Gonzalez vs Google, A lawsuit that might change the internet

Gonzalez vs Google is a case that was successfully appealed to the supreme court. The case attempts to challenge section 230 again and set a precedent for all future moderation of internet content. The outcome of this case might change how major internet companies treat their content in the future.

Section 230, which was a part of the Communication Decency Act, protects websites from bearing legal responsibilities when individuals distribute content on websites that prompt legal actions. This law in the United States has given the green light to websites like Twitter, Youtube, and Reddit to exist and allow users all around the world to post mostly anything on the website. There are still moderation and filters on websites, but they are mostly there to keep them advertiser-friendly and abiding by some other laws in the US and other countries.

Gonzalez vs Google is based on a series of shootings that happened in Paris which got a Gonzalez family member killed. It was later discovered that one of the shooters was radicalized and recruited through the content ISIS posted on Youtube as the algorithm suggested the video to him based on his choices of content. The plaintiff suggests that recommending the content violates the anti-terrorism laws in the United States while Google claims they bare no responsibilities because of section 230.

The outcome of this case can directly affect how every internet company treats their content on the internet as nobody wants to bare the consequences of thousands of similar lawsuits. Most of the internet companies would rather cut out entire sections of their website that has anything remotely illegal than put on heavy moderation for their content, which is the more risky and costly way unless their entire existence is based on this specific content. Based on the specific ruling, the internet’s reaction can range from everything being normal to deleting all of the remotely offensive content on the internet.

The hearing will happen on February 21st of 2023.

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzNo5lZCq5M

The Concerning Rise of Internet Shutdowns

A report by Google’s Jigsaw Project says that Internet Shutdowns from governments all over the world have been on the rise in the past few years. MIT Technology Review says that the report has seen 768 internet shutdowns ever since 2016. The country with the most shutdowns would be India with 109 shutdowns during 2020. This is most worrying as this is a tactic used by governments to suppress people from posting messages about certain events happening in their country. The government’s way of imposing these shutdowns has also been more subtle as with strategies such as throttling URLs, blocking specific internet addresses, and restricting the use of mobile data (Ryan-Mosley 2021).  

Ryan-Mosely (2021) sat down with the chief operating officer of Jigsaw, Dan Keyserling, about this growing problem in Q&A style. They discuss about how Jigsaw came to be. Online censorship was studied numerously at Google so they could learn when it is happening which the officer says is a the first and most critical step. Keyserling said that Jigsaw wanted to publish a report now because the problem is becoming worse throughout the world. This is a way for government to control their citizens. There is also a high cost for these shutdowns since more of our lives are being online. The organization’s goal is to have an international agreement that internet shutdown is bad are a violation of human rights. Keyserling would like to see groups like OECD and UN talk and bring attention to these issues. He says that it would be a step in the right direction to prevent countries from doing these shutdowns (Keyserling 2021). 

Though detecting these shutdowns is not as easy to see as just looking to see if you are connected to the internet or a mobile carrier. Keyserling says that you need to know what signals you are monitoring to detect it being interrupted. You then need to figure out how this interruption translates into real life. There are a ton of points you would have to measure to see if that specific site or platform is being blocked. With the obtained data you would have to structure it in a way to see when things happen and where (Keyserling 2021). There will also have to keep up with the government when and where restrict access as it could happen at any time. 

The rate at which the government would do these shutdowns would depend on how much control they have over the telecommunication infrastructure. More control of it makes it easier for governments to shut them down easily. With governments passing laws to increase their over communications infrastructure you then see that several internet shutdowns follow. This has consequences such as restricting society’s access to information and a decrease in democratic participation, where the internet has especially been useful for (Ryan-Mosely 2021). 

However, this is not all doom and gloom for the future of the internet as Ryan-Mosely (2021) reports as Keyserling lists several things that people can do to bypass these shutdowns. One of them is using a VPN or Virtual Private Network. There are also additional tools that users can download to prevent DNS poisoning, which is manipulating a specific website instead of the intended one for the users (Keyserling 2021). These tools can help bypass the restrictions set in place by governments. 

Widespread internet shutdowns are a growing concern that if left unchecked, can also spread to more democratic countries and lead towards a dark age of information for society. What measures do you think we should take as an international community to combat this problem? 

 

Source Article: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/09/1035237/internet-shutdowns-censorship-exponential-jigsaw-google/

“Dad/Mom, is the Wi-Fi not working?”

Well, if there was to be a survey done on what was the most common question asked across the households in the U.S. East Cost on Tuesday i.e., 26th of January, the headline of this article would definitely be the answer. However, let’s look at a more practical question, “What actually happened?”. Verizon Communications Inc., a popular internet service provider did approve of the internet outage which led to disruptions of working of Google, Amazon, Zoom, and various other network platforms which was acknowledged according to the data shown at Downdetector.com.

While the authorities did say that concerned department “is working to get to the bottom of what is going on” (5th paragraph, Source cited below), which literally does mean that for it was due to an underground “fiber cut in Brooklyn”, this is not a rare occurrence. Similarly, internet outages have been happening and the graph shows a noticeable peak in the past year. Google suffered an outage on 20th August, 2020 and December 14th, 2020 for nearly an hour. While this may had been the happiest day for the developer of the Error 404 page, a significant number of companies and groups of people are affected by this. However, we cannot judge the operation of these service or network providers based on this, for since the global pandemic, there has been a significant increase in the number of internet users worldwide.

While these incidents are unfortunate incidents, it thus gives companies trying to establish a monopoly a challenging task, and thus brings back the competition in the digital world. As Benjamin Parker once said, “With great power, comes great responsibilities”, similarly the companies who boasts about the humungous amount of data they have, will now be compelled to focus on the smooth running and management of that very collection of ‘0’s and ‘1’s. and thus looking at the positive side, we as users would get better services. All’s well that ends well. The questions that still raises a dilemma are what could be the possible solution at the present instance. Should the companies have a regulated data quota restricting them within their capability to manage the same? Or we should encourage and support other platforms and network providers for distribution of users? But then again wouldn’t majority of the users be drawn towards the dominating platform and thus failing the very objective of equal distribution of data and users?

So, the next time you get kicked out of a Zoom session, you can either choose to be upset about the internet outage or just sit back and relax thinking about the bigger picture of how things are going to get better. Either way remember to send an email for your make up assignment.

Source:

Google outage explained: What happened, and what was its impact? (indianexpress.com)

Widespread internet outage hits U.S. East Coast (yahoo.com)

Google Maps April Fool’s Plan

Tomorrow is one of the best days for those of us with a little bit of mischief in our blood. April fool’s day is infamous for putting people on edge as no one can be trusted, now not even companies can be trusted. Over the last few years, companies have taken advantage of April fool’s for marketing promotions such as, LuLu Lemon who advertised their own fake Amazon Alexa that just said “Ommm”. Another example of this was Taco Bell, which promoted their bell symbol as the liberty bell, they had claimed they had bought it. This type of marketing has skyrocketed in recent years as companies have noticed how effective it is.

This year following the current trends Google just came out with their own promotion for April fools in their app Google maps. They are temporarily adding a game, which is their own take on the old and beloved game “Snakes”. The user can choose from a list of cities from all over the world. Using all different types of transportation vehicles the user passes over the character in the game to pick them up. The goal is to pick up as many as you can before you reach game over. They are keeping the game up for the rest of the week to reach maximum users. Also, if someone does not own a compatible device the game is offered as its own website.

I am a huge fan of any kind of creative promotions that companies come up with. It is so fun to interact with these promotions and I think they are extremely effective. 

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/31/18289518/google-maps-app-snakes-game-april-fools-day

Get Ready for 5G

Most of todays mobile phone carriers offer a fast internet called 4G. But, almost 8 years after introducing us to 4G, we might even get faster speeds thanks to its successor 5G or “5th Generation Wireless technology”. According to Verizon and T-Mobile, it should be coming later this year or in the beginning of 2019.

One of the main upgrades we will see as we upgrade to 5G is the speed, latency and strength of the internet. 5G is said to improve our browsing internet speeds from 71 mbps (Megabits per second) to 1.41 gbps (Gigabits per second) with response times as more than 23 times faster than 4G. Download speed will make a great leap from 10 mbps to more than 180 mbps. To better show what all of these numbers mean, let me put it this way. This will make us able to watch 8K videos at 120 frames per second with no latency. With 4G speed, downloading a movie in Full HD quality (1080p, 30 fps) would take about a bit more than half an hour but downloading the same movie on 5G network will become a process that will take couple of seconds. 5G also has another ace up its sleeve. 5G will make more than one device to connect to a device that is getting 5G. Meaning that multiple devices can run 5G while only one is actually connected to 5G internet, opening another route towards Internet of Things.

5G is called the “successor” of 4G because it relies on 4G technology. For internet to achieve speeds of 5G, it first has to achieve the speeds of 4G. After it achieves 4G, it then combines the old 4G technology with the new and improved chips to get to higher internet frequencies. 4G lays on 20 MHz while 5G will probably sit on somewhere around 60 GHz.

Imagine how many opportunities this opens for all the upcoming inventions that depend on speed of our internet. Internet of Things can be achieved and it can be controlled with zero latency because of 5G. Autonomous cars can be on the road because of 5G because this way they get all the info much faster, and people from the control center can communicate with the cars much faster, preventing accidents from happening. Large files can be sent across the world in matter of seconds which is really important for the business companies and people who work in the industry with huge files such as photographers, programmers and designers.

https://gizmodo.com/what-is-5g-and-how-will-it-make-my-life-better-1760847799

https://www.pcmag.com/article/345387/what-is-5g

https://www.businessinsider.com/5g-speed-network-lte-2018-1

Social media: Key player in Venezuelan protests

Social media has become one of the most empowering and influential ways to expose and broadcast an event on the Internet. Anyone can become a journalist; thus, technology has allowed us to access many social media platforms and connect with millions of people around the world. For instance, Facebook and Instagram have implemented the Live Streaming function which facilitates users to see raw and real-time events.

Technology is now being used to expose the harsh reality of Venezuela. This country was once one of the riches countries in Latin America; however, today is one of the most repressed countries in the world. Under President Nicolas Maduro’s regime, Venezuela is now known to be one of the most dangerous countries in the world. There has been countless protests against the president, but Maduro has consolidated his power, making the country an Authoritarian regime.

There is no freedom of speech, making all mass media outlets censored by the government. This is why Venezuelans are recurring to social media with the hopes of letting the world know what its truly happening. Some of the Twitter, Facebook and Instagram posts were made viral during the ongoing protests, making #SOSVenezuela #PrayforVenezuela #VzlaUnidaContraElFascismo trending hashtags.

Despite the live-blogging efforts, the Venezuelan government blocked most of the posts that could defame them. However, they have brought so much international attention it is inevitable to deceive. As said by USA Today, More than 14 million people in Venezuela own a smart phone, which allows them immediate access to the news.

Personally, I see how my Venezuelan friends at Penn State make an effort to disseminate through their social media accounts what their families and friends back in Venezuela are living first-hand.

 

Don’t underestimate the power of social media, specially for millennials, who are tech savvy. It is a great tool to let your voice be heard and inform people of relevant issues happening in the world.

Barakat, C. (2014, February 21). Social Media and the Uprising in Venezuela. Retrieved August 30, 2017, from http://www.adweek.com/digital/social-media-uprising-venezuela/

Ellis, S. (2017, August 29). The collapse of Venezuela, explained. Retrieved August 30, 2017, from https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/8/29/16201552/collapse-maduro-venezuela-explained

Wilson, P. (2014, February 19). Social media key for Venezuelan protesters. Retrieved August 30, 2017, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/19/venezuela-uprising-protests/5606899/

The Next Google Glass?

Recently, Snapchat released a new product that is very similar to the google glass concept. It is called Spectacles. This product is designed to record videos and take pictures and upload them directly through snapchat via Bluetooth and wifi.

 

The new innovation is one of snapchats movement to impact the millennials directly. They see millennials as a group that loves innovation and wants to lead the charge. The Ray-Ban–style Specs record circular video with a 115-degree field of view, and they send clips directly to Snapchat for viewing. This is one of the many ideas that have recently been appearing in the new Glass-based products that connects directly through the internet. It is a step that will eventually lead to the new creation of a computer in your eyes

 

Sources: http://www.forbes.com/sites/howardhyu/2016/10/01/snapchat-moves-in-where-google-glass-gave-up/#22d15d521274