Updates
Ban on targeted political ads anticipates clashes between European Commission and Parliament
Ms Věra Jourová (the European Commission’s vice-president for values and transparency) has rejected the European Parliament’s call for a total ban on targeted political advertising ahead of the 2024 legislative election. Concerned that a total ban would hinder political parties’ capability to utilise internet campaigns, Jourová some forms of microtargeting should be permitted as long (See more)
RSF welcomes a series of presidential pardons in Egypt with the warning about more than 20 journalists are still detained
Despite the release of seven prisoners in Egypt, there are still more than 20 detained. RSF warns Egyptian government to advance their press freedom. Independent news websites are inaccessible in Egypt since 2017.
Several Taiwanese government websites were hit with cyberattack on the eve of Pelosi’s visit
A couple of hours before U.S. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi was expected to visit Taiwan, several Taiwanese government websites were down. The Chinese government was involved.
Five years since the launching of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker
Five years ago, on this day, the United States launched the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a joint project of the Press Foundation and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Iraqi journalists were attacked by security while covering Baghdad protests
On July 30, three journalists who work for the privately owned Al-Mayadeen news broadcaster were attacked and injured during protests in Baghdad. CPJ warns that Iraqi government needs to provide journalists who cover protests with protection. Security forces rarely distinguish protesters from journalists.
Man with rifle arrested near Iranian-American journalist’s home
A man with a rifle was found in front of an Iranian-American journalist, Masih Alinejad’s home in New York. He was arrested but it was not the first time this journalist was a potential target of an attack.
Is online advertising in crisis?
Internet business models based on advertising are under strain after the ‘golden’ time during the shift to online with the global pandemic. Online advertising growth was 38% in 2021 compared to its average annual growth of 21%. Here are some reasons why the growth in online advertising won’t continue: Online advertising is becoming a mature (See more)
Frankfurt data centres need more space
Frankfurt is a major European data hub, with more than 60 data centres covering 64 hectares. One of the main reasons for this high concentration of data centres is the proximity of the main internet exchange hub in Frankfurt, which processes most European internet traffic. However, the fast expansion of data hubs triggered a reaction (See more)
Proposal to combat child abuse has risks for individual rights
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) adopted a Joint Opinion on the Proposal for a Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse stating the proposal in the present form pose more risk to individuals, and society, including risk of infringing on individuals’ privacy and personal data; indiscriminate (See more)
DeepMind uses AI to predict the structure of almost all proteins
DeepMind, in partnership with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute, has released predicted structures for nearly all catalogued proteins known to science. The announcement comes a year after the two partners released and open-sourced AlphaFold – an artificial intelligence (AI) system used to predict the 3D structure of a protein – and created (See more)