Governments

Billions of people are currently confined to their homes, many are asking how long will this lockdown last, and what happens when we re-emerge? New models are suggesting this wave of social distancing is just the first phase of a war that may last until 2022.

A new report, from the world’s leading epidemic modeling group at Imperial College London, is suggesting intensive active suppression may be the best intervention to reduce mortality and healthcare demand as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread.

Digital rights advocacy group Access Now has released its annual report revealing that governments around world are increasingly shutting down the internet, often to stifle dissent particularly during times of protest or elections.

Microsoft has detected a network of cyberattacks originating from a North Korean hacking group dubbed Thallium. It is the fourth nation-state group Microsoft has identified deploying malicious cyberactivity, following Russia, China and Iran.

A report tracking internet freedom across the world has found global declines for the ninth consecutive year. Underpinned by social media surveillance, the report identified internet freedom deterioration in more than half of 65 countries assessed.

A US federal court has temporarily blocked a law, passed in Arkansas earlier in 2019, which made it illegal for terms such as "burgers" and "sausages" to be applied to products made from plant-based materials.

In an open letter to government officials, Facebook affirmed its commitment to rolling out end-to-end encryption across its messaging platforms. The company suggests law enforcement officials continue to misunderstand how encryption actually works.

The American Civil Liberties Union is taking several US government agencies to court claiming they have refused to comply with freedom of information requests related to the transparency of law enforcement usage of facial recognition technology.

Facebook and Twitter have recently laid out differing policies regarding political advertising. One platform has decided free speech is of utmost importance while the other has simply banned political ads altogether.

Just a few weeks after Microsoft revealed an Iranian-led cyber campaign to compromise the 2020 US election, Facebook has announced the removal of a number of “inauthentic” accounts, Pages and Groups designed to spread misinformation.

Continuing the pushback against facial recognition technology, California has passed a law banning the tech in connection with data gathered by police body cameras.

California has now officially banned the distribution of maliciously deceptive audio and video content that misrepresents political candidates.