The 217th Block: Poor communication
The 217th Block: Poor communication
Sing patriotically, stay traditional, and scam as a way of life
This week…
Your reading time is about 8 minutes. Let’s start.
Do you ever take notice of a *minor issue* in communication material, but then because it’s everywhere, like this out-of-home ad, that minor issue grows into a *bigger issue* every time you see it and you start to develop an irrational hatred towards it?
This ad has been on display since February or March 2024 after the province of Ontario launched One Fare, which charges public transit users only once even if they transfer between transit agencies in the Greater Toronto Area. Previously, when you switch between, for example, a Go Transit to the TTC subway, you would pay twice. This ad tells us that the program would generate $1,600 in average savings.
Do you see what the *minor issue* is? This is an incomplete claim. Are you saving $1,600 per transfer? Certainly not, even if at first read it sounds like it. Is it a $1,600 savings per day accounting for all commuters? Don’t know, there’s no such indication.
In reality, it’s a $1,600 savings per rider per year. I did the math based on my own public transit usage. I now save $3.30 per journey, or $132 a month if I commute to and from work five days a week. But you wouldn’t know that from this poster. The advertiser assumes that you know that they meant individual annual savings, duh! But, any communication that requires some assumption and filling in the blanks from the receivers’ end is poor messaging.
And now, a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week.
ICYMI: The Previous Block was about social media regulation, censorship and surveillance capitalism, and the AI language(s). FWIW:
Philippines seeking US clarification on anti-vax propaganda operation by Neil Jerome Morales for Reuters.
110 new languages [including the long-awaited, highly-requested Cantonese!] are coming to Google Translate by Isaac Caswell for Google.
Seeking more teeth, Malaysia set to license social media, messaging apps by Shannon Teoh for The Straits Times.
CORRECTION NOTICE: None notified. CULTURE WARS
Indonesia is trying to block LGBTQIA content
Adi Renaldi for Rest of World:
Indonesian singer Kai Mata’s first viral moment on social media came four years ago when she posted a video on X. “I am Indonesian, and I am flaming gay,” she said, then slammed a proposed law that would force LGBTQIA people into conversion therapy. That bill was shelved after a broad backlash. Now, another planned legislation threatens to curb content from creators such as Kai Mata.
The Indonesian government in May said it would revise a 2002 broadcasting law. The draft bill imposes new restrictions on content that portrays LGBTQIA “behavior,” and anything that shows “negative behaviors or lifestyles that could potentially be imitated by the public.” The new law would apply to social media and other digital platforms, as well as TV networks, with violations—including hosting creators such as Kai Mata—resulting in fines and cancellation of license. The bill, which also places curbs on the broadcast of investigative journalism, is expected to be passed before outgoing president, Joko Widodo, leaves office this year.
A vague bill with restrictive conditions—doesn’t that sound familiar? Loosely linked:
North Korea cracking down on wedding dresses and slang by Flora Drury for BBC. Sunglasses have also been deemed counter-revolutionary, even though North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been known to don a pair.
Hong Kong school children sang anthem too softly by Kelly Ng for BBC. Teachers were told to help students sing the national anthem loudly in unison.
Russia bans distribution of dozens of EU news outlets by Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn for Reuters. Among them are news agencies Agence France-Presse and EFE, Irish broadcaster RTE, and digital outlet Politico.
Singaporean authority’s order over offensive mural of samsui woman with cigarette sparks online debate by Shawn Hoo for The Straits Times.
AI VS.
Microsoft Bing’s censorship in China is even “more extreme” than Chinese companies’
Joanna Chiu for Rest of World:
Bing’s censorship rules in China are so stringent that even mentioning President Xi Jinping leads to a complete block of translation results, according to new research by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab that has been shared exclusively with Rest of World.
The institute found that Microsoft censors its Bing translation results more than top Chinese services, including Baidu Translate and Tencent Machine Translation. Bing became the only major foreign translation and search engine service available in China after Google withdrew from the Chinese market in 2010.
“If you try to translate five paragraphs of text, and two sentences contain a mention of Xi, Bing’s competitors in China would delete those two sentences and translate the rest. In our testing, Bing always censors the entire output. You get a blank. It is more extreme,” Jeffrey Knockel, senior research associate at Citizen Lab, told Rest of World.
Total censorship is easier to accomplish than precise censorship since you don’t need to determine exactly which phrase is sensitive. Loosely linked:
Geologists raise concerns over possible censorship and bias in Chinese chatbot by Amy Hawkins for The Guardian. To be fair, all AI models have biases, regardless of their origin.
News nonprofit sues ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Microsoft for exploitative copyright infringement by Sarah Parvini and Matt O’Brien for AP. The Center for Investigative Reporting’s lawsuit comes after similar claims by other media outlets and bestselling authors.
RT debuts AI-generated “journalists” by E. Rosalie Li for InfoEpi Lab. Sometimes they are labelled as “journalists,” other times “digital creators.” Li reported that hosts sometimes failed to specify the presenters were AI-generated. This post includes several clips of those AI-generated presenters.
The RIAA lawsuit against generative music startups, explained by Jordan Pearson for The Verge.
YouTube is trying to make AI music deals with major record labels by Jess Weatherbed for The Verge.
CYBERCRIME
Return of the RealSikhs: the fake network targeting Sikhs across the world despite platform takedowns
Benjamin Strick for CIR:
This research uncovers a network of fake accounts on social media pretending to be Sikhs in order to undermine Sikh activists, stoke cultural tensions and promote Indian government narratives. These accounts label Sikh activists as “extremists”, and label themselves as “real Sikhs”.
The influence operation consists of profiles using the same identity across Facebook, Instagram and X. Accounts use images of real people, many of whom are Punjabi celebrities, and post the same content across platforms. The use of manipulated images, memes and videos, and descriptive, lengthy hashtags are common in their posts.
The network shares traits with another significant network identified by CIR in November 2021. At the time, that network was reported to social media platforms, which led to the suspension of all of the reported accounts. However, the majority of accounts identified in this network were created during or after December 2021 and have been prolific in their posting since creation. This indicates that despite platform actions to remove the accounts, the actors behind the campaign have created new accounts to continue the operation.
Neverending game of whack-a-mole. Loosely linked:
Indonesia detains 103 Taiwanese in a raid in Bali involving suspected cybercrime by Firdia Lisnawati and Edna Tarigan for AP.
Scammers adopting Australian slang to trick victims by Alex Anyfantis for SBS.
Interpol arrests thousands in crackdown on international online scams by Matt Novak for Gizmodo.
Other curious links, including en español et français
LONG READ | Harvard, the human remains trade, and collectors who fuel the market by Ally Jarmanning for WBUR. “There’s much better tracing for a head of lettuce than there is for a human head.”
A bear attack in Slovakia reveals what the far right really wants by Karl Mathiesen and Louise Guillot for Politico.eu. Man vs. Bear but make it political.
The whole time? The Boys has been making fun of Trumpers the whole time?! by Alex Abad-Santos for Vox. Guess what I’m binge-watching next?
The Wayback Machine, a time machine for the web by David Pogue for CBS.
Kenya protests show power of digital activism—driving change from screens to streets by Job Mwaura (University of the Witwatersrand) for The Conversation.
Julian Assange may be on his way to freedom but this is not a clear victory for freedom of the press by Julian Borger for The Guardian.
Meloni muestra su sintonía con Von der Leyen y se abstiene en su nombramiento, pero se opone a Costa y Kallas por María G. Zornoza en Público.
Los foros de internet están desapareciendo porque ahora todo es Reddit y Discord. Y eso es preocupante par Javier Pastor en Xataka.
Breve historia de la saudade por Siham El Khoury Caviedes en Nexos.
« Je partira pas » : d’où vient cette chanson raciste reprise par l’extrême droite ? par Morgane Tual et Florian Reynaud dans Le Monde.
Au Figaro, Vincent Trémolet de Villers et la dernière croisade par Mathieu Deslandes dans La revue des médias.
L’infernal site Coco vient d’être fermé par la gendarmerie par Marie Turcan dans Numerama.
What I read, listen, and watch
I’m reading Incidental Inventions (2019) by Elena Ferrante translated by Ann Goldstein. The book is a collection of Ferrante’s weekend column in The Guardian between 2018 and 2019, so you can read it online here. My favourite is this one, and it starts like this: “The only dependency I’m familiar with is tobacco: I started smoking when I was 12. I was curious about taking other drugs, but not tempted. I wanted to write, and it didn’t seem that doing so under the influence of alcohol or other narcotics could help: I was afraid of losing myself.“ Relatable.
I’m listening to how Contrapoints reinvented philosophy for YouTube with Natalie Wynn on Factually! hosted by Adam Conover.
I’m watching conspiracy theorists’ obsession with nanoparticles (microchips, for example) on ARTE.tv.
Chart of the week
Still from Reuters Institute’s 2024 Digital News Report, social media remains the most common way people access the news. Is this the same for you? Not for me. I go directly to news websites. I also do keyword searches on search engines. However, I’ve noticed search results are poorer in quality these days. I also subscribe to newsletters via email and I have set up RSS feeds from news aggregators.