CENSORSHIP AT NYT

NY Times Wordle solution 'fetus' causes kerfuffle


The initial 'Wordle' solution for May 9, 2022 was 'fetus' before being removed (AFP/Michael Draper) (Michael Draper)

Mon, May 9, 2022

The New York Times, owner of the hit game Wordle, hastily changed the solution Monday from "fetus," a term recently catapulted into the news as US abortion rights face possible restrictions by the Supreme Court.

Some of the game's millions of players "may see an outdated answer that seems closely connected to a major recent news event," the editorial director of the paper's game section, Everdeen Mason, said in a statement.

Without mentioning the actual word, she said the choice was "entirely unintentional and a coincidence -- today's original answer was loaded into Wordle last year."

That, of course, was long before a leaked Supreme Court draft decision last week revealed that if adopted, the majority of justices would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision which enshrined a woman's right to an abortion nationwide.

Wordle, a daily game which consists of guessing one five-letter word in just six tries, was bought by the Times in January after it skyrocketed in worldwide popularity.

"We take our role seriously as a place to entertain and escape, and we want Wordle to remain distinct from the news," Mason said.

"When we discovered last week that this particular word would be featured today, we switched it for as many solvers as possible," although it was too late to change it for all.

Already in February, the paper announced that it had scrubbed Wordle of many obscure as well as "insensitive or offensive words."

On social media, some users shared the day's two solutions, mocking the center-left paper for being overly delicate.

The NYT editorial board last week took a formal stand in favor of the right to abortion, with an op-ed titled "America Is Not Ready for the End of Roe v. Wade."

arb/bfm/mlm

Pulitzer Prizes Announced: Special Citation Goes To Journalists Of Ukraine; Washington Post Wins For January 6 Attack Coverage


Ted Johnson
Mon, May 9, 2022,


UPDATED: Journalists from Ukraine were recognized with a 2022 Pulitzer Prize special citation, while jurors of journalism’s top honors also recognized coverage of the January 6th attacks on the Capitol, the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Surfside condominium collapse in Florida.

The Washington Post won a public service award for The Attack, its in-depth look at the siege of the Capitol, which the jurors said was “a thorough and unflinching understanding of one of the nation’s darkest days.”

The New York Times won three prizes in national reporting, international reporting and criticism. Marcus Yam, photographer at the Los Angeles Times, won for breaking news photography of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. There were actually two winners in the breaking news photography category, as photographers from Getty Images also won for their photos of the attack on the Capitol.

The Miami Herald was recognized in the breaking news reporting category for coverage of the Champlain Towers South building collapse, as jurors said that the stories merged “clear and compassionate writing with comprehensive news and accountability reporting.” The Tampa Bay Times won for investigative reporting on the toxic hazards in a battery recycling plant.

Jennifer Senior of The Atlantic won for feature writing for her cover story on a family’s grappling with loss in the 20 years since 9/11.

Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer along with Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, and Amit Dave for their images of Covid’s toll on India. Siddiqui was killed last year while covering a clash between Afghan special forces and Taliban insurgents.

The special citation to Ukrainian journalists was given “for their courage, endurance and commitment to truthful reporting during Vladimir Putin’s ruthless invasion of their country and his propaganda war in Russia.”

Other recognitions of note: The Los Angeles Times’ coverage of the deadly shooting on the set of the movie Rust was a finalist in the breaking news category. NBC News’ Mike Hixenbaugh, Antonia Hylton, Reid Cherlin, Julie Shapiro and Frannie Kelley were finalists in the audio reporting category for Southlake, an account of an anti-critical race theory movement in a Texas community.

The complete journalism winners below:

Public service: The Washington Post

Breaking news reporting: Staff of the Miami Herald

Investigative reporting: Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington and Eli Murray of the Tampa Bay Times

Explanatory reporting: Staff of Quanta Magazine, notably Natalie Wolchover

Local reporting: Madison Hopkins of the Better Government Association and Cecila Reyes of the Chicago Tribune

National reporting: Staff of The New York Times

International reporting: Staff of The New York Times

Feature writing: Jennifer Senior of The Atlantic

Commentary: Melinda Henneberger of The Kansas City Star

Criticism: Salamishah Tillet, contributing critic at large, The New York Times

Editorial writing: Lisa Falkenberg, Michael Lindenberger, Joe Holley and Luis Carrasco, the Houston Chronicle

Illustrated reporting and commentary: Fahmida Azim, Anthony Del Col, Josh Adams and Walt Hickey, Insider

Breaking news photography: Marcus Yam, the Los Angeles Times; Win McNamee, Drew Angerer, Spencer Platt, Samuel Corum, Jon Cherry, Getty Images

Feature photography: Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, Amit Dave and Danish Siddiqui, Reuters

Audio reporting: Staffs of Futuro Media and PRX

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Joe Kahn Named Next Executive Editor Of The New York Times

Three decades after Pablo Escobar's death, drugs ravage Medellin

In 2013, some 3.5 percent of Colombians said they had ever taken an illegal substance. Six years later, the number had nearly tripled


May 10, 2022 - AFP

'Basuco,' derived from the coca leaf also used to make cocaine,
is the cheapest illegal drug available in Colombia

Three decades after cartel boss Pablo Escobar was shot dead by police on a rooftop in Medellin, the very city he had sought to uplift with drug money is being ravaged by it.

Junkies frequent hundreds of sales points dotted around Colombia's second city, which has become the epicenter of the domestic drug trade.

Basuco is derived from the coca leaf also used to make cocaine, and mixed with other low-grade substances.

"I am a bit nervous," he confessed.

Four brief months later, all his worldly belongings fit into a worn briefcase, and he often sleeps rough. 

Researchers estimate the figure is now closer to 800.

In 2013, some 3.5 percent of Colombians said they had ever taken an illegal substance, according to the state statistics agency.

With aid from the United States, leader in the global "war on drugs", a Colombian crackdown since the early 2000s has forced traffickers to look homeward.

Domestic clients, however, are not getting the best of what the world's largest cocaine exporter has to offer.

With 2.2 million inhabitants, Medellin is today the city with the highest drug consumption -- 15.5 percent -- in Colombia.

But authorities say the increase in domestic drug use has gone hand-in-hand with rising insecurity.

Official data does not distinguish between gangster and civilian deaths.

In Medellin, the numbers reveal a paradox.

According to Luis Fernando Quijano of social development NGO Corpades, this was more telling of a "mafia peace" than of any real progress.

"When seizures are made... it is often not the product of (police) intelligence," Quijano added. "They are delivered (by the narcos) to create the image that... the security strategy is working."

"As long as there are consumers... criminals will see a business opportunity," he said.

In 2018, then Medellin mayor Federico Gutierrez accompanied nearly 1,000 police who bulldozed the city's main drug market, known as "The Bronx."

His leftist rival Gustavo Petro wants to address drug use as a public health problem.

But many quickly return, including The Bronx.

Others offer "tusibi" -- calling it "tusi" for short or sometimes "pink cocaine" -- the latest party drug based on Ketamine mixed with substances such as ecstasy and mescaline, a psychedelic derived from a cactus.

Addict Julian, his discolored skin stretching over the pronounced cheekbones of his emaciated face, told AFP he needed to inject himself four times a day.

The transaction takes mere seconds. 

But no longer.

COMMODITY FETISH
Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe fetches record $195 mn: Christie's


US artist Andy Warhol's 1964 portrait "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" is sold at auction for a record USD$195M


Andréa BAMBINO
Mon, May 9, 2022, 

An iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe by American pop art visionary Andy Warhol went under the hammer for $195 million Monday at Christie's, becoming the most expensive 20th century artwork ever sold at public auction.

"Shot Sage Blue Marilyn," produced in 1964 two years after the death of the glamourous Hollywood star, sold for exactly $195.04 million, including fees, in just four minutes in a crowded room at Christie's headquarters in Manhattan.

Dozens of Christie associates were in the room clutching their phones as they took orders from potential buyers. The auction house owned by French magnate Francois Pinault said in a brief press conference that the winning bid for the "Marilyn" was made from within the room.

Prior to the sale, the portrait was estimated to go for about $200 million, according to Christie's.
-
While falling just short of that threshold, it nevertheless beat the previous record for a 20th century work, Pablo Picasso's "Women of Algiers," which brought $179.4 million in 2015.

The all-time record for any work of art from any period sold at auction is held by Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," which sold in November, 2017 for $450.3 million.

Warhol's silk-screen work is part of a group of his portraits of Monroe that became known as the "Shot" series after a visitor to his Manhattan studio, known as "The Factory," apparently fired a gun at them.

In a statement, Christie's described the 40-inch (100-centimeter) by 40-inch portrait as "one of the rarest and most transcendent images in existence."

Alex Rotter, head of 20th and 21st century art at Christie's, called the portrait "the most significant 20th century painting to come to auction in a generation."

"Andy Warhol's Marilyn is the absolute pinnacle of American Pop and the promise of the American Dream encapsulating optimism, fragility, celebrity and iconography all at once," he said in a statement.

Warhol began creating silkscreens of Monroe following the actress's death from a drug overdose aged just 36 in August 1962.

The pop artist produced five portraits of Monroe, all equal in size with different colored backgrounds, in 1964.

According to pop-art folklore, four of them gained notoriety after a female performance artist by the name of Dorothy Podber asked Warhol if she could shoot a stack of the portraits.

Warhol said yes, thinking she meant she would photograph the works. Instead, Podber took out a gun and fired a bullet through the forehead of Monroe's image.

The story goes that the bullet pierced four of the five canvasses, with Warhol barring Podber from The Factory and later repairing the paintings -- the "Shot" series.

The "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" portrait portrays her with a pink face, red lips, yellow hair and blue eye shadow set against a sage-blue backdrop.

It was based on a promotional photograph of her for the 1953 movie "Niagara," directed by Henry Hathaway.

- Charity -

At an unveiling at Christie's headquarters, Rotter said the portrait stood alongside Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus", Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" and Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" as "categorically one of the greatest paintings of all time."

Only 14 paintings have sold for more than $100 million at auction, according to an AFP tally, although others are expected to have changed hands for as much during private sales.

The auction record for a Warhol is the $104.5 million paid for "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)" in 2013.

In 1998, Sotheby's sold the orange shot Marilyn for $17 million.

Monday's blockbuster sale headlines a spring sales week, on behalf of the Zurich-based Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation.

All proceeds of the sale will benefit the foundation, which works to improve the lives of children around the world.

arb/mlm/dw

‘We haven’t seen worst of the Covid pandemic yet,’ warns Bill Gates

Bill Gates has called for an expert group to be established to spot and prevent future pandemics. 

Photo: Jamie McCarthy

Joe Middleton
May 02 2022

Bill Gates has warned that we might not have seen the worst of the Covid pandemic and that a more deadly variant of the virus could emerge.

The Microsoft billionaire said he did not want to be “all doom and gloom” but there was at least a “5pc risk” that the pandemic could get worse and urged world leaders to spend more to increase preparedness for health threats.

Mr Gates has long warned of the global threats posed by viruses.

He previously gave a talk in 2015 claiming the world was “not ready for the next epidemic” and that viruses, not war, pose the greatest risk of “global catastrophe”.

The philanthropist told the Financial Times: “We’re still at risk of this pandemic generating a variant that would be even more transmissive and even more fatal.

“It’s not likely, I don’t want to be a voice of doom and gloom, but it’s way above a 5pc risk that this pandemic, we haven’t even seen the worst of it.”

The philanthropist also called for a team of experts, costing around $1bn, that would be managed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to spot and prevent future pandemics.

He said: “The amount of money involved is very small compared to the benefit and it will be a test: can global institutions take on new responsibilities in an excellent way, even in a time period where US-China [relations are] tough, US-Russia is extremely tough?”

It comes as the WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urg­ed countries to maintain surveillance of coronavirus infections, saying the world was “blind” to how the virus was spreading because of falling testing rates.

“As many countries reduce testing, WHO is receiving less and less information about transmission and sequencing,” he told a news conference at the UN agency’s headquarters in Geneva.

“This makes us increasingly blind to patterns of transmission and evolution.”

Bill Rodriguez, chief executive of FIND, a global aid group working with WHO on expanding access to testing, said “testing rates have plummeted by 70 to 90pc”.

“We have an unprecedented ability to know what is happening. And yet today, because testing has been the first casualty of a global decision to let down our guard, we are becoming blind to what is happening with this virus,” he added.

In other developments, an analysis of data from 50 studies has shown that almost half of the people recovering from coronavirus are still experiencing post-Covid conditions. (©Independent News Service)

WHO says China's zero-COVID strategy unsustainable

Image of the ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus

 (2019-nCoV). Credit: CDC

China's flagship zero-COVID strategy to defeat the pandemic is unsustainable, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, adding that it had told Beijing so and called for a policy shift.

China has imposed draconian measures, trapping most of Shadnghai's 25 million people at home for weeks as the country combats its worst outbreak since the pandemic began.

The Shanghai lockdown has caused outrage and rare protest in the last major economy still glued to a zero-COVID policy, while movement in the capital Beijing has been slowly restricted.

"When we talk about the zero-COVID strategy, we don't think that it's sustainable, considering the behaviour of the virus now and what we anticipate in the future," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

"We have discussed about this issue with Chinese experts and we indicated that the approach will not be sustainable.

"Transiting into another strategy will be very important."

There is a pressing political dynamic to China's virus response, with President Xi Jinping pegging the legitimacy of his leadership on protecting Chinese lives from COVID.

Xi has doubled down on the zero-COVID approach, despite mounting public frustration.
—Rights, society and economy—

Shanghai is China's economic dynamo and its biggest city. The zero-COVID policy has winded an economy which just months ago had been bouncing back from the pandemic.

"We need to balance the control measures against the impact they have on society, the impact they have on the economy, and that's not always an easy calibration," said WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan.

He said any measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic should show "due respect to individual and human rights".

Calling for "dynamic, adjustable and agile policies", Ryan said early responses to the crisis in many countries showed that a lack of adaptability "resulted in a lot of harm".

He reflected on how the world's most populous nation had had relatively very few deaths officially ascribed to COVID, and therefore had "something to protect".

Given the rapid rise in deaths since February-March, "any government in that situation will take action to try and combat that", he told reporters.

Tedros has been discussing adjusting according to the circumstances to find an exit strategy, "in depth and in detail with Chinese colleagues", Ryan said.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said that worldwide, it was impossible to stop all transmission of the virus.

"Our goal, at a global level, is not to find all cases and stop all transmissions. It's really not possible at this present time," she said.

"But what we need to do is drive transmission down because the virus is circulating at such an intense level."Testing cuts leave world 'increasingly blind' to COVID spread: WHO

© 2022 AFP

Mexico president threatens to skip Americas Summit

FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ and JOSHUA GOODMAN, 

Associated Press - 

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Tuesday that he would not attend next month's Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles if the Biden administration excludes Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua — adding his voice to increasing warnings of a boycott by some leaders across the region.


Cuban president Miguel Diaz Canel and his Mexican counterpart Andrés Manuel López Obrador chat after signing bilateral agreements at Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, May 8, 2022. 

(Yamil Lage/Pool Photo via AP)

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been saying in recent weeks that the U.S. government should not exclude anyone from the summit, but he had not previously threatened to stay home.

“If they exclude, if not all are invited, a representative of the Mexican government is going to go, but I would not,” López Obrador said during his daily news conference, fresh off a visit to Cuba. He said his foreign affairs secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, would go.

The Mexican president's absence would be a blow to the summit expected to deal heavily with the issue of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Biden administration has worked for months to build regional consensus. Cabinet members have been visiting the region urging allies to shore up immigration controls and expand their asylum programs.


 Mexican President Andres Manuel Obrador smiles as people applaud after the playing of the national anthem at the end of an event where he delivered a speech on economic figures, in Mexico City, April 12, 2022. Lopez Obrador begins a lightning tour Thursday, May 5, to four Central American countries and Cuba in five days to discuss his approach to development and ways it might help alleviate the pressure to migrate

. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

“Our goal is ... to sign a regional declaration on migration and protection in June in Los Angeles when the United States hosts the Summit of the Americas,” President Joe Biden said in March, when he hosted Colombia President Iván Duque at the White House.

He called for "a new framework of how nations throughout the region can collectively manage migration in the Western Hemisphere.”

Such cooperation will be critical as the U.S. wrestles with the problem of high numbers of migrants arriving at its southern border and prepares to lift a restriction of asylum applications there later this month that is expected to draw even more migrants north.

But leaders of Caribbean nations have also discussed a collective boycott of the summit if nations are excluded and criticized the U.S. plan to invite Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó. The U.S. recognizes him as that country's legitimate president, but many Caribbean nations do not.

“We do not believe in the policy of ostracizing Cuba and Venezuela. We do not recognize Juan Guaidó as the president of Venezuela. In those circumstances, Antigua and Barbuda will not participate," said that country's prime minister, Gaston Browne.

He said that a consensus to boycott the summit if countries were excluded had emerged from Caribbean foreign ministers’ meeting in Belize in March, “but I am not sure if the consensus will hold.”

St. Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves had a similar take: “If Guaidó goes to represent Venezuela, if the Americans were to do that it would be an act of folly,” Gonsalves told a weekend radio program, saying St. Vincent may not attend if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is excluded.

Cuba is an active member of the Caribbean Community of nations and the Communist-governed island has provided thousands of free scholarships to Caribbean medical, engineering and other students since the mid 70s. Successive Venezuelan governments have assisted Caribbean countries with prefabricated housing and cheap oil.

A senior Biden administration official said the blowback is largely posturing in response to a strong diplomatic push from Cuba — a perennial touchstone for the Latin American left — and that the U.S. expects few leaders to follow through on threats to skip the summit.

Behind the scenes, several Caribbean leaders signaled they plan to attend, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic communications.

The official said the administration expects both López Obrador and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro to attend.

Cuba was excluded from first six hemispheric summits, held from 1994 to 2012. But Cuba was invited to the 2015 gathering in Panama following growing threats of a boycott by leftist Latin American leaders if it was excluded – as well as a thaw in relations with the U.S. under President Barack Obama, who met Cuban leader Raul Castro at the event.

Cuba also was invited to the last summit in Peru in 2018, but Castro sent his foreign minister instead because Venezuela's Maduro had not been invited. U.S. President Donald Trump did not attend either.

Argentina, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, also issued an appeal this month to avoid excluding any governments.

In a tweet, it called the summit “a great opportunity to build a space for encounters in which all the countries of the hemisphere participate” and urged organizers “to avoid exclusions that impede having all the voices of the hemisphere in dialogue and being heard.”

López Obrador left open the possibility that he could attend if the Biden administration invites all countries. He noted that previous summits had not excluded any countries and blamed the current situation on political minorities in the U.S. backing a “hostile policy.”

“There’s still time before the summit and we could arrive at an agreement, but we have to all unite, look for America’s unity,” he said.

___

Goodman reported from Cleveland, Ohio. AP writer Bert Wilkinson contributed to this story from Georgetown, Guyana.

Egypt's ancient 'zar' ritual puts exorcism on stage



Originating in Ethiopia and Sudan centuries ago, the music and dance ritual known as 'zar' aims to ward off or drive out jinn, or evil spirits, that possess a patient 

(AFP/Khaled DESOUKI)

Nessrin ALI AHMAD
Mon, May 9, 2022

A stage, lights, a mesmerised audience: it looks like an Egyptian folkloric concert but Umm Sameh is singing to heal the sick by driving out the demons that possess them.

The music and dance ritual known as "zar", with centuries-old roots in Ethiopia and Sudan, is traditionally performed to ward off or exorcise jinn or evil spirits.

"We're not quacks or witches," said Umm Sameh, aged in her 70s, with kohl-lined eyes, large hoops swaying in her ears and gold bracelets tinkling on her arms.

"The singing is spiritual and brings out negative energies," said the lead singer of the Mazaher ensemble, adding that they also perform prayers from Islam's mystic Sufi practices.

Traditionally, the zar ritual would last several days and include animal sacrifices. But no blood is spilled at Cairo's Makan Cultural Centre, where the group performs to the delight of foreign and local guests.

The audience is bewitched by Umm Sameh's voice and nod their heads to the drumbeat.

In a patriarchal society where women face frequent discrimination, zar ceremonies are among the few cultural practices in which they take centre stage.

Umm Sameh said she learned the ritual from age 11 from her mother and grandmother.

Six decades later, she recites the same lyrics to the same tunes -- all from memory, she adds proudly, because she has "inherited them and grown up with them".

- 'Old healing ritual' -

"Zar is a very old healing ritual, a bit like medical treatment," said Ahmed al-Maghraby, founder of Mazaher, which he says is Egypt's last group to perform zar in public.

He set up the Makan performance space 22 years ago "to preserve this cultural heritage and archive local music from all over Egypt".

It was a tough feat, he said, because zar has historically been derided by devout Muslims as a pagan practice, and rejected by modernising state authorities as a backward rural tradition.

"Middle Eastern and Egyptian society regards everything local with disgust," lamented Maghraby.

He said it was foreign tourists who first brought Egyptians to the shows, who he remembered used to say "No! There's jinn and blood!'"

"For them, the zar was always something sinful."

Ensemble member Abou Samra said "people have a very negative idea of zar because of the movies," in Egypt, long regarded as the Hollywood of the Arab world.

In one of them, 1987 horror movie "Al Taweeza" (The Curse), superstars Youssra and Tahia Carioca contorted themselves, drenched in fake blood, and emitting shrill cries.

But zar is "an art like all other arts," said Abou Samra, who plays the tanboura, a six-string lyre. "We have to let go of these stereotypes."

- New generation -

Times are indeed changing. The ensemble, whose musicians and dancers were all over 60, have brought in a new member.

Azza Mazaher, who grew up watching her mother Umm Hassan do percussion, now also drums and energises the show as she dances across the stage.

Azza said the group now performs in both the old and new ways.

"If someone feels sick and the doctors can't find a treatment, we can hold a ceremony," she told AFP.

"But here, we're performing a light piece of folklore, so people can discover it, understand it and enjoy it."

Mazaher has taken part in several European festivals, and more Egyptians are flocking to their Cairo performances, appreciative of the home-grown artform.

Mariam Essawi, an audience member in her 20s, said: "They look like us, they represent us. Zar is part of our history and our cultural heritage. It's very strange that we don't know it."

naa/sbh/bha/fz

Clearview AI settles suit and agrees to limit sales of facial recognition database.

The facial recognition software maker is largely prohibited from selling its database of photos to private companies.

Hoan Ton-That, the chief executive of Clearview AI, tested the smart phone application in 2019.

Credit...Amr Alfiky for The New York Times


By Ryan Mac and Kashmir Hill

NEW YORK TIMES

May 9, 2022

Clearview AI, the facial recognition software maker, on Monday settled a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and agreed to limit its face database in the United States primarily to government agencies and not allow most American companies to have access to it.

Under the settlement, which was filed with an Illinois state court, Clearview will not sell its database of what it said were more than 20 billion facial photos to most private individuals and businesses in the country. But the company can largely still sell that database to federal and state agencies.

The agreement is the latest blow to the New York-based start-up, which built its facial recognition software by scraping photos from the web and popular sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Clearview then sold its software to local police departments and government agencies, including the F.B.I. and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But its technology has been deemed illegal in Canada, Australia and parts of Europe for violating privacy laws. Clearview also faces a provisional $22.6 million fine in Britain, as well as a 20 million-euro fine from Italy’s data protection agency.

“Clearview can no longer treat people’s unique biometric identifiers as an unrestricted source of profits,” Nathan Freed Wessler, a deputy director with the A.C.L.U.’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, said in a statement about the settlement. “Other companies would be wise to take note, and other states should follow Illinois’s lead in enacting strong biometric privacy laws.”

Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment expert hired by Clearview to defend the company’s right to gather publicly available information and make it searchable, said the company was “pleased to put this litigation behind it.”

“To avoid a protracted, costly and distracting legal dispute with the A.C.L.U. and others, Clearview AI has agreed to continue to not provide its services to law enforcement agencies in Illinois for a period of time,” he said.

The A.C.L.U. filed its lawsuit in May 2020 on behalf of groups representing victims of domestic violence, undocumented immigrants and sex workers. The group accused Clearview of violating Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, a state law that prohibits private entities from using citizens’ bodily identifiers, including algorithmic maps of their faces, without consent.

“This is a huge win for the most vulnerable people in Illinois,” said Linda Xóchitl Tortolero, a plaintiff in the case and the head of Mujeres Latinas en Acción, an advocacy group for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. “For a lot of Latinas, many who are undocumented and have low levels of IT or social media literacy, not understanding how technology can be used against you is a huge challenge.”

One of Clearview’s sales methods was to offer free trials to potential customers, including private businesses, government employees and police officers. Under the settlement, the company will have a more formal process around trial accounts, ensuring that individual police officers have permission from their employers to use the facial recognition app.

Clearview is also prohibited from selling to any Illinois-based entity, private or public, for five years as part of the agreement. After that, it can resume doing business with local or state law enforcement agencies in the state, Mr. Wessler said.

In a key exception, Clearview will still be able to provide its database to U.S. banks and financial institutions under a carve-out in the Illinois law. Hoan Ton-That, chief executive of Clearview AI, said the company did “not have plans” to provide the database “to entities besides government agencies at this time.”

The settlement does not mean that Clearview cannot sell any product to corporations. It will still be able to sell its facial recognition algorithm, without the database of 20 billion images, to companies. Its algorithm helps match people’s faces to any database that a customer provides.

“There are a number of other consent-based uses for Clearview’s technology that the company has the ability to market more broadly,” Mr. Ton-That said.

As part of the settlement, Clearview did not admit any liability and agreed to pay $250,000 in attorneys’ fees to the plaintiffs. The settlement is subject to approval by an Illinois state judge.


Ryan Mac is a technology reporter focused on corporate accountability across the global tech industry. He won a 2020 George Polk award for his coverage of Facebook and is based in Los Angeles. @RMac18


Kashmir Hill is a tech reporter based in New York. She writes about the unexpected and sometimes ominous ways technology is changing our lives, particularly when it comes to our privacy. @kashhill
A version of this article appears in print on May 10, 2022, Section B, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: In Settlement, Clearview AI Agrees to Limit Sales of Database.

Sri Lanka anti-government protests continue despite curfew

Defying a nationwide curfew in Sri Lanka, several hundred protesters continued to chant slogans against the government on Tuesday, a day after violent clashes left four dead and prompted the resignation of the prime minister, who is blamed along with his brother, the president, for leading the country into its worst economic crisis in decades. 

FRANCE 24's International Affairs Editor Armen Georgian tells us more.

How Sri Lanka fell into its worst economic crisis in history ?

Sri Lanka deployed thousands of troops and police Tuesday to enforce a curfew after several people were killed in the worst violence in weeks of protests over an unprecedented economic crisis. Sri Lanka has been suffering its worst economic crisis in history, with a severe shortage of foreign exchange stalling the essential of imports, including drugs and fuel.