U$A

On This Day: 19th Amendment ratified giving women the vote

On Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was ratified by Tennessee, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land. The law took effect eight days later.

By UPI Staff

   

A member of the League of Women Voters participates in a demonstration to protest the lack of voting rights for the citizens of Washington, D.C., on the 90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, in front of the White House in Washington on August 26, 2010. On August 19, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified by Tennessee, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land. The law took effect eight days later. 

File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI 

Google union calls on company to give abortion-related health benefits to contractors


The Google logo is seen on one of the ceremonial shovels that are on stands before the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center on June 24. Union workers with the company asked for it this week to give abortion-related benefits to all employees. 

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo


Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A petition calling on Google to give abortion-related health benefits to its contractors and to protect user privacy has been signed by more than 650 employees, its union said.

After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down abortion protections provided by the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, Google's Fiona Cicconi informed employees that their healthcare insurance would cover out-of-state medical procedures.

The benefits, however, did not cover temporary workers, vendors or contract employees, which make up about half of Google's workforce.

The Alphabet Workers Union petition calls for Google to extend abortion-related health benefits to all employees regardless of classification, and for it to end funding politicians that played a role in supporting Supreme Court justices who overturned abortion protections and protecting Google users seeking abortions.

The petition said that protection should include preventing law enforcement from accessing abortion information and preventing misleading ads that direct users to anti-abortion "pregnancy crisis centers" when searching for abortions.

"Google has the money and resources to ensure all their employees, contracted or not, have access to abortion," AlejandraBeatty, the southwest chapter lead of AWU, said in a statement.

"They emailed us right after the ruling to affirm their support for their full-time employees getting abortions, but did not address how contracted workers, who tend to have more marginalized identities, would be supported in trying to exercise their right to choose. Google can and should do better."

The petition comes to light after Facebook allowed law enforcement to access private messages between a mother and daughter over an abortion that led to felony charges in Nebraska.

"Every day, across the country, police get access to private messages between people on Facebook, Instagram, any social media or messaging service you can think of," said Andrew Crocker, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, according to National Public Radio.

"A lot of people are waking up to it because of the far-ranging nature of how we expect abortion investigations are going to go. And it's going to touch many more people's lives in a way that maybe that they hadn't thought about in the past."

How serious is Bhutan's economic crisis?

A growing trade deficit and rising import costs have cast a shadow over Bhutan's economic health. The tiny Himalayan nation is putting in place a mechanism to control prices of essential commodities.

Bhutan remains focused on its hydropower and tourism sectors, which generate revenue from outside the country

Bhutan — the South Asian nation that is perhaps best-known for its philosophy of promoting gross national happiness over gross domestic product (GDP) — is facing economic headwinds.

With a population of fewer than 800,000 people, a global economic slowdown and nationwide COVID lockdowns. supply chains in the landlocked country wedged between China and India have been severly impacted.

Bhutan's small- and medium-sized businesses have been struggling to keep afloat.

Price hikes and food security concerns

"The situation in the country cannot be compared to that of Sri Lanka for now," Sangeeta Thapliyal, professor of South Asian studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told DW.

Sri Lanka's debt-laden economy collapsed after it ran out of money to pay for food, fuel and medicine, sparking months of protests.

However, Thapliyal said Bhutan was facing a similar set of economic problems to those currently besetting most national economies.

"The war between Russia and Ukraine has further worsened the situation especially with rising petroleum prices," she said. "Like other countries, Bhutan's economy has also witnessed inflation, economic setbacks and loss of jobs."

A strengthening dollar and falling Indian rupee — to which Bhutan's Ngultrum currency is pegged — is also leading to higher import costs, according to experts. That's far from ideal for a country that is heavily reliant on products from abroad. 

"The restrictions imposed by India on wheat exports have increased worries of a further rise in local prices," a senior official of the Bhutan Chambers of Commerce and Industry told DW. "There is concern about food supplies."

Bhutan remains focused on its hydropower and tourism sectors, which generate revenue from outside the country.

Meanwhile, the share of Bhutan's manufacturing sector in terms of GDP has remained stagnant for over a decade, while the industrial sector was driven mainly by construction, mining and electricity.

Finance Minister Namgay Tshering has pointed out that Bhutan is headed toward an 'uncharted destination'

Such a framework has been making the economic structure vulnerable to sectorial and external shocks, since GDP, exports and government revenue are mostly generated from just two sectors.

At a recent meeting, Bhutan's finance minister, Lyonpo Namgay Tshering, said the government was not in favor of banning imports but would do its best to help protect foreign reserves.

"I can't say there is no threat of an economic crisis. I cannot say we are not in a crisis. At the same time, I cannot say we are comfortable," said Tshering, emphasizing that the Himalayan kingdom was headed towards an "uncharted destination."

The annual budget Tshering recently presented showed Bhutan's highest-ever fiscal deficit of  22.882 billion Nu (€283 million) — 11.25% of the country's GDP.

Foreign reserves drying up?

Data released in July by the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan showed foreign exchange reserves shrunk to $970 million (€955 million) at the end of December from $1.46 billion in April 2021 — while total external debt rose to $3.2 billion from $2.7 billion before the coronavirus pandemic.

The country has sufficient foreign reserves to meet the import of essential goods for 14 months. Bhutan's constitution mandates the country to maintain enough foreign currency reserves to meet 12 months of imports.

"We are an import-dependent country. We have to begin to look at other sectors and reformulate polices that can bring revenues to revive the economy. Investing in new technology for agriculture can be a start," Ugyen Penjor, the CEO of Kuensel, the national newspaper of Bhutan, told DW from the capital, Thimpu.

"We have not hit the panic button yet but the trade deficit is increasing," he added.

For now, efforts are focused on addressing the issue of trade deficit to prevent Bhutan from dipping into its foreign currency reserves.

Water from the Himalayas has proved a boon to Bhutan's hydropower sector

Reviving Bhutan's tourism industry

Pema Tenzin, president of the Association of Bhutanese Industries, was upbeat about the impending financial crisis.

"The tourism sector has been affected, and the void brought about a standstill in infrastructural projects because the pandemic has affected some livelihoods. But we will bounce back," Tenzin told DW.

Tourism — which employs over 50,000 people and is one of the highest contributors to Bhutan's revenues — was hit the hardest of any sector.

Revenue from tourism plunged by 41% in 2019–2020 compared with the previous year.

Only 28,000 visitors came to Bhutan in 2020, generating a revenue of $19 million (€18.67 million). That was down significantly from 2019's figure of 315,599 tourists, which generated $225 million, according to government figures.

The mountainous nation will reopen to international tourists from September for the first time since the pandemic began more than two years ago.

However, rates have been upped, and a sustainable development fee of $200 (€196) will be charged per tourist per night — a hike from the $65 fee that was charged for three decades.

Hydropower boom

Bhutan's economic development is linked to the growth of its hydropower sector. The country exports about 70% of energy generated to India.

India is also Bhutan's largest export market, the most important trade partner, accounting for 50% of Bhutan's trade, and one of the top foreign investors in the country, while Bhutan has been crucial to India's Neighborhood First and Act East policies, which aim to boost trade and energy links in the region.

There are fears that a prolonged economic crisis could sour relations between India and Bhutan, a situation which China may be positioned to take advantage of.

Bhutan has so far maintained a unique alliance with India, while having neutral dealings with China.

"In this situation. it is essential for India to help Bhutan, with whom it has a special relationship," said Thapliyal.

"An economically strong India capable of helping Bhutan in meeting its economic challenges would hold the bilateral relations strong and stable in the long run," she said.

Edited by: Keith Walker

Syria denies holding US journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in 2012

Last week, the Joe Biden administration said it was "certain" the Syrian government had detained Tice, who disappeared a decade ago. The journalist was last seen at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus.


Tice's family have seen 43 seconds of footage, distributed by his captors, since he disappeared a decade ago

The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday refuted claims by President Joe Biden that it was holding captive Austin Tice following the US journalist's disappearance in 2012.

To mark the tenth anniversary of his abduction whilst covering the lengthy, multi-sided conflict in the Middle Eastern country, the White House last week said it was "certain" that Tice was being "held by the Government of Syria."

However, Damascus responded in a statement saying it "denies" it had "kidnapped or is holding any American citizen on its territories."

"The US issued last week misleading and illogical statements by the American president and secretary of state that included baseless accusations against Syria that it had kidnapped or detained American citizens including former US Marine Austin Tice,'' the statement added.
US wants to 'bring Austin home'

Washington said it was pressuring Damascus to return US prisoners.

"We have repeatedly asked the government of Syria to work with us so that we can bring Austin home," Biden said in a statement last week.

State Department Spokesman Ned Price also commented on Tice on Tuesday, noting that the US government has "engaged extensively — and that includes directly — with Syrian officials and through third parties."

"Syria has never acknowledged holding him," Price said of Tice, adding that "we are not going to be deterred in our efforts. We are going to pursue every avenue for securing Austin's safe return."

Tice family have seen 43 seconds of footage in 10 years

Tice was last seen at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus on August 14, 2012, just days after his 31st birthday.

If Tice has been detained by Syrian government forces, their allies, or other parties to the conflict, it would likely amount to an "enforced disappearance" which would constitute a crime under international law, NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on its website on Monday.

"According to his family, the only information released by his captors has been a 43-second video showing him being held by unidentified armed men," HRW said.
RSF highlights dangers for journalists covering conflict

Last year, to mark the 10th anniversary of the war that began in the wake of the Arab Spring, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned that at least 300 "professional and non-professional journalists have been killed... covering a war in which 400,000 people have died" at the hands of "both an authoritarian regime and radical armed groups."

RSF also said the figure regarding the number of journalists who had perished "could in reality be even higher" with many others arrested or kidnapped.

WHO'S FIGHTING IN THE SYRIA CONFLICT?
War with no end
Syria has been engulfed in a devastating civil war since 2011 after Syrian President Bashar Assad lost control over large parts of the country to multiple revolutionary groups. The conflict has since drawn in foreign powers and brought misery and death to Syrians.
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jsi/dj (AP, dpa, Reuters

40 years of CDs : From listening pleasure to useless trash?

The once revolutionary technology of the compact disc is considered 'old school' today. DW's Silke Wünsch has experienced the rise and fall of the CD firsthand.

It's 1985. We — budding sound engineers — are sitting in the classroom, listening spellbound to the sounds of "Friday Night in San Francisco" — the legendary guitar album by Al di Meola, Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin, among the best guitarists in the world at the time.

The sound is crystal clear, the tones bubble out of the speakers. Although the music is playing at "room volume," we have the feeling we can hear every note, every finger stroking the strings. We even think we can hear the breathing of the musicians.

What we don't hear: The hiss from a tape or cassette, or the scratch and crackle of a vinyl record.

It was the first acoustic encounter with a CD for most of us and a revelation for our young sound-engineer ears.

Sony's introduction of the CD transformed the way people listened to music

From Beethoven to ABBA

The compact disc had been around for some time; there was just a long argument about how much music should be pressed onto it. Finally, it was agreed that the playing time of a CD should be long enough to fit one of the world's most famous classical works — Beethoven's 9th Symphony in Wilhelm Furtwängler's 74-minute version.

In 1981, the CD was presented at the Berlin Radio Exhibition. The first industrially produced discs rolled off the production line on August 17, 1982, and legend has it that the ABBA album "The Visitors" was burned on them. Perhaps it was also a recording of Richard Strauss' "An Alpine Symphony," conducted by Herbert von Karajan, who had outed himself as a big fan of the CD from the very beginning, describing it as "a miracle." Another legend says it was waltzes by Chopin that were pressed onto the first CDs.

Champagne for all!

A short time later, Sony and Philipps launched the first freely available CD players on the market for around €1,200 — unaffordable for many people at the time. Both companies had worked together on the development and were soon able to sit back and relax, because the CD business was going through the roof.

In 1984, 3 million CDs were sold in Germany alone; in 1989, the figure was 54 million. And the price wasn't cheap: A CD cost 30-40 German marks (about €15-20), more than twice as much as a long-playing record. And this success came despite the fact that nobody knew how long the data on the discs would last.

The author traded in her crackly White Album vinyl for a CD version

They multiplied like weeds

Over the years, CD players and CDs became more affordable, record stores had to rearrange as music fans started to trade in their vinyl collections for CDs — just like me. My favorite records had become so crackly that I was eager to enjoy this music without noise for a change. And without turning them over!

I spent horrendous sums on new Pink Floyd and Prince CDs, and on The Beatles' White Album — the most important record of my life to this day. I bought jazz and classical music, and more and more pop, rock, soul and funk. Next to my record shelf, a CD shelf sprang up and quickly grew, spreading like weeds through the living room. Records and turntables collected dust and ended up in the basement.

It took on almost absurd proportions when I changed careers and became a music editor. The record companies, many of which were based in Cologne at the time, were very generous with promotional CDs. Once a month I went on a "foray" in Cologne, and when I came home with my bulging backpack full of new releases, there were still two to four packages in front of the door. My collection exploded — it needed its own room.

A CD shelf not too unlike the author's

What do you do with 40,000 CDs?

My CD collection grew to over 40,000. And it had to move with me three times. The curses of my movers echo to this day. But there's a certain style about walking along a five-by-two meter shelf looking for the CDs for a party, a music show or just a music evening with friends. It has less style when you find forgotten boxes with hundreds of old promo singles in basements and garages — where to put them?

And what about throwing them all away? That's a job in and of itself, what with separating them all properly for recycling: plastic covers in one bin, paper booklets in another, the CDs themselves in yet another.

Some of the author's favorite CDs, bought in the 1990s

So, it's better to give them away or put them out on the sidewalk for passersby to take them — or make art out of them. Probably the most creative solution was to cover the ceiling of our office in the Deutsche Welle broadcasting center with CDs. My colleague and I used every free minute to stick the silver discs to the ceiling with adhesive tape. We also forced our trainees and interns to do this — after all, they had to learn that the job of a music editor also entails disposing of old promotional CDs.

My job changed again and I decided to part with my collection  — as painlessly as possible. This was not easy. Because even used CD albums with pop and rock classics are virtually worthless.

Finally, before my last move, someone who can be safely described as a total music nerd took my collection. My remaining CDs are probably limited to about 1,000.

Old school is fun

Even today, I still play music at parties from time to time. People look at me in disbelief when they see the luggage I arrive with. Two DJ CD players, a mixer, two thick folders with burned CDs and a wooden box with original CDs. Completely old school. Other DJs use laptops, have their music on a big hard drive and play it with software. Sounds tempting — just like listening to music via Spotify & Co, which has been killing off the CD for years.

Even more tempting than Spotify playlists, however, is the vinyl record, to which I have once again become addicted after parting with my CD collection — as have numerous music fans around the world. In 2021, for example, more vinyl records were sold in the US than CDs for the first time since 1991. And at these prices: €30-40 for a 180 gram vinyl record is standard. A record today costs more than twice as much as a CD — this sounds familiar…

So I'm right on trend: After I bought my beloved "White Album" by The Beatles as a new CD in 1991 because the old record had scratches and cracks, I now have it on my record shelf in a new vinyl special edition. 

This article has been translated from German.

THE TAPE RECORDER TURNS 80
The first tape recorder
When electrical equipment manufacturer AEG introduced the Magnetophon K1 in Berlin in 1935, more than five decades had passed since Thomas Edison's groundbreaking phonograph. Many had explored the idea of recording sound electromagnetically, however it was the development of a unique tape head, in concert with a plastic tape coated in iron powder, that proved the breakthrough.
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Date 17.08.2022

Germany will legalize cannabis — but nobody knows when

Smoking weed should eventually become legal in Germany. The political will is there. But actually implementing it is hampered by international law, bureaucracy and tax rules. Activists want the process sped up.

An estimated 4 million people in Germany consume cannabis regularly

Cannabis has become a part of everyday culture in Germany and now, policymaking. The coalition government of center-left Social Democrats (SPD), environmentalist Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) stated clearly: "We are introducing the controlled supply of recreational cannabis to adults in licensed shops."

To turn these words into practical policies, however, is proving to be a monumental task.

It involves almost every federal government ministry. And the fact that so many bodies are involved makes the legislative process very complex, the government's drug and addiction commissioner Burkhard Blienert told DW. "It encompasses agriculture, youth protection, policing, tax issues and much more," he said.

"The goal is a coherent concept that makes it possible for adults to obtain cannabis in licensed specialty shops, ensuring health protection and the protection of minors."

Germany has seen street demonstrations in favor of legalizing cannabis

Millions of consumers mean billions in tax

It is a concept that will affect many people. Dusseldorf-based economist Justus Haucap told DW an estimated 4 million people consume cannabis in Germany, most of them only occasionally. "We tried to evaluate what that means in terms of the quantity of cannabis. We expect a market volume of about 400 tonnes, which is valued at between €4 billion and €5 billion," he said.

In a report last year, Haucap calculated the possible revenues from taxes and social security contributions, as well as the savings made by the police and judiciary (from no longer prosecuting users) as adding up to almost €5 billion per year. He presented these numbers to an expert hearing at the Ministry of Health earlier this year.

For five days, about 200 experts from Germany and abroad, including Haucap, came together to discuss cannabis legalization —  from representatives of the Permanent Working Group of Highest State Health Authorities (ALOG) to the German Hemp Association and the Customs Criminal Investigation Office (ZKA).

Also in attendance was Dirk Heitepriem, vice president of the Cannabis Business Industry Association (BvCW). "The most surprising thing for me was that we hardly ever discussed the 'if,' only the 'how'", Heitepriem told DW. He described the exchanges between the various groups, "who have quite different interests," as open, collegial and constructive.

Cannabis sale and production could be a source of income for the German government too

Ambitious roadmap

The way forward is as ambitious as it is open-ended. "The agreement is that the federal government will adopt key points in the fall and will draft a law on this basis. It will then be deliberated in parliament. I anticipate this will happen next year. When the law will be passed and come into force: That is in the hands of the parliament," drug commissioner Blienert said.

Until then, many questions need to be resolved. A key one: Where does cannabis come from?

Industry representative Heitepriem sees little room for international trade and importing from traditional growers such as Morocco or Lebanon. "The UN conventions stand in our way, as do European regulations," Heitepriem said, adding: "We assume that there will need to be in-country production, at least initially. This requires massive investment and, above all, a lead time of 1 1/2 to two years to provide the necessary production capacities."

Medical cannabis is produced under strict health and safety regulations

UN conventions a sticking point

The UN drug conventions are also of concern to Burkhard Blienert. "So far, the international agreements have been read in such a way that cannabis is to be strictly prosecuted," he notes, pointing out that one of the relevant UN conventions dates to the 1960s. "It was a different time. But if you now want to move into a new time, with new policies around drugs and addiction that also serve modern health policies, then it is necessary to conduct debates and discussions —  including on how these agreements are to be understood in 2022."

In its most recent annual report in March, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which monitors the UN drug conventions, made clear: "Measures to decriminalize the personal use and possession of small quantities of drugs are consistent with the provisions of the drug control conventions." At the same time, they maintained that legalizing the entire supply chain from cultivation to the consumer contravenes the drug control conventions.

Nevertheless, two countries —  Uruguay and Canada —  have already legalized the cultivation, trade and distribution of cannabis, as have 21 states in the US. These breaches of the UN rules have not brought about any significant consequences. The economist Haucap sees a strong international movement toward cannabis legalization.

Because Germany is the most populous country in Europe, its neighbors are following developments with great interest, according to Haucap: "If Germany creates a legal market for cannabis, I think it would send a very positive signal."

A cautious approach from the opposition

Before that can happen, it is likely that a law must be passed not only by the Bundestag but also by the Bundesrat — the upper house of parliament comprising representatives of the 16 federal states. That includes states where the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) are in government. In the Bundestag, the CDU is the main opposition party and traditionally the biggest opponent of legalizing cannabis. However, according to Justus Haucap, the CDU is no longer united on this issue. "There are those who think legalization is sensible," the economist concluded, following private conversations with politicians.

This impression was confirmed to DW by CDU parliamentarian and Bundestag health committee member Erwin Rüddel. "I know more and more party colleagues who are taking an increasingly nuanced view and saying, 'there is this extensive drug use.' That is why we need to provide safe access for those who want to consume cannabis recreationally. We will gain more control of the drug problem this way than by turning a blind eye to it," he said.

6:09 min

Cannabis genetics and crossbreeding

Call for decriminalization now

Although all signs point toward legalization, a cannabis consumer gets caught in the net of the police and judicial system every three minutes. The authorities must continue to apply the narcotics law. It may be years before licensed specialty shops have cannabis on their shelves. That is why activists are calling for the consumption of cannabis to be decriminalized immediately as a first step, something provided for in the UN conventions.

The background to this demand is exemplified by the latest report on drug-related crime from the Federal Criminal Police Office: When people fall foul of the law because of cannabis, only one in six cases has to do with drug dealing — about 30,000 of the almost 190,000 cases are so-called "consumption-related offenses." It is not the big fish being caught in the net of prohibition, but the stoners.

Burkhard Blienert is critical of the call for immediate decriminalization. "I want a regulated market. Decriminalization goes along with that," emphasized the drug commissioner. "It is better not to break things down into individual elements now, but instead to think everything through together. We want a comprehensive result."

This article was originally written in German.

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.

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Assessing the toxicity of Reddit comments

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PEERJ

Researchers analyze over 2 billion posts and comments from cross-community Redditors to assess how toxicity changes depending on the community in which they participate

New research, published in the Open Access journal PeerJ Computer Science, which analyses over 87 million posts and 2.205 billion comments on Reddit from more than 1.2 million unique users, examines changes in the online behavior of users who publish in multiple communities on Reddit by measuring “toxicity”.

User behavior toxicity analysis showed that 16.11% of users publish toxic posts, and 13.28% of users publish toxic comments. 30.68% of users publishing posts, and 81.67% of users publishing comments, exhibit changes in their toxicity across different communities – or subreddits - indicating that users adapt their behavior to the communities’ norms.

The study suggests that one way to limit the spread of toxicity is by limiting the communities in which users can participate. The researchers found a positive correlation between the increase in the number of communities and the increase in toxicity but cannot guarantee that this is the only reason behind the increase in toxic content. 

Various types of content can be shared and published on social media platforms, enabling users to communicate with each other in various ways. The growth of social media platforms has unfortunately led to an explosion of malicious content such as harassment, profanity, and cyberbullying. Various reasons may motivate users of social media platforms to spread harmful content. It has been shown that publishing toxic content (i.e., malicious behavior) spreads--the malicious behavior of non-malicious users can influence non-malicious users and make them misbehave, negatively impacting online communities.

“One challenge with studying online toxicity is the multitude of forms it takes, including hate speech, harassment, and cyberbullying. Toxic content often contains insults, threats, and offensive language, which, in turn, contaminate online platforms. Several online platforms have implemented prevention mechanisms, but these efforts are not scalable enough to curtail the rapid growth of toxic content on online platforms. These challenges call for developing effective automatic or semiautomatic solutions to detect toxicity from a large stream of content on online platforms,” say the authors, PhD (ABD) Hind Almerekhi, Dr Haewoon Kwak and Professor Bernard J. Jansen.  

 

“Monitoring the change in users’ toxicity can be an early detection method for toxicity in online communities. The proposed methodology can identify when users exhibit a change by calculating the toxicity percentage in posts and comments. This change, combined with the toxicity level our system detects in users’ posts, can be used efficiently to stop toxicity dissemination.”

 

The research team, with the aid of crowdsourcing, built a labeled dataset of 10,083 Reddit comments, then used the dataset to train and fine-tune a Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) neural network model. The model predicted the toxicity levels of 87,376,912 posts from 577,835 users and 2,205,581,786 comments from 890,913 users on Reddit over 16 years, from 2005 to 2020. This study utilized the toxicity levels of user content to identify toxicity changes by the user within the same community, across multiple communities, and over time. For the toxicity detection performance, the fine-tuned BERT model achieved a 91.27% classification accuracy and an Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC) score of 0.963 and outperformed several baseline machine learning and neural network models. 

 

 

---

JOURNAL

PeerJ Computer Science

DOI

10.7717/peerj-cs.1059 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

Investigating Toxicity changes of cross-community Redditors from 2 Billion Posts and Comments

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Aug-2022

TikTok girds for US election misinformation threat

TikTok is putting out word to 'creators' that its ban on political ads includes 

sponsored videos related to the coming US midterm election.

TikTok on Wednesday rolled out its battle plan against the deluge of misinformation expected to accompany the upcoming US midterm elections, a problem tech firms largely decide themselves how to handle.

The November contest that will decide who controls Congress will generate innocently shared false information as well as deliberate attempts to mislead on the major social media networks—which have begun announcing how they will fight back.

TikTok began reminding users that its ban on political ads includes videos that people are paid to create for the platform, head of US safety Eric Han said in a blog post.

"If we discover political content was paid for and not properly disclosed, it is promptly removed from the platform," Han said.

TikTok has rolled out an "Elections Center" that will help users know how and where to vote, and feature videos intended to encourage people to think critically about online content, he added.

The widely popular video sharing app will add links to its Elections Center to content identified as being related to the midterm elections along with accounts belonging to governments, politicians or political parties.

TikTok will use automated systems and human fact-checkers to assess the accuracy of content, prompting users to "reconsider" sharing posts with unsubstantiated information, Han said.

Fair Election Center's Campus Vote Project, one of the organizations working with TikTok, is helping provide information for registering and voting, said national director Mike Burns.

"We saw historic youth and student voter turnout in the 2018 and 2020 elections," Burns said.

TikTok has emerged as a top social media platform for US teens, according to a recent Pew Research report.

Facebook parent Meta this week said that the safeguards it is putting in place for the midterms will build on lessons learned.

"As we did in 2020, we have a dedicated team in place to combat election and voter interference while also helping people get reliable information about when and how to vote," Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg said Tuesday in a blog post.

Meta security operations will fight foreign interference and domestic influence campaigns, and include new measures to help keep poll workers safe, Clegg said.

Meta will remove misinformation about the voting process, poll results or the integrity of balloting and prohibit new election-related ads during the final week in the campaign, he added.

"We are once again prepared to respond to content discussing the integrity of the election by applying labels that connect people with reliable information," Clegg said.

Social media platforms under scrutiny ahead of Kenyan elections

© 2022 AFP