Why the 2020 Election Will Be Historic for Climate Change
The Beginning of the End of Coal? ; How We Misremember the Internet's Origins ; and More Picks
Exposed: China’s Operating Manuals for Mass Internment and Arrest by Algorithm (Chris)
From ICIJ: “The China Cables … include a classified list of guidelines, personally approved by the region’s top security chief, that effectively serves as a manual for operating the camps now holding hundreds of thousands of Muslim Uighurs and other minorities. The leak also features previously undisclosed intelligence briefings that reveal, in the government’s own words, how Chinese police are guided by a massive data collection and analysis system that uses artificial intelligence to select entire categories of Xinjiang residents for detention. The manual … instructs camp personnel on such matters as how to prevent escapes, how to maintain total secrecy about the camps’ existence, methods of forced indoctrination, how to control disease outbreaks, and when to let detainees see relatives or even use the toilet.”
YouTube Promised to Label State-Sponsored Videos But Doesn’t Always Do So (Reader Jim)
The author writes, “YouTube’s implementation of its policy to flag state-sponsored media channels has been haphazard, giving governments in Russia and elsewhere an opportunity to spread propaganda surreptitiously. The world’s most popular streaming service allowed 57 channels funded by the governments of Iran, Russia, China, Turkey and Qatar, among others, to play videos without labels.”
Coal: Is This the Beginning of the End? (Mili)
From BBC: “This year looks set to see the largest fall in electricity production from coal on record, according to a new report. The reduction is estimated to be more than the power generated from coal in Germany, Spain and the UK combined. It is projected to drop by 3% — which is a fall of 300 terawatt hours.”
Inventor of Web Unveils Global Plan to Save the Internet (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “Sir Tim Berners-Lee has launched a global action plan to save the web from political manipulation, fake news, privacy violations and other malign forces that threaten to plunge the world into a ‘digital dystopia.’ The Contract for the Web requires endorsing governments, companies and individuals to make concrete commitments to protect the web from abuse and ensure it benefits humanity.”
How We Misremember the Internet’s Origins (Chris)
The author writes, “Silicon Valley’s chip fabrication plants contaminated groundwater aquifers, adding 19 federal Superfund sites to Santa Clara county and leaving countless workers — mostly women, mostly immigrant, very deliberately not unionized — with severe health problems and little recourse or compensation. … The internet emerged in a region heavily shaped by libertarian conservatism and environmental racism, and it was easily instrumentalized toward both.”
