Lawyers Challenge Zimbabwe Internet Shutdown, Huawei Deny Spy Claims, and YouTube Bans Dangerous Videos

Africa

Lawyers challenge Zimbabwe internet shutdown

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, ZLHR, are taking the central government to court over a complete internet shutdown. Following government instructions, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Ltd., the country’s largest mobile-phone operator, blocked access to social media sites to quell protests over fuel hikes. Some Zimbabweans managed to get around the situation by using VPN. However, the government thwarted that by shutting down the internet completely for up to 30 hours. The lawyers argue the internet shutdown was a “violation of citizens’ fundamental rights including access to information enshrined in Section 61 of the constitution,” ZLHR said.

Telkom Kenya invests Ksh 1 billion to optimise 4G

Telkom Kenya is investing a billion Kenyan shillings to boost its 3G and 4G network across the country, a report has said. The company has 4G network across parts of Nairobi, and this investment will help in its drive to become Kenya’s number one data network. Last year, Telkom went into a partnership with Loon to deploy balloons as floating towers to improve network coverage in underserved regions of the country.

Asia

Huawei founder denies spy claims

Huawei founder, Ren Zhengfei, has denied allegations that his company poses a spy risk to foreign governments. Concerns have been raised in America and elsewhere about using the company’s equipment in 5G networks. Security agencies in America and New Zealand alleged that Huawei could be used as a spy network for the Chinese state. Speaking in a rare interview with international media, however, Ren Zhengfei said, “I love my country. I support the Communist Party. But I will not do anything to harm the world.”

202 million Chinese CVs exposed

A database containing more than 202 million CVs of Chinese job-seekers has been left exposed on cloud servers, a report has found. The records exposed personal information like email addresses, phone numbers, salary expectation, and information about their political leanings. Hackenproof, the website that reported the issue, found that the information was part of a 854 GB worth of data that had no password or login authentication requirement to view the data. It is not known where the data came from.

Europe

Beyonce’s and Kanye West’s Streaming figures on Tidal disputed in Norway

The streaming figures of Kanye West, Beyonce, and other musicians on Tidal have been disputed in Norway, reports say. The dispute alleges that Tidal, a music streaming platform, could have paid more royalties to certain musicians at the expense of others. The issue is being investigated by the Norwegian Authority for Investigation of Economic and Environmental Crime (Okokrim). Tidal was first created by Norwegian company, Wimp, before Jay-Z purchased it in 2015 for $56 million. He later sold a 33% stake to Sprint in 2017.

Facebook blocks accounts linked to Russia’s Sputnik

Facebook has removed hundreds of Russian accounts connected to Sputnik for being involved in coordinated inauthentic behaviour on the social site. Though operating in different countries, Facebook said the accounts operated in a coordinated manner to mislead others about who they really were. In all, Facebook removed 364 Facebook Pages, including, some of which were related to Russian news agency, Sputnik. Sputnik has attacked the social media site and accused it of censorship.

The Americas

Scooter startup backs down in legal row with journalist

American electric scooter startup, Bird, has backed out of a legal row with a journalist over alleged copyright infringement. Bird had issued a legal threat to journalist, Cory Doctorow, for publishing links to a forum about a device that allows abandoned scooters to be fitted with unapproved motherboards. Bird’s electric scooters can only be hired via the company’s app. The forum, however, shows how abandoned scooters are bought at auction and then fitted with different motherboards to be used without Bird’s app. A company spokesperson said Bird had overstretched in issuing a takedown request, BBC said.

YouTube bans harmful videos

YouTube has banned clips that depict dangerous acts on its platform, a BBC report has confirmed. The move is meant to halt the spread of “challenges” that have the tendency of causing death, emotional or physical harm. The content-sharing platform said it would no longer tolerate “pranks with a perceived danger of serious physical injury”. An example is the latest #birdboxchallenge where individuals carry out daily chores while blindfolded, leading to at least one person crashing as a result.