take off. “Unfortunately, we can’t share any details on the future flight schedule,” Bandla said.
While Virgin Galactic cannot share any specific information yet about when this flight might take place, in their first-quarter results released this May the company revealed that it will begin commercial service in 2022. In a report, Ars Technica, therefore, suggested that Gerardi’s upcoming flight could take place as soon as 2022.
Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
The post Virgin Galactic to launch science communicator and researcher to space, , appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Where did the microchip vaccine conspiracy theory come from anyway?, Ike Sriskandarajah
Illustration by Tyler ComrieHow an innocuous Reddit thread mutated into a dangerous, viral lie
The post Where did the microchip vaccine conspiracy theory come from anyway?, Ike Sriskandarajah appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
