Western lawmakers have demanded that social media corporations crack down on Russian state accounts, together with the handfuls of embassies, authorities ministries and political leaders which are a part of the Kremlin propaganda machine.
US and EU politicians need platforms akin to Fb and Twitter to do extra to sort out misinformation on-line associated to the invasion of Ukraine, together with curbing the greater than 100 Russian embassy accounts world wide in addition to authorities businesses such because the ministry of defence.
These teams have been the pushing the Kremlin’s false narratives, together with that victims of the Mariupol bombing weren’t civilians, Ukraine is present process a “Nazification” and that the nation is planning to launch a biochemical assault.
“The Kremlin has weaponised info,” Vera Jourova, the European Fee vice-president for values and transparency, informed the Monetary Occasions. “We name on the platforms to diligently apply their insurance policies, reflecting {that a} broad community of Russian embassy and authorities ministry accounts belongs to the Kremlin, and take fast steps towards content material that’s towards the legislation or towards the phrases of service.”
Huge Tech platforms have more and more been dragged into an info warfare across the Ukraine battle, given their position as content material gatekeepers for billions of customers.
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Meta-owned Fb, Google’s YouTube and TikTok had been amongst these pressured by EU officers to dam state-backed media retailers Sputnik and Russia At the moment within the bloc earlier this month, whereas the businesses have taken different steps to truth examine or decrease the attain of sure content material.
These measures have prompted accusations of censorship and discrimination from Moscow, which has retaliated by banning Fb and Instagram for Russian residents and proscribing entry to Twitter. On Monday, a Russian courtroom labelled the actions of Fb and Instagram as “extremist” whereas confirming the choice to ban the 2 platforms.
Earlier this month, each Twitter and Fb eliminated tweets posted by the Russian embassy within the UK that claimed that pictures from the devastating bombing of a hospital in Ukraine’s Mariupol had been staged, citing breaches of their guidelines banning the denial of violent occasions.
Comparable posts had been additionally faraway from different embassy accounts shortly after. However, up to now, the social media websites have resisted a widespread takedown of official Russian state accounts world wide.
“We don’t take away accounts even once we disagree with the content material they put up — however we do take motion once they violate our guidelines,” mentioned Kevin McAlister, Fb’s coverage communications supervisor. “The world deserves the chance to listen to and scrutinise the content material of Russian leaders at this second.”
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Lots of the platforms, Fb included, do have a “strikes” coverage the place they may take down any account if it has a sure variety of violations, relying on the severity of the violation. Each Fb and Twitter opted to ban former US president Donald Trump for repeated rule violations and inciting violence within the wake of the Capitol riots.
Some are calling for official Russian accounts to be wiped completely from the platforms. Earlier this month, Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell on Twitter urged his followers to share his tweet calling for the social media platform to “BAN the baby-killing nation of Russia from its platform”, garnering practically 10,000 likes and retweets.
Republican senator Thom Tillis has shared a screenshot of a tweet by the Russian overseas ministry which recommended that a lot of the footage of the Ukraine warfare is “mass produced fakes”, writing: “The Russian authorities is utilizing Twitter as a platform to unfold lies and canopy up their warfare crimes. Why received’t Twitter flag or ban the federal government accounts spreading Russia’s warfare propaganda?”
Jourova mentioned that the EU wished to “strengthen” its code of follow on misinformation “urgently”, including: “Tech platforms should be accountable and turn into extra clear concerning the methods they average content material on-line.”
These calls for come as social media platforms have confronted the problem of taming an explosion of wartime propaganda throughout their apps, whereas grappling with the nuances of the right way to steadiness their free speech ethos with person security and with authorities calls for from either side of the battle.
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Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has an official account, though that is used sparingly. Nevertheless, Russia has round 120 embassies and ambassadors who’ve posted about Ukraine this 12 months, in keeping with analysis from knowledge evaluation group Omelas, with engagement skyrocketing on the day of the invasion.
Typically the identical messaging goes out verbatim throughout these accounts, Omelas mentioned, an indicator of co-ordinated propaganda. Almost 70 per cent of the posts are in languages aside from Russia, predominantly English adopted by Spanish after which French.
Russia’s overseas ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
On Friday, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice-prime minister, said that he and Janusz Cieszyński, Poland’s secretary of state for digital affairs, had signed a letter to Meta and Twitter asking them to “assist us counter Russian-driven propaganda at their platforms” in an effort to “stop Russia spreading its incitement to hatred between Ukrainian and Polish folks”.
A Twitter spokesperson mentioned the corporate had taken “quite a few enforcement actions on Russian embassy accounts, together with labelling and requiring the elimination of Tweets”, including that it just lately added labels to Russian embassy accounts making clear their affiliation with the Russian authorities.
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EU regulators are actually mulling methods to strengthen the upcoming Digital Providers Act, aimed toward rising duty of enormous platforms on the subject of policing the web.
One thought beneath dialogue is the adoption of interim measures that will enable authorities to extra swiftly order take downs, in keeping with a senior official with direct data of the discussions. The EU can also be taking a look at whether or not it will probably drive platforms to shortly disclose how the content material is being distributed within the case of “urgencies” such because the invasion of Ukraine.
Some warn towards the west utilizing comparable instruments utilized by authoritarian regimes to sort out warfare propaganda. Ben Dubow, founding father of Omelas, mentioned that the ban of RT and Sputnik in Russia gave the retailers a approach to “declare an honourable dying”.
He mentioned: “It’s actually necessary as this warfare proceeds and we’re framing it as one between open societies and closed societies that we don’t undertake the techniques of closed societies to concepts that we discover distasteful.”
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The head of the world’s largest mining company has said the outlook for the global economy depends on China’s ability to invigorate domestic consumption, as Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to disrupt global trade.
Mike Henry, chief executive of Australia’s BHP, said the direct tariff impact on the miner had been “limited”, but the potential for slower economic growth and a fragmented trading environment was a bigger issue for it.
“China’s ability to shift towards a consumption-led economy and for trade flows to adapt to the new environment will be key to sustaining the global outlook,” said Henry.
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The comment from the Melbourne-based miner echoed rival Rio Tinto’s a day earlier, when it pointed to “an uncertain future impact from tariffs on the commodity markets going forward”.
China’s booming property and industrial sectors have helped drive demand for commodities including iron ore and copper over the past two decades, boosting global mining companies.
Weakness in the Chinese property market has stifled the sector’s outlook over the past year, but miners including BHP have expressed confidence that China’s plan to revitalise domestic consumption and restore confidence in its economy will bolster demand.
BHP on Thursday said copper production had increased 10 per cent in the three months to the end of March, while iron ore was flat and nickel and coal volumes declined.
The miner has focused on expanding its copper production to meet future demand for a commodity considered key to the energy transition.
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It produced 1.5mn tonnes of copper in the nine months to the end of March, a record owing largely to the performance of its Chilean mines and a stabilisation of its assets in South Australia, which were hit by bad weather earlier in the year.
BHP shares, which have fallen 8 per cent over the past month in the market turmoil from the looming trade war between China and the US, gained more than 1 per cent on Thursday.
Analysts said the “robust” production performance affirmed that the company would deliver volumes at the upper end of its forecasts in most of its key commodities.
The miner continued its push to exit coal assets, revealing this week it had received government permission to close its Mount Arthur mine in northern New South Wales by 2030 — reversing a previous plan to run the giant site until 2045 — and would instead explore whether it can convert the site into a hydropower facility.
(EDITORS NOTE: Multiple exposures were combined to produce this image.) Startrails are seen during the Lyrid meteor shower over Michaelskapelle on April 21, 2020 in Niederhollabrunn, Austria.
Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images Europe
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Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images Europe
The Lyrid meteor shower, one of the oldest annual meteor showers known to humankind, will once again grace Earth’s sky beginning this week.
This year, the meteors are expected to come into view on Wednesday night and last through April 25.
What exactly are the Lyrids?
The Lyrids, like all meteor showers, are the flying trails of debris left behind by comets, according to Bill Cooke, the lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office. This shower is the litter of Comet Thatcher, first documented in 1861 by A.E. Thatcher.
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“Thatcher left a debris trail that the Earth runs into the third week in April of every year, and that causes the shower when these bits of debris enter our atmosphere and burn up,” Cooke told NPR.
Amateur stargazers have come to know those pieces of incinerated detritus as shooting stars, darting meteors and fireballs.
Earthlings have been observing the Lyrids’ sky show for thousands of years, with the first recorded sighting in 687 B.C.
Thatcher is a relatively little-known comet that takes more than 400 years to orbit the sun, Cooke said. The last time it was in Earth’s line of sight was right around the start of the Civil War.
The comet itself will not enter Earth’s view again until the late 23rd century.
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Coincidentally, the Lyrids will coincide with another shower, the Eta Aquariids, which is expected to begin on Friday and last through May 28th. That shower is expected to peak on May 5 and 6, according to the American Meteor Society.
How can I watch the meteor shower?
The peak of the Lyrid shower this year is expected around April 21 and 22, when the tail is at its peak.
Luckily, no special equipment is required to observe the shower’s brilliant lights. The main requirement is a clear, dark sky.
“You’re not going to see meteors from downtown Manhattan or Central Park,” Cooke said. “You need to find the darkest sky you can, you need to lay flat on your back and look away from the moon.”
Give yourself 30 to 45 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark, Cooke said — and from there, simply enjoy the show.
The Trump administration is considering taking control of the seating in the White House press briefing room from the independent White House Correspondents’ Association. Ashley Wu, a graphics reporter for The New York Times, explains why this matters and notes how questions at the briefings have already started to change.
