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The UK Prime Minister is creating an anti-fake news squad
In its most benign form, fake news can simply be clickbait designed to get eyes on banner ads. In other instances -- the one's governments are primarily concerning themselves with -- it's propaganda designed to invoke outrage and sway public opinion on elections and other important decisions. UK Prime Minister Theresa May has previously accused Russia of "seeking to weaponize information" by "deploying its state-run media organizations to plant fake stories and photoshopped images in an attempt to sow discord in the west and undermine our institutions." And now, she's taking action by creating a new specialist unit tasked with actively tackling fake news. What we're not being told, however, is how this anti-misinformation squad is supposed to do that exactly.
Theresa May wants to force tech giants to curb extremist content (updated)
British Prime Minister Theresa May called on global leaders at the G7 conference in Sicily to force internet and social media companies stop the spread of terrorist content available online. "Make no mistake: the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet," she said in a statement. May called on companies to develop tools to automatically identify and remove extremist materials, block the users who post it and report such activity to the authorities. The Prime Minister also announced the creation of an international forum to encourage industry leaders to share information and technologies to curb the spread of terrorist content. In addition, May proposed that regional governments cooperate by returning and prosecuting foreign fighters via improved "intelligence-sharing, evidence gathering and bolstering countries' police and legal processes. The Guardian's Anushka Asthana reported on Twitter that May's initiatives have the backing of President Trump, as well.
Google's latest virtual tour takes you inside 10 Downing Street
A few years ago, Google was allowed access to London's famed Downing Street to look upon the iconic black door of Number 10. And now, the search giant has been welcomed inside so we may all roam the gaff of post-Brexit hot potato winner and current Prime Minister Theresa May. As Wired notes, this isn't the first time rooms in the residence have been papped in 360 degrees, with Eye Revolution holding that honour. More than a simple addition to Street View, though, Google's Arts and Culture division has given Number 10 the virtual tour treatment.
Canada vaguely hints it'll block Huawei from government projects, cites security concerns
After the hammering Huawei received from the US Congress, it was probably hoping to catch a break north of the border. Unfortunately for Huawei, Canada's government has obtusely hinted that it, too, would block the company from bidding to build its new secure network. Spokesman Andrew MacDougall said it would use national security provisions to avoid international trade laws, and when asked directly about the Chinese company, was quoted as saying "I'll leave it to you if you think... Huawei should be a part of a Canadian government security system." The telecoms business may think it can get around the any obstacles because it has a locally incorporated subsidiary -- but given the clout of those lobbying against it, it probably shouldn't get its hopes up. [Original image credit: The Canadian Press / Sean Kilpatrick]
India's prime minister reportedly working on giving free handsets to low-income families
We've seen companies like Microsoft help out low-income people by dropping prices on its hardware and software in the past, and now India's prime minister's allegedly taking a similar approach but with mobile handsets being the focus behind this nice gesture -- and better yet, at no cost whatsoever. Per the Times of India, sources have told the publication Manmohan Singh's got a plan in the works that'd bring one mobile device to "every family living below the poverty line," with said "Har Hath Mein Phone" scheme expected to be announced as early as next week. Notably, if all goes according to the purported plan, this would help over 6 million Indian families, most of which are currently lacking any sort of communication device in their household. There's still a few days until we find out whether the project is indeed real, for now let's just hope our friends in India don't experience some more power outages anytime soon.
How Steve Jobs missed knighthood in 2009
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has received a number of accolades over the years, but now The Telegraph is reporting that he missed out on an honor that Bill Gates received way back in 2005 -- an honorary knighthood. Jobs was apparently nominated for an honorary knighthood in 2009 by a senior Labour Party Minister of Parliament, who felt that "Apple has been the only major global company to create stunning consumer products because it has always taken design as the key component of everything it has produced. No other CEO has consistently shown such a commitment." The honor was, however, allegedly blocked by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who had invited Jobs to attend the Labour Party's annual conference. Jobs declined to attend, either because he just didn't have the time to spare or because he didn't wish to be associated with a UK political party. As a result of Jobs snubbing the invitation and destroying a PR coup for the Prime Minister, the honorary knighthood was blocked by Brown. A spokesperson for Brown, who is no longer the Prime Minister, denied the snub but refused to discuss the incident further with The Telegraph. We can only hope that David Cameron, the current Conservative PM, is presented with a nomination for a similar honor for Jobs, and that this time Steve Jobs kneels before the Queen of England. [via MacStories, Gizmodo Australia]
Norwegian Prime Minister gets his hands on an iPad
While Apple has pushed the international launch of the iPad back by a month, from its original late April launch date to late May, it hasn't stopped some overseas customers from getting their hands on one. For example, Don McAllister, host of the resourceful ScreenCastOnline, picked up a couple of iPads during a vacation to New York that 'just so happened' to coincide with the iPad launch. If he intends on bringing home the iPad he's using in this picture, you can also count Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg as an international shopper. The picture belongs to flickr member Statsministerens kontor, which translates to "Prime Minister's office." Prime Minister Stoltenberg was in Washington DC this week attending the Nuclear Security Summit 2010, and is now in NYC. He may have plenty of time to explore the iPad, since his flight home -- along with hundreds of others bound for Europe -- has been cancelled due to the Icelandic volcano explosion. He told the Dagbladet newspaper that he's working remotely after an extended airport wait. The newspaper's headline translates as "Jens manages the land with iPad from New York." For the less patient who may be considering making the trek over to the U.S. for an iPad, do so with caution. Customs agents may prevent you from bringing the iPad home, depending on local regulations. For example, Israeli officials are blocking iPad imports over supposed WiFi concerns. "Tusen takk" to Nils & everyone who sent this in.
CBC torrenting Canada's Next Great Prime Minister, DRM-free
Everyone knows you can find torrents from plenty of TV shows on the internet, but it's usually not seeded by the broadcaster. Taking a page out of mariposaHD's book, the CBC is putting a "high quality" DRM-free copy of Canada's Next Great Prime Minister online (no wonder they think HDTV has no business model) after it airs March 23. No idea yet if this is a one time thing or the start of a trend, but we applaud the Canadians for one-upping Her podcasting Majesty in getting with digital distribution. Hopefully, the reasoning behind selecting political leaders soliciting ideas for a better country via a reality TV show (and why the U.S. isn't), will also be answered.[Thanks, Sukhminder]
Rootkit hack taps Greek prime minister's phone
In 2005, Greek authorities discovered a plot hatched and executed by unknown sources which allowed the tapping of wireless phones on the Vodafone network belonging to the country's Prime Minister and other top officials, making it one of the furthest reaching covert infiltrations of a government in history. A recent report from IEEE Spectrum shows that the tap was made possible by a 6,500 line piece of code called a rootkit, the first-ever to be embedded in a phone switch's OS. The complex hack took advantage of aging phone systems by disabling transaction logs on calls and allowing call monitoring on four switches within the teleco's computers, thus sending the call to another phone for monitoring (similar to a legal wiretap). The spies covered their tracks by creating patches on the system which routed the calls around logging software which would have alerted admins, and were only discovered when they tried to update their software. The case clearly exposes holes in call security amongst providers (due largely in part to outdated systems), and suggests the possibility that this kind of thing could easily happen again... to you![Via textually]
Could this Prime Minister hopeful beat you at Halo?
No, probably not. But he is, according to an Associated Press report, prone to gaming. The tech nut in question is David Miliband, the new foreign secretary of Britain. Last year, he was the first British Cabinet minister to post a blog, but perhaps most exciting is this line from the report: "A technology buff, he also has an avatar in Second Life."OK, fine, so it's not exactly a six-digit Gamerscore. But do you really want a world leader complaining about a guildie ninja looting his shoulders when he's supposed to be on a plane to the G8 summit? No, of course you don't. We think this is one case where it's OK for someone to remain a newb.[Via GamePolitics]
India announces plans to develop robot army
In an announcement that you can probably expect to be repeated by rival Pakistan in the next few days, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has claimed that his South Asian nation will be the latest country to pursue technologies for developing a robotic army. Singh's remarks came during the inauguration of a new building for the Defence Research and Development Organization, and were part of a larger speech outlining the country's future plans for military research, where he also mentioned interest in developing next-gen propulsion, camouflage, and precision guided munitions systems. Unlike South Korea's planned army of killbots (pictured), the Indian program is pretty light on specifics so far, although we do know that the impetus for the project comes from the realization that "trans-national actors and unconventional forces" pose a growing threat when compared to the risk of a traditional inter-state conflict.[Via Robot Gossip]
