‘All Eyes on Rafah’ image garners millions of shares in latest social media solidarity campaign

The phrase is intended to highlight the plight of Rafah, where local authorities reported the loss of at least 45 civilian lives following an Israeli airstrike on Sunday, which Netanyahu described on Monday as a “tragic mistake.” (IG/File)
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Updated 29 May 2024
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‘All Eyes on Rafah’ image garners millions of shares in latest social media solidarity campaign

  • Slogan stems from WHO director’s comments urging people to pay attention to Rafah following Netanyahu’s evacuation plan
  • Post is believed to be first example of AI-generated viral activist artwork

LONDON: The image “All Eyes on Rafah” has garnered millions of shares in the latest social media solidarity campaign, drawing widespread attention to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza.

The post renewed advocacy efforts following a deadly Israeli airstrike on the city in southern Gaza.

According to Forbes, the slogan appears to have originated from a comment by Rik Peeperkorn, director of the World Health Organization’s Office of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

In February, Peeperkorn used the phrase to shift attention toward Rafah after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an evacuation plan for the city ahead of planned attacks targeting what Netanyahu claims are the last remaining strongholds of the militant group Hamas.

By Wednesday morning, the post had surpassed 40 million shares on Instagram, with the hashtag #AllEyesonRafah trending across social media platforms.

The image, believed to be one of the first examples of AI-generated viral activist artwork, depicts tents in a camp arranged to spell out “All Eyes on Rafah.”

The phrase is intended to highlight the plight of Rafah, where local authorities reported the loss of at least 45 civilian lives following an Israeli airstrike on Sunday, which Netanyahu described on Monday as a “tragic mistake.”

Israel has faced international scrutiny for the attack, which is part of a broader offensive by the Israeli army in and around Rafah.

The decision has been widely condemned by world leaders who have urged Israel to halt its invasion in an area where about 1.4 million displaced Palestinians from elsewhere in the Gaza Strip had sought shelter.

Last Friday, the International Court of Justice ordered an immediate halt to the offensive, a position rejected by Israel.

In an opinion piece in The Jewish Chronicle on Wednesday, journalist Josh Kaplan described the post as “another vapid, lazy way to say ‘I care,’” arguing that the slogan “is one in the long canon of feel good posts that achieve very little but make the sharer feel, even just for a second, like they’re doing something to help.”

Kaplan wrote: “I understand that there is outrage at the way Israel is conducting its war. The images coming out of Gaza often feel indefensible. But what does sharing an AI image that looks nothing like Gaza actually do?”

He added: “To learn about the conflict and to formulate an opinion that maintains dignity for all sides is something that cannot be accomplished by sharing an Instagram post. All it does is make Israelis, who will have to be involved in any future peace process, feel, yet again, that the world doesn’t care about their suffering.”


Turkiye blocks instant messaging platform Discord

Updated 58 min 29 sec ago
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Turkiye blocks instant messaging platform Discord

  • Ankara decided to remove access due to sufficient suspicion that the crimes of ‘child sexual abuse and obscenity’ have been committed

ISTANBUL: Turkiye has blocked access to instant messaging platform Discord following a court decision, the country’s infotech regulator said on Wednesday.
Turkiye’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) published the access ban decision on its website.
Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said a court in the capital Ankara decided to remove access from Turkiye to San Francisco-based Discord due to sufficient suspicion that the crimes of “child sexual abuse and obscenity” have been committed.
“We are determined to protect our youth and children, from the harmful publications of social media and the Internet that constitute crimes. We will never allow attempts to shake the foundations of our social structure,” Tunc also said in a post on X.
The access ban decision comes after public outrage caused by the murder of two women, perpetrated by a 19-year-old man earlier this month.
Following the incident, content on social media showed some users of Discord were praising the killing which led to public outrage against certain communities on the platform.
On Tuesday, Russia’s communications regulator blocked Discord for violating Russian law, after previously fining the company for failing to remove banned content, the TASS news agency reported.


US considers breakup of Google in landmark search case

Updated 09 October 2024
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US considers breakup of Google in landmark search case

  • In a landmark case, a US judge found in August that Google had built an illegal monopoly
  • Justice Department’s proposed remedies have the potential to reshape how Americans find information on the Internet

NEW YORK: The US said on Tuesday it may ask a judge to force Alphabet’s Google to divest parts of its business, such as its Chrome browser and Android operating system, that it says are used to maintain an illegal monopoly in online search.
In a landmark case, a judge found in August that Google, which processes 90 percent of US Internet searches, had built an illegal monopoly. The Justice Department’s proposed remedies have the potential to reshape how Americans find information on the Internet, while shrinking Google’s revenues and giving its competitors more room to grow.
“Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow,” the Justice Department said.
The proposed fixes will also aim to keep Google’s past dominance from extending to the burgeoning business of artificial intelligence, prosecutors said.
The Justice Department is also considering asking for an order that would require Google to make available to rivals the indexes, data and models it uses for Google search and AI-assisted search features.
It might also ask the court to end Google’s payments to have its search engine pre-installed or set as the default on new devices.
Google has made annual payments — $26.3 billion in 2021 — to companies including Apple and other device manufacturers to ensure that its search engine remained the default on smartphones and browsers, keeping its market share strong.
Google called the proposals “radical” and said they “go far beyond the specific legal issues in this case.”
Some of the ideas in the proposal had previously garnered support from Google’s smaller competitors such as reviews site Yelp and rival search engine company DuckDuckGo.
Yelp, which sued Google over search in August, says spinning off Google’s Chrome browser and AI services should be on the table. Yelp also wants Google to be prohibited from giving preference to Google’s local business pages in search results.
The Justice Department is expected to file a more detailed proposal with the court by Nov. 20. Google will have a chance to propose its own remedies by Dec. 20.
US District Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling in Washington was a major win for antitrust enforcers who have brought an ambitious set of cases against Big Tech companies over the past four years.
Google has said it plans to appeal, and that its search engine has won users with its quality. It adds that it faces robust competition from Amazon and other sites where users go directly to search for goods or services, and that users can choose other search engines as their default.


Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk’s X

Updated 09 October 2024
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Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk’s X

  • X was blocked in Brazil for over a month amid a row over disinformation
  • The social network settled millions of dollars in fines for failing to comply with a series of court orders

BRASÍLIA: Brazil’s Supreme Court said Tuesday it was lifting a ban on Elon Musk’s social network X, which was blocked in its biggest Latin American market for over a month amid a row over disinformation.
“I authorize the immediate return of the activities” of the social platform, Judge Alexandre de Moraes said in his ruling, after X settled millions of dollars in fines for failing to comply with a series of court orders.
He gave Brazil’s communications regulator 24 hours to make X accessible again to its millions of Brazilian users.
Moraes has for months been embroiled in a standoff with Musk, the world’s richest man, over a flood of online disinformation related to Brazil’s 2022 election campaign.
In August, the tensions came to a head when Moraes dramatically blocked X for failing to comply with his demands to remove dozens of right-wing accounts accused of spreading disinformation, and to name a new legal representative in Brazil.
The row, which pitted freedom of expression against corporate responsibility, was closely watched worldwide.
A furious Musk lashed out at Moraes by calling him an “evil dictator,” but X eventually complied with all of Moraes’s demands in order to have the suspension lifted.
Last week, Moraes confirmed that the company had also settled around $5.2 million in fines


French journalist associations call ‘once again’ for unrestricted Gaza access

Updated 08 October 2024
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French journalist associations call ‘once again’ for unrestricted Gaza access

  • Open letter in French, Hebrew, and Arabic marks latest ignored call for Gaza access

LONDON: Nearly 30 journalist societies, mostly based in France, have renewed their call for unrestricted media access to Gaza while urging Israeli authorities to guarantee the safety of media workers “trapped” in the enclave reporting under “unprecedented circumstances.”

In a column published on Tuesday in Le Monde, the group, including journalist associations from France24, Arte, and Reporters Without Borders, pressed for Israel to allow international media into Gaza.

“Already condemned a year ago, this situation is unprecedented. As in every armed conflict, it is up to newsrooms to weigh up the risks of sending their journalists to war zones, as they do throughout the world,” read the article which was written in French, Hebrew and Arabic.

The group argued that preventing journalists from operating freely has allowed disinformation to spread unchecked, with falsehoods becoming “weapons of war used by all sides.”

Theodora column continued: “The right to inform and be informed is the cornerstone of our democracies. It is a fundamental freedom, enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

It added: “We therefore call on the Israeli authorities to protect the safety of the journalists currently trying to work in Gaza, and to open this territory to the international press so that it can do its job: Inform without hindrance and bear witness to the progress of this war, one of the most deadly and violent of the early 21st century.”

Despite international pressure, Israel has barred foreign media from entering Gaza, forcing outlets to rely on stained local journalists operating in a war zone.

German media outlets made a similar request to Israel in mid-September, calling the exclusion of international media “unprecedented in recent history.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists has recorded the deaths of at least 128 media workers, almost all Palestinian, since the start of the conflict, marking it as the deadliest war for journalists since records began in 1992.


New body to handle disputes between EU users and Facebook, TikTok, YouTube

Updated 08 October 2024
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New body to handle disputes between EU users and Facebook, TikTok, YouTube

  • Until now, individuals and organizations using social media have had limited options to challenge the content decisions of social media companies without going to court

STOCKHOLM: Social media users in the European Union will be able to make complaints against Facebook, ByteDance’s TikTok and Alphabet’s YouTube over content moderation to a new independent body set up in Ireland.
The body, supported by Meta Platforms’ Oversight Board Trust and certified by Ireland’s media regulator, will act as an out-of-court dispute settlement body under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA).
Until now, individuals and organizations using social media have had limited options to challenge the content decisions of social media companies without going to court.
Appeals Center Europe will start before the end of the year. It will initially decide cases relating to Facebook, ByteDance’s TikTok and Alphabet’s YouTube, and will include more social media platforms over time.
“We want users to have the choice to raise a dispute to a body that is independent from governments and companies, and focused on ensuring platforms’ content policies are fairly and impartially applied,” said Thomas Hughes, inaugural CEO of the Appeals Center and a former executive director for freedom of expression rights group Article 19.
With a team of experts, the new body will review each case within 90 days, and decide whether platforms’ decisions are consistent with their content policies, it said in a statement.
“We welcome the certification of new independent bodies by the Irish regulator,” said Thomas Regnier, a spokesman for the European Commission. “We will support the effective and uniform development of this system across the whole EU to give all EU users stronger rights online.”
Dublin-based Appeals Center, which has a one-time grant from the Oversight Board Trust, will be funded through fees charged to social media companies for each case. Users who raise a dispute will pay a nominal fee, which will be refunded if a decision is in their favor.
However, under the rules of DSA, online platforms may refuse to engage with such a dispute settlement body and it won’t have the power to impose a binding settlement on the parties.
The Appeals Center will have a board of seven non-executive directors.