China's first white paper on cyber security justifies curbs on social media, says it will thwart 'external interference'

March 3, 2017

Beijing, Mar 3: Justifying its curbs on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, China on Thursday said such controls were needed to prevent "external interference".

socialmedia"Safeguarding China's sovereignty, security and development interests in cyberspace has become an important strategic goal," China's first white paper on cyber security released here said.

Titled "International Strategy of Cooperation on Cyberspace", the white paper highlighted how several countries including China and Russia pushed for a "sovereign" and nationally-administered and controlled internet to avoid external interference.

While it said China "supports a free and open Internet", senior Chinese officials who released the paper to the media put up a strong defence to Beijing's internet controls by blocking global social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube with Great firewalls, saying that it is keeping in line with protecting China's national interests.

Releasing the white paper, Wang Jianchao, International Cooperation Department of the Cyberspace Administration of China said, "the Chinese Internet is fully open".

"As long as they comply with Chinese laws and regulations, refrain from undermining China's national interests and interests of Chinese consumers, all Internet companies are welcome in China," Wang said.

Long Zhou, Coordinator, Cyber affairs division of the Foreign Ministry said, China was "deeply worried that around the world cyber attacks are increasing".

China, which has only state-controlled media, is trying to grapple with spread of social media like Weibo, a Chinese version of twitter which has hundreds of millions of users.

Weibo itself has over 313 million users. The ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) worries that it could be effectively used to subvert its over six decades of rule.

China's concept of cyber sovereignty will be discussed in the BRICS, (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) to be held in Xiamen in September this year, officials said.

It will be discussed in the cyber security working group of the bloc, they said.

"As BRICS host this year, China stands ready to work together with Russia and other BRICS partners," Long said.

On the allegations of Russian interference in the US election, Long said, "especially in recent years, the number of cyber security events throughout the world increasing, posing challenges to all countries' efforts to maintain political, economic stability and protecting all citizens' rights and interests".

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Agencies
January 4,2020

Washington D.C: One of the greatest spectacles of modern art is still thriving in the Australian outback as confirmed by satellite imagery of NASA. The Marree Man is a massive geoglyph depicting an aboriginal hunter, that spans over 2.6 miles in the Southern Australian region.

Discovered by a pilot in 1998, its origin still remains a mystery even to this date.

The Marree Man was given a new lease of life in 2016 when a group of people from the neighboring town of Marree plowed its lines to avert its fading due to erosion.

After NASA shared the image of the art-work that was taken in June, the efforts of the good samaritans turned out to be a total success, reported CNN Travel.

The restoration team believes that the refurbished Marree Man would last longer than its original version.

According to NASA, "They [the team] created wind grooves, designed to trap water and encourage the growth of vegetation. They hope that eventually, the man will turn green."

In a previous article, CNN reported that an entrepreneur by the name of Dick Smith took upon himself to unravel the geoglyph's mystery in 2016. His team combed through all the available evidence but couldn't find anything conclusive.

In 2018 he even offered a 5,000 Australian dollar reward for anyone who knows the identity of its creator.

Nobody turned up with an answer but it was speculated that unknown artist lives in Alice Springs or even might be an American.

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Agencies
February 25,2020

Tokyo, Feb 25: Japan's Chitetsu Watanabe, recognized at 112 years as the oldest man in the world, has passed away 11 days after he received the Guinness World Record certificate, his family said on Tuesday.

Watanabe died on Sunday night, Efe news reported.

He received the official certificate on February 12 at a nursing home in Joetsu in Niigata prefecture, where he resided.

Soon after being certified as the oldest man, he began to experience a lack of appetite and respiratory problems, the wife of his eldest son told public broadcaster NHK.

Born on March 5, 1907 in a family of farmers, Watanabe moved at the age of 20 to Taiwan, where he worked at a sugar refinery for 18 years before returning to Japan after the end of World War II.

A fan of calligraphy, custard and ice cream, Watanabe told the Guinness team that the key to his long life was laughter.

He was recognized as the oldest male in the world following the deaths in 2019 of German Gustav Gerneth (in October), aged 114 years, and Japan's Masazo Nonaka (in January), at the age of 113, three months older than the German.

It remains to be seen who will be recognized after the death of Watanabe, the only male on the list drawn up by the Gerontology Research Group of the 30 oldest people in the world.

Japan has among the highest life expectancy in the world and the number of centenarians in the country has crossed 71,000, according to the latest government figures.

Since 2000, the number of centenarians censored has quintupled, raising concern for the economic outlook and future workforce of the country - where the birthrate is on a downward trend.

Out of these, 88 per cent are women.

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Agencies
June 16,2020

Paris, Jun 16: Increasing numbers of readers are paying for online news around the world even if the level of trust in the media, in general, remains very low, according to a report published Tuesday.

Around 20 percent of Americans questioned said they subscribed to an online news provider (up to four points over the previous year) and 42 percent of Norwegians (up eight points), along with 13 percent of the Dutch (up to three points), compared with 10 percent in France and Germany.

But between a third and a half of all news subscriptions go to just a few major media organisations, such as the New York Times, according to the annual Digital News Report by the Reuters Institute.

Some readers, however, are also beginning to take out more than one subscription, paying for a local or specialist title in addition to a national news source, the study's authors said.

But a large proportion of internet users say nothing could convince them to pay for online news, around 40 percent in the United States and 50 percent in Britain.

YouGov conducted the online surveys of 40 countries for the Reuters Institute in January, with 2,000 respondents in each.

Further surveys were carried out in six countries in April to analyse the initial effects of COVID-19.

The health crisis brought a revival of interest in television news -- with the audience rising five percent on average -- establishing itself as the main source of information along with online media.

Conversely, newspaper circulation was hard-hit by coronavirus lockdown measures.

The survey found trust in the news had fallen to its lowest level since the first report in 2012, with just 38 percent saying they trusted most news most of the time.

However, confidence in the news media varied considerably by country, ranging from 56 percent in Finland and Portugal to 23 percent in France and 21 percent in South Korea.

In Hong Kong, which has been hit by months of sometimes violent street protests against an extradition law, trust in the news fell 16 points to 30 percent over the year.

Chile, which has had regular demonstrations against inequality, saw trust in the media fall 15 percent while in Britain, where society has been polarised by issues such as Brexit, it was down 12 points.

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