Економіка

Nigeria’s government said Friday it was suspending Twitter indefinitely in Africa’s most populous nation, a day after the company deleted a controversial tweet President Muhammadu Buhari made about a secessionist movement.It was not immediately clear when the suspension would go into effect as users could still access Twitter late Friday, and many said they would simply use VPNs to maintain access to the platform.Others mocked the government for using the platform to announce the action.”You’re using Twitter to suspend Twitter? Are you not mad?” one user tweeted in response.Information Minister Lai Mohammed said Friday that government officials took the step because the platform was being used “for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”Mohammed criticized Twitter for deleting the post. “The mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very suspicious,” he said, adding that Twitter had in the past ignored “inciting” tweets against the Nigerian government.Twitter deleted Buhari’s post on Wednesday, calling it abusive, after the president threatened suspected separatist militants in the southeast.More than 1 million people died during the 1967-70 civil war that erupted when secessionists sought to create an independent Biafra for the ethnic Igbo people. Buhari, an ethnic Fulani, was on the opposing side in the war against the Igbos.In recent months, pro-Biafra separatists have been accused of attacking police and government buildings, and Buhari vowed to retaliate and “treat them in the language they understand.”
…

Do you know how much data your car is collecting? VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports on how law enforcement agencies in the U.S. are among those eager to dig into the automobile data gold mines.
Camera: Veronica Balderas Iglesias      Producer: Veronica Balderas Iglesias
…

Facebook said Friday it would suspend Donald Trump’s accounts for at least two years, retaining a ban on the former U.S. president that it imposed after determining he incited the deadly January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. “At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded,” Facebook Vice President Nick Clegg wrote in a blog post Friday.  The social media giant’s independent oversight board upheld its block on Trump, which was enacted after the riot because the company said his posts were inciting violence. On January 6, Trump implored thousands of supporters who had come to Washington for a “Save America March” to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat, just before the riot aimed at preventing the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory. Five people died, including a federal police officer. The ban expires on January 7, 2023, two years after Facebook first blocked the former president. The timing of Facebook’s decision will reduce Trump’s ability to influence midterm congressional elections in November 2022, but his account could be restored well before voters go to polls in 2024 should Trump decide to seek the presidency again that year. In response to Facebook’s decision, Trump said in a statement it is “an insult to the record-setting 75M people, plus many others, who voted for us in the 2020 Rigged Presidential Election. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing and ultimately, we will win.” FILE – The founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the 56th Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 15, 2020.In a separate statement he added, “Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!” Zuckerberg is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Facebook. At the White House briefing Friday, press secretary Jen Psaki said the ban was the company’s decision. “Our view continues to be, though, that every platform, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, any other platform that is disseminating information to millions of Americans, has a responsibility to crack down on disinformation, to crack down on false information whether it’s about the election or even about the vaccine, as we are trying to keep the American public safe.” 
 
…

Facebook plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that exempted politicians from certain moderation rules on its site, according to several news reports.The company’s rationale for that policy held that the speech of political leaders is inherently newsworthy and in the public interest even if it is offensive, bullying or otherwise controversial. The social media giant is currently mulling over what to do with the account of former President Donald Trump, which it “indefinitely” suspended Jan. 6, leaving it in Facebook limbo with its owners unable to post.The change in policy was first reported by the tech site The Verge and later confirmed by The New York Times and The Washington Post.Facebook has had a general “newsworthiness exemption” since 2016. But it garnered attention in 2019 when Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs and communications, announced that speech from politicians will be treated as “newsworthy content that should, as a general rule, be seen and heard.”The newsworthiness exemption, he explained in a blog post at the time, meant that if “someone makes a statement or shares a post which breaks our community standards we will still allow it on our platform if we believe the public interest in seeing it outweighs the risk of harm.”This hasn’t given politicians unlimited license, however. When Facebook suspended Trump in January, it cited “the risk of further incitement of violence” following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as the reason. The company says it has never used the newsworthiness exemption for any of Trump’s posts.Facebook declined to comment.
…

Twitter announced a new premium service for users in Canada and Australia that allows paying users to adjust tweets, among other features.Called Twitter Blue, the service allows users to preview and modify a tweet up to 30 seconds before publishing it. Users can also bookmark and organize tweets, making them easier to find.Twitter Blue will also format threads, or series of tweets, into a more readable format.”We’ve heard from the people that use Twitter a lot, and we mean a lot, that we don’t always build power features that meet their needs,” two Twitter product managers, Sara Beykpour and Smita Mittal Gupta, wrote in a blog post about the new service.Twitter Blue will cost $4.49 a month in Australian dollars and $3.49 in Canadian dollars.Twitter says that more features are forthcoming and that users in other parts of the world will have access to Twitter Blue in the “near future.” 
…

The European Union (EU) Thursday unveiled its plans for a digital ID wallet that would hold all official documents residents would need to allow them access to the information at home or anywhere across the 27-nation bloc.
 
At a news briefing on the proposal in Brussels, European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager said the European Digital Identity Wallet would be a smartphone app that would let users store electronic forms of identification and other official documents, such as driver’s licenses, prescriptions and school diplomas.
 
Vestager said the plan would enable the bloc’s 450 million residents to do anything they would at home — rent an apartment, open a bank account — in any EU member state. She was quick to add that the plan would not be mandatory and that citizens could put as much or as little data in the app as they felt comfortable with.  
 
She said technical work was already underway to ensure the app had the latest encryption technology available and could not be hacked.  
 
As many as 14 EU countries already have their own national digital ID systems, and EU officials say the app is being developed for compatibility with those systems. The commission plans to discuss the digital wallet with the EU’s 27 member countries and aims to get them to agree on technical details by fall so pilot projects can begin.
 
The proposal is part of a wider plan by the EU to go more digital and is a key part of its post-COVID-19 recovery package. The bloc has set a target of having all public services in the EU available online by 2030 and ensuring that every EU citizen has a digital medical record.
…

The White House on Thursday urged American businesses to take new precautions to combat disruptive ransomware attacks that have increasingly hobbled companies throughout Western economies.Jen Psaki, President Joe Biden’s press secretary, urged private industry to harden access to their computer systems, saying the government “can’t do it alone.”Anne Neuberger, a White House cybersecurity official, said in a statement that the “most important takeaway” from the recent attacks, including those affecting a key gasoline pipeline and a meat production company in the U.S., is that “companies that view ransomware as a threat to their core business operations rather than a simple risk of data theft will react and recover more effectively.”“Many ransomware criminals are aggressive and sophisticated and will find the equivalent of unlocked doors,” Neuberger said. “The threats are serious, and they are increasing.”She urged businesses to “back up your data, system images, and configurations, regularly test them, and keep the backups offline.”Neuberger said companies should “ensure that backups are regularly tested and that they are not connected to the business network, as many ransomware variants try to find and encrypt or delete accessible backups.”The deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging tech also said U.S. businesses should “test your incident response plan” because “there’s nothing that shows the gaps in plans more than testing them.”Neuberger said companies should use third parties to test their own security work, segment corporate business functions from manufacturing and production operations and regularly test contingency plans “so that safety critical functions can be maintained during a cyber incident.” 
…

Cities around the world are installing new technology that connects to the personal devices of pedestrians, drivers, and riders on public transportation. Some cities are using these systems to make transportation easier for people with disabilities, such as those who are blind. For VOA, Jason Strother has the story from Busan, South Korea.
…