Twitter’s war on bots cuts off users, Indonesia criminalizes online dissent, and US bill could block TikTok
Rumors of Ukraine disappearing from Twitter have been popping up online this week. There have been credible reports that phone numbers with a Ukrainian country code are suddenly not recognized on the platform, leaving people who use two-factor authentication iced out. Although we could submit to the wicked notion that this is Musk trying to influence the war in Russia’s favor, it may just be a result of Twitter’s “war on bots.” Platformer reported that Twitter recently blocked traffic from 30 mobile carriers around the world, including some from Russia, in a (mostly failed) effort to snuff out spammers that temporarily cut off hundreds of thousands of users. I still shudder to think of how much content Twitter might be removing or “ghost banning” with political interests in mind. With most staff who worked on such issues now gone, and its external council of independent experts recently disbanded, there seem to be few if any ways to put a check on this kind of power.
NSO Group better lawyer up in the U.S. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the Israeli spyware firm NSO Group is being sued by WhatsApp and Apple in northern California. Now a group of journalists from El Salvador is joining the party. Represented by the Columbia University Knight Institute, the journalists from the acclaimed Salvadoran news site El Faro filed suit against NSO, arguing that the company violated U.S. laws by using computer servers (owned by U.S. companies including Apple) to infect the journalists’ mobile phones and track their movements and communications. Though there’s no smoking gun, the spyware was most likely sent at the behest of the digitally-savvy and decidedly authoritarian administration of Nayib Bukele.
Indonesia’s new criminal code will put online speech “under attack,” says Damar Juniarto, a leading media freedom advocate in Java. Most media are stuck on the ban on extramarital sex, but the digital implications are pretty significant. One section prohibits online content that could cause “humiliation to the government or state institutions.” Another criminalizes spreading “fake news,” an offense punishable with up to four years in prison. It’s easy to see how authorities might use these measures to restrict legitimate speech and journalism — even the U.N. is concerned about it. The code will dovetail with new tech-focused laws in Indonesia that will force foreign tech giants like Meta and Google to register in the country and establish robust systems for removing content at the government’s request.
US LAWMAKERS ARE COMING FOR TIKTOK (AGAIN)
Senator Marco Rubio unveiled a bill earlier this week that would block TikTok once and for all, right after the Indiana state’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against the company. Both allege that the company shares U.S.-based users’ data with Chinese authorities, a fear that lawmakers have been wringing their hands about since roughly 2019.