Will someone eventually be able to invent a device or a bug to destroy the internet and to wipe its entire contents?David JacksonPost your answers – and new questions – below or email them to nq@theguardian.
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Will someone eventually be able to invent a device or a bug to destroy the internet and to wipe its entire contents?David JacksonPost your ...
"The mood of the officers I have spoken to is one of disgust, disbelief and disappointment that the actions of a handful of police officers on the other side of the world could potentially undo decades of progress in re-establishing public trust in policing," says Katy Bourne, the police and crime commissioner for Sussex.
As the elected commissioner, Bourne, 55, is responsible for holding the chief constable of Sussex police to account, scrutinising the performance of the force and setting the county's £310m police and crime plan. Speaking after a weekend of Black Lives Matter protests across the UK, including more than 1,000 protesters who marched through Brighton city centre to express their outrage over the death of George Floyd, as well as other towns in Sussex, Bourne recognises the strength of feeling among the demonstrators.Sussex police officers knelt before protesters in a symbol of support as demonstrators reached Brighton police station in John Street. "I completely understand why officers want to show their solidarity with those calling for more action to tackle racism and for their fellow police officers to be fair and reasonable in upholding and enforcing the law," she says.But she adds: "We all acknowledge that, however strong the relationship between police and public, there will always be more to do and PCCs are there to ensure that local, public concerns feed into local policing approaches."A major plank of Sussex police's public-facing role in recent months has been policing the lockdown. How has the force coped with coronavirus? "The biggest challenge for the police was always going to be coming out of lockdown as restrictions loosened," says Bourne. "Ten weeks of lockdown has been tough on everyone and it's not surprising people want to get out and enjoy the sunshine on our beautiful beaches," she says. "The job was always challenging because the police never had the powers to stop people visiting the beauty spots. So what we've had is local councils pleading with people to stay away."Brighton & Hove city council warned visitors to stay away after droves of sun-seekers descended on the seafront during the May bank holiday, sparking fears of a second outbreak. There were 16,947 fixed penalty notices issued across England (15,552) and Wales (1,395) between 27 March and 25 May, according to the National Police Chiefs' Council.Of those, 757 were issued in Sussex, the fifth highest amount of forces in England. "The police were never there to hold up tape measures and enforce social distancing, the public has to take that responsibility. But where large groups gather they will be proactive," says Bourne. "More than 50% of those fines were issued to people coming from outside the county. Enforcement has been a last resort."But it has sometimes come at a personal cost to staff. Sussex police recorded a 39% rise in assaults against officers in April, compared to the same time last year. In all, 169 offences were recorded against frontline officers and staff in the county during the first four weeks of lockdown, including officers being punched, kicked, bitten, spat and coughed on and threats to infect the officers and their families with the virus.Bourne says: "We saw a spate of that [spitting] in Sussex and it was quite distressing."The senior officers have worked very closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to fast-track cases where officers were spat on and Covid-19 was cited. At least one man got a prison sentence and rightly so … it's pretty despicable behaviour."Fortunately, she says, to her knowledge, none of the officers targeted got the virus as a result. "They had access to tests [to check that]. As far as the safety of officers goes we were very clear from the start that Sussex would have the adequate PPE and on a national level police forces worked together quite well to source their own PPE."While some offences such as burglaries and drug-related street crimes have decreased as a result of lockdown – latest figures show that police recorded crime has fallen by 25%, others are on the rise. Bourne, who is one of seven female PCCs and chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, says protecting the most vulnerable members of society during lockdown has been a priority. She is especially concerned about the increase in domestic abuse during lockdown and last month attended the prime minister's virtual hidden harms summit to discuss ways of tackling such crimes among others. She says Sussex police is already taking pre-emptive action. "We decided rather than wait until we come out of lockdown and find people have gone through the most unimaginable horrors behind closed doors, let's be proactive and reach out to them now."We have a new team of 30 specially trained officers who deal solely with reports of domestic abuse that don't require an urgent or 999 response."The force is the first in the country to use new video-conferencing software that enables a potential victim to provide a safe number where police can send a disguised text. The message contains a link that will take them to a virtual waiting room where an officer can see and talk to them. "It's always better to have a face-to-face conversation and lockdown has made this difficult," says Bourne. "The officer can do all their investigations through the discreet technology before explaining how to delete the link so there is no trace of it. It is a one-time text conversation and has been incredibly successful."Sussex police started using the platform a month ago and now use it for a third of their appointments. Police have also been using a new analytical dashboard system that allows them to overlay police reports with other data to get a richer picture of the most prolific offenders. Dedicated domestic abuse cars then visit potential perpetrators to warn them they are being monitored. Since January these teams have attended 2,903 domestic abuse crimes and incidents. "The idea is to de-escalate situations before they become high risk," says Bourne, who herself has been the victim of targeted abuse: she has been followed, filmed and harassed online since taking office in 2012. At the height of the abuse she feared for her own safety and was nearly driven out of her job.Matthew Taylor was given a suspended four-month jail sentence in October 2018 for breaching an earlier restraining order. There are live proceedings under way against three others linked to his case who have harassed or either Bourne or her colleagues. "I didn't come into the job expecting to end up with so much first-hand experience [of harassment] but it has helped me to understand the trauma victims go through," says Bourne. "What is really invidious about stalking is that it is premeditated, and it's very dangerous behaviour. It's been going on during lockdown with more victims harassed online and others have been stalked physically despite the measures.""What concerns me is that stalkers who were perhaps not that tech-savvy before will have had more time to turn to cyberbullying. Those furloughed will have 24 hours a day to obsess over their victims."Lockdown has seen a surge in stalking victims seeking help. Referrals to the Veritas Stalking Advocacy Service in Sussex increased by 26% and the national stalking charity Paladin has seen a 40% rise in requests for support."More than 90% of domestic homicides feature an element of stalking, usually right at the outset," says Bourne. If we can stop that, then at the end of the day you are going to save lives."Curriculum vitaeAge: 55.Lives: Sussex.Family: Married, two sons.Education: Roedean school, Sussex; Aberystwyth University (BA in history)Career: 2012-present: police and crime commissioner for Sussex ; 2019–present: chair, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC); 2016-present: board member Police ICT Company; 2012–present: chair, Sussex Criminal Justice Board; 2013-2018: board member, the College of Policing; 1998-2005: founder and director, Rebel Roc. Interests: Running, 40s swing and big band music.
"The mood of the officers I have spoken to is one of disgust, disbelief and disappointment that the actions of a handful of police off...
IBM is pulling out of the facial recognition market and is calling for "a national dialogue" on the technology's use in law enforcement.
The abrupt about-face comes as technology companies are facing increased scrutiny over their contracts with police amid violent crackdowns on peaceful protest across America.In a public letter to Congress, IBM chief executive, Arvind Krishna, explained the company's decision to back out of the business, and declared an intention "to work with Congress in pursuit of justice and racial equity, focused initially in three key policy areas: police reform, responsible use of technology, and broadening skills and educational opportunities."The company, Krishna said, "no longer offers general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software. "IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and principles of trust and transparency," he added. "We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial-recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies."But some are sceptical of IBM's move, noting that the company was already in a distant third place in the race to sell facial-recognition technology, and that the company's statement leaves loopholes. It reserves the right to sell facial recognition technology for specific purposes, for example, as well as to re-sell the same technology from other vendors as part of its large consulting business.The statement is still the strongest yet from a major technology company against misuse of facial recognition services, which have provoked alarm among civil rights communities for their ability to silently track entire populations. In the UK, facial recognition technology has steadily gained ground as a policing tool, despite the objections of groups such as Liberty and Amnesty International, who argue that it's a violation of privacy without the accuracy required to be useful for preventing crime.In February, the Met police launched its largest trial yet, scanning shoppers in the Stratford Centre mall in east London to try to match them against a checklist of more than 5,000 people "wanted for serious criminality, such as grievous bodily harm." The trial was rolled out despite warnings from watchdogs including the information commissioner, the surveillance camera commissioner and the biometric commissioner, critics alleged.In September, Microsoft's president, Brad Smith, told the Guardian that the company was voluntarily withholding its own facial recognition technology from governments that wold use it for mass surveillance, but stopped short of committing to an all-out ban. "It is a technology that can be deployed in, literally, an Orwellian fashion," Smith said. "But I think whenever you want to ban a technology, you also have to ask, well, what are the potentials for it to do good as well? And so then the question is how do you strike the balance? I don't think that you strike that balance by banning all use. You strike that balance by banning the harmful use."Amazon, whose multibillionaire founder Jeff Bezos came out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement last week, has repeatedly refused to answer questions on the use of its own facial-recognition technology in policing protest.The company also owns Ring, a smart home subsidiary that has worked closely with police in the past. It has partnered with more than 400 forces, and helped law enforcement gain access to surveillance footage without requiring a warrant, offering advice to officers such as being more active on social media in order to encourage owners to volunteer their recordings. In 2018, Amazon patented a proposal for pairing facial-recognition technology with its doorbells, describing a system that the police could use to match the faces of people walking by a doorbell with a photo database of "suspicious" people.The American Civil Liberties Union slammed the plan, saying that Amazon was "dreaming of a dangerous future, with its technology at the centre of a massive decentralised surveillance network, running real-time facial recognition on members of the public using cameras installed in people's doorbells."
IBM is pulling out of the facial recognition market and is calling for "a national dialogue" on the technology's use in law e...
Amazon on Monday became the latest tech company to face criticism for sharing public-facing statements supporting police reform and the Black Lives Matter movement while continuing internal policies and business practices that perpetuate the status quo.
Amazon on Twitter has called for an end to "the inequitable and brutal treatment of black people" in the US and has put a "Black lives matter" banner at the top of its home page. Its chief executive officer, Jeff Bezos, on Sunday posted on Instagram an email from a customer criticizing the BLM banner on Amazon's home page, and said the emailer is the kind of customer he's "happy to lose".But activists argue those statements mean little if the company continues its commercial partnerships with police forces across the US and stands by its past treatment of non-white employee organizers "It is opportunistic of Amazon to use this moment to make empty and hypocritical statements when it is simultaneously building the backbone for many police departments across the country," said Jacinta Gonzalez of Mijente, a grassroots Latinx and Chicanx organizing group. "The company perpetuates policies and technologies that are clearly targeting and harming black and brown communities," she added.Public records released in 2018 revealed that the company had sold its facial recognition software Rekognition to police forces. Rekognition can identify faces in videos and photos, and Amazon marketing materials promoted using Rekognition in conjunction with police body cameras in real time. An experiment run by the ACLU in 2018, however, showed Rekognition incorrectly matched 28 members of Congress to photos of people arrested for a crime. It disproportionately misidentified Congress members who are not white.The software, a coalition of 40 human rights groups wrote at the time the records were released, is "a powerful surveillance system" that is available to "violate rights and target communities of color". Amazon said in February 2020 it did not know how many police departments were using this technology, and the company did not respond to request for comment on Monday regarding how many police forces use this technology today – or whether those partnerships would be continued. Amazon has called for an end to 'the inequitable and brutal treatment of black people'. Photograph: AmazonActivists have also called on local officials to ban police departments from making partnerships with the Amazon subsidiary Ring after hundreds of forces partnered with the smart doorbell company to use its footage to aid surveillance.In September 2019, the US Senator Edward Markey wrote in a letter to Bezos that the partnerships "could easily create a surveillance network that places dangerous burdens on people of color and feeds racial anxieties in local communities". A report from Motherboard in 2019 revealed black and brown people are more likely to be surveilled by the Neighbors app, where Ring users can post videos and photos of "suspicious" people caught on camera.According to a map provided by Ring, the doorbell app now partners with more than 1,300 police forces across the US – a 300% increase from just 400 police forces in August 2019. Amazon did not respond to request for comment regarding whether it will continue its partnerships with local police forces. Amazon also sells web hosting services to law enforcement agencies, including US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). Since 2018, a coalition of employees known as We Won't Build It has called on the company to halt those sales, as well as to stop selling facial recognition software to law enforcement. In a statement to the Guardian, We Won't Build It said the same demands remain. Amazon did not respond to request for comment.The company's track record with non-white employee organizers has also proven to be in conflict with its public statements regarding racial equity, said Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group of employee activists at the company."Actions speak louder than words," the group said, citing Amazon's treatment of Chris Smalls, a black activist who was fired for organizing employees to protest against unsafe coronavirus-related conditions in Amazon warehouses."Amazon's words mean nothing when they are firing black employees organizing for better working conditions, when leadership planned racist smears against Chris Smalls, calling him 'not smart or articulate', when they deny our call for racial equity assessments in their business decisions and eliminating the environmental racism of its pollution, when they supply facial recognition software and Ring surveillance video access to police departments that are killing black people with impunity."Amazon is not the only company whose work with police departments have been in question since the protests following the death of George Floyd began. Last week, chat service Slack removed a blog post showing how local police forces can use the app after some Black employees criticized it. Airbnb has publicly supported Black Lives Matter but has been criticized for its role in gentrifying predominantly black neighborhoods and pushing out original residents.Amazon did not respond to request for comment or answer whether it plans to withdraw from any of its police partnerships.
Amazon on Monday became the latest tech company to face criticism for sharing public-facing statements supporting police reform and the Bla...
Microsoft's decision to replace human journalists with robots has backfired, after the tech company's artificial intelligence software illustrated a news story about racism with a photo of the wrong mixed-race member of the band Little Mix.
A week after the Guardian revealed plans to fire the human editors who run MSN.com and replace them with Microsoft's artificial intelligence code, an early rollout of the software resulted in a story about the singer Jade Thirlwall's personal reflections on racism being illustrated with a picture of her fellow band member Leigh-Anne Pinnock.Thirlwall, who attended a recent Black Lives Matter protest in London, criticised MSN on Friday, saying she was sick of "ignorant" media making such mistakes. She posted on Instagram: "@MSN If you're going to copy and paste articles from other accurate media outlets, you might want to make sure you're using an image of the correct mixed race member of the group.""This shit happens to @leighannepinnock and I ALL THE TIME that it's become a running joke," she said. "It offends me that you couldn't differentiate the two women of colour out of four members of a group … DO BETTER!"What Thirlwall could not have known, according to sources at the company, is that the image was selected by Microsoft's artificial intelligence software, which is already responsible for editing parts of the news site, which attracts hundreds of millions of readers worldwide. An Instagram Stories post by Jade Thirlwall criticising the MSN news service. Photograph: Jade ThirlwallMicrosoft does not carry out original reporting but employs human editors to select, edit and repurpose articles from news outlets, including the Guardian. Articles are then hosted on Microsoft's website and the tech company shares advertising revenue with the original publishers. At the end of last month, Microsoft decided to fire hundreds of journalists in the middle of a pandemic and fully replace them with the artificial intelligence software.Asked why Microsoft was deploying software that cannot tell mixed-race individuals apart, whether apparent racist bias could seep into deployments of the company's artificial intelligence software by leading corporations, and whether the company would reconsider plans to replace the human editors with robots, a spokesman for the tech company said: "As soon as we became aware of this issue, we immediately took action to resolve it and have replaced the incorrect image."In advance of the publication of this article, staff at MSN were told to expect a negative article in the Guardian about alleged racist bias in the artificial intelligence software that will soon take their jobs.Because they are unable to stop the new robot editor selecting stories from external news sites such as the Guardian, the remaining human staff have been told to stay alert and delete a version of this article if the robot decides it is of interest and automatically publishes it on MSN.com. They have also been warned that even if they delete it, the robot editor may overrule them and attempt to publish it again.Staff have already had to delete coverage criticising MSN for running the story about Little Mix with the wrong image after the AI software decided stories about the incident would interest MSN readers.One staff member said Microsoft was deeply concerned about reputational damage to its AI product: "With all the anti-racism protests at the moment, now is not the time to be making mistakes."
Microsoft's decision to replace human journalists with robots has backfired, after the tech company's artificial intelligence softw...
Instant Influencer, a new competition to find YouTube's next viral make-up vlogger, might be 2020's most transparent reality show.
Even for those completely horrified by every second word in that sentence, it's a fascinating insight into a billion-dollar industry – both a completely vapid and endlessly interesting watch, bingeable in a night. Forget MasterChef: who knew video editing to a time limit could be so suspenseful? For once, contestants don't have to feign interest in finding love and can be honest about the end goal: selling #spon on social media. Again and again across its four episodes and without any hint of self-awareness, the six contestants say they need to prove their talents as an influencer and an artist, always in that order. It would be depressing if it wasn't so absorbing. Created by YouTube and filmed in its shiny LA studios, Instant Influencer very much is made within the machine, served with little snark. If anything, it's a bold new frontier for beauty vlogging – a meta, high-budget series packed with product placement and uploaded for free to the page of host and vlogger James Charles. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A meta, high-budget series served with little snark. Even if you consider yourself influencer illiterate, chances are Charles will have seeped his way into your world. With an estimated net worth of US$12-22 million, he's one of the beauty world's premier influencers, either most famous for becoming CoverGirl's first male spokesperson at age 17 or his feud with fellow YouTuber Tati Westbrook last year. The petty back-and-forth of 40-minute "exposé" videos about minor grievances saw him lose 4m followers in a week, and was covered across otherwise influencer-averse mastheads. Instant Influencer is as much a branding exercise for the contestants as it is a post-cancellation rebranding for Charles, who moves into a mentor role at 21. As per the awkward eliminations where Charles asks crying contestants to "sign off", "as if it was a regular video", it isn't the most natural fit. The Comeback: Lisa Kudrow is perfect in hilarious, biting and deeply meta satire Read more Judges – Charles and a series of rotating beauty and influencer figures, including drag queen Trixie Mattel, cosmetics company Anastasia Beverly Hills president Norvina and "original influencer" Paris Hilton – evaluate a video's clickability off its title, thumbnail and potential for virality. The genuine make-up artistry on display is an aside: instead, it's about how they sell the look rather than the look itself, a completely new set of skills to test on reality TV. Across the season, the contestants are put through challenges that loosely recreate Charles's career, similar to RuPaul's Drag Race or America's Next Top Model. They manufacture the next big viral makeup challenge, collaborate with famous influencers and make sponsored videos for products, even if they've never used them – a fact that lingers but is never directly confronted. The stand-out, though, is the apology video challenge, something Charles is well-versed in. It's bone-chilling to hear Charles applaud how the "honesty and message came through'' in an apology for something the contestants haven't done, like using overtly clickbait titles or monetising their previous apology video. The fact that this is a performance of accountability is never addressed. Neither are the contestants' archetypal personalities. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Instant Influencer contestants in their first look. Photograph: YouTube Charles's catchphrase on the show is "blend but don't blend in", but aside from their personal traumas, which are readily revealed as we meet them, most contestants are fairly indistinguishable. The makeup speaks far more to their creativity than their personas, which have been squished into YouTube catchphrases and slang ripped straight from other influencers, who ripped it from ballroom culture. They've eroded their personalities for the algorithm. Some break through for "genuine moments", but others, like the 18-year-old contestant who has clearly grown up watching Charles and co, are stuck in a "yas queen" loop. Technique Critique: indulgently addictive web series dissects your favourite performances Read more Still, it's a perverse joy to watch the best influencers effortlessly master the game, as they nail the balance between banal banter, "raw" moments and "individuality" that's still relatable to as many as possible. There's officially only one winner, but everyone walks away with an experience to make content from and grow their audience: nobody loses. You could say it's a sad reality that these artists feel like YouTube celebrity is their only path forward. But Instant Influencer is merely a bizarre microcosm of what most musicians or creatives face without a stable industry, as they regrettably have to build up their brand before their art. • Instant Influencer is available to stream on YouTube Topics Culture Stream team Beauty Instagram reviews Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Reuse this content
Instant Influencer, a new competition to find YouTube's next viral make-up vlogger, might be 2020's most transparent reality show...
Vodafone has been inundated with complaints on social media from mobile customers struggling to make and receive calls on Tuesday afternoon.
Users started reporting problems shortly after 5pm, according to the Downdetector website. The problems are believed to have affected people across the country. The issue prevented voice calls connecting, but customers have still been able to text, use mobile data and make WhatsApp calls.Responding to one customer on Twitter, Vodafone UK said: "We are aware that some customers may be experiencing issues with making outbound calls from their mobile, we have teams working to resolve this, sorry for any inconvenience."Hey 👋 We are aware that some customers may be experiencing issues with making outbound calls from their mobile, we have teams working to resolve this, sorry for any inconvenience. Danny— Vodafone UK (@VodafoneUK) June 9, 2020 It is unclear how many people have been affected, though Vodafone has 18 million customers in the UK.@VodafoneUK about 10 minutes ago my grandparent (who's on Vodafone) could not make or receive calls. I tried calling him, (I'm on EE) and there was no ring, just straight to engaged— Aaron Fretwell (@Rain4Day) June 9, 2020 Customers have relied heavily on phone and internet access during the Covid-19 outbreak, which has forced people to isolate and work from home during the UK lockdown.Vodafone said the problem was fixed shortly after 6pm at which point the network "started recovering".The company said the problem was caused by a change it had made to block a range of telephone numbers being used to make spam calls."We'd like to apologise to any customers who struggled to make phone calls this evening," said a Vodafone spokesman. "We had an incident at around 17.20, which was fixed at 18.10. The service is now fully back to normal. Any customer struggling to make a call should quickly turn their phone off and on again to restart. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."Last month, millions of Virgin Media customers had problems accessing the internet during a series of outages across the country. The TV, broadband and mobile company, which has 5.3 million UK customers, said that the problem was not caused by its network being overloaded by high demand during the coronavirus lockdown.
Vodafone has been inundated with complaints on social media from mobile customers struggling to make and receive calls on Tuesday afternoon...
