This Week In Cyberspace Nell Schofield & Brett Solomon

We examine the growing battle between tech giants and governments around the world.

In the US, Biden has signed off on an ultimatum to Tik Tok to divest or be banned. In Australia, the eSafety Commissioner has issued an ultimatum to X to either take down the video of the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney or pay a daily fine of $785,000 per day. And then there's the European Union where the digital commissioner says a new ‘task and reward program’ on TikTok Lite could be as ‘addictive as cigarettes’.

It's the age of global digital brinksmanship.

The Prime Minister of Australia has called him an “arrogant billionaire” who’s “chosen ego and violence over common sense”. In return, Elon Musk has sarcastically thanked the PM for informing the public that his platform "is the only truthful one”. 

The battle lines are clearly drawn with the eSaftey Commissioner issuing a court order for X to remove a video of the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney last Monday. It’s a contest between what Musk sees as the right to free speech and what the Australian government claims is a duty to protect its citizens from “extreme violent content”,

So, what goes up? And what comes down? And who decides?

Lavender. Sounds pretty vanilla right? But it’s actually the name of the Artificial Intelligence machine allegedly targeting Israel’s bombs at Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza. The system has generated  “mass target creation and lethality”, especially in the first six weeks of the conflict. But with a 10% error rating,  the fallout for Gazan civilians has been horrific.

On the back of a report by +972 Magazine, we probe into the interplay between technology and conflict.

This Week In Cyberspace we take a look at hate speech online in the context of conflict. With the UN calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and the horrific human toll of Palestinian civilian lives still rising, certain words are coming under intense scrutiny.

META is reviewing the use of the word 'Zionist' on its platforms, while the Arabic term 'Saheed' - the word for martyr - is responsible for the most content takedowns across all of its platforms.

But what are the implications for free speech and rational debate online?

It's the biggest year of voting in global history. Seventy countries will decide their governance including citizens of no less than twenty-one African nations. But with many of those already on the Election Watchlist for internet interference, how many will claim to be bastions of democracy?

With a humanitarian crisis of apocalyptic proportions underway in the African heartland of Sudan, what role do tech-cos have in navigating a way through this?

Putin is locked in for a 5th term, largely through the control of information on the internet, while Elon Musk’s quest for world domination also continues apace with the release of the raw computer code behind his new xAI Chatbot.

On top of all that, the Chinese owned company behind TikTok is being forced to sell up in the US, and over in the EU, the AI Act has come into law essentially enabling developers to go for broke. 

It's been a busy week in cyberspace!