Technology
After booting Trump, Twitter regulations under spotlight in India, Mexico
Micro-blogging giant Twitter seems to be in hot water on multiple fronts this week, as its previous suspension of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account during his last days in office seem to be haunting the platform.
The social media company is facing freedom of speech and regulation-oriented debates over the content that’s being pushed on its social networking space on two different continents, as the consequences of misinformation in the United States begin to overlap on contentions issues in other countries.
Let’s jump right in.
The Mexican front
Twitter has been caught in the crosshairs of a prominent senator from Mexico’s ruling party, who’s largely lobbying for increased regulations on major social media platforms in an attempt to protect “freedom of speech.”
The proposed amendment to the federal telecommunications law – which was acquired by Reuters – would grant the IFT, Mexico’s telecoms regulator, a say and oversight to establish a framework for the suspension and elimination of accounts on social networks.
The draft bill named social media titan Facebook – used among 90 percent of Internet users within Mexico – along with Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat among the list of social media companies that would be affected by the framework, which is aimed at “establishing the grounds and general principles of the protection of freedom of expression in social networks.”
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has had a tough stance on Big Tech, especially social networking sites, mainly following Facebook’s decision to indefinitely suspend former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account over misinformation.
Lopez Obrador even went a step further by singling out a Mexican Twitter employee earlier in January over allegations that his former connections to an opposition party could compromise the company’s ability to remain neutral.
The Indian front
Across the Pacific Ocean, Twitter seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place in one of its key markets, India, pitting it against a powerful world leader.
The country has been experiencing an onslaught of protests by farmers who are opposing laws aimed at deregulating the country’s agricultural markets to encourage the entry of private competition.
Protesters have popularized the use of #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide on Twitter; the hashtag has led the government to ask the micro-blogging site to block almost 257 accounts under India’s Section 69A of its IT Act.
In parallel, The Ministry of Electronics and IT has also asked for the blockage of 1,178 accounts believed to be linked to Khalistan (a Sikh separatist movement) sympathizers and those backed by Pakistan.
While the company had initially suspended the accounts at the government’s behest – including some high-profile ones with +200,000 followers supporting the ongoing protests by farmers and one of the country’s most prominent magazines earlier this month – Twitter quickly overturned the decisions under the pretext that the “content is free speech and newsworthy.”
The move prompted the Indian government to file a non-compliance notice that would see the social media giant faceoff with IT and Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. The notice threatened Twitter’s employees with up to seven years in jail, reported by BuzzFeed News.
According to a blog post published by Twitter on Wednesday, the decision to overturn the ban was “served with several separate blocking orders” by the Indian government against hundreds of accounts in the past 10 days.
Twitter said it restored the accounts “in a manner that we believe was consistent with Indian law.”
The blog post added that it had taken some action against more than 500 accounts that were flagged by the government’s orders. Which Twitter said they were in “clear violation of its rules.” It also made several other accounts only visible outside India and restricted the visibility of certain hashtags containing harmful content.
But Twitter also drew a line in the sand.
“Because we do not believe that the actions we have been directed to take are consistent with Indian law, and, in keeping with our principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression, we have not taken any action on accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians,” the company said. “We will continue to maintain dialogue with the Indian government and respectfully engage with them.”
Twitter vs Modi
India is a key market for almost all of Big Tech, with more than 700 million Internet users, but one that’s a rather precariousmarket, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government at the helm, who has sought to tighten its grip on the Internet and social media platforms.
It is worth mentioning that this isn’t the first time the Modi government has clashed with social media giants, with previous adversaries including Facebook and WhatsApp.
In addition, Chinese video sharing app TikTok has been banned from India, along with numerous others last year, after diplomatic tensions with China escalated; in other instances, the government, has completely shut down the Internet in several parts of India to curb the onslaught of domestic protests.
Twitter regulations seems to be next in the pecking order to face off against Modi’s government, mainly due to the public’s reliance on the platform to share news and information regarding protests.
Till now, Jack Dorsey’s Twitter seems to be holding its ground against the Indian government.
“We will continue to advocate for the right of free expression on behalf of the people we serve. We are exploring options under Indian law — both for Twitter and for the accounts that have been impacted,” the company statement said Wednesday. “We remain committed to safeguarding the health of the conversation occurring on Twitter, and strongly believe that the tweets should flow.”
However, Twitter seems to be in a different ball game with India then that of the U.S., since the Asian country’s population is three times the size of America, with different social and political views all together.
These regulations and requests arrive as governments across the world have increasingly pressured social media companies to be more proactive when fighting misinformation and hate speech published on their sites.
While the worldwide outcry over policing content online originated primarily in the United States, these issues often have further reaching and more sinister consequences in countries where these companies have a smaller business footprint but a far larger impact.
Twitter has been more proactive about policing its platform in recent months, taking down thousands of accounts linked to the conspiracy theory QAnon with Trump being its most high-profile follower.
With the ban on the former U.S. President, Twitter regulations showed a willingness to apply its policies to a world leader who violated “incitement to violence” posting rules, albeit towards the end of his time in office.
What is biometric identification? It is the process through which unique biological characteristics are used in biometric identification to recognize and validate a person. These characteristics can be found in facial traits, eye structures, DNA, fingerprint patterns, and even handwriting. All this data that can be gathered on an individual inevitably brings up the ethical issues in biometrics that need to be addressed.
Facial recognition and fingerprint scans were previously the domain of security, and they were utilized for identification and law enforcement. However, increasingly more business and civil applications are using biometrics authentication. Due to this increased use, it is crucial to address the moral and ethical issues in biometrics when used in the creation of new application and technology.
Applied biometrics and corporate ethics have received little empirical study despite the widespread use of biometric technologies. As a result, there is plenty of room for future study to help us better comprehend the moral consequences of adopting this technology.
This article examines the ethical concerns associated with the use of biometric technology on the use of biometrics for non-security applications as well as the moral ramifications for business.
Ethical Issues in Biometrics and Privacy
Biometric data takes privacy concerns to a whole new level that typical data gathering only touches on. Digital identities can be forged, and anonymity on the web can be maintained to a degree if you know how. Also, digital data can be deleted – if we forget that Meta (Facebook) has been revealed to store deleted data, which is an ethical concern in itself.
The problem with biometric data is that it is unforgeable, unconcealable, and permanent, You can’t change your eye structure, your fingerprint, or your facial features. Big tech companies already have your face, fingerprints, and your voice recorded and stored via current biometric authentication systems – mainly used for unlocking your phone. That data will be there forever, and there is little that people can do about it besides avoid it In the first place.
While many companies still give users the option of using a good old fashion passcode to unlock their phones, as technology as a whole tends to do, the biometric alternative is slowly gaining more traction, and will one day become the norm, as it is hard to argue its convenience and security. You can’t accidentally leave your eyeball at home or forget your fingerprint. But in the same sense, you can’t change it. If your childish curiosity while browsing the web put a black spot on your record, there’s no changing that.
Therein lies the question of who if anyone should have access to such data. Today’s tech giants have all our data in their hands, that won’t change with the spread of biometric verification methods. Indeed, it will only increase targeting capabilities.
While the collection of biometric data on its own does not necessarily mean it will be shared, monetized, or abused in any way, it never the less requires clear and strict guidelines and regulations to be implemented around it. There are too many things that can be abused by the wrong party when the ethical issues in biometrics are not taken seriously, and if such limitations are not applied stringently.
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The Reno line of smartphones has always had a fantastic camera and an attractive design. The Reno 8 and 8 Pro include a 120Hz AMOLED display, the newest Dimensity chipsets, 80W fast charging, a 32-megapixel front camera, and triple 50-megapixel back cameras, among other notable features that make the Oppo Reno 8 and Reno 8 Pro high-quality yet affordable option for anyone.
Here we compare the two latest Oppo phone series iterations and see what to expect from the flagship Oppo smartphone, and how the Oppo Reno 8 and the Oppo Reno Pro stack up against each other.
Oppo Reno 8 Specifications
The Oppo Reno 8 has a smaller 6.43-inch full-HD+ AMOLED display with a resolution of 1,080 by 2,400 pixels, a 90Hz refresh rate, and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. It also runs Android 12 with ColorOS 12.1 on top. Additionally, the display has an 800 nits maximum brightness and a 20:09 aspect ratio. An octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 1300 SoC, up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM, and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage are all found within the Oppo smartphone.
The Reno 8 has a triple back camera configuration for pictures and movies, with a 50-megapixel main sensor and an f/1.8 lens as its focal point. Additionally, there is a 2-megapixel macro camera with a 112-degree field of view and an 8-megapixel sensor coupled with an f/2.2 ultra-wide angle lens.
The Reno 8 offers 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.3, GPS/A-GPS, NFC, and a USB Type-C connector as connection options. An accelerometer, light, gyroscope, magnetometer, and a proximity sensor are among the sensors on board. For biometric verification, the phone also has a fingerprint sensor hidden behind the display. A 4,500mAh battery inside the Oppo Reno 8 supports 80W Super Flash Charge quick charging. The phone weighs 179 grams and has dimensions of 160 x 73.4 x 7.67mm.
Oppo Reno 8 Pro Specifications
A 6.7-inch full-HD+ (1,080×2,412) AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection is included with the Oppo Reno 8 Pro. Running on top of Android 12 is ColorOS 12.1. Additionally, the display supports HDR10+ and is certified by Netflix HD, Amazon HDR, SGS Low Motion Blur, and SGS Low Blue Light. The MediaTek Dimensity 8100-Max SoC, which has eight cores, and up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM power the smartphone. Storage on the Oppo Reno 8 Pro is UFS 3.1 capable of up to 256GB.
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro boasts a triple rear camera arrangement with a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 main sensor and an f/1.8 lens, an 8-megapixel sensor and an ultra-wide lens with an f/2.2 aperture and a 112-degree field of view, and a 2-megapixel macro camera with an f/2.4 aperture. Along with the MariSilicon X NPU, the phone’s camera will offer generally better performance in both bright and dim light. It has a 32-megapixel front-facing camera sensor with an f/2.4 lens for taking selfies and making video calls.
The phone has 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.3, GPS/A-GPS, NFC, and a USB Type-C connector as connectivity options. An accelerometer, a light meter, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, and a proximity sensor are among the sensors built into the phone. For biometric authentication, the phone also contains a fingerprint sensor underneath the touchscreen. The smartphone has a 4,500mAh battery that supports rapid charging at 80W Super Flash Charge. The phone weighs 183 grams and has dimensions of 161 x 74.2 x 7.34mm.
Both the Oppo Reno 8 and Reno 8 Pro are prime smartphones that can fit any user’s preferences and can be considered premium smartphones on the cheaper side. If you like photography, you will be satisfied with the level of quality overall, but keep in mind that neither phone is particularly water resistant, so be careful where you take it.
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Many prefer the rumbling ‘vroom’ of a gasoline car to the soft hum of an electric vehicle, while others would rather just be satisfied in the knowledge that they are lessening their carbon footprint. Let’s look at the cold hard facts however, and compare electric cars vs gas cars
Electric Cars vs Gas Cars: Components
The amount of moving components is an important distinction between electric and gasoline-powered automobiles. While a gasoline-powered car contains hundreds of moving components, an electric vehicle just has one, the motor. Another significant distinction is that the electric car has fewer moving components. The electric car is more dependable and needs less routine maintenance. The maintenance needed for a gasoline-powered car ranges from routine oil changes, filter replacements, tune-ups, and exhaust system repairs to less frequent component replacements including water and fuel pumps, alternators, and so on.
Electric Cars vs Gas Cars: Maintenance
The expenses associated with maintaining an electric car are reduced since there are less maintenance requirements. The shaft, the only moving component of the electric motor, is extremely dependable and needs little to no maintenance. The controller and charger are electrical devices that require minimal to no maintenance because they have no moving components. Modern sealed lead acid batteries are maintenance free and utilized in electric cars nowadays. However, these batteries have a finite lifespan and will eventually need to be replaced. New batteries are being developed to increase the range of electric cars as well as the battery pack’s lifespan, perhaps eliminating the need to replace the battery pack throughout the course of the vehicle’s lifespan.
Electric Cars vs Gas Cars: Efficiency
In addition to being simpler and less expensive to repair than gasoline-powered vehicles, electric vehicles are also more cost-effective to run. The electric car will drive roughly 43 miles for $1 based on the efficiency of 3 miles/kwhr and the cost of power at 7 cents per kwhr. The gasoline-powered car will go roughly 18 miles based on the average gas mileage of 22 miles per gallon and the price of gasoline at $1.25 per gallon. As a result, an electric car may drive more than twice as far on a dollar’s worth of petrol.
Where Electric Falls Behind
There are still a number of difficulties for the owner of an electric car despite the fact that it will be less expensive to operate and maintain.
The primary issue is the restricted range offered by existing battery technology. The amount of driving distance possible utilizing the current batteries is between 50 and 150 miles. These ranges are being extended by new battery technologies, and prototypes of these batteries have shown ranges of up to 200 miles between recharging. Solar powered charging stations are being implemented in numerous places to decrease range anxiety towards electric vehicles
The lack of qualified service professionals to repair and maintain electric cars is another issue that faces their owners. A two-year associate degree program has been developed to train high school graduates to become proficient electric vehicle technicians, and training programs are being developed and made available to upgrade the conventional automotive technician with the skills needed to maintain an electric vehicle.
Infrastructure to recharge the batteries is also required. The most important component of the infrastructure for recharging already exists: electric power is accessible practically everywhere. To support the electric car, it is still necessary to guarantee that charging stations with the right sorts of service (i.e., maximum voltage and current) are placed in important areas. Plans must also be made.
Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Technology sections to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.
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Ian Terblanche, Global Strategic Sales & Channel Director at Sigfox
