From Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos to former Microsoft Corp chief executive Steve Ballmer, US tech executives have sought in recent days to dispel the notion there is a swift solution to the proliferation of spurious or insidious information on the Internet, a phenomenon critics said wields an outsized and unhealthy influence on public discourse and elections.
Baidu Inc (百度) president Zhang Yaqin (張亞勤) said China faces similar challenges, despite operating one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated online surveillance machines.
Companies in China, where freedom of speech is curtailed by censorship programs, have long used a mix of advanced technologies and human cybercops to police the Internet.
Baidu, China’s largest search engine, employs technology to spot potentially false information before turning to local agencies such as the Cyberspace Administration of China to verify items. One of the country’s three largest Internet players, it checks 3 billion claims of fake news every year.
“Every year we see somewhere around 3 billion claims, requests that we need to verify that might turn out to be fake news,” Zhang said. “We’re using a combination of technology and content authorization to minimize the fake news.”
From Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) to Sina Corp’s (新浪) Weibo (微博), China’s social media employ technology and armies of vetters to scour its services for undesirable content, which goes beyond rumors and unsubstantiated claims to include any and all information deemed harmful to social stability.
Yet, even the best-funded online operators have difficulty keeping up: China’s cybercops last month fined Tencent, Weibo and Baidu for carrying illegal content.
Days later, Weibo began recruiting and rewarding “supervisors” from among its own users to report problems.
“We have an obligation to make sure the user gets good content, but it continues to be a challenge for us, for other companies in China and companies in the US,” Zhang said.
The problem persists despite China having some of the strictest rules aimed at preventing the spread of “false news.”
It recently established regulations forcing forum-posters to register with their real identities and its laws threaten jail time for posting defamatory false information, Weibo’s latest annual report said.
However, Zhang said fixing the problem required the use of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and even closer cooperation with relevant government regulators.
Pressure is building on social media services from Google to Twitter to try and curb the proliferation of fake news and targeted ads.
Stamos last week said it was very difficult to spot fake news and propaganda using computer programs.
Executives from Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc are scheduled to testify before US Congress on Nov. 1 about Russian use of their sites to influence last year’s US presidential election — a hot-button topic that the social media and Internet services are under pressure to address.
Stamos, who is handling Facebook’s investigation, said that technical solutions could have unintended consequences of ideological bias.
“I’m not sure you can say that is Facebook’s job, they’re not in the news business, they pass along other people’s news,” Ballmer said. “Same thing with Google. ”
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS