MOSCOW: The lower house of Russia’s parliament on Wednesday approved the critical second reading of a proposed law that would allow the banning of foreign news media in response to other countries taking actions against Russian news outlets.
The proposal must still pass a third reading in the Duma and secure the upper house’s approval before going to President Vladimir Putin to be signed into law. But the Duma’s approval on second reading, when a proposal still can undergo substantial changes, almost always prefigures a law’s enactment.
Russia has repeatedly complained in recent months that Western countries were improperly restricting Russian media by banning their operation or denying visas to their journalists. In early June, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called in representatives of American media, including The Associated Press, to warn that they could be denied renewal of their visas and accreditation.
The draft law also calls for allowing Russia’s prosecutor general to cancel the registration of media outlets for disseminating “illegal, dangerous, unreliable publicly significant information or information expressing clear disrespect for society, the state, the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as aimed at discrediting the Russian armed forces,” state news agency RIA-Novosti reported.
Many foreign news organizations suspended or curtailed their operations in Russia following the passage in March of a law calling for up to 15 years in prison for reports seen as discrediting the Russian military.
The foreign ministry in May ordered the closure of the Moscow bureau pf the state-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in response to Canada’s ban on RT, a Russian state-controlled broadcaster.
In February, as Russia built up troops along Ukraine’s border, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle was ordered to close in Moscow after Germany banned the broadcast of RT’s German-language programs.
Before the vote on the second reading, Vladimir Solovev, the head of the Russian Journalists’ Union, told the committee preparing the draft that the measure was justified by an “information war unprecedented in history” against Russia.
Russia in recent years has persistently clamped down on independent journalism. Following the start of the Ukraine conflict, many significant independent news media shut down or suspended operations. Those included the Ekho Moskvy radio station and the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, whose editor, Dmitry Muratov, was last year’s co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Russia moves forward on proposed law on banning foreign media
https://arab.news/b2umm
Russia moves forward on proposed law on banning foreign media
- The proposal must still pass a third reading in the Duma and secure the upper house's approval
- The draft law also calls for allowing Russia's prosecutor general to cancel the registration of media outlets
Al Jazeera says Gaza journalist beaten, arrested by Israeli forces
- An Al Jazeera source told AFP that five other people were arrested including Alghoul’s camera crew, engineers
GAZA: Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera said Israeli forces had beaten and arrested its correspondent Ismail Alghoul during a raid Monday on Gaza’s largest hospital, and urged his release.
The Israeli army said it was battling Hamas militants at the Al-Shifa hospital. Witnesses reported air strikes and tanks near the facility which was crowded with patients and displaced people.
“Al Jazeera Media Network demands the immediate release of its correspondent and the other journalists who were detained alongside him, and holds the occupation forces fully responsible for their safety,” the channel said in a statement to AFP.
“Ismail Alghoul was arrested this morning inside Al-Shifa Hospital along with a number of journalists while covering the Israeli occupation forces’ attack on the hospital. According to eyewitnesses, Ismail was severely beaten and taken to an unknown location,” it added.
The network said a broadcast vehicle with cameras and other equipment was destroyed following the arrests.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An Al Jazeera source, who was not authorized to brief the press and spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that five other people were arrested including Alghoul’s camera crew and engineers.
The United States, Israel’s close ally, said it was aware of the incident and had asked the Israeli government for more information.
“In general, we have been very clear that journalists play a vital role and that no journalists should be targeted in order to silence their voices in this conflict or any other,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
Last month the network accused Israel of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees working in Gaza.
As of Monday, at least 95 journalists and media workers had been confirmed dead in the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), citing “preliminary investigations.”
Of those 90 were Palestinians, CPJ said.
Two Al Jazeera journalists have been killed during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, while bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh was wounded.
“The network emphasizes that this targeting serves as an intimidation tactic against journalists to deter them from reporting the horrific crimes committed by the occupation forces against innocent civilians in Gaza,” the channel said.
“The targeting of Ismail Alghoul is part of a series of systematic attacks on Al Jazeera by the occupation authorities,” it added.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 31,726 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Lebanese judiciary temporarily detains academic who criticized Hezbollah on TV
- Rabah’s vocal opposition to Hezbollah and its allies is no secret. In recent days, he had been criticized by pro-Hezbollah activists, which included calls for the security services to summon him
BEIRUT: The Lebanese General Security detained Lebanese academic and political analyst Makram Rabah for five hours on Monday following his criticism of Hezbollah’s military presence in the Baalbek region.
Rabah’s views were taken from a television interview he had conducted late last week.
The analyst, who is also an assistant professor of history at the American University of Beirut, posted on social media that he was "informed of the need to appear before the General Security Security Investigation Department because they may want to question me about the meeting of the axis of ‘distraction and resistance’ held in Beirut last week.”
He mocked information leaked to media agencies about meetings held in the Lebanese capital secretly and without the knowledge of the Lebanese state about representatives of Hamas and the Yemeni Houthis, as well as other meetings between Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps chief commander Esmail Qaani and Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.
Rabah’s vocal opposition to Hezbollah and its allies is no secret. In recent days, he had been criticized by pro-Hezbollah activists, which included calls for the security services to summon him.
In the televised interview which lead to his summoning, Rabah stated that Israel does not view the city of Baalbek as “a Lebanese city; it is part of Hezbollah's supply lines that may affect it in its next war, and we, as Lebanese, will not be spared from a major Israeli strike because Hezbollah is the one that provoked Israel."
Rabah considered that "all Hezbollah’s smuggling routes, supply lines and factories are located in the Bekaa. The Israelis are in a constant state of monitoring targets, attacking military targets whenever they want, and Hezbollah can only use its drones to film weddings."
"Our country is not capable of fighting a war, which needs a good economic situation, banks, shelters and a food sector, while Hezbollah's actions resemble Aantara ibn Shaddad’s poems."
His interrogation was focused on the fact that he provided "information in the interview regarding Hezbollah’s locations, which was considered as coordinates for the enemy." However, Rabah replied that the information he had "had already been published in local and foreign media."
Military Court Investigative Judge Fadi Akiki decided to detain Rabah "after he refused to hand over his cellphone,” knowing that it was not in his possession. His lawyer Louay Ghandour explained that "the phone is irrelevant in a purely political investigation about a TV interview that has nothing to do with telecommunications."
Activists supporting Rabah took to social media opposing the detention and calling on all to “reject the ongoing oppression and declare solidarity with Rabah," with the aim of putting pressure to release him.
Sami Gemayel, head of the Lebanese Kataeb Party, called for Rabah's release, saying: "Just as we confronted and brought down the judicial security system in the recent past, we will not allow a return to fabricating files and restricting freedom of expression under any pretext."
Hours later, Judge Akiki decided to leave Rabah under investigation.
A judicial source told Arab News: “Judicial interventions led Judge Akiki to amend his decision and that he told those who asked him about it that ‘he was trying to put pressure on him and did not charge him with collaborating with Israel.’"
Following his release while he remained under investigation, Rabah considered that “what happened today proves that the military court is a tool to put pressure on activists who oppose Hezbollah.”
Rabah said: "If I were a Captagon dealer like Hezbollah, Investigative Judge Fadi Akiki would not have dared to detain me." "The Lebanese constitution preserves my right to express my opinion," Rabah said. "A collaborator is the one who lets the murderer of Luqman Slim in South Lebanon go free," he added.
This development against freedom of expression coincided with the continuation of hostilities on the southern Lebanese front between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.
Clock ticking for TikTok as US lawmakers pile on the pressure
- If a US bill is signed into law, ByteDance will be forced to sell the app to an American company within six months
- Social-video platform faces bans, boycotts and scrutiny of its handling of user data, criticism about its influence
LONDON/DUBAI: Just days after the US House of Representatives passed a bill that, if signed into law, would force the China-based owner of TikTok to sell the video-sharing app, the fate of the company’s US operations hangs in the balance.
If the Senate also passes the bill and President Joe Biden signs it into law, ByteDance would have to sell TikTok to an American company within six months or the app will be banned in the US.
Such a law “will take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators and small businesses” and put more than 30,000 American jobs at risk, said TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
The House vote is only the latest setback in a string of bad news for TikTok, which has faced government bans, boycotts, scrutiny of its handling of sensitive user data and criticism about its influence on users in a number of important markets.
Many countries, including the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, France and Taiwan, have prohibited the use of TikTok app on the work phones of government employees over privacy and cybersecurity concerns.
INNUMBERS
• US has the largest TikTok audience by far, with almost 150 million users engaging with it as of January 2024.
• Indonesia has around 126 million TikTok users.
• Brazil comes in third with almost 99 million users.
Source: Statista
In June 2020, India banned the use of the app nationwide after a deadly clash on the India-China border, depriving 200 million users access to the app almost overnight. In November last year, Nepal announced a full ban on TikTok in the country, saying that the app was “detrimental to social harmony.”
Late last year, calls to boycott TikTok in Saudi Arabia intensified after a campaign accused the platform of unjustly censoring and banning Saudi accounts expressing positive views about the Kingdom.
Many users turned to alternative social platforms to denounce TikTok’s alleged restriction of pro-Saudi content, with the trending hashtag #BoycottTikTok accompanied by posts urging Saudis to delete the app.
In an effort to rebuild trust, TikTok launched a dedicated hashtag page for Saudi content on its platform.
This year, TikTok reported having 26 million active users in Saudi Arabia, positioning it as the second most popular social platform after YouTube. Preliminary data indicated that last year’s boycott resulted in a decline in the number of Saudi TikTok users.
Social media personalities and celebrities including Emirati artist Ahlam supported the boycott by Saudi TikTok users. The private sector joined in as well, with social media news channel The Saudi Post closing its accounts on the platform.
Citing a source close to the Saudi First Division League earlier in November 2023, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported that the second tier of professional football in Saudi Arabia had severed its relationship with TikTok due to the platform’s alleged actions against Saudi content.
TikTok denied the allegations it had restricted Saudi content and dismissed the boycott campaign as a “coordinated action.”
The company said in a statement: “The rumors regarding TikTok removing content related to Saudi Arabia are not true. We strongly reject these allegations that are inconsistent with our policies and values.”
In December 2022, Jordan temporarily banned TikTok after a police officer was killed during clashes with protesters that broke out over high fuel prices.
Videos of the protests flooded TikTok, resulting in the platform being temporarily banned due to concerns over users sharing fabricated videos and inciting violence.
Jordan’s Public Security Directorate said that it was suspending the app “after its misuse and failing to deal with publications inciting violence and disorder.”
The temporary ban is still in effect, with many young users turning to VPN services to access the app.
Local media reports cited Abd Al-Hadi Al-Tahat, head of the Cybercrime Unit at the Public Security Directorate, as saying that the ban would remain until the platform fully complied with Jordanian regulations and laws.
During a talk at Yarmouk University titled “Visions of Modernization: Youth is the Focus of Concern,” the country’s prime minister, Bisher Al-Khasawneh, said one of the conditions for TikTok’s reactivation in the country is for the company to establish an office in Jordan or elsewhere in the region.
A TikTok spokesperson told Jordanian media outlet Roya that the platform is committed to improving and updating its safety policies and tools. However, it has yet to outline any specific measures.
Wednesday’s move by US lawmakers to pass legislation — with 352 votes in favor and just 65 against — that could ban TikTok in the US prompted an outcry among users and from the company itself.
“This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: It’s a ban,” a TikTok spokesperson told Arab News.
“We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents and realize the impact on the economy — 7 million small businesses and the 170 million Americans who use our service.”
Denouncing the arguments behind the bill as “bandit logic,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Thursday that the US decision “runs contrary to the principles of fair competition and justice.”
He added: “When someone sees a good thing another person has and tries to take it for themselves, this is entirely the logic of a bandit.”
Closer to home, Summer Lucille, founder and owner of a boutique in North Carolina, told US lawmakers: “You are voting against my small business. You are voting against me getting a slice of my American pie.”
Lucille began advertising on TikTok in 2022 and has since been able to expand her business significantly, a CNN report said.
Several other American business owners have echoed the sentiment. “Banning TikTok would shut down a lot of small businesses, including mine,” Brandon Hurst, a plant shop owner, told The Washington Post.
Gigi Gonzalez, a financial educator from Chicago, said that the ban would remove her biggest revenue source — a video host for brand deals, speaking opportunities and digital course sales.
Before using TikTok, she had tried to reach people — unsuccessfully — through webinars. Now, Gonzalez reaches millions of people through TikTok, The Post was told.
Beyond its economic impact, a ban “would stifle free speech,” said Ashley Gorski, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project.
“Under the First Amendment, we have the right to speak, to express ourselves, to receive information from others and to associate freely. And banning TikTok would implicate each of those rights.”
She added that the US government cannot impose such a ban unless it is the only way to “prevent extremely serious, significant and immediate harm to national security.”
However, “there’s no public evidence of that type of harm,” Gorski said, adding that even if national security is threatened, there are better options than an outright ban.
Nour Halabi, an assistant professor and interdisciplinary research fellow working on global media and politics at the University of Aberdeen, believes that the TikTok battle is rooted in “America’s political and economic rivalry with China.”
She told Arab News: “For a long time, scholars of media — especially digital media — have pointed to the imbalanced concentration of the world’s most powerful media platforms in the Global North and specifically in the US.
“The market share of American media platforms dominates the whole world’s digital media use to some extent. The rise of a media platform based in China challenges this primacy, so from an economic standpoint, it is a threat.”
She added: “From a geopolitical standpoint, the conversation on TikTok echoes the political discourse around the ‘Al Jazeera effect’ in the 2000s, when American politicians showed concern that Americans would turn to foreign media outlets to get insight on political issues, and therefore the US would lose control of strategic narratives on key debates on domestic matters and foreign policy issues.”
Indeed, the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in October last year has also placed TikTok at the center of another heated debate in the US, this time over the app’s perceived influence over young Americans.
As well as the Chinese ownership of the app, many Republican politicians have also cited the relative popularity of pro-Palestinian videos on the platform as justification for a nationwide ban.
TikTok creators and social media experts have responded by arguing that the platform merely offers content reflecting multiple sides of the debate, especially considering that the opinions of Americans on the Israel-Hamas war sharply differ by age.
In November last year, TikTok prohibited content that publicized slain Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s 2002 letter outlining his justifications for attacks on the US.
“Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism,” TikTok said in a statement, but described reports that the 20-year-old letter was “trending” on the platform as inaccurate.
America may be trying to protect its global hegemony over digital media, as critics of a TikTok ban say. But US government officials warn that they are concerned over data collected by TikTok being used to threaten national security.
Although TikTok has repeatedly denied claims that it shares sensitive user data with the Chinese government, what fuels concerns in Washington is Beijing’s recent national security legislation that can compel private Chinese companies to aid in intelligence gathering.
Legislators fear that ByteDance may be — now or in the future — controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, thereby allowing the Chinese government to use the app to disseminate false information that interferes with US elections, especially at a time when Americans increasingly use TikTok for news.
Also, as TikTok’s critics frequently cite, internet users in China cannot access US-owned platforms like YouTube, X, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Facebook.
Only time will if tell users and content producers can survive and do business in a TikTok-less America.
During previous attempts by the US government to force a sale of TikTok, when Donald Trump was in the White House, several American companies reportedly entered into talks with ByteDance to acquire TikTok’s US operations, only for the deals to stall.
Mamdouh Al-Muhaini, general manager of Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath news channels, sees US lawmakers’ battle against TikTok as a “political drama” of their own creation, based on two arguments that “do not make sense and are not based on conclusive evidence.”
In a recent post on X, Al-Muhaini argued that TikTok is not alone among social media companies in collecting user data to inform algorithms.
“This is what all platforms do, including Facebook, Twitter (X) and Instagram,” Al-Muhaini said, adding that no evidence has been provided to back the claim that the Chinese government has used TikTok to spy on US or Western government institutions.
Israeli soldiers show Gaza destruction with ‘mocking’ musical background, sparking fresh social media backlash
- ‘Inhuman’ video is latest example of troops mocking Palestinians on social media
LONDON: A video showing Israeli soldiers documenting the extensive destruction in Gaza while playing a mocking song in the background has sparked a fresh backlash on social media.
The footage is the latest in a series of incidents involving Israeli troops using platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and X to ridicule the humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
The video, widely shared on Thursday, showcases the widespread destruction in a Gaza neighborhood, featuring flames, fire, and collapsed buildings, accompanied by background music with lyrics containing haunting phrases.
“When the sun comes back, there are ghosts that enter the house, there are demons that awaken, you and I are suddenly awake at night,” the song said.
Many users condemned the soldiers’ actions as “inhuman” and “cowardly,” while others urged international intervention.
Younis Tirawi, an independent journalist covering politics and security in the Palestinian territories, said that the video, along with similar versions, was uploaded directly by Israeli soldiers seeking public attention.
An Israeli publication, N12, reported earlier this month that front-line troops use their phones to record such videos, which are then shared on their personal social media accounts.
“Videos such as ‘May your village burn’ or ‘Sex on the beach of Gaza’ — two of the most notable examples — are distributed from soldiers’ TikTok accounts,” the article wrote, explaining that such attitudes “cause enormous damage in the propaganda arena abroad.”
The Thursday clip is the latest in a series of videos circulating online, inciting anger among millions of users.
In January, an IDF soldier posted a video on TikTok showing burning houses in the Al-Boreij refugee camp in Gaza, accompanied by a remix of a racist fan song associated with Beitar Jerusalem football club.
Similarly, a video showing Israeli soldiers making jokes about having sex on the beach of Gaza, while smoking a hookah and eating snacks in front of blindfolded Palestinian detainees in Jenin, resulted in their suspension.
More recently, Israeli Sgt. Noam Amar posted a video mocking Palestinians being expelled from Rafah, using a children’s song as background music.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Israeli army condemned the soldiers’ behavior, saying that it “stands in stark contrast to the values of the IDF.”
They added: “The army has acted and continues to act to identify unusual cases that deviate from what is expected of IDF soldiers. Those cases will be arbitrated, and significant command measures will be taken against the soldiers involved.”
Citing legal experts, a BBC investigation in February found that videos of Gazan detainees stripped, bound, and blindfolded, filmed and uploaded by Israeli soldiers, could potentially violate international law.
Abu Dhabi-backed firm in talks to invest in OpenAI chip venture
- MGX was launched earlier this week to focus on AI and semiconductor
LONDON: Abu Dhabi’s state-backed investment firm MGX is in early stage discussions to invest in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI’s chip venture, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing two sources.
MGX, a technology investment company with Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and artificial intelligence firm G42 as founding partners, was only launched earlier this week.
MGX and OpenAI did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The report follows an earlier FT story that said Singapore’s Temasek Holdings was in talks to invest in OpenAI.
The UAE’s AI minister Omar Sultan Al Olama told the FT that he also sees xAI owner Elon Musk doing something AI-related in the country.
“I don’t think it’s far out for him (Musk) to do something here,” Olama told the FT.
AI startups attracted one out of every three dollars invested last year in the United States, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT grabbed the spotlight as startups raced to develop AI technology.
The launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 brought attention to generative AI technologies, spurring billions in investments on chips and servers required to support the adoption of such applications.
MGX’s venture represents the Gulf country’s latest stride into the realm of AI technology.
In December, G42 CEO Peng Xiao stated in an interview that the company plans to reduce its reliance on Chinese hardware. This move is believed by experts to be a response to pressure from the US regarding technological ties between Abu Dhabi and Beijing.
According to a report from Bloomberg earlier on Monday, MGX is set to focus on AI and semiconductor deals, with potential assets exceeding $100 billion within the coming years.
With Reuters