Technology users on Thursday morning were surprised when their social and lifestyle apps seemingly labeled the US’ most populous city with an anti-Semitic header.
A number of people posted screenshots on Twitter showing that “New York City” had been relabeled “Jewtropolis” on the Mapbox map used by companies and services such as Snapchat parent Snap, Citi Bike and Foursquare.
Mapbox, a provider of digital map technology, said it suffered a “malicious edit” by a person who tried to make more than 80 changes to its maps’ data in a “disgusting anti-Semitic tirade” across New York and other parts of the world.
All were quarantined for human review by the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, and only one edit made it onto the actual map for less than an hour before being deleted.
“It shows that no matter how smart you build your AI, at the human review stage you can still have a point of failure,” said Mapbox chief executive officer Eric Gundersen.
Nathan Roy, 25, was among users alarmed by the name change. Alhough he lives in Boston, he was alerted to the issue by a friend from New York.
His first reaction was shock, he said.
“I know that a lot of people out there harbor these feelings,” Roy said. “It’s just always disappointing to see it crop up again and again.”
Evan Bernstein, a regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, seemed less surprised.
People with anti-Semitic beliefs have been empowered since the 2016 election and are hiding behind the Internet, he said.
“Haters are increasingly looking for ways to take advantage of new technologies and promote anti-Semitism,” Bernstein said. “We see hate going online. This is just another perfect example of that.”
The league tracked a 90 percent increase between 2016 and last year in anti-Semitic incidents in New York state. Such incidents included physical assaults, attacks, harassment and vandalism.
Mapbox said it “has a zero tolerance policy against hate speech” and its employees would “continue to investigate this act and make appropriate changes to further limit the potential for future human error.”
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
RSS