Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 7 december 2019
NATO researchers: Social media failing to stop manipulation

By KELVIN CHAN bought clicks for posts that
AP Business Writer were at least six months old
LONDON (AP) — Social me- and carried neutral and
dia companies are failing non-political messages,
to stop manipulated activ- such as “Hello!” and “Thank
ity, according to a report you!” on New Year’s greet-
Friday by NATO-affiliated ings from European Union
researchers who said they commissioners.
were easily able to buy tens Four weeks later, 80% of the
of thousands of likes, com- fake activity remained on-
ments and views on Face- line, the researchers found,
book, Twitter, YouTube and as they sought to gauge
Instagram. whether the sites were in-
Most of the phony ac- dependently detecting
counts and the activity misuse. They then report-
they engaged in remained ed 100 of the accounts
online weeks later, even af- This combination of images shows logos for companies from left, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. as fake, but found about
ter researchers at the NATO AP Business Writer 95 remained active three
Strategic Command Cen- weeks later.
tre of Excellence flagged use of their platforms,” the from their brand contracts. panding to feed the grow- Some companies were
them up as fake. report said. Fake accounts are still ing demand for phony better than others, the re-
The center, an indepen- Online manipulation used for political means, clicks and likes. port said.
dent group based in Lat- emerged as a major issue though it’s a minor slice of They used 16 companies, YouTube was the easiest
via that advises the military for tech companies af- the industry and aimed at most based in Russia, to site on which to create
alliance, said the findings ter the 2016 U.S. election, “non-western” pages, the buy fake online engage- fake accounts but the best
contrast with statements when Russian influence ef- researchers said, noting ment for 105 posts on Face- at countering artificial likes
from tech companies that forts came to light. The re- they were used to buy en- book, Twitter, YouTube and and video views.
say they’ve been working searchers found that most gagement on hundreds of Instagram. They spent just Manipulating Instagram is
harder on stamping out fake social media activity is political pages and dozens 300 euros ($330) to pur- easy and cheap because
manipulation. bought for commercial, not of government pages. chase 3,530 comments, the site is was largely un-
“Overall social media com- political, reasons. It can in- To carry out the study, the 25,750 likes, 20,000 views able to detect and stop
panies are experiencing clude Instagram influencers researchers turned to the and 5,100 followers. it, while Twitter was best at
significant challenges in trying to pump up their pro- “manipulation service pro- To avoid influencing real detecting and removing
countering the malicious files to make more money vider” industry, which is ex- conversations, they only manipulation. q

Huawei asks court to throw out U.S. telecom funds ban

By SAM McNEIL threat without evidence pliers such as Nokia and Er-
Associated Press and violated its own pro- icsson are more expensive.
SHENZHEN, China (AP) — cedures by adopting a rule Song said that while poten-
Chinese tech giant Hua- without citing a legal basis. tial lost sales are minimal, if
wei is asking a U.S. federal American courts have tra- the rule is allowed to stand,
court to throw out a rule ditionally been reluctant to Huawei might suffer “repu-
that bars rural phone car- second-guess government tational losses” that will
riers from using govern- judgments about national “have a further impact on
ment money to purchase security. In a separate law- our business.” Huawei’s U.S.
its equipment on security suit filed in March, Huawei sales plunged after a con-
grounds.The lawsuit an- is asking a federal court in gressional panel warned
nounced Thursday is Hua- Texas to strike down a ban in 2012 the company and
wei Technologies Ltd.’s on the U.S. government us- ZTE were security risks and
second legal challenge ing its equipment or deal- told carriers to avoid them.
this year to Trump admin- ing with any contractor However, its sales in Europe
istration efforts to reduce Song Liuping, chief legal officer of Huawei, speaks during a that does. and developing markets in
its already minimal U.S. press conference at Huawei’s campus in Shenzhen in southern Meanwhile, U.S. prosecu- Asia and Africa have risen
market presence. The China’s Guandong Province, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019. tors are trying to extradite steadily.Huawei earlier
company is scrambling to Associated Press Huawei’s chief financial of- reported its global sales
preserve its global sales of U.S.-Chinese tension over ral carriers from using gov- ficer from Canada to face rose 24.4% in the first nine
smartphones and network Beijing’s technology ambi- ernment subsidies to buy charges she lied to banks months of 2019 over a year
gear following sanctions tions and complaints the equipment from Huawei or about dealings with Iran. earlier to 610.8 billion yuan
announced in May that communist government its Chinese rival, ZTE Corp. Chinese authorities say the ($86 billion). The Trump ad-
limit access to U.S. compo- steals or pressures foreign The decision “is based on United States is exagger- ministration imposed curbs
nents and technology. companies to hand over politics, not security,” Hua- ating security concerns to in May that threaten to
Huawei, which says it is know-how. wei’s chief legal officer, block a potential competi- disrupt Huawei’s sales of
employee-owned and has Huawei’s lawsuit in U.S. fed- Song Liuping, told a news tor. smartphones and network
no government ties, denies eral court in New Orleans conference.The lawsuit Huawei warned the FCC gear by blocking access
U.S. accusations it is a se- says the Federal Com- says the FCC exceeded rule will hurt rural American to U.S. technology and
curity risk and might facili- munications Commission its authority by making na- carriers, which buy the Chi- components including
tate Chinese spying. acted improperly when it tional security judgments, nese vendor’s equipment Google’s music, maps and
Huawei is at the center of voted last month to bar ru- designated Huawei a because other major sup- other mobile services.q