Daily Archives: September 10, 2021

China's car-hailing providers rekindle fight for business amid tighter scrutiny by regulators, with a new market order likely to emerge. Chai Hua reports from Shenzhen.

Some of the Chinese mainland's most prominent technology behemoths may have incurred the wrath of the nation's regulators for cybersecurity violations and rising competition, but are fighting to turn the tide.

Market and cyberspace watchdogs launched probes into Didi Chuxing - China's largest ride-hailing provider - because the company illegally collected and used personal information. The investigations came after the tech giant went public on the New York Stock Exchange in June, raising about $4.4 billion. The Beijing-based group, which boasts more than 500 million users and millions of drivers, was subsequently removed from app stores on the mainland, and US securities authorities temporarily halted all IPOs of Chinese enterprises in July.

Didi has since tweaked its modus operandi. A driver surnamed Huang, registered on the group's app in Shenzhen, is surprised to find that despite the company's woes, his income hasn't shrunk so far and has even gone up. He said he can now rake in up to 700 yuan ($108) a day by switching between ride-hailing platforms.

Didi and many other such platforms are offering commission-free and subsidy incentives for both drivers and passengers in order to stay afloat in the business and grab a bigger market share. The new business environment has rekindled the battle for online car-hailing services, reminiscent of the industry's infancy a few years ago. Didi survived that fight, but can it ride it out this time?

Incentives geared up

The car-hailing business isn't alone in having to confront the challenges ahead. The data-reliant sector also has to deal with stricter personal-data protection regulations that can lead to a market reshuffle.

While maneuvering the gray areas is no longer seen as an option in luring customers, small and midsize players, as well as newcomers, are also eyeing more business.

However, Danny Mu Fei, a principal analyst at market research company Forrester, believes that while Didi's predominant position, with a solidly entrenched client base, will still be hard to challenge in the near term, the car-hailing industry may see a reshuffle among players vying for the second to sixth spots.

Didi, surprisingly, saw its business surge more than 13 percent in July, compared with the previous month, exceeding the sector's average growth rate of 10.7 percent, according to the Network Vehicle Monitoring Information Interaction Platform.

Mu said he found that operators are still relying on cost incentives to woo new customers amid fierce competition.

AMAP - China's leading mapping and navigation services provider - recently initiated a "commission-free" campaign for new customers along with dozens of car-hailing service providers on its platform. The move is aimed at raising drivers' income and getting more of them into its fold. Customers can also compare prices of these vendors on the platform before making their choices. To engage more users, nearly all the mainland's car-hailing firms have distributed various types of coupons.

"I once paid just 29 yuan for a 13 kilometer trip that should have cost 46 yuan. Thanks to the coupons," said Sun Lin, a passenger in Shenzhen.

Hong Kong-listed mainland on-demand retail platform Meituan, which focuses on takeout food delivery services, has also joined the fray with a car-calling app, offering multiple discount coupons to new customers. Didi is distributing various coupons to customers as well. In Shenzhen, three 5 yuan coupons are being sold for 1 yuan.

The duel has caught the eye of the authorities. The Ministry of Transport and four other ministries warned against "irregular" business practices and "vicious competition" at recent meetings with representatives of 11 internet-based car-hailing platforms, including AMAP, Didi and Meituan.

"In the long term, these companies should focus on different customers, driver services and experiences," Mu said. Such a strategy is needed to eliminate gray areas as the nation tightens data regulations.

The mainland's Data Security Law came into effect on Sept 1, and the Personal Information Protection Law will be enforced on Nov 1. App operators are warned that their services will be suspended or terminated if they're found to be illegally handling personal information. Offenders face a maximum fine of 50 million yuan or 5 percent of their company's turnover.

Utilizing data and algorithms to influence choices of users, hijacking traffic or disrupting the operations of website products and services provided by other operators are viewed as intruding into the gray areas. Other illegal practices include displaying unfair and varied information to different users for the same products or services, based on user behavior and information analysis, which can disrupt the order of fair transactions in the market.

Zhang Xi, an analyst at the Guangdong Transportation Research Center, said that a new market order will emerge as players vie for business.

New standards expected

He said all companies, not just industry heavyweights that plan to list abroad, have to ensure data security. He expects a series of industry regulations and standards on data usage to be issued soon, and those who can help to set up new rules will have an advantage in winning business.

"There're also other possibilities, involving more market players. If you have unique technical advantages and can provide new ideas, you'll have a better say," Zhang said.

Some industry players have started applying innovative methods. Mainland bike-sharing titan Hello Inc last month launched a personal carbon emission system nationwide. Based on the system, its users can exchange their carbon emission reduction points for car-hailing services.

As for companies with a bigger international outlook, overseas competition has also entered a new stage due to the growing awareness of data protection globally, said Sean Li, regional vice-president and managing director of Greater China, Akamai Technologies, a web and internet security services provider.

He said many Chinese internet firms that intend to attract more active users now realize that laws and regulations on data privacy protection in various places are vital to their operations. For instance, the General Data Protection Regulation in member states of the European Union is among the toughest legislation governing the collection and usage of personal data worldwide.

According to Li, many firms are consulting Akamai on data protection methods and strategies, indicating that Chinese firms are paying greater attention to the matter.

He believes that with the enforcement of rigorous data breach laws and other privacy rules in key international markets, managing regulatory compliance risks and mitigating the threat of data violations are key to the success of Chinese companies going global.

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Tech giants bite the bullet to stay afloat - Chinadaily USA

Facebook has often been on the news for content moderation political, racial and ethical. Recently, the tech giant revealed in its monthly compliance report that its artificial intelligence-based content moderation algorithm had removed over 33 million content pieces between June 16 and July 31 this year, in India itself. In addition, Facebook removed another 2.6 million pieces of content from its photo and sharing social media platform Instagram.

Facebook posts these reports since implementing the countrys new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Facebook said that the largest share of these takedowns was spam and that the platforms AI algorithms were able to take down 99.9 per cent of such problematic pieces of content over the said period. In addition, 2.6 million of these content pieces concerned nudity, and another 3.5 million accounted for sexual and violent or graphic activities.

On the other hand, Instagram was able to detect 64.6 per cent of content related to bullying and harassment, compared to Facebooks 42.3 per cent. However, this isnt the algorithms performance to the best of its ability.

Like Instagram and its parent company Facebook, social media giant Twitter uses machine learning for content moderation. Artificial intelligence helps these tech giants scale the work of human experts. Facebooks ML algorithm performs the following tasks to take action before a post, or a comment harms people:

Last year, Facebook AI announced that it had deployed image matching model SimSearchNet++, an upgraded version of SimSearchNet. The model is trained using self-supervised learning to match variations of the same image with precision. Facebook claims that SimSearch++ improves recall while maintaining accuracy, enhancing its ability to find true instances of misinformation while triggering few false positives. Apparently, it is more effective at grouping collages of misinformation. The algorithm runs on both Facebook and Instagram.

Source: Facebook AI

Facebook also introduced AI systems to detect new variations of harmful content automatically. These systems rely on technologies including ObjectDNA, which focuses on key objects within an image while ignoring background clutter. The AI model also leverages LASER cross-language sentence-level embedding developed by Facebook AI researchers.

Additionally, Facebook collaborates with industry leaders and academic experts to organise an open initiative Deepfake Detection Challenge (DFDC) to develop new tools to address the challenges of deepfake.

Despite these measures, a report by NYU Stern, Facebook continues to make 300,000 content moderation mistakes every day.

Facebook continues to make headlines for its sneaky acts. Most recently, it was fined about $270 million by Irish authorities. The authorities charged Facebook for not being transparent about the collection of data from people.

Content moderation is at the heart of Facebooks business model. It is, therefore, imperative for the company to make sure that its moderators are kept content. In July this year, content moderators wrote an open letter to Facebook demanding change fair treatment, a safe workspace, and mental health support. T0 add to it, a recent article by the New York Times revealed how insiders at Accenture Facebooks largest content moderator, have been questioning the ethics of working for the company. In shifts that last eight hours, thousands of Accenture employees sort through Facebooks problematic content, including messages and videos about suicide and sexual acts, making sure to stop them from spreading online.Provided powerful algorithms are in place to scale up the task of human experts; Facebook wouldnt be facing the nightmare of constant complaints from moderators. Despite his promises to clean up the social media platform, Mark Zuckerberg hires third-party consulting and staffing firms to remove harmful content that AI cannot. Starting 2012, reportedly, Facebook has hired a minimum of 10 consulting and staffing firms worldwide for content moderation. Interestingly, it pays Accenture $500 million every year to avail its services. Unless the models get better trained to identify the wrong from the right, harmful content and misinformation will continue to spread through social media platforms.

After diving deep into the Indian startup ecosystem, Debolina is now a Technology Journalist. When not writing, she is found reading or playing with paint brushes and palette knives. She can be reached at [emailprotected]

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Understanding The Technology Behind Content Moderation System Of Tech Giants - Analytics India Magazine

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Beijing hints at continued regulatory crackdown on tech giants - The Straits Times

The committees jurisdiction includes some of the top issues embroiling Facebook in Congress including privacy, alleged political bias and the liability shield known as Section 230.

Branscome, a longtime expert on telecommunications policy, will focus on executive branch engagement. As recently as six months ago, NASA administrator and former Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) was pushing for Biden to nominate Branscome for a post on the FCC an agency that has faced its own pressures to rein in social media giants.

The hire is a stroke of brilliance by Facebook, said one Democrat who has worked closely with Branscome for years. Youd be hard-pressed to get somebody more respected than John Branscome in that position.

The move by Facebook makes sense, said Jeff Hauser, founder of the nonprofit Revolving Door Project, noting that the threats to big tech are greater from Democrats right now, especially with Democrats controlling the executive branch. Still, Hauser said the toxicity around Facebook imposes a price on people in Washington who join the companys ranks.

I think youre crossing a Rubicon when you go to Facebook, Hauser said. Youre foreclosing certain options for you in terms of returning to public service.

Attempts to reach Branscome for comment were unsuccessful.

Branscome is the chief counsel and top Democratic staffer on Senate Commerces telecommunications subcommittee, and before that served as the chief counsel of its internet subcommittee. He will bring a hefty rolodex to Facebook's network in Washington his former colleagues on the committee have taken jobs across the Biden administration, including in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Commerce Department.

His job change surprised many of his former colleagues, who traded bemused texts and emails throughout the day Thursday.

Branscome has served in various positions on the Senate Commerce Committee since 2010, overseeing efforts to regulate and rein in the power of Facebook and other tech giants. CEOs of the leading tech companies, including Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg, testified before the committee last year.

Cantwell has accused Facebook of contributing to the destruction of local news outlets and participated in years of negotiations around a potential federal privacy law. But she wished her departing aide well Thursday.

"I want to thank John for his service to the Communications Subcommittee and the Committee writ large for the past 11 years," Cantwell said in a statement. "His over 20 years of Federal service with the FCC, and then supporting Chairman [Jay] Rockefeller, Ranking Member Nelson, and myself evidences his devotion to public service and his contributions to national communications policy. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors."

Even as it builds ties to Democrats, Facebook maintains close ties to Republicans, who could regain power in one or both chambers as soon as next year.

GOP operative Joel Kaplan who infuriated Democrats three years ago with his public support for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaughs nomination remains at the helm of Facebooks policy shop. Last year, the company hired an aide to Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, one of the Houses most outspoken Republican advocates for tougher antitrust laws aimed at big tech companies like Facebook.

John Hendel contributed to this report.

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Facebook lures top Democrat to its D.C. lobbying ranks - POLITICO

As reliably as Canadian winters bring snow, elections bring promises. And with the Canadian federal election now but a couple of weeks away, the promises are coming fast and furious.

This is ostensibly what democracy is supposed to look like: parties vying for office put forth a set of proposed policies and voters go to the polls and pick both what they want and what they think is best.

Democracy, however, has more to it that just governments and voters. There are other parts to it: the judiciary for one, and also the press. And that latter group has long been waiting for something tucked within the Liberal partys newly released platform. Now called the Australian Model, the Grits policy would require digital platforms that generate revenues from the publication of news content to share a portion of their revenues with Canadian news outlets.

It is, in short, a financial lifeline to an industry that has been decimated over the past two and a half decades since the arrival of the internet. And in that sense, the Liberal proposal should, if nothing else, elicit cries of relief; finally, someone is doing something about the sorry state of the news business. In a democratic society, saving news can only be a good thing.

Of course, there are always those who argue that when it comes to privately-run business like a news site, no one but the company in question should do anything at all; leave it to the free market and let God sort things out.

There is a certain sort of logic to that perspective. The news business is, after all, not blameless in its current situation. After being slow to react to the web, and even slower to shift to more sustainable business models like paywalls, its initially antagonistic relationship with the newness of the web has had catastrophic effects.

But the thing with news is that if there is a disaster in the industry, then there is much more than the news business that suffers. Just as governments form a core part of democracy, so too does the press. At its best it holds power to account, uncovers corruption and wrongdoing, and ideally, produces a better informed, more culturally literate populace.

But this week, as but one example, anti-vaxxer protests across the country actually blocked traffic to hospitals in some cities. The rise of those sort of flatly false conspiracy theories has happened because the information landscape has shifted in the era of the web, and the reduced capacity of the news business is one reason for it.

In short, tech giants, Facebook and Google in particular, now control about 90 per cent of the advertising business. They are also the conduits through which the publics attention is directed. That combination has shifted the locus of power from the media to tech, and far from a democratization of our public sphere, it has instead turned it into a cacophonic mess.

Hence the Australian model. What it, and the Liberal policy modelled on it, proposes is twofold: first, that the tech companies will have to pay news organizations to link to their content; and secondly, that news organizations can collectively bargain that price with the tech companies, with binding arbitration if necessary.

The proposal isnt perfect. By linking the financial future of news to Facebook and Google, the policy runs the risk of entrenching their power; it is harder to unseat large corporations once they have become the bedrock of certain parts of society. There is also some confusion about why the tech companies should pay; they do not publish news content but, rather, link to it though given that a significant portion of discussion online is based on media output, this seems more a question of clarification than a fatal flaw.

But as a solution to social ills, the proposal is a clear step in the right direction. Wherever we might lay the blame for the current state of media whether on a predatory and profit-obsessed tech sector, media itself, or a polarized and increasingly fractious political climate what is clear is that the news business is necessary.

During the pandemic, for example, the media has been a key component of informing the public of public health measures, where and why to get a vaccine, as well as being the site of vigorous debate over how to best balance political freedoms and epidemiology.

Yet that capacity of media to inform and create a culturally fluent audience is these days forever hamstrung by its massively reduced revenue. Reporters are harried, fact-checkers are expensive and increasingly rare, and new technological and business ventures become harder and harder to implement when companies are barely keeping their heads above water.

While it once seemed sure, polling suggests it is no longer certain that the Liberals will win. For the news business at least, that will be a shame, because the other two parties plans for the tech giants seem more diffuse. More importantly, for all of us, sustaining news is an idea that has been too long coming and regardless of who wins, if news isnt saved, we will all lose.

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Requiring tech giants to share revenues with Canadian news outlets could be a much-needed lifeline - Toronto Star

Tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Tesla and Google, among others, are now investing heavily in infrastructure to develop their own semiconductor chips. This move will not only fulfil their specific requirements but also end their dependence on other companies for chips.

The global chip shortage due to disruptions in the supply chains is one of the key factors that prompted several Big Tech giants to take things into their own hands.

It will be easier and more cost-effective to design their chips, experts believe.

The tech companies are finding it more lucrative to integrate their software with their tailor-made semiconductors rather than use the same generic chips that are being used by their competitors, a CNBC report added.

Why tech giants are going DIY

Custom-designed chips can perform better and work out cheaper for these companies, Russ Shaw, a former non-executive director at UK-based Dialog Semiconductor, told CNBC. These specifically designed chips can help to reduce energy consumption for devices and products from the specific tech company, whether it relates to smartphones or cloud services, Shaw explained.

The global chip shortage has slowed down production and these firms are iffy about relying on semiconductor makers anymore. The pandemic threw a big wrench in these supply chains, which accelerated efforts to do their own chipsMany already felt limited in their innovation pace being locked into chipmaker timelines, Glenn ODonnell, Research Director at analyst firm Forrester, was quoted as saying in the report.

One prime example of a large tech company producing its own chips is Apples M1 processors, which it launched recently for its latest generation of Macbooks and iPads, moving away from Intels x86 architecture-based processors.

Tesla also moved in that direction when it started producing cars with custom AI chips in 2019 that aid software in making quick-response decisions based on the movement on the roads. The company has recently announced its plans to make its own Dojo chips, reported CNBC.

Google too is reportedly nearer to fabricating its own CPUs for its Chromebook line of laptops, which use its custom-designed Chrome operating systems. Amazon, Facebook and Baidu are two other companies that are also working in this direction.

The report added that at this stage none of the tech giants is looking to do all the chip development themselves, since setting up an advanced chip factory costs billions of dollars and takes several years.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Sep 08, 2021, 08:13 AM IST

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Explained: Why tech giants are making customised chips - CNBCTV18

Reliance Jio was published in 2016.

Reliance Industry is celebrating the 5th anniversary of Reliance Jio, the companys telecommunications division in India. The company posted the development on a social media channel, admitting that Jio has brought a digital revolution to the country. In a post on Twitter, Jio thanked users for their support and several other major tech companies also congratulated the company for fueling. Indias Internet Revolution. Since its launch in 2016, Jio has gained an outstanding position in the Indian telco market and currently holds the largest market share in both mobile and broadband segments, according to TRAI data until June 2021. I am.

Jio also attached a video teaser to his Twitter post highlighting Indias digital revolution since 1995 and the companys contributions since its debut five years ago. Jio is known to have revolutionized Indian telephone companies by offering high-speed Internet at competitive prices. The company has also reiterated its vision of making India 2G-mukt (without 2G internet) and accelerating the countrys digital economy. As mentioned earlier, the tech giant also congratulated Reliance Jio on achieving the milestone. In the post, Google replied, OK Google, happy birthday, and enjoyed the Google Assistants voice commands. Xiaomi India thanked the company for promoting the Internet revolution in India, and PhonePe praised the telco for introducing endless possibilities. Other mobile brands such as Samsung India, Vivo India and Nokia Mobile India have sent congratulatory messages. Streaming giants such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix India have claimed that this is just the beginning for the company. ..

Reliance has announced plans to soon introduce affordable 5G connectivity. The company also plans to partner with Google to introduce an affordable 4G-enabled smartphone called JioPhone Next. The phone comes with an Android version tuned for Indian users and features such as voice assistant, automatic screen text reading, language translation, and a smart camera with augmented reality filters.

Disclaimer:Network18 and TV18, which operate news18.com, are managed by Reliance Industries sole beneficiary, Independent Media Trust.

Read all the latest news, Breaking news When Coronavirus news here

Reliance Jio is 5 years old and Tech Giants thanks Telco for driving the Internet Revolution in India

Source link Reliance Jio is 5 years old and Tech Giants thanks Telco for driving the Internet Revolution in India

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Reliance Jio is 5 years old and Tech Giants thanks Telco for driving the Internet Revolution in India - Ohionewstime.com

Erin Forsythe, a nurse practitioner with Virginia Mason, administers a COVID-19 vaccine shot Sunday at the Amazon Meeting Center in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)

Rep. Adam Schiff, in separate letters to bosses of tech giants Amazon and Facebook, criticized the efforts of both companies to curb the spread COVID-19 and related vaccination information.

The pair of letters, dated a day after Sen. Elizabeth Warrens missive also sharply rebuked Amazon for vaccine misinformation, accused both companies of directly profiting on the spread of false vaccine and virus information on their respective sites.

To Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Schiff wrote, As long as these materials remain on your site, Facebook is directly profiting from the sensationalism of antivaccine misinformation, while these conspiracy theories continue to directly contribute to COVID-19 deaths.

And to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Schiff pointed out that Amazons own algorithms can be gamed to push people toward false information. Further, Amazon algorithms and lists have been easily manipulated by bad actors through false reviews, targeted purchasing, miscategorization, or even intentional misspellings, he wrote.

As long as these materials remain on the site, Amazon is directly profiting from the sensationalism of antivaccine misinformation.

An Amazon spokesperson said when it comes to vaccines, the company leads by example. As a company, we continue to encourage our employees to get vaccinated, and we believe it is an important step for communities to stay healthy and recover from the pandemic.

A company spokesperson also confirmed the company will respond to Warrens questions.

The pointed criticism from the two powerful Democrats comes at a fraught time for the four tech giants Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple as Congress probes both the power and reach of a handful of the most valuable companies in the world.

Seattle Rep. Pramila Jayapals Amazon-busting legislation, the Ending Platform Monopolies Act would potentially force the companys dismantling, has both bipartisan and Biden administration support, the 7th District Democrat said in a recent interview with GeekWire.

Her legislation is part of a five-bill package that seek to create a frameworkto dismantle large tech companies into smaller ones (Amazon and Amazon Web Services, for example); to make mergers more expensive and difficult; to break up businesses that use their dominance in one area to get a stronghold in another; and to stop companies that create purportedly open marketplaces and only to game it to favor their own products.

Schiffs and Warrens comments dont appear to indicate any softening of the tone toward at least two of the companies. Schiff had contacted both companies about similar issues in 2019, at the pandemics outset.

And while he conceded that the pair were trying to curb COVID-19 misinformation, neither had gone far enough.

It is, of course, inevitable that malicious users will attempt to propagate harmful content, and I appreciate Facebooks efforts to provide accurate information on COVID-19 when possible, Schiff wrote in his letter to Zuckerberg.

Research has shown, however, that combatting anti-vaccine conspiracies by posing factual and counter-factual information as opposing, but equal viewpoints is ineffective at combatting misinformation and disinformation.

In a statement issued after he sent the letters, Schiff said the social media companies are helping to perpetuate the pandemic.

Vaccine hesitancy fueled by misinformation stands between us and truly ending the COVID-19 pandemic. And nowhere is that misinformation more apparent, potent, and transmissible than on social media and e-commerce sites, Schiff said. As the administration of vaccines around the country continues, misinformation is on the rise on major online platforms.

Schiff asked the companies to respond to a series questions including:

A spokesperson for Facebook could immediately be reached for comment.

Read both letters below.

Excerpt from:

Rep. Adam Schiff rips Amazon and Facebook for directly profiting on COVID-19 misinformation - GeekWire