Good morning and a happy hump day to all that observe. Let’s get you caught up on the tech news today.
1. WeChat ban recommended for government devices
itNews is reporting that the ban of Chinese messaging service WeChat on government devices is among 17 recommendations made by a senate committee investigating foreign powers and how they use social media to interfere in Australia. Senator Paterson said in statement that “Platforms like TikTok and WeChat that are subject to the control of authoritarian regimes illustrate the broader cyber security risk to sensitive government information.” Additionally, it has been recommended that Australia assist developing nations in the Indo-Pacific resist “malicious information operations” by authoritarian states.
2. Twitter threatens to sue hate speech researchers
Twitter (X?) is threatening to sue a hate speech research group, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), for “false and misleading claims” about the social media platform. In a series of tweets, X Corp CEO Elon Musk described the CCDH as “truly evil” and called CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed a “rat”. “Elon Musk’s actions represent a brazen attempt to silence honest criticism and independent research, in the desperate hope that he can stem the tide of negative stories and rebuild his relationship with advertisers,” Ahmed said. “Advertisers are fleeing his platform for one clear reason: Elon Musk has supported the proliferation of hate and racism on it, and he doesn’t care to stop it. Musk is targeting CCDH because we reveal the truth about the spread of hate and disinformation on Twitter under his ownership, and it’s impacting his bottom line.”
3. Well, isn’t that familiar?
As reported by Mashable, Meta has begun to block news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada, following through on a threat to do so in response to the country’s Online News Act, which was passed back in June 2023. The bill is supposed to ensure “fair revenue sharing between digital platforms and news outlets”, according to Mashable, but to get around sharing its wealth, Meta is simply just not allowing news on its platforms in the country. Meta said that the legislation “is based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms, when the reverse is true”, and overall it’s eerily similar to when Meta pulled the same stunt in Australia in 2021, which was also in response to new rules on revenue sharing on social media.
4. Lenovo may be building a Steam Deck competitor
Things are heating up in the emerging handheld gaming section of the PC market. As reported by Windows Central, Lenovo is now building a device similar to the Steam Deck; a handheld gaming device with a controller layout similar to a Nintendo Switch, possibly labelled the “Legion Go”. It’s expected to look similar to the unreleased Lenovo Legion Play, and include an eight-inch display, an AMD Phoenix processor, and a Windows OS, although there’s no word right now on a launch date. In our review of the ROG Ally, a similar handheld gaming unit, we weren’t too fussed on the Windows integration and its general buggyness, although it was a powerful device.
5. It’s a real bear, trust me
A Chinese zoo is denying that its Malayan sun bears are humans dressed in costumes after visitors claimed the bears’ behaviours strongly resembled that of a person. A video of the bear, named Angela, was posted on social media and went viral, showing the bear standing on her hind legs and facing onlookers before sitting down and walking away. Concerns that Angela is a human are not completely unfounded as several Chinese zoos have been accused of replacing animals in their enclosures. In 2019, a privately owned safari park in the eastern province of Jiangsu faced backlash after it allegedly hired a human to dress as an orangutan. The zoo later claimed it was an April Fool’s Day prank.
BONUS ITEM: Well, now.
Have a lovely day.