الكاتب: kafej

Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) has sued the watchdog group Media Matters alleging it manufactured a report to show advertisers’ posts alongside neo-Nazi and white nationalist content.

Major US companies including Disney, Warner Bros and Sky News’ parent company Comcast pulled advertising from X over concerns about their ads showing up next to hate speech on the site, while Musk has inflamed tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

In a lawsuit filed in the US District Court in Texas, X said Media Matters “knowingly and maliciously” portrayed ads next to hateful material “as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform”.

It claims the watchdog manipulated algorithms on the platform to create images of advertisers’ paid posts next to racist and pro-Nazi content, with X saying the juxtapositions were “manufactured, inorganic and extraordinarily rare”.

It said Media Matters did this by using X accounts that just followed users known to produce “extreme fringe content” and accounts owned by X’s major advertisers, which it says led to a feed aimed at producing side-by-side comparisons Media Matters could then screenshot in an effort to alienate X’s advertisers.

“Data wins over manipulation or allegations. Don’t be manipulated. Stand with X,” CEO Linda Yaccarino posted on Monday.

Media Matters said it stands by its reporting, with its president Angelo Carusone adding: “This is a frivolous lawsuit meant to bully X’s critics into silence.”

Musk had also sparked an outcry when the Tesla chief agreed with a post falsely claiming Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people, saying the user who referenced the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory was speaking “the actual truth”.

His remarks were met by a stinging rebuke from the White House, which accused him of “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate” that “runs against our core values as Americans”.

Advertisers flee X

Advertisers have fled the social media site since Musk purchased Twitter for $44bn (£35bn) in October 2022 over his controversial posts and layoffs of employees who moderated content.

The platform’s US ad revenue is down by at least 57% each month compared to the same month last year since Musk’s takeover, according to Reuters.

It was a little after 10 pm when Ahmad* was called by the Network Operation Centre at the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PalTel). It was the third week of Israel’s assault on Gaza and the main data centre in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City had lost power, threatening to shut off all communications in the area.

To check on the centre, the PalTel electrician would have to make his way across the city during intense Israeli aerial bombardment, putting his life in danger. But he did not hesitate. He flagged down a passing ambulance, hoping it would provide him with a degree of safety from Israeli attacks.

“I told the driver that if I could not restore the generator, people like him wouldn’t be able to reach injured civilians. We are no better nor less important than medical staff – a phone call can save lives,” Ahmad said.

Once at the centre, Ahmad set to work. By 2am, he had repaired the generator, allowing the telecommunications network to keep operating. He decided to stay in the building until dawn, slipping out around the freshly fallen debris to go home during a lull in Israeli bombing.

“Thank God my family was OK and I lived to see another day. This is my work and my life. … I do this every day,” he said.

Ahmad’s tale has become almost routine among the 750 PalTel staff in Gaza who, despite living through bombing, displacement and death, risk life and limb to keep the telecoms network running.

The cost of keeping Gaza connected has been high. At least five PalTel staff members in Gaza have been killed in Israeli attacks while many other staff members have lost family members, including wives and children.

Samir*, one of the staff members killed, had spent 10 hours shuttling fuel between data towers before returning home. Just 15 minutes later, Samir and his brother were killed in an Israeli air raid on their building.

Humanitarian workers and journalists have said the operation of communication networks in Gaza is essential for rescue services and for documenting the reality of conditions on the ground to the outside world.

More than 13,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. Videos of desperate family members and civil defence scrabbling through the rubble of bombed-out buildings to rescue civilians trapped underneath have inspired shock and horror the world over.

Preparing for war

On the first day of its offensive on Gaza on October 7, Israel cut electricity to the territory. Despite the lack of power and the constant bombing, Gaza’s telecoms network stayed operational for almost six weeks.

The CEO of PalTel said this is because the company has been preparing for war for “over 15 years”, embedding emergency contingencies in its Gaza infrastructure at every step.

“We have faced a lot of different incidents during the previous wars. We’re doing more protection than any other operator,” CEO Abdul Majeed Melhem told Al Jazeera.

PalTel’s Gaza network was built during Israel’s siege of the enclave, which requires that each piece of equipment be approved by Israeli authorities before entering Gaza, making repairs difficult.

Recurrent wars on Gaza and frequent bombing campaigns by Israel have damaged civilian infrastructure, so to brace itself for a sustained conflict like the current one, the telecoms network is built like no other.

While most telecom networks bury their cables 60cm (about 2ft) underground, PalTel buries its cables up to 8 metres (26ft)  deep. In case the Israelis cut off electricity, its data centres in Gaza also have three layers of redundancy: generators, solar panels and batteries.

The company has also developed emergency protocols to direct workers remotely from the occupied West Bank, and if severed communications make this impossible, Gazan staff are empowered to act autonomously.

Despite all the redundancies and preparations, the sheer scale of bombings these past weeks has still crippled the network. About 70 percent of the mobile network has been taken offline. Solar panels have been rendered mostly useless either by being destroyed in attacks or covered in dust and debris.

The relentless nature of the conflict is also weighing on staff, who are dogged by danger from their house to the field.

Rabih*, a fibre optics technician, was called to repair a cable just metres from the border on October 15. Prior to going, he had to give an exhaustive list of the repair team’s names, the colour of their cars and registration numbers to the Israelis, because “a mistake could be deadly”.

As Rabih and his team laboured for two hours to fix the cable, the buzz of a drone above him and the sounds of shelling intermingled with the sound of their excavator.

“Any wrong move could mean being targeted. I cannot explain to my wife and kids why I do that or why I volunteer to go out during the war. My company doesn’t oblige me, but if someone can do it, it has to be me,” he said.

Staff in the West Bank watch their colleagues in Gaza from afar with bated breath, hesitant to ask them to check on damaged equipment, knowing that a simple repair trip could cost them their lives.

Gaza-based staff are under no obligation to go into the field, but most have been eager to volunteer despite the dangers.

“It is very difficult to call my colleagues who are under bombardment and ask them to go out. I feel afraid that if one of them gets hurt, I will never forgive myself,” said Mohammed*, a worker in the Network Operation Centre in the West Bank.

Mohammed’s role at the centre requires him to monitor problems in the network, ask workers to volunteer to repair them and stay on the phone with them to provide feedback on the repairs. The calls are nerve-racking, and both Mohammed and the worker in Gaza want the field visit to be resolved as quickly as possible.

“I cannot imagine how these people have the courage to go out. Maybe if I were there, I wouldn’t do it. I don’t know if I would,” Mohammed said.

At the mercy of Israel

No matter how many metres deep they dig or the number of solar panels they install, Gaza’s connections to the outside world ultimately relies on the Israelis.

The cables that connect Gaza to the outside world run through Israel, and the country on at least two occasions has deliberately cut off the strip’s international communications.

“It’s clear for us that it was cut off by a decision. What proves this is that we didn’t do anything to get it back,” Melhem said.

Israel also controls fuel to Gaza, allowing a small trickle into Gaza on Friday after weeks of pressure from the United States.

Described as a “drop in the bucket” by humanitarian groups, Israel announced that 120,000 litres (31,700 gallons) of fuel would be allowed into the territory every two days for use by hospitals, bakeries and other essential services.

PalTel will also be given 20,000 litres (5,283 gallons) of fuel every two days for its generators.

On Thursday, the company had announced it would go into a full telecoms blackout because its fuel reserves were exhausted for the first time during the current war.

According to Mamoon Fares, the corporate support director at PalTel, the 20,000 litres provided “should be enough to operate a good part of the network”.

However, Gaza’s telecoms network will still be at the mercy of Israel should it decide to cut off fuel deliveries or network services that run through its territory.

Without the ability to communicate, the already dismal situation in Gaza would only further deteriorate.

“No ambulances, no emergency services, no civil defence or humanitarian organisations can work without telecommunications,” Melhem said.

* Names have been changed to protect the individuals’ safety.

Former diplomat Hsiao Bi-khim formalises her run for vice president as the November 24 deadline for candidates looms.

Taiwan’s outspoken former envoy to the United States, Hsiao Bi-khim, has formally registered her candidacy for vice president and the running mate of William Lai in the island’s upcoming 2024 election.

Hsiao, 52, a former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator, served as Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the US from 2020 until her resignation this week.

Her tenure in Washington, DC coincided with renewed US interest in Taiwan thanks to its early battle with COVID-19 and an ongoing standoff with Beijing at a time when US-China relations were souring.

Hsiao, a self-described “cat warrior” who often poses with her felines, is also well-known for her active presence on social media platforms like X, where she has amassed 133,000 followers promoting the DPP’s pro-Taiwan stance.

“Back in Taiwan! Honored to join @ChingteLai on the ticket as VP for 2024. Tough road ahead expected as I shoulder a heavier burden. Taiwan’s democracy deserves our best efforts,” she posted on Tuesday.

Like Lai, the current vice president, Hsiao is despised by Beijing for her political stance on Taiwan and its relationship with China. In April, she was formally banned by Beijing from visiting China, Hong Kong and Macau after she accompanied President Tsai Ing-wen on her unofficial trip to the US.

Beijing claims Taipei as its own territory and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve its goal. The DPP says only the people of Taiwan can decide their island’s future.

Despite earning the ire of Beijing, Hsiao is popular with younger voters and seen as a breath of fresh air compared with some of her counterparts. Reflecting the surge in Taiwanese identity across the island and diaspora, Hsiao uses the Taiwanese pronunciation of her name instead of Mandarin, the dominant language in China.

The media boost to Lai’s presidential campaign comes with the opposition in apparent disarray just days away from the November 24 deadline for registration.

Last week, Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Hou You-ih and independent Taiwan People’s Party candidate Ko Wen-je appeared ready to upset the election by working together and posing the most formidable challenge yet to Lai, who has been polling ahead of both candidates.

Hsiao as Lai’s VP is a natural choice for the DPP:

1. After Tsai, she’s done more internationall for Taiwan’s hard and soft power than any other politician (arguably more than Lai)

2. She’s trusted in DC (arguably more than Lai)

3. Pan-green voters largely support her https://t.co/3bgsgUMJ7t

— Lev Nachman (@lnachman32) November 20, 2023

Within days, the plan was abandoned after the two parties could not agree on who would run for president following a disastrous attempt at internal polling. Both parties were forced to walk back on a deal that had been brokered by former President Ma Ying-jeou.

Ko, the former mayor of Taipei, is popular with Taiwanese voters who are tired of the island’s two-party dominated political system or want something new after eight years of the DPP.

Hou, a former policeman and mayor, offers the stability of the KMT, a party known for its better working relationship with Beijing, and remains popular with businesspeople and Taiwanese families who fled China in the 1940s.

Neither have indicated their choice of running mate yet.

Running in distant fourth place is independent Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of iPhone maker Foxconn, whose support has remained in the single digits.

The election is scheduled for January.

In a letter, some of OpenAI’s most senior staff members threatened to leave the company if the board was not replaced.

Hundreds of staff at leading artificial intelligence company OpenAI have threatened to quit and join Microsoft after the sudden firing of the company’s co-founder Sam Altman.

The OpenAI staff said they would follow Altman, who said he would be starting an artificial intelligence (AI) subsidiary at Microsoft after his surprise removal from the company that created the ChatGPT chatbot, which led to the rapid rise in AI tech.

In a letter, some of OpenAI’s most senior staff members threatened to leave the company if the board was not replaced.

“The process through which you terminated Sam Altman and removed [co-founder and former president] Greg Brockman from the board has jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and company,” the letter, first released to the technology news outlet Wired, reads.

“Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI”.

“Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join.”

According to reports, as many as 500 of OpenAI’s 770 employees signed the letter.

The company’s board sacked Altman on Friday after concerns that he was underestimating the dangers of its tech and leading the company away from its stated mission.

OpenAI appointed Emmett Shear, a former chief executive of Amazon’s streaming platform Twitch, as its new CEO, the third in as many days.

In a post on X announcing his appointment as interim CEO, Shear denied reports that Atlman’s sacking was due to safety concerns.

But Altman’s exit triggered the departures of other high-profile members of the company, as well as resulting in pushback from investors who asked that he be brought back.

However, OpenAI stood by its decision.

In a memo sent to employees on Sunday night, the company said, “Sam’s behavior and lack of transparency … undermined the board’s ability to effectively supervise the company,” the New York Times reported.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote on X that Altman “will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team”, along with Open AI co-founder Brockman, who announced he would be leaving the company following Altman’s departure.

Nadella added that Microsoft was looking forward to working with OpenAI’s new team under Shear and that they remain “committed to our partnership with OpenAI”.

Later on Monday, Altman said on X that his and Nadella’s “top priority remains to ensure OpenAI continues to thrive”.

The tech giant Microsoft has invested more than $10bn in OpenAI and has rolled out the AI pioneer’s tech in its products.

Saverio Razionale and Domenico Bonavota, two local Calabrian mafia leaders, are both given 30-year sentences.

A court in Italy has convicted more than 230 defendants at the end of one of the country’s largest-ever mafia trials, which targeted the ‘Ndrangheta crime group in its heartland in the southern region of Calabria.

More than 330 suspected mobsters and their alleged associates, including white-collar professionals, had been facing an array of charges, such as extortion, drug trafficking and theft, in a trial that lasted almost three years.

It took judges just one hour and 40 minutes to read their verdict on Monday, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported. The heaviest penalties were handed to Saverio Razionale and Domenico Bonavota, two local Calabrian mafia leaders, both given 30-year sentences.

“Today’s ruling means a whole province of Calabria has been liberated from the top brass of the criminal group,” Nicola Gratteri, one of Italy’s best-known magistrates and a former lead prosecutor in the case, told Reuters.

Among those convicted was Giancarlo Pittelli, a lawyer and former politician with the Forza Italia party – a member of the national ruling coalition – who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for mafia collusion and passing on information.

Gratteri, who changed jobs two months ago to become chief prosecutor in Naples, said that confirming the connection between the ‘Ndrangheta and a network of professionals was a pivotal aspect of the verdict.

Giorgio Naselli, a former local police chief, was sentenced to two years and six months.

However, the prosecution did not secure as heavy sentences as it was seeking in a number of cases, and around 100 of those on trial were cleared.

Monday’s first-instance ruling can be appealed by both the defence and the prosecution.

The ‘Ndrangheta is considered by prosecutors to be Italy’s most powerful mafia group, easily eclipsing the more famous Cosa Nostra gang in Sicily, with its influence extending across Europe and beyond.

The trial was held in a converted call centre in the Calabrian city of Lamezia Terme, with metal cages installed for the defendants.

The last time Italy tried hundreds of alleged mafiosi simultaneously was in 1986 in Palermo in a case that represented a turning point in the fight against Cosa Nostra, marking the beginning of the group’s sharp decline.

That Sicilian trial had a huge impact because it targeted numerous mob families.

The Calabrian trial focused primarily on just one group – the Mancuso clan from the province of Vibo Valentia – leaving much of the ‘Ndrangheta’s top brass untouched.

Anna Sergi, a professor of criminology at the University of Essex, said the verdict confirmed the prosecutors’ reading of the ‘Ndrangheta structure in Vibo Valentia.

“Now it has its own specificity,” she said, underlining that under Italian law such first-instance rulings can be appealed twice before becoming final.

A further 70 defendants from the original trial had been found guilty in November 2021 after opting for a fast-track procedure in return for reductions in their sentences.