Meta’s Automated Tools Are Unnecessarily Removing Hamas-Israel Content, Oversight Board Confirms

The ongoing conflict in Gaza has led to a surge in data linked to Israel and Hamas. But a recent finding by Meta’s Oversight Board is bringing to light some very interesting observations.

Meta has been accused by its own board of getting rid of posts of this nature, even though it did not go against the company’s rules.

The news was a part of the initial expedited review published recently that was expected to arise after weeks. Instead, it has come in just 12 days, leaving many in shock.

Watching the Board end up reversing Meta’s decision of removing two articles on the Gaza conflict unnecessarily raised a lot of questions on this matter. We’re seeing two types of content be erased from two sides regarding the conflict.

Ever since it provided support for the company’s decision to have the content restored on its apps, we’re not expecting to see any more steps being taken by the firm in this regard.

However, there are a lot of questions as to how such reviews are bringing to light some very interesting facts. This concerns how the tech giant might need to rely more on automated tools to get the job done right. But instead, it’s bringing about massive errors along the way as this case served as the prime example.

Seeing the probability of it getting rid of valuable articles that bring to light some very important findings linked to the world’s suffering on both ends of the spectrum such as the Middle East conflict is certainly a surprise, experts added.

Seeing the Board opt to investigate separate appeals on this topic is just a fraction of the figure of appeals that people in this part of the world have been rolling out since the start of October. One of those is related to a video published on the Facebook app.

That one had a female begging her captors for release and pleading with them not to take her life after being dragged as a hostage during the attack on Israel. Meanwhile, another video in question had to do with the devastation of the strike linked to the Al-Shifa Hospital that arose in Gaza while Israel made an offensive attack through the ground. This published a host of slain bodies and injured civilians from Palestine and kids were also a part of it.

This kind of review featured two types of content that Meta says were deleted erroneously after adjusting its own tools and forcing them to be more aggressive in terms of gauging content linked to the attack on Israel’s soil on October 7.

For example, the Al-Shifa incident where Israel was accused of striking the hospital was removed and the user who appealed against it received a rejection for its reinstatement. Both types of videos were reinstated after the company set out warning alerts on viewers’ screens, explaining how this type of content is designed to generate awareness and provide news.

However, the Board was not happy with Meta’s plan of action. It feels the firm needs to move at a quicker pace and take on the policy, all depending on how the instances continue to rise at a fast pace. The ordeal comes at a high cost that includes compromising more on freedom and access to data for deleting such types of content online.

It has similarly gone about raising some concerns regarding the firm’s quickly altering techniques linked to content regulation. And as a result, a lot of Meta’s policies on the subject are being questioned for obvious reasons.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

These Are the Biggest Financial Centers in the World

Certain cities have served as financial hubs since the earliest days of capitalism, and a new report by Z/Yen, a consultancy group, have revealed which cities sit at the top of the rankings. Understanding their positions is essential because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up determining where global investments will be headed.

These financial centers were judged based on a variety of factors such as development of the sector, the overall environment for businesses, the amount of human capital available, financial infrastructure as well as the city’s reputation on the world stage. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that New York City is still at the top spot, covering around 40% of the market cap of the biggest companies all around the globe which amounts to a whopping $46 trillion worth of stocks.

5 other major financial hubs exist in the US, including San Francisco at number 5 thanks to the presence of Silicon Valley, with its fellow Californian city of Los Angeles going from 7th to 6th place this year. Chicago jumped up four places to reach number 8, Boston went up five places to reach number 9.

Outside of North America, London is the second most important financial center in the world. Brexit has dulled its edge somewhat, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, it still continues to hold onto the number 2 spot, although this might change in subsequent years. Elsewhere in Europe, Paris has seen its prestige decline leading to a four place drop that saw it exit the top ten list and reach the 14th place on this list.

The third and fourth most important financial hubs happened to be in East Asia, more specifically Singapore in third place and Hong Kong in fourth place. Shanghai fell by one place but is still in the top 10 with its number 7 ranking, whereas Beijing sank by five places and is now at number 13 with all things having been considered and taken into account.

The only country outside of Europe, North America and Asia to make the cut was Australia, where Melbourne serves as a financial hub and reaches 15th place in the world after a 2 place jump.

Infographic via VisualCapitalist

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Elon Musk’s X Under EU Scrutiny After Being Accused Of Illegal Content And A Risk To Public Security

It’s not been a great year-end for Elon Musk’s X platform and now we’re seeing the app be targeted by the EU too. This is regarding illegal content allegations as well as serving as a threat to public security.

The news comes in the form of a series of allegations that were partially linked to several posts that had to do with the Gaza-Israel war. Therefore, the act was deemed to be a complete breach of the obligations as underlined in the DSA, making it the first probe of its kind to arise.

The Digital Services Act first came about full throttle in November 2022 and since then, it’s caused quite a shakeup in the world of online apps. This includes all leading search engines that must do more to curb the growing figures for illegal content as well as any risks observed to user security.

Meanwhile, this particular investigation in question has to do with the emphasis on curbing illegal material spread across the EU region as well as outlining the list of effective measures taken to curb how data continues to be manipulated like the famous community notes interface as revealed by the Commission recently.

During the start of 2023, we saw X rollout Community Notes that gave users the chance to add comments for posts while flagging fake material or those deemed to be misleading. This was a major effort as it bid farewell to just a solo team comprising professional fact-checkers who were hired to do the job instead.

This particular investigation is going to take into consideration a few aspects of the firm’s business strategy such as access to data that it solely provides to research teams.

So many researchers found on social media have been very vocal about how they terminated their studies linked to the X app or ended up in a position where they were forced to change it due to the behavior of its head and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. The latter has been very strict in terms of giving others access to the platform for this purpose as mentioned by Reuters in the past month.

This particular step that is being taken doesn’t find the X app guilty of any kind of wrongdoing, confirmed one leading EU member. It also does not speak about X disobeying the Digital Services Act, it added.

The only purpose is to further investigate the platform for any claims that have arisen in recent times so that they’re put to rest after detailed scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk did confirm how his company is committed to obeying the DSA and will cooperate until the end with the whole process of regulation as outlined yesterday through a public statement.

For now, X continually reiterates how its main goals have to do with obeying the DSA and providing relentless cooperation with the whole scrutiny process. Moreover, it’s also working hard in terms of ensuring no political factors are coming into play as the goal is to obey the law.

A recently published post by Musk on the app added a question for the current EU industry head Thierry Breton. This is where he put out his concern regarding X and whether other social media apps were being treated in the same manner or if it was only his company that was being targeted.

He was not shy to blatantly add how X may have some issues but that does not mean others are perfect. In reality, he added that they’re much worse and therefore must be under scrutiny too.

After the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, X and its arch-rival social media apps were blasted with all sorts of fake material including misleading data and inaccurate images.

On that note, letters were sent out to the heads of TikTok, Alphabet, X, and even Meta which served as a reminder of their duties under the law in terms of handling dangerous and unlawful material through apps.

As a response to that, a list of integral steps was then highlighted where all measures taken to prevent the spread of such material topped the list. This included a new challenge brought forward by Musk to Breton regarding the allegations of disinformation.

Photo: DIW-AIGen

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

The Younger Generation is More Afraid of Online Frauds then Someone Hacking their Social Media Accounts

According to a report from American Express (a multinational financial corporation), people from the younger generation are more worried about someone frauding them to make online transactions than someone hacking their social media accounts. They conducted a survey of 2,000 American citizens to make sense of what the young generation thinks of online frauds and how they are able to handle such activities. As the technology is progressing and everyone is shifting to the online world, the youngsters often experience online frauds that result in their money being stolen.

The report says that even though millennials and Gen-z are worried about the risk of fraud but they also think that they can easily identify these frauds if they happen to them. 69% of millennials and GenZ in the US say that they are always anxious about someone doing fraud with them but are not that worried about their social media accounts. In older generation, the percentage is 81%.

Regarding concerns about online frauds on bank accounts and credits, 70% of youngsters in the US worry about fraud incidents on their accounts or cards, compared to 75% of GenX and boomers. Despite these concerns, 89% of millennials and GenZ believe that they can successfully identify fraud activities on their credit cards or bank accounts. 91% of GenX and boomers think the same.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) highlights that GenZ are 34% more likely to report fraud on their credit cards or bank accounts than people over the age of 60. The report shows the importance of prevention from the fraud activities and education for those who fall victim to it. Frauds become especially common during the vacations or festive when shopping activities increase and the fraud levels also rise.

Photo: DIW-AIgen

Read next: Recent Study Shows that ChatGPT Can Act Biased When Asked About Environmental Justice and Issues

by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Recent Study Shows that ChatGPT Can Act Biased When Asked About Environmental Justice and Issues

A recent study from Virginia Tech, a university in the US, has highlighted prejudice about environmental issues in OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT. The study shows that when the researchers asked ChatGPT about environmental issues in different countries, it came with biased responses according to the location of the area. Researchers also found out that ChatGPT has some limitations and they are the reason that it isn’t able to deliver location specific information of many countries.

According to the report, the information given by ChatGPT is biased towards bigger and populated states in the USA. Less than 1% of the residents living in the counties of states such as Delaware or California did not have any information about environmental issues. Keep in mind that these are the urban areas in the USA. On the other hand, 90% of the population in rural states like Idaho and New Hampshire did not have local access to data about environmental issues and justice.

A lecturer in Virginia Tech’s Department of Geography, Kim, says that there is a strong need of further researching to tackle these prejudices of ChatGPT about the environment. The report also has a map of the USA which shows populations without access to information on environmental justice issues according to the location.

This study is a great way to know about prejudices of ChatGPT on political and environmental issues happening in the world. Some researchers from the UK and Brazil have already published a study that shows the errors and biases in the answers of ChatGPT. These are enough to raise alarms because they have power to mislead ChatGPT users and people who read these responses.

In conclusion, the report is a great indicator that shows that even though ChatGPT is a wonderful AI chatbot, it still cannot provide unbiased information about certain issues regarding politics and the environment. As technology is progressing fastly and public opinions are changing according to it, AI models need to be perfect and unbiased in their responses for the betterment of people. AI developers should work on making the AI models as perfect as they can be.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

World’s Most Downloaded Apps In Nov 2023: ChatGPT Makes History After Cracking The Top 10 List For The First Time

We’re nearing the end of December and that means saying hello to the top 10 list of the most downloaded apps of November from all over the globe.

You’ll be keen to know that ChatGPT has finally made history after entering the list. While it wouldn’t be wrong to mention that installations are a little on the lower side, the usual suspects continue to dominate as we speak.

Moreover, ChatGPT continued to make it big here for the first time and that’s one highlight that OpenAI would not mind. So let’s now get into the details.

Top app TikTok ended up being the world’s most installed application around the globe last month. It was hailed as the chart-topper with close to 49 million downloads from across the App Store as well as the Google Play Store as per these recent estimates. Similarly, it was the most installed application on Apple’s App Store, with the competition for second place trailing behind by a small figure.

Instagram took over the runner-up position as the most installed application from all over the globe with estimates hitting the 49 million mark at both the App Store as well as the Play Store. And when the raw estimates for TikTok were visualized, we saw how it had a small edge over the chart-topper.

While Instagram continued to lead the charts across Google Play, TikTok came in at number three there. But on the App Store, it just couldn’t beat out TikTok while Meta’s Threads was nowhere to be found.

Rounding off the top five most downloaded apps for November 2023 were Meta’s Facebook and WhatsApp as well as Telegram.

We are certainly a little shocked to figure out how Temu did not rise up to the occasion in terms of downloads for November. Meanwhile, SHEIN failed to make the list which was another huge surprise. Both of these platforms continued to be super promising. However, the only guess here for the results has to do with the fact that it was more profitable for them to show ads before Black Friday. Therefore, a lot of funds were probably spent on advertising in the month before when the stats were calculated.

They would then be utilized in messaging across the apps to convert such installers into real-time shoppers.

Seeing ChatGPT finally crack the code in terms of entering the world’s top 10 most installed apps of all time list was a real eye-opener. We’ve seen it make its way towards Apple’s App Store charts several times when it was rolled out in May but entering the overall list never happened and remained a dream for OpenAI.

But seeing it now make the list is a surprise that’s being welcomed with open arms. In November alone, it was able to achieve a staggering milestone of 19 million downloads. In the same way, it was able to shut down a whopping several pair subscriptions for a short period as it had some challenges linked to scaling. And as one can expect, that did not come cheap. It made them lose out on millions.

As per reports from AppFigures, the world’s top 10 most installed applications in November managed to hit a staggering number of 313 million downloads from all over the globe and through both platforms. While we agree the figure did slightly drop from what was seen in October of 2023, it’s definitely worth mentioning.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Hacking Group Claims Responsibility For ChatGPT Outages, Vows To Continue Until Chatbot Stops Dehumanizing Palestinians’ Views

ChatGPT has been facing outages over the past couple of months. And the most recent one was a few days back where on December 13, the bot was dysfunctional for nearly 40 minutes.

This was the second time that its parent firm OpenAI confirmed the news, the first incident arising at the start of November as per the website’s news.

We’ve seen that chatbot undergo some similar outages over some time and that caused an elevation in the rates for errors. But it was interesting how the parent firm failed to delineate the real reason behind the latest major outage.

And now we can guess as to why. This has to do with the fact that OpenAI may not have been aware of who was behind it but recently, a hacking organization with roots in Sudan has reportedly claimed responsibility.

According to them, the attacks have occurred in the past and will continue to do so in the future. They see it as a form of retaliation for how the AI chatbot continues to dehumanize the voices and views of Palestinians, citing the turmoil in Gaza.

They even went as far as calling out Tal Broda as a supporter of genocide and vowed to carry out attacks until he left. This message was displayed across their channel through Telegram last week.

The head of OpenAI failed to give out any comments on the matter. But as per the group, such cyberattacks go above and beyond the perception held by Broda.

Anonymous Sudan mentioned how its main targets were both OpenAI and ChatGPT, thanks to the firm’s cooperation linked to Israel. This includes how there’s a strong relationship held between CEO Sam Altman and the Israeli state through posts generated via Telegram as that’s where all responsibility was claimed for the outage taking place in November.

The hackers also mentioned how it was amazing that ChatGPT put out biased beliefs against the state of Palestine and were more inclined to show support for Israel. Moreover, it added how the latter may make use of AI technology to create weapons that would further hasten the misery that Palestinians are forced to go through.

For now, OpenAI didn’t reply to the request for comments on the outage that took place recently. However, it did clarify that the attack it faced in November was thoroughly a planned target attack.

The hacking organization is said to rely on the likes of a method called DDoS or Denial of Service. That’s used to flood target services through traffic produced synthetically. But as per reports from Axios, it’s quite unlikely that the company’s internal networks are actually broken into.

We’ve witnessed the same Sudan-based organization roll out a long list of attacks throughout the world in the past couple of months. But it’s quite baffling as to what its real motivation for the ordeal is. While some feel it’s linked to overcoming Islamophobia, keep pro-Israeli firms as their main targets, or anything else.

For now, the firm has taken massive responsibility for the long series of attacks arising in the European region. This was in retaliation linked to the anti-Islamic ordeals arising as per reports from Dark Reading.

However, there are also views coming forward from Cybersecurity Experts in regards to the group focusing more on Sudan where a whopping 91% of the nation’s population is known as Muslim as per reports from the American State Department.

Another possibility is also being talked about and that’s related to Anonymous Sudan linked to another hacking group that backs Russia dubbed Killnet. The latter is again infamous for its DDoS attacks. It also happens to be one linked to a few hacking groups that attack pro-Israeli firms due to the ongoing conflict in the Gaza region.

Another event that Killnet vowed to attack included the Eurovision online voting system of 2022. It threatened to roll out plenty of requests, with estimates reaching billions.

The main point worth pondering here has to do with how American Firms are major targets and they’ve spoken about that openly through their posts online. Anonymous Sudan has similarly claimed responsibility for the Rocket League attack which fell under the American Epic Games organization. This happened just one day post the OpenAI outage, a clear signal of what else it was capable of.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World