Laura Loomer and Freedom Watch request full court review of their Big Tech censorship lawsuit – Reclaim The Net

Congressional candidate Laura Loomer and non-profit Freedom Watchs lawyer Larry Klayman has submitted a petition for rehearing en banc which seeks a full court review of the dismissal of their Big Tech censorship lawsuit by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The lawsuit accuses Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter of working together to intentionally and willfully suppress politically conservative content, breaching the Sherman Act (an anti-monopoly law, breaching the District of Columbias public accommodation law (which prohibits discrimination in any place of public accommodation), and breaching the First Amendment.

It also argues that Loomer suffered severe financial injury as a result of being banned from these Big Tech platforms and that each and every one of these platforms had participated in a conspiracy to suppress Freedom Watchs content.

The court originally ruled that the District of Columbias accommodation law only applies to physical spaces within the District of Columbia and dismissed the claim.

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In May, Freedom Watch contested the courts interpretation of place of public accommodation and argued that the court should interpret this statute more broadly.

But a three-judge panel dismissed the lawsuit and found under the District of Columbia Human Rights Act (DCHRA) that a public accommodation must operate from a particular place.

The petition for rehearing en banc argues that the district court erred by dismissing the Sherman Act claims, the DCHRA claim, and the First Amendment claims.

It states that the numerous errors in the panels treatment of the DCHRA claims are:

An issue of exceptional importance, as people in modern society have increasingly, and almost entirely at this point, replaced the traditional physical public forum with the internet and social media. This rings particularly true given the current state of events, with COVID-19 severely hampering the ability of individuals to physically gather.

The petition for rehearing en banc argues that the court should adapt and evolve with the changing times and make the common sense ruling that the internet and social media qualifies as a place of public accommodation under the DCHRA and adds that the traditional place of public accommodation is a dying breed.

It also cites several court rulings where websites have qualified as a place of public accommodation, including a ruling by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in Del-Orden v. Bonobos, Inc., 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209251 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 20, 2017) which found that a commercial website itself qualifies as a place of public accommodation.'

On the dismissal of the Sherman Act claims, the petition for rehearing en banc argues that Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter acted against their own economic self-interest in their concerted action to restrain trade and states that they are willing to lose revenue from conservative organizations and individuals like Freedom Watch and those similarly situated to further their leftist agenda and designs to effectively overthrow President Trump and his administration and have installed leftist government in this district and the 50 states.

And on the dismissal of the First Amendment claims, the petition for rehearing en banc argues that the panel failed to address the Supreme Courts recent decision in Packingham v. North Carolina, 137 S. Ct. 1730 (2017) where the US Supreme Court struck down a North Carolina statute that prohibited sex offenders from accessing social media websites and ruled that the statute violated the First Amendment.

The petition for rehearing also asks that Loomer and Freedom Watchs oral arguments and notes that this request was denied by the three-judge panel.

It concludes that now is an opportunity for the court to recognize and adapt to changing times to ensure that the law keeps up with the reality and adds:

This case is not just about Freedom Watch and Ms. Loomer, but all Americans who desire to exercise their rights of free speech, free from the illegal and anticompetitive practices of giant social media companies, who have restrained trade and who believe and act as if they are above the law.

After filing the petition for rehearing en banc, Loomer wrote:

My legal battle against the Silicon Valley Big Tech Tyrants is Americas battle, which is why my legal team and I are committed to taking this case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary!

Free speech is worth fighting for, at all costs!

Days before filing this petition for a rehearing, Loomer highlighted how influential Facebook has become in election contests and wrote that her ban from the platform means that shes not allowed to create an account for her political campaign and that Political Action Committees (PACs) are also prohibited from running ads that promote her campaign.

Additionally, because Facebook has branded Loomer dangerous, other users are prohibited from mentioning her or attempting to link to her content.

Meanwhile, Loomers opponent, Lois Frankel, has a Facebook page with thousands of followers, has the ability to run ads, and can have her content shared by other Facebook users.

Loomer noted that shes the only federal candidate in the nation banned from advertising on Facebook and accused Facebook of illegal election interference.

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Laura Loomer and Freedom Watch request full court review of their Big Tech censorship lawsuit - Reclaim The Net

New Bill Looks to One-Up Previous Anti-Encryption Law by Requiring Backdoors in Nearly Every Electronic Device – CPO Magazine

The proposed EARN IT Act set off a firestorm of controversy in privacy circles when it was introduced in early March. A new proposal makes its terms look tame and reasonable by comparison. Dubbed the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act of 2020, the new anti-encryption law would require that a backdoor be placed in nearly every electronic device that has at least 1 GB of memory and all encrypted services.

The bill is essentially the Armageddon scenario of a complete government ban on encryption that some privacy advocates have been fearing (and sounding alarms about) for years. However, the terms of the bill are so outlandish and impractical that it would appear to stand little real chance of going anywhere. When one considers that it is sponsored by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who was also one of the primary sponsors of the EARN IT Act, it begins to look more like an attempt to make the original proposal sound like a comparatively reasonable compromise.

The EARN IT anti-encryption law couched its calls for law enforcement backdoors in terms of the battle against child sex trafficking, and was not nearly as expansive as the new proposal. It was nevertheless widely criticized and rejected by privacy advocates due to its requirement that online platforms either grant law enforcement an encryption backdoor or lose legal protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 protects platforms from legal liability for user-generated content.

The bill did not propose this directly, however; it obscured its intent by simply requiring that platforms use law enforcement approved end-to-end encryption methods to maintain their Section 230 protections. The body that would determine that approval would be headed by Attorney General William Barr, who has vocally and repeatedly expressed a desire to have backdoors installed in all forms of end-to-end encryption, and would be disproportionately filled with law enforcement officials. The assumption that privacy advocates make is that any law enforcement approved encryption would have backdoors in it.

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The new proposed anti-encryption law dispenses with any layers of plausible deniability. It simply calls for a law enforcement backdoor to be mandatory in any and all forms of encryption, in both hardware and software. Any sort of device that has at least 1 GB of storage capacity, even a simple handheld camera or MP3 player, would be required to have a means of government access built in. At the software end, everything from web browsers to cloud services would have to offer similar access.

Unlike the EARN IT Act, this bill is not bipartisan. In addition to Graham, two other Republican senators (Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee) back it. The terms would apply to any software publisher that has over a million users, or any hardware manufacturer that sells over a million units, in any single year since the start of 2016.

The bill is thus technically not looking to end all encryption entirely, but it is clearly trying to make it impossible for major hardware and software publishers like Apple, Facebook and Microsoft. Given that Googles Android and iOS devices dominate the phone landscape, it would effectively be impossible for an end user to get a phone that could avoid having a backdoor in it somewhere.

The terms of the bill would also make it much easier for courts to issue a court order allowing law enforcement to access the backdoor for the purpose of retrieving stored data. Any judge would be forced to issue the warrant so long as the law enforcement agency can demonstrate reasonable grounds to believe that accessing the backdoor would aid in execution of an existing search warrant.

The anti-encryption law would appear to apply to both domestic criminal cases and those of foreign national security.

The proposed anti-encryption law is likely to stall out not just due to the serious privacy concerns, but also because it would put an undue burden on the electronics and software publishing industries. All sorts of hardware would have to be physically redesigned to enable such a backdoor, and apps would have to be re-engineered. Any new app or piece of software being developed would have to consider the possibility of creating a backdoor if it is anticipated that it will have over a million users.

The anti-encryption law does not make any allowance for the fact that any backdoor could potentially be exploited by parties other than the government. If it is technically possible to create one, developers and manufacturers would be required to under the new anti-encryption law.

But as privacy advocates have been pointing out (long since before this new bill was introduced), it is not feasible to create an encrypted messaging backdoor that is solely for law enforcement access. Once a threat actor sniffs it out and figures out how to exploit it, the device or the software is effectively ruined.

Amit Yoran, CEO of Tenable, summed up the feelings of most industry observers: Once again, some Washington policymakers are proposing uninformed technology policy with potentially catastrophic consequences. In one of the worst tech policy concepts of recent years, this proposal would strike a critical blow to privacy, cybersecurity and the competitiveness of US technology companies, all while leaving strong encryption within reach of any serious criminal. Law enforcement has access to more information than ever before to do their jobs. Forcing the creation of backdoors to allow law enforcement access to encrypted information is a terrible idea. With an expanded attack surface driven by new connected devices, a rapidly expanded remote workforce and increasingly complex campaigns by bad actors, we should be doing everything in our power to mitigate risk, not expand it.

Technology companies would likely enter into an endless cycle of compromise and revision under these circumstances, with it only being a question of how long it is between each new data breach of their encrypted devices.

New proposed bill calls for a mandatory #lawenforcement backdoor in all forms of #encryption, both hardware and software. #respectdata Click to Tweet

Given all of the problems and contradictions this anti-encryption law would create, it seems unlikely to make its way through Congress. The real concern is that it could somehow be used to improve the chances of passage of the EARN IT Act, which has at least some level of bipartisan support.

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New Bill Looks to One-Up Previous Anti-Encryption Law by Requiring Backdoors in Nearly Every Electronic Device - CPO Magazine

The anti-privacy EARN IT Act could change the internet as you know it – Mashable

Because the internet is a strange and complicated place, the fate of your digital privacy is, at this very moment, intertwined with that of online message boards and comment sections. And things, we're sorry to report, aren't looking so hot.

At issue is the seemingly unrelated EARN IT Act. Pushed by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and a host of bipartisan co-sponsors, and voted on by the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday, the measure ostensibly aims to combat online child sexual abuse material. However, according to privacy and security experts who spoke with Mashable, the bill both directly threatens end-to-end encryption and promises to spur new and sustained online censorship by weakening Section 230 a provision of the Communication Decency Act of 1996 that protects internet providers from being held liable for their users' actions.

The devil, as it so often can be found, is in the details. That's because the newly amended version of the bill essentially gives state lawmakers the ability to regulate the internet, according to Joe Mullin, a policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who broke down the censorship risks posed by the measure should it become law.

"All 50 states will be able to write new Internet rules that online platforms and websites will have to follow," Mullin explained in an email. "The only limit on the new rules is that they will have to relate, in some way, to the fight against child sexual abuse. If websites don't follow the new state-level internet rules, they'll be exposed to private lawsuits and potentially state-level criminal prosecutions."

This concern is echoed by the ACLU which, in a July 1 open letter, warned that "[by] allowing states to set their own standards for platform liability for [child sexual abuse material], the amended version [of the EARN IT Act] allows states to create inappropriate standards by which platform responsibility for user-generated content should be judged."

In case that's not clear enough, earlier this month, in an open letter addressed to Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein and Sen. Graham, EFF director of federal affairs, India McKinney, predicted that the EARN IT Act would lead to the "loss of Section 230 immunity" for online platforms. In other words, online companies could be held liable for user-generated content. This could inspire those companies to proactively discontinue offerings like message boards that we all take for granted as an indelible part of internet culture.

"Why have a comments section, or a discussion forum, or an email service, or file storage services, if you could get in big trouble for something that a user did even without your knowledge," asked Mullin. "Online platforms will hedge their risk by removing or not providing these features."

And, even though the possibility of 50 distinct state-level rules exists if the EARN IT Act becomes law, it's not like living in one relatively hands-off state would necessarily exempt you. Why would a company go to the trouble of crafting 50 different policies and releasing 50 different location-specific offerings, after all, when it could simply tailor everything to the requirements of the most restrictive state government?

WATCH: It's surprisingly easy to be more secure online

Which brings us to encryption, or, more specifically, end-to-end encryption.

End-to-end encryption is the gold standard in digital privacy. When implemented properly, it ensures that only a message's sender and intended recipient can read its contents. Basically, it means that third parties like governments, private companies, and hackers aren't reading your messages, bank statements, and doctors' notes.

The EARN IT Act, which technically is an acronym for the "Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies," has a list of co-sponsors that include many Senators long in opposition to the idea of consumer access to end-to-end encryption. In 2016, Sen. Feinstein, one such EARN IT Act co-sponsor, co-authored a bill with Republican Sen. Richard Burr that would have more or less made end-to-end encryption illegal.

The EARN IT Act may not be as explicit as previous efforts to ban end-to-end encryption, but experts insist it is likewise a threat to a technology used by companies such as Apple to protect customers' data from hackers.

When initially introduced in the Senate on March 5 of this year, the EARN IT Act directly threatened the legality of end-to-end encryption so much so, that back in April, Signal, a free and open-source, secure messaging app, published a blog post warning its ability to operate in the U.S. was at risk should the measure pass.

"The EARN IT act turns Section 230 protection into a hypocritical bargaining chip," warned Signal. "At a high level, what the bill proposes is a system where companies have to earn Section 230 protection by following a set of designed-by-committee 'best practices' that are extraordinarily unlikely to allow end-to-end encryption."

The bill was amended last week to address some of those fears, but the changes weren't enough to convince actual privacy experts. Riana Pfefferkorn, the associate director of surveillance and cybersecurity at Stanford's Center for Internet and Society, made as much clear in a July 6 blog post. She wrote that the amendment by Sen. Patrick Leahy is "not the silver bullet that some are holding it out as in terms of answering critics' concerns about how EARN IT could potentially discourage encryption and harm cybersecurity."

Mullin agrees, and cautions that the bill could result in lawmakers insisting providers scan users' devices, messages, and conversations before they are ever encrypted.

"State lawmakers could easily get around the Leahy amendment by demanding some form of 'client side scanning,'" he said, "which has been the direction of the anti-encryption forces for about a year now."

Patrick Wardle, principal security researcher at Jamf, founder of the free anti-malware service Objective-See, and ex-NSA hacker, echoed Mullin in noting that the EARN IT Act looks to be more of the same from the anti-privacy crowd.

"[This] seems just to be the latest push by the govt. for weakening encryption," he said in a Twitter direct message. "Hopefully it doesn't go anywhere."

Wardle's opposition to the EARN IT Act is notable for many reasons, and not just because he used to work for the NSA. In 2017, Wardle uncovered a malware strain that had infected hundreds of computers in the U.S. and was used to spy on unsuspecting victims through their webcams. In early 2018, an Ohio man was charged with installing the malware on thousands of computers.

That Wardle who literally helped bring to justice someone accused of an effort to "produce child pornography" opposes the EARN IT Act should be a huge tip-off that the measure isn't as straightforward as its proponents suggest.

SEE ALSO: Police used smart streetlights to surveil protesters, just as privacy groups warned

Importantly, the bill hasn't passed yet; it hasn't even been brought to the floor of the Senate for a full vote. Not even the EFF could say when or even if the bill will get a full vote.

That doesn't mean the threat it poses to both your privacy, and the internet as we know it, is any less real should it eventually become law.

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The anti-privacy EARN IT Act could change the internet as you know it - Mashable

Encryption Software Market Report 2020: Rising Impressive Business Opportunities Analysis Forecast 2026 – Express Journal

Global Encryption Software market Size, Insights and Forecast 2020 to 2026 Latest Innovations & Application Analysis with the key players -Dell, Eset, Gemalto, IBm, Mcafee, Microsoft, Pkware, Sophos, Symantec, Thales E-Security, Trend Micro, Cryptomathic and Stormshield, including Production, Price, Revenue, Cost, Application, Growth Rate, Import, Export, Capacity, Market Share and Technological Developments.

The research report on Encryption Software market provides a granular analysis of this business space and also assesses its various segmentations. Major aspects such as existing market size ad position in terms of volume and revenue estimations are detailed in the study. Also, the document offers insights related to the regional scope and the competitive scenario of this industry vertical.

Throwing light on the key details from the Encryption Software market report:

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Highlights of the report:

A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent market

Important changes in market dynamics

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Historical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volume

Reporting and evaluation of recent industry developments

Market shares and strategies of key players

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Key Questions Answered in the report:

What will the market growth rate of Encryption Software market

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What are sales, revenue, and price analysis by regions of Encryption Software industries.

Request Customization on This Report @ https://www.express-journal.com/request-for-customization/139453

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Encryption Software Market Report 2020: Rising Impressive Business Opportunities Analysis Forecast 2026 - Express Journal

Join EFF’s 30th Anniversary Livestream and Party Like It’s 1990! – EFF

On Friday, July 10, 1990, the Electronic Frontier Foundation was officially born. It's safe to say that on that day, co-founders Mitch Kapor and John Perry Barlow were ahead of their time in imagining that there needed to be an organization that fought to protectordinary people's access to newtechnology that could instantly erase distance, create connection, and access much of the worlds knowledge. Todaythirty years laterthat technology affects and is affected by most everything we do.

Throughout those thirty years, EFF hasbeen on the frontlines, fighting thousands of battles in courts, in Congress, on the streets, and across the globe to ensure that when you go online, your rights go with you. We're excited to celebrate our victories. and the lessons we've learned, during our 30th Anniversary Party on Fridayand you're invited!

We're kicking off a year-long celebration of EFF's 30th Anniversary with this special livestream. Along with music, special guests, cat-cams, and Tech Trivia, we'll premiere a series of interactive EFF30 Fireside Chats about the past, present, and future of online rights. Bring your friends!

Here's the detailed schedule:Starting at 3 pm PT, we'll begin the packed schedule with a DJ set by Funkip, a musical tomato from San Francisco who has performed her brand of "cute bangers 80-200 BPM for ravers and otaku" at festivals and other venues around the Bay Area.

DJ Funkip

At 4:00 pm, EFF's Executive Director, Cindy Cohn, will welcome everyone to our stream and commemorate our30th anniversary. Cindy first became involved with EFF in 1993, when EFF asked her to serve as the outside lead attorney in Bernstein v. Dept. of Justice, the successful First Amendment challenge to the U.S. export restrictions on cryptography. Since then, she'sserved as EFFs Legal Director as well as its General Counsel, and has been Executive Director since 2016.

EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn

At 4:10 pm, we'll have the first in a year-long series of "EFF30 Fireside Chats." In this chat, author, security technologist, and EFF board member Bruce Schneier will discuss the future of the "Crypto Wars," the long-running battle between the U.S. government and encryption enthusiasts around secure and private communications.

Starting in the 90s, the Crypto Wars have continued right up to the present day with the EARN IT Act, a bill that wouldgive unprecedented powers to law enforcementincluding the ability to break into our private messages by creating encryption backdoors.Joining Bruce will be Cindy Cohn,Senior Staff Attorney Andrew Crocker, andSenior Staff Technologist Erica Portnoy.

Bruce Schneier

At 5 pm we'll do what Twitch was created for: livestream EFF Staffdiscussing how digital security impacts us all in meatspacewhile playing on theEFF island in Animal Crossing.

EFF Fights For Your Rights On Virtual Islands And Beyond

Just before 6 pm, we'll be saluting some ofthe animal friends that remind us all how great the Internet can be. You'll see cameos from various inhuman EFF companions.

You're invited to give your own buddies some time in the spotlight! Post a video or photo of them with#EFF30Petsand we'll share some of our favorites!

Staff Mountain Dog McKinley (aka Mackey)

And starting at 6 pm, test your mettle withEFFs Fourth Annual Tech Trivia, led by our own "Cybertiger" Cooper Quintin. If you haven't joined an EFF Tech Trivia event before, you're in for a treat. The Cybertiger will urge you to nerd your hardest in this exploration of digital security, online rights, and Internet culture. Thanks to Facebook, Gandi.net, and No Starch Press for supporting this Fourth Annual Tech Trivia contest! EFFs Tech Trivia Night is a great opportunity to gather with peers in the tech community AND support the crucial fight for online civil liberties.

Then, at 8 pm, join us for the virtual party game Quiplash! You can join the fun by playing as part of the audience and voting on your favorite answers.EFF Director of Strategy Danny O'Brienand EFF Special Advisor and authorCory Doctorowlead a panel of online rights advocates and special guests.

Danny O'Brien

Cory Doctorow

Closing out the evening will be aDJ Set by Encanti with visuals by VJ Lumendrop.Encanti is the artist name of Ben Cantil, half of audio/visual duoZebbler Encanti Experience, who releases musicon experimental electronic labels Wakaan and Gravitas Recordings.Lumendrop(Theresa Silver) is an audiovisual artist, multimedia developer, VJ, stage designer, and projection mapping specialist.

Visuals from Lumendrop

Encanti

Whether you're a new member of the digital rights movement, or you were around for the beginning of the Crypto Wars, we hope you'll help us celebrate this milestone. EFF is there for you for now, with advice on avoiding surveillance during protests, and has been there for you then, fighting NSA spying programs and government efforts to break iPhone encryption. We're excited to celebrate 0 years of defending your civil liberties in the digital world.We hope you can stop in for some of fun!

EFF would like to extend our sincere appreciation to No Starch Press and Ridder, Costa, and Johnstone LLP for sponsoring our 30th Anniversary Livestream! If you or your company want to learn about future EFF sponsorship opportunities, please contact Nicole Puller.

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Join EFF's 30th Anniversary Livestream and Party Like It's 1990! - EFF

Viz.ai Named to Forbes AI 50 List of Most Promising AI Companies – AiThority

Viz.ai, the leader in Applied Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare, has been named to the prestigiousForbes Top50 AI list. The list honors the top 50 companies making the most impact using artificial intelligence to drive change and transform industries.

Forbes evaluated hundreds of innovative companies and recognized the top 50 for their use of artificial intelligence to drive outcomes for customers. As a company known for driving innovation in healthcare technology, Viz.ai was selected for its work dedicated to improving treatment times in stroke care and advancing how healthcare is delivered across a hospital network.

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Its not just about the AI, said Eric Eskioglu, MD, FAANS Neurosurgeon, Executive Vice President & Chief Medical Officer Novant Health. Hospital systems using Viz for stroke care have seen meaningful reductions in treatment times, improvement in outcome scores and reduction in hospital length of stay. Viz is setting the standard for how healthcare can be delivered with operational precision, equity in treatments and outstanding clinical results. Its become how modern healthcare happens.

Viz.ai is now taking its proven patient and operational benefits and applying its technology to other aspects of healthcare, including the response to the pandemic. Viz COVID-19, available to any hospital at no cost, is improving communication, workflow and bed management for hospitals struggling with the COVID-19 crisis. Viz CONSULT is improving imaging, workflow and decision making across multiple new disease states such as Spine, Trauma and Pulmonary Embolism. Viz CLINIC is transforming the doctor visit experience for HCPs and patients and Viz ANALYTICS is enabling dynamic quality improvement through local and national benchmarking.

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We are honored to be recognized by Forbes as one of the leading AI Healthcare companies. It demonstrates the importance of putting patients first and applying the latest technology to improve patient outcomes, said Viz.ai CEO & Co-Founder, Dr.Chris Mansi. We look forward to making an impact across healthcare ensuring the right patient is seen by the right doctor at the right time, every time.

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Viz.ai Named to Forbes AI 50 List of Most Promising AI Companies - AiThority

Lacroix Group is pursuing its ambitious strategy with the acquisition of start-up eSoftThings, an expert in the Internet of Things and artificial…

LACROIX Group is pursuing its ambitious strategy with the acquisition of start-up eSoftThings, an expert in the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence.

With the acquisition of eSoftThings, based in Cesson-Svign (Rennes metropolitan area, France), LACROIX Group has consolidated its R&D division already present in the area and strengthened its positioning around the industrial IoT (Internet of Things) and artificial intelligence, particularly in the field of connected vehicles. This Young Innovative Company with 50 employees, founded in 2014, which has recorded 50% annual growth for the last three years and boasts an impressive client portfolio, is now an international benchmark in the design and industrialisation of IoT solutions (hardware, software and cloud) and in the field of artificial intelligence (computer vision, object classification, behaviour prediction).

A strategic deal for the technological equipment manufacturer LACROIX Group

As the industrial IoT enters a new phase of maturity and calls for critical masses able to meet the latest technological challenges, the arrival of this new entity within LACROIX Group consolidates its ability to keep fully abreast of cutting-edge technologies and offer its customers increasingly smart equipment.

In the era of onboard artificial intelligence, data processing and information retrieval, eSoftThings chimes perfectly with the strategic plan launched by the Group in 2016. Indeed, with its sound experience in hardware and software design, its know-how in the development and integration of onboard software, alongside specialities in connectivity, energy consumption optimisation and artificial intelligence, this new subsidiary will be central to the Groups R&D project.

Having attained profitability within its first year, eSoftThings proved the value of its abilities at an early stage and made a rapid international impact, including in the United States and Asia. In financial year 2019, eSoftThings recorded turnover of 4.5M, with operating marging in double figures.

For us, joining the teams at LACROIX Group is an opportunity to contribute to a great ambition, which we share, and to collaborate with teams whose expertise is matched by their enthusiasm, observes Kimmo Vuorinen, President of eSoftThings. In addition, the very clear strategy of the LACROIX Group, in which we fit perfectly, will certainly be a catalyst for us, adds Jean-Marie Rolland, CEO of eSoftThings.

Underlining its positioning as global leader in the Industrial IoT.

This new acquisition, the sixth in four years, concludes the programme of external growth under our Ambition 2020 plan, and sets us on the strategic path towards our forthcoming 2025 plan. The projects already underway and the connection between the teams herald a bright future. I am delighted that our unique global positioning and the complementarity of our activities now give us the benefit of critical mass,as well as commercial, industrial and financial synergies. With eSoftThings, we are reinforcing our technological synergies, a major asset for the future, explains Vincent Bedouin, CEO of LACROIX Group.

ABOUT LACROIX Group

LACROIX Group is an international technological equipment manufacturer, aiming to serve a connected and responsible world with its technical and industrial excellence. As a listed family-run SME, LACROIX Group combines the essential agility required to innovate in an ever-changing technological sector with the industrial capacity to produce robust, secure equipment and the long-term vision to invest and build for the future.

LACROIX Group designs and manufactures electronics equipment for its clients products, particularly in the automotive, home-automation, avionics, industrial and healthcare fields. LACROIX Group also provides safe, connected equipment for the management of critical infrastructures such as smart roads (street lighting, traffic signs, traffic management, V2X) and the management and operation of water and energy systems.

Drawing on its extensive experience and expertise, the Group works with its customers and partners to build the connection between the world of today and the world of tomorrow. It helps them to build the industry of the future and to make the most of the opportunities for innovation that surround them, supplying them with the equipment for a smarter world.

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Lacroix Group is pursuing its ambitious strategy with the acquisition of start-up eSoftThings, an expert in the Internet of Things and artificial...

University College hosts webinar on artificial intelligence – The Hindu

The Department of Computer Science of University College here recently organised a national-level webinar on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and a quiz competition.

Inaugurating the webinar, Mangalore University Vice-Chancellor P. Subrahmanya Yadapadithaya said that the digital world was not the future but the present. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning were important in day-to-day life, and during technological advancement, access to data and development has also increased, he said.

College principal M.A. Uday Kumar highlighted the new dimensions of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and also of data analysis. In the period of globalisation to take quick quality decisions, artificial intelligence or similar technologies were needed, he said.

V. Priya Senan from SASSNDP Yogam College, Konni, Kerala, Parag A. Tamhankar from MES Abasaheb Garware College, Veerabhadrappa, University College Computer Science Department Head, Veerabhadrappa, Assistant Professor, Bharathi Pilar and Sharadha Bhat from Ankola Government First Grade College were resource persons. K. Sudheendra conducted the quiz competition.

Over 350 students, research scholars and professors from various States participated in the webinar.

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VeChain Is Attending the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2020 Hosted – AiThority

VeChain will be opening the first blockchain technology session in this conference, with our session titledblockchainize the future, power the economy.

The blockchain forum will be co-hosted by theShanghai Municipal Commission Of Economy And Informatization,Shanghai Finance Information Associationand several other large enterprises and organizations. VeChain will be sharing our experience in the blockchain deployment, integration and usage for various business scenarios and current successful users.

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Since the first WAIC in 2018, the event has become a grand meeting and festival, accumulating international influences across various industries. In line with the growing trend of the online new economy and digital transformation, this years conference will be inviting top-of-line tech enterprises, including Microsoft, Amazon, Alibaba,Tencent, Huawei and more.

This event will be the perfect avenue for VeChain to showcase our industry-leading blockchain infrastructure and technology. As the company responsible for opening the blockchain session of the WAIC conference, we have no doubt that our keynote will be closely listened to by other attendees and VIPs invited to the event.

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On20 April 2020,ChinasNational Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the cabinet-level department that draws up policies and strategies for the direction of the Chinese economy,has expanded its definition of new infrastructure to include blockchain technology.

Investment in new infrastructure is expected to comprise 7%-12% of all infrastructure spending,with China International Capital Corporation (CICC) seeing new infrastructure investment of between 1-1.8 trillion yuan. As blockchain technology is becoming one of the major technical forces to boost the post-COVID economy, WAIC intends to open more discussions around its development.

With the theme of Intelligent Connectivity Indivisible Community, this Conference will be a high level platform attracting the most influential scientists and entrepreneurs around the world as well as government leaders to converse and talk about the technological frontiers, industry trends and provoking issues in forms of speeches and high-level forums.

VeChain will capitalize on this massive opportunity to pitch and share our experience and solutions to all stakeholders attending the conference. We are confident that our reputation and experience in solving pain points in the business world will convince even more partners to come onboard and expand our networking opportunities.

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VeChain Is Attending the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2020 Hosted - AiThority

"Pinning Down Putin" Biden, the Democrats and the Next War – CounterPunch

The latest Foreign Affairs features a piece by former Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, Pinning Down Putin: How a Confidant America Should Deal With Russia. A protege of former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright and Hillary Clinton, she is a notorious liberal interventionist, married to neocon pundit Robert Kagan. She is perhaps best known for aiding the neofascist putsch in Ukraine in February 2014 that produced regime change, a revolt in Ukraines east, the Russian seizure of Crimea, and Hunter Biden getting offered a seat on the board of Ukraines largest gas company making $ 50,000 a month for three years.

The putsch replaced an elected president and cabinet opposed to NATO membership with new leadership that solicited it. The principal interest the U.S. has had in Ukraine all along is the prospect of the countrys admission into NATO. (While actively encouraging and funding the Ukrainian opposition, Nuland explained that the support was for the Ukrainian peoples European aspirationsa reference to EU membership. In 2014 President Yanukovych had negotiated, then retreated from, an agreement for EU association. (The austerity program the EU would impose was untenable.) Nuland helped organized a propaganda campaign to depict the president as a Putin puppet choosing Russia over Europe. In reality it was not about EU admission but about NATO aspirations. It was an intervention into a foreign countrys politics relying on tactics of division; Nuland specifically included the neofascist Svoboda Party and Right Sector in her coalition of coup plotters. The U.S. deliberately fanned the flames of toxic Ukrainian nationalism and Russophobia to bring down a government, in order to bring Ukraine into its own military alliance so it might join in future NATO wars which (to remind you) have occurred so far in Kosovo, Serbia, Afghanistan and Libya.

Inclusion into the alliance of the vast country sharing a long border with Russia would largely complete NATOs encirclement of Russia. There would just remain two other frontline states as Nuland calls them (Georgia and Moldova). The original plan was for Ukraine to join, then kick out the Russians from their naval base at Sevastopol (since the 1780s). This would become a NATO base, the Black Sea a NATO lake.

This from Nulands point of view is perfectly reasonable. Spending $ 5 billion on regime change was reasonable. It was reasonable to insist in 2014 on the appointment of Arseniy Yatsenyuk as Prime Minister over the EUs favored candidate. (Fuck the EU! she famously told the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine on a phone call fortunately intercepted and exposed by the Russians.) She probably did not anticipate that the coup would result in a frozen conflict, with the Donbas region in open rebellion and appealing for Russian support, nor in the prompt and peaceful, preemptive seizure of Crimea. But that does not mean her dream of Ukrainian membership has died.

Whoever wins the U.S. presidential election this coming fall, she writes in Foreign Affairs, willand shouldtry again with Putin. The first order of business, however, must be to mount a more unified and robust defense of U.S. and allied security interests wherever Moscow challenges them.

Where has Russia challenged U.S. security interests? Why, in Ukraine of course! Ukraine, once the heartland of Russia itself (Kievan Rus), governed as a Russian province for 300 years under the tsars, then a Soviet Socialist Republic for seven decades intimately connected economically, culturally and ethnically to Russia. A country with every reason to seek cordial relations with Russia, but which the U.S. wants to detach from it

Russia has challenged the U.S. right surround it with the most formidable military alliance in history, an alliance with no raison detre than to project U.S. power in places like Serbia, Afghanistan and Libya and threaten Russia with annihilation. An alliance that should have been retired with the Warsaw Pact 30 years ago but has expended relentlessly occasioning absolutely no criticism in the U.S. press.

In 2008 NATO announced plans to eventually include both Georgia and Ukraine. Meanwhile the U.S. announced that it would recognize Kosovo, a Serbian province that NATO had wrenched free in one of those wars-based-on-lies in 1999, as an independent country. This absolutely plain violation of international law (which Condi Rice explained as a sui generis thing), in recognizing the independence of a glorified NATO base run by drug traffickers, caused Russia to respond tit-for-tat. First it invaded Georgia, to punish it for provocations; then it recognized the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries.

Nulands notion of robust defense is really one of world domination. She has not concluded from the U.S. experiences in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and elsewhere that all U.S. military action produces is mass hatred of the oppressor and general failure. She praises in her article Trumps decision to retain U.S. forces illegally in Syria to prevent the Syrians from using their own oil. Shes still not given up on Hillarys cherished dream of regime change, a la Libya. Youd think with her record on intervention shed be shunned by thinking people.

But no, Nulands on MSNBC as we speak, treated deferentially. Is she running for a cabinet post?

Nulands Republican husband declined to endorse Trump in 2016, labeling him a fascist (as has Albright) and voting for Hillary. They both perhaps see futures in a Biden administration.

Thus while the political consciousness of the masses has taken a leap in recent weeks, in response to the racist police murder of George Floyd, and white people have come to grasp as never before the reality of institutional racism and need to tear down its symbols, the Democratic Party foreign policy establishment is stuck in its Cold War Russophobic mentality.

It would not do to tear down Andrew Jackson statues while initiating another imperialist war. These wars are usually racist wars, by the way. Vietnamese, Korean, Afghan and Iraqi lives dont matter to the U.S. military, not even enough to keep count of civilian dead.

Remember when (2010) Chelsea Manning leaked that video of U.S. bombers blowing away civilians and laughing about it? It was like a cellphone video of a police murder, clearly revealing a horrible crime. In consequence Manning was imprisoned, and Julian Assange arrested and tortured in British custody. Why? Because they had embarrassed the U.S. about its crimes.

As we better grasp the evil of police violence let us not neglect the problem of those military crimes. The entire Iraq War was a crime. You obscure that fact when you tell an Iraq vet Thank you for your service. We do not say that to German veterans of the Second World War, because their service was to to an evil regime. The Bush-Cheney regime was also fundamentally evil. The destruction of Iraq alone was an incalculable yet unpunished atrocity.

Joe Biden was a leading advocate of the Iraq War and defended it for years after 2003. He does not know the meaning of the word anti-imperialist. He questions the wisdom of some decisions, like Obamas failed surge in Afghanistan after coming to office. But his soul is the soul of capital. Why is it that right after the pro-U.S. coup in Ukraine his son was given that lucrative jobfor doing nothing, apparently, for three yearswhile Vice President Joe Biden was the Obama administrations point man on Ukrainian corruption? Biden is the very personification of the business-as-usual Democratic Party Establishment, a dyed-in-the-wool Wall Street military-industrial-complex operative. He will no more defund the Pentagonthat Martin Luther King identified as the greatest purveyor of violence in the world as of 1968than hell support the defunding of police departments. He will not announce the pullout of the troops in Syria, or complete the planned pullout from Afghanistan. (His hawkish advisors want to maintain 4000 troops at Bagram Air Base.) He may finally try to implement his plan for the division of Iraq into three countries.

The Democrats perception of the Ukrainian situation was expressed by multiple witnesses at the impeachment hearings who declared (as Stanford Prof. Pamela S. Karlan put it) its just our national interest to make sure that the Ukraine remains strong and on the front lines so we can fight the Russians there and we dont have to fight them here. That such statements arent widely met with ridicule due to their sheer idiocy tells us that the Democratic Party remains a fundamentally conservative and militarist party.

Its a party delighted to receive the support of hundreds of former Bush-Cheney Republicans like Robert Kagan who unite in favor of the bipartisan tradition of maintaining global hegemony through war or the threat of it. A party so deeply racist and reactionary that it actually advocated the U.S. transfer of its embassy in Israel to the city of Jerusalem occupied by the apartheid state before Trump opted to make the move. Recall how Nancy Pelosi applauded the racist, anti-Palestinian move.

Bidens handlers are apparently telling him that all he needs is to hide out until the election while Trump makes an ass of himself, railing against anarchists, agitators, Marxists, Black Lives Matter (for hate speech), people who hate our history and want to suppress it, etc.. He must occasionally appear on camera, reading a statement about inclusion, justice, racial equality, etc. to maintain the impression that hes the better of two evils. But hes basically saying: Vote for me, because Im not Trump! And Im still cognizant enough to record the messages my speechwriters write!

But what are you gonna do in Syria, Joe? Are you gonna repeat Obamas performance in Libya? Or Bill Clintons in Serbia? Democrats tend to go to war in their first terms, even as they posture as the party of masses. One hopes that just as people are realizing that the U.S. ruling class has always been racist, and used racism to keep people down, so U.S. foreign policy has always been based on oppression. But you dont get that, do you Joe?

The first U.S. overseas war was fought to secure Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam and Hawaii as colonies. The Spanish-American War of 1898 was a racist atrocity start to finish. So were the Korean and Vietnam Wars. That schools are named for generals in these wars is as sickening as the fact that schools are named for slave-owners. As we invent a new politics that truly challenges the legacy and reality of racism we should also reject capitalist imperialism, which is every bit as great an evil.

Defund the police. Defund the military too. Withdraw all troops from three countries who have demanded their withdrawal: Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. Withdraw all the troops from Germany, Japan, South Korea. Tear down not only statues of Columbus and Andrew Jackson but military monuments glorifying generals and criminal wars. Dont rename military bases; shut them down.

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"Pinning Down Putin" Biden, the Democrats and the Next War - CounterPunch