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Thursday, April 25, 2024
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William Upton
NatSec
TECH

TikTok Parent Firm Says It Prefers Ban to Sale, Protects China’s Algorithm.

TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, would prefer the United States government ban the social media app rather than sell it to a non-Chinese buyer. According to Reuters, citing four anonymous sources, ByteDance does not wish to part with control over the app’s algorithm, which it views as critical to the success of its network of technology ventures.

ByteDance has signaled it intends to pursue legal action against the Biden government to halt the newly signed law, forcing it to divest from TikTok or face the app’s ban. While TikTok only accounts for a relatively small share of ByteDance’s overall revenue, its algorithm, which determines what content is promoted to users and encourages continued engagement on the app, is far more valuable. As Americans only account for a small portion of the app’s overall user base, ByteDance prefers shuttering its U.S. presence instead of losing control of TikTok’s algorithm.

The Chinese company denied earlier reports on Thursday it was exploring avenues to sell the TikTok social media app. On Wednesday, TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew said he expects the company to win its legal challenge against the divestment law. However, the National Pulse previously reported that House Republicans worked with officials at the Department of Justice to ensure the language of the law would make it difficult to overturn in court.

As it stands, ByteDance has until January 19, 2025, to find a buyer for the TikTok app. The U.S. government, however, could extend the deadline an additional three months if it believes ByteDance is close to making a sale. If ByteDance chooses not to sell or cannot reach an agreement with a purchaser, the U.S. ban on TikTok will take effect.

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TikTok's Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, would prefer the United States government ban the social media app rather than sell it to a non-Chinese buyer. According to Reuters, citing four anonymous sources, ByteDance does not wish to part with control over the app's algorithm, which it views as critical to the success of its network of technology ventures. show more
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27 minutes ago
Ed Kozak
Science
TECH

Physiognomy Is Real: AI Can Predict Your Politics Just From Your Face.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can successfully predict a person’s political orientation based on images of a blank facial expression, a development that researchers say shows that facial recognition technology is  “more threatening than previously thought” and poses “serious challenges to privacy.” It also supports the idea that physiognomy, often discredited as ‘pseudoscience,’ may, in fact, be a valid practice.

A recent study published in the journal American Psychologist revealed that an algorithm’s ability to accurately guess a person’s political views is “on par with how well job interviews predict job success, or alcohol drives aggressiveness.” According to lead author Michal Kosinski, the 591 participants filled out a political orientation questionnaire. AI then captured what Kosinski described as a numerical “fingerprint” of participants’ faces and compared them to a database to predict political views.

“Participants wore a black T-shirt adjusted using binder clips to cover their clothes. They removed all jewelry and – if necessary – shaved facial hair. Face wipes were used to remove cosmetics until no residues were detected on a fresh wipe. Their hair was pulled back using hair ties, hair pins, and a headband while taking care to avoid flyaway hairs,” the study’s authors wrote.

A facial recognition algorithm — VGGFace2 — then examined the images to determine “face descriptors, or a numerical vector that is both unique to that individual and consistent across their different images.”

‘MORE THREATENING THAT PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT.’

“Descriptors extracted from a given image are compared to those stored in a database. If they are similar enough, the faces are considered a match. Here, we use a linear regression to map face descriptors on a political orientation scale and then use this mapping to predict political orientation for a previously unseen face,” the study said.

The study’s authors observed that an “analysis of facial features associated with political orientation revealed that conservatives tended to have larger lower faces.”

“Perhaps most crucially, our findings suggest that widespread biometric surveillance technologies are more threatening than previously thought,” the study warns. “Our results, suggesting that stable facial features convey a substantial amount of the signal, imply that individuals have less control over their privacy.”

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) can successfully predict a person's political orientation based on images of a blank facial expression, a development that researchers say shows that facial recognition technology is  "more threatening than previously thought" and poses "serious challenges to privacy." It also supports the idea that physiognomy, often discredited as 'pseudoscience,' may, in fact, be a valid practice. show more
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British Army Running Out of Munitions Ukraine
2 hours ago
Jack Montgomery
UK
War

Britain is Running Out of Munitions After Arming Ukraine.

Supplying President Volodymyr Zelensk’s forces in Ukraine with Western arms and ammunition has badly depleted Britain’s military stocks, the Minister of State for Defence Procurement has revealed. James Cartlidge of the Conservative Party says the war has left Britain short of tanks, missiles, and munitions.

“[T]here’s been huge support for the way that the UK has stood by Ukraine providing huge numbers of munitions, Storm Shadow [missiles], tanks and so on,” Cartlidge said — exaggerating Britain’s contributions, considering only 14 main battle tanks could be spared from the country’s tiny fleet.

“I think the public wants to know that in doing that, we are replenishing our own stocks and munitions,” he added, confirming the government would have to spend “£10 billion ($12.48 billion) more for munitions.”

It has previously been reported that the British Army would run out of munitions in just ten days of full-scale warfare, speaking to the parlous state of the many European NATO members militaries.

The U.S., which has carried NATO for many years, is also running short on munitions. Biden was forced to consider sending arms to Ukraine without replenishing U.S. stocks. He has already been forced to begin sending Ukraine cluster bombs, outlawed by many NATO members due to their tendency to kill and maim civilians years after their initial use, due to a shortage of conventional munitions.

Russia is believed to be outpacing the West in artillery shell production by three-to-one. Artillery has been vital to the fighting in Ukraine, with Zelensky estimating his forces need a minimum of four million shells. However, the U.S. can only produce 360,000 a year, causing war skeptics such as Senator J.D. Vance to question the wisdom of prolonging the war at U.S. taxpayer expense.

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Supplying President Volodymyr Zelensk's forces in Ukraine with Western arms and ammunition has badly depleted Britain's military stocks, the Minister of State for Defence Procurement has revealed. James Cartlidge of the Conservative Party says the war has left Britain short of tanks, missiles, and munitions. show more
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FBI FinCEN MAGA
2 hours ago
Jack Montgomery
Lawfare

Feds Pulled Bank Info on Americans Who Bought Bibles or Had ‘Trump’ in Search History.

The House Judiciary Committee and House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government have uncovered evidence the federal government pressured at least 13 banks into handing over American conservatives’ information without a warrant. The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) told financial institutions, including Bank of America, Chase, Citi Bank, and Wells Fargo, to sift customers’ transactions for so-called “extremism” indicators, such as searches including the term “Trump.”

Searches including the term “MAGA” were also included as an “extremism” indicator, along with purchases of the Bible. Following January 6, FinCEN suggested banks sift through transactions at hunting, fishing, and camping stores like Bass Pro Shops and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

At least 211 Americans had their personal information transferred to FinCEN and the FBI by Bank of America on January 17, 2021. The bank was asked for more details on “weapons-related transactions” among the group, leading to “criminal background queries” into four bank customers. Federal agents established multiple leads on additional persons after this, but they had to be pulled because there were no “allegations of federal criminal conduct.”

WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE. 

“This kind of warrantless financial surveillance raises serious concerns about the federal government’s respect for Americans’ privacy and fundamental civil liberties,” Jordan wrote Janet Yellen, Joe Biden’s Treasury Secretary.

“Given this coordination, the Committee and Select Subcommittee are concerned that the federal government, through the FBI and FinCEN, sent similar or identical [requests] to other financial institutions… to elicit the information and transaction history of individuals without any allegation of federal criminal conduct,” he said.

The authorities have stepped up their persecution of January 6 defendants ahead of the presidential elections in November, with up to 445 new cases coming before the courts — more than the total for 2022 and 2023.

Earlier this month, Rebecca Lavrenz, a 71-year-old great-grandmother who briefly prayed inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, was convicted. National Pulse editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam called the case “disgusting.”

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The House Judiciary Committee and House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government have uncovered evidence the federal government pressured at least 13 banks into handing over American conservatives' information without a warrant. The U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) told financial institutions, including Bank of America, Chase, Citi Bank, and Wells Fargo, to sift customers' transactions for so-called "extremism" indicators, such as searches including the term "Trump." show more
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Coal-fired power plant
3 hours ago
Politics

Biden’s EPA Rolls Out Regulations Aimed At Killing The American Coal Industry.

The Biden government on Thursday unveiled one of its most extreme environmental regulations yet, requiring coal-fired power plants to almost entirely eliminate their emissions or else face being shutdown. Under the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation, these power plants must decrease their pollutants by an ambitious 90 percent by 2039 — one year earlier than the originally proposed 2040. Representatives from the coal power industry have called the emissions benchmarks set by the EPA unrealistic.

In addition to the new emissions standards, the EPA is imposing more stringent controls on mercury emissions — a neurotoxin associated with developmental harm to children — from specific plants that use lignite coal, an inferior grade of coal. Other regulations will require more rigorous management of toxic ash seepage from coal stations into the surrounding water table and promote stricter surveillance of coal plant wastewater discharge.

The EPA’s regulatory announcements could amount to the potential end of the coal industry in the United States. Environmental activists, however, hail the possibility as they contend that coal combustion is responsible for the highest level of carbon dioxide emissions globally.

These new regulations follow actions undertaken by the Biden government to severely restrict emissions from American cars and trucks. The new automobile emission standards aim in part to fast-track the adoption of electric vehicles among American consumers. Officials in the Biden government have reiterated their intent to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by roughly 50 percent by 2030 and achieve complete decarbonization of the power industry by 2035.

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The Biden government on Thursday unveiled one of its most extreme environmental regulations yet, requiring coal-fired power plants to almost entirely eliminate their emissions or else face being shutdown. Under the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation, these power plants must decrease their pollutants by an ambitious 90 percent by 2039 — one year earlier than the originally proposed 2040. Representatives from the coal power industry have called the emissions benchmarks set by the EPA unrealistic. show more
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