Showing 61 - 70 of 100
Facebook can't have it both ways
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 24/03/2017
» Nearly everyone has criticism for German Justice Minister Heiko Maas's proposal to impose fines on social networks and their workers for failure to delete hateful content. Internet freedom advocates hate it for imposing censorship. The European Union is concerned for the same reason and the German union of judges and prosecutors criticise it for not going far enough because the posters of hate-speech themselves escape punishment.
Forcing the EU to make a bold move
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 03/03/2017
» In trademark EU style, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker outlined a vision for the bloc's future on Wednesday by presenting five of them. While some will see an attempt to shape the agenda without taking responsibility, it sounded more like an impatient call for members to find the courage to rally around an actual strategic decision.
Deeper malicious intent seen in 'public' cyberwar
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 16/01/2017
» Compared with the alleged Russian hacks of the Democratic National Committee and other US targets, another important cyber theft that has also been tentatively attributed to Russia is getting far less attention. The revelations are much less titillating than those that have made headlines recently -- they aren't even understandable to most people -- but they may be part of the same cyberwar, one whose rules seem to be changing.
US tech must beat Trump's policies
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 08/02/2017
» Few tech workers come from the seven countries affected by President Donald Trump's entry ban. But the 97 US companies, most of them from the tech sector, that lent their support to the State of Washington's lawsuit aiming to block Mr Trump's executive order, have good reasons to fight it every step of the way.
Time to avoid Google and Facebook
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 09/02/2017
» A Philadelphia court has made the unfortunate decision to reopen the legal debate on whether the US has the right to access e-mails stored on foreign servers if they belong to US companies. If Magistrate Thomas Rueter's ruling stands, anyone using US-based internet companies will have to live with the knowledge that, as far as the US government is concerned, it's America wherever they operate.
A new Russia policy requires Exxon CEO's skills
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 14/12/2016
» If Donald Trump chooses Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state, it will be proof that his administration will take a new approach to US policy toward Russia, as he hinted during the campaign. The dismay about that shift in the expert and intelligence community may be a good sign: The same experts and spies have led the Obama administration into a series of missteps that have embarrassed the US and helped advance President Vladimir Putin's agenda.
Putin sees himself as world's 'chess grandmaster'
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 09/01/2017
» Russian President Vladimir Putin is on a roll. The catalog of his alarming moves is well-known: aggression in Ukraine, interference in Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad, stepped-up intelligence efforts that may include a hybrid operation to discredit Hillary Clinton, a slick, prolific propaganda machine, support for nationalist and populist movements in Europe. But why is Mr Putin doing all this?
The biggest problem of the West is dwindling trust
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 06/01/2017
» Many Americans gasp when they see Donald Trump mockingly put the word "intelligence" in quotes when referring to the US intelligence community; it seems heretical to challenge the wisdom and expertise of institutions charged with safeguarding their security and freedoms. As a Russian, I just shrug: I have never believed a word coming from my country's intelligence services. This cultural gap is shrinking, though. Western societies are turning into low-trust ones, after the post-Communist, Eastern European model.
US intelligence got the wrong cyber bear
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 04/01/2017
» The "Russian hacking" story in the US has gone too far. That it's not based on any solid public evidence, and that reports of it are often so overblown as to miss the mark, is only a problem to those who worry about disinformation campaigns, propaganda and journalistic standards -- a small segment of the general public. But the recent US government report that purports to substantiate technical details of recent hacks by Russian intelligence is off the mark and has the potential to do real damage to far more people and organisations.
That special human 'thing' will always beat AI
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 19/12/2016
» This year's news about what artificial intelligence can do in the arts has been both exciting and scary. Neural networks have learned to paint like masters and compose sophisticated music. Those of us in creative endeavours might be as endangered by technological advances as blue-collar workers are often said to be -- though we are protected by certain limitations that technology is never likely to overcome.