Tech executives head to US Congress under harsh spotlight

WASHINGTON – Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google head before US lawmakers on Tuesday for two days of grueling hearings on how Russia allegedly used their services to try to sway the 2016 US election.

At stake for the Silicon Valley companies are their public images and the threat of tougher advertising regulations in the United States, where the technology sector has grown accustomed to light treatment from the government.

Facebook, the world’s largest social network, added fuel to the debate on Monday when it told Congress in written testimony that 126 million Americans may have seen politically divisive posts that originated in Russia under fake names.

That is in addition to 3,000 US political ads that Facebook says Russians bought on its platform.

Google and Twitter have also said that people in Russia used their services to spread messages in the run-up to last year’s US presidential election.

The Russian government has denied it intended to influence the election, in which President Donald Trump, a Republican, defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

US lawmakers have responded angrily to the idea of foreign meddling, introducing legislation to require online platforms to say who is running election ads and what audiences are targeted.

“The companies need to get ahead of the curve here,” said James Lewis, senior vice president of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. If they can, he added, they might avoid regulation.

Lewis, speaking during the Reuters Cyber Summit in Washington, said he expects European officials to watch the US hearings closely.

The US Senate’s crime subcommittee will be the first of three committees to hold hearings on Russia. Its hearing is set for 2:30 p.m. ET (1830 GMT).

Facebook and Twitter are dispatching their general counsels, Colin Stretch and Sean Edgett, to appear before the subcommittee, while Google is sending its director of law enforcement and information security, Richard Salgado.

“Our goal is to bring people closer together; what we saw from these actors was an insidious attempt to drive people apart. And we’re determined to prevent it from happening again,” Stretch will tell lawmakers, according to an advance copy of his remarks.

Facebook and Twitter have taken steps toward self-regulation, saying they would create their own public archives of election-related ads and also apply more specific labels to such ads.

Google followed on Monday, saying it would create a database of election ads including ones on YouTube.

The companies have meanwhile disclosed new details about the extent of Russia-based material, raising alarms about a sector that once inspired idealism.

“The internet was seen as a great engine for promoting democracy and transparency. Now we are all discovering that it can also be a tool for hijacking democracy,” said Karen Kornbluh, a senior fellow for digital policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

source: interaksyon.com

Facebook's Zuckerberg discloses steps to fight fake news

Facebook Inc, facing withering criticism for failing to stem a flood of phony news articles in the run-up to the US presidential election, is taking a series of steps to weed out hoaxes and other types of false information, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post Friday evening.

Facebook has long insisted that it is a technology company and not a publisher, and rejects the idea that it should be held responsible for the content that its users circulate on the platform. Just after the election, Zuckerberg said the notion that fake or misleading news on Facebook had helped swing the election to Donald Trump was a "crazy idea."

Zuckerberg then said last Saturday that more than 99 percent of what people see on Facebook is authentic, calling "only a very small amount" fake news and hoaxes.

But in his Friday posting Zuckerberg struck a decidedly different tone. He said Facebook has been working on the issue of misinformation for a long time, calling the problem complex both technically and philosophically.

"While the percentage of misinformation is relatively small, we have much more work ahead on our roadmap," Zuckerberg said.

He outlined a series of steps that were already underway, including greater use of automation to "detect what people will flag as false before they do it themselves."

He also said Facebook would make it easier to report false content, work with third-party verification organizations and journalists on fact-checking efforts, and explore posting warning labels on content that has been flagged as false. The company will also try to prevent fake-news providers from making money through its advertising system, as it had previously announced.

Zuckerberg said Facebook must be careful not to discourage sharing of opinions or mistakenly restricting accurate content. "We do not want to be arbiters of truth ourselves, but instead rely on our community and trusted third parties," he said.

Facebook historically has relied on users to report links as false and share links to myth-busting sites, including Snopes, to determine if it can confidently classify stories as misinformation, Zuckerberg said. The service has extensive "community standards" on what kinds of content are acceptable.

Facebook faced international outcry earlier this year after it removed an iconic Vietnam War photo due to nudity, a decision that was later reversed. The thorniest content issues are decided by a group of top executives at Facebook, and there have been extensive internal conversations at the company in recent months over content controversies, people familiar with the discussions say.

Among the fake news reports that circulated ahead of the US election were reports erroneously alleging Pope Francis had endorsed Trump and that a federal agent who had been investigating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was found dead.

source: interaksyon.com

Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Katy Perry lead celebs mourning Clinton loss

Lady Gaga called for kindness, Miley Cyrus was in tears, Madonna vowed never to give up and Katy Perry urged Americans not to weep as Republican Donald Trump stunned the world by defeating heavily favored Democrat Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election.

Celebrities, many of whom had campaigned for Clinton, were shocked as Trump was elected after a long and bitter campaign.

A tearful Cyrus posted a video on social media on Wednesday saying she had not slept because of Clinton’s loss. But the “Wrecking Ball” singer, 23, who had said earlier this year she would leave the country if Trump won, urged unity, saying “Donald Trump, I accept you as President of the United States … Please treat people with compassion and respect.”

Lady Gaga went to Trump Tower in Manhattan early on Wednesday and posted a picture of herself on Instagram holding a “Love trumps hate” campaign poster.

“I want to live in a #CountryOfKindness #LoveTrumpsHate. He divided us so carelessly. Let’s take care now of each other,” she wrote.

Hollywood actors, comedians and filmmakers had thrown their support behind Clinton. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, entertainment sources contributed $22 million to her campaign and to pro-Clinton super-PACs through Oct. 19, compared with less than $290,000 for Donald Trump, Hollywood trade publication Variety reported this week.

Cher, who had said earlier in the campaign that she would move to Jupiter if Trump was elected, tweeted “World will never be the same. I feel sad for the young.” She made no mention of moving out of the United States.

Perry, who performed for Clinton at several campaign rallies, said “Do not sit still. Do not weep. MOVE. We are not a nation that will let HATE lead us.”

“A New Fire Is Lit. We Never Give Up. We never Give In,” wrote Madonna on Twitter.

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, who is British, got into a Twitter spat after urging her followers to challenge “racism, misogyny and hatred.”

But Trump too had his show business supporters.

“CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT TRUMP! @realDonaldTrump against all odds ..against the establishment and even against most from the GOP..U did it!,” tweeted former “Cheers” actress Kirstie Alley.

Actor Stephen Baldwin, the brother of “Saturday Night Live” star Alec Baldwin, tweeted that he was “proud to have been part of such amazing history.”

source: interaksyon.com

At long last, Americans decide between Clinton and Trump

NEW YORK - Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump face the judgment of the voters on Tuesday as millions of Americans turn out on Election Day to pick the next US president and end a bruising campaign that polls said favored Clinton.

In a battle centered largely on the character of the candidates, Clinton, 69, a former secretary of state and first lady, and Trump, 70, a New York businessman, made their final, fervent appeals to supporters late on Monday to turn out to vote.

Their final week of campaigning was a grinding series of get-out-the-vote rallies across battleground states where the election is likely to be decided.

"We choose to believe in a hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted America," Clinton said in Philadelphia before a crowd of 33,000 - the biggest of her campaign.

She was joined by Democratic President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton

Trump made one of his final appearances late on Monday in Manchester, New Hampshire, where polls showed a tight race.

“Tomorrow, the American working class will strike back,” Trump said. “It’s about time.”

He brought much of his family on stage for his last rally in the state where he scored his first victory in the Republican nomination fight.

First woman president

Clinton went into Election Day as the favorite to become the first US woman president after spending eight years in the White House as the first lady in the 1990s.

A Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation poll gave Clinton a 90 percent chance of defeating Trump and said she was on track to win 303 Electoral College votes out of 270 needed, to Trump's 235.

But Trump advisers said the level of his support was not apparent in the polling and believed the New York businessman was in position for an upset victory along the lines of the "Brexit" vote in June to pull Britain from the European Union.

"We have seen enormous momentum," said deputy Trump campaign manager Dave Bossie.

Financial markets brightened in reaction to the latest twists in what has been a volatile presidential campaign. Global stock markets and the US dollar surged, putting them on track for their biggest gains in weeks.

Investors, who see Clinton as a known quantity, were buoyed by an announcement on Sunday by FBI Director James Comey that cleared Clinton of a cloud of controversy involving her use of a private email server while President Barack Obama's secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

While opinion polls showed a close race, but tilting toward Clinton, major bookmakers and online exchanges were more confident of a Clinton victory. PredictIt put her chances of capturing the White House at 81 percent.

Both Clinton and Trump planned to vote on Tuesday - she in Chappaqua, New York, and he in Manhattan. They were then to hold victory rallies about a mile apart in the evening in New York City.

Eyes on Florida, North Carolina
An early indicator of the strength of each candidate could come in North Carolina and Florida, two must-win states for Trump that have been the subject of frantic last-minute efforts by both the Republican and Democratic campaigns.

Races in both those states were shifting from favoring Clinton to being too close to call.

A strong vote for Clinton could jeopardize Republican control of the US Senate, as voters choose 34 senators of the 100-member chamber. Democrats needed a net gain of five seats to win control. The 435-seat House of Representatives was expected, however, to remain in Republican hands.

Voters had to choose between Clinton, who has vowed to largely continue the policies of Democrat Obama, and Trump, who has never held public office and has positioned himself as a change agent. Both were viewed unfavorably by majorities of voters.

The long-running US election campaign has been one of the most negative in American history with each candidate accusing the other of lacking the character and judgment to be president.

Trump, a former reality TV star, reveled in the drama and seized the spotlight time and again with provocative comments about Muslims and women, attacks against the Republican establishment and bellicose appeals to build a wall along the US southern border with Mexico to stem illegal immigration.

But the spotlight was not always kind to Trump, with the release of a 2005 video in which he boasted about groping women damaging his campaign and leaving him on the defensive for critical weeks.

Clinton, a former US senator with a penchant for secrecy, sustained damaging blows of her own linked to her handling of classified information as the country's top diplomat. FBI Director Comey shook up the race and slowed her momentum with an Oct. 28 announcement the agency was reviewing newly discovered emails that might pertain to her email practices.

On Sunday, Comey told Congress that investigators had found no reason to change their July finding that there was no criminal wrongdoing in Clinton's use of the server. (Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson and Amanda Becker)

source: interaksyon.com

Cleveland on security knife edge for Republican convention

CLEVELAND - Cleveland deployed overwhelming security Sunday, bracing for possible violent protests as delegates poured into town for the Republican National Convention that will anoint Donald Trump the party's US presidential nominee.

The killing of three police officers Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana only added to the tensions in Cleveland, where law enforcement agencies have thrown a ring of steel around downtown.

Authorities in the city on the shores of Lake Erie have erected eight-foot-tall (2.5-meter) metal fencing around the Quicken Loans Arena, closed off streets and deployed thousands of armed police officers.

The four-day political jamboree, which kicks off Monday, will see the bombastic billionaire secure the nomination for the Party of Lincoln after a thumping primary victory that confounded the US establishment.

Roads in the Ohio city are lined with concrete barriers and helicopters patrol overhead, as light aircraft, paid for by sponsors, trail anti-Hillary Clinton slogans.

Law enforcement is on edge, braced for protests from demonstrators enraged by Trump's divisive presidential campaign and preparing for the worst after anti-police violence erupted in Louisiana.

At least three officers were shot dead and three others wounded in Baton Rouge, one of America's most racially segregated cities, which has seen days of protests against the treatment of blacks by law enforcement. The motivation for the latest shooting was not immediately clear, however.

Cleveland, a Midwestern city of nearly 400,000, has taken out $50 million in protest insurance, and Ohio's open-carry law, allowing people with proper permits to carry a loaded weapon on the streets, has inflamed fears of violence.

"We have policies in place for mass arrests through our prosecutor's office, our clerk's office and our court system," Cleveland police chief Calvin Williams told a news conference.

Williams said barricades had also been erected downtown to thwart any potential terror attack after a truck bomber killed 84 people in the French city of Nice last Thursday.

"We use blocking vehicles, we use concrete barriers and things like that at positions that we think may be vulnerable to attacks like that which happened in Nice," he said.

Declare war against ISIS

Trump, a New York tycoon who has never held elected office and who opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, vowed in his latest interview to wage war against the so-called Islamic State extremist group, which is also known as ISIS.

"We're going to declare war against ISIS. We have to wipe out ISIS," he told CBS in excerpts aired on the eve of the convention, which will culminate with a Trump speech accepting the nomination on Thursday.

"I am going to have very few troops on the ground. We're going to have unbelievable intelligence, which we need, which, right now, we don't have. We don't have the people over there," said Trump.

US Special Forces are already operating on the ground against IS, backed by US-led air strikes.

Trump made the remarks in his first joint interview with his pick for vice president, Indiana's conservative governor Mike Pence, an evangelical Catholic.

Trump's choice of Pence, announced Friday, has been welcomed by 61 percent of Republicans and conservatives in critical battlegrounds, states likely to decide the November election, according to a CBS News poll.

The survey found that these voters believe Pence brings stability to the ticket and will boost Trump's chances of defeating Clinton. Pence, however, is not well known beyond the party rank and file.

National polls show Trump tied with Clinton, who was branded "extremely careless" by the FBI in handling classified material in a long-running email scandal dating from her time as secretary of state.

Critics and protests

But Trump faces a herculean task to win over legions of critics.

His salty rhetoric and populist message have outraged many conservatives, raising fears he has fanned a racial backlash and prompting a battle for the soul of the Republican Party.

Unusually, the Cleveland convention features no former presidents, few party luminaries and only a smattering of elected officials. Instead it is expected to hand a starring role to Trump's family to make his case.

The first major anti-Trump protest was to kick off at around 4:00 pm (2000 GMT) Sunday, advertised as a "march against racism, Islamophobia, attacks on immigrants and on LGBTQ people and endless war" and was expected to draw 1,000 people or more.

Another "Stop Trump" march has been permitted by the city for noon on Monday, just hours before the convention launch.

The US homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson, told Congress last week that he was concerned about demonstrations getting out of hand.

US authorities have been on alert since a gunman intent on killing white policemen went on a rampage and shot five Dallas officers dead earlier this month.

US political conventions, quadrennial affairs, are designed to bring a party together, formally select its presidential nominee and catapult the candidate and party towards November's election.

source: interaksyon.com