On this edition of The Web This Week: Data protection and the LGBTQ+ community, Singapore’s new internet content laws, and the Metaverse Standards Forum.
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Privacy
Data protection and LGBTQ+ community - A new report by the Future of Privacy Forum analyses the role of data protection in safeguarding information about individuals’ sexual orientation and gender identity ➤ Future of Privacy Forum
Algorithms and AI
AI for data centres - Google, Microsoft and Meta have become the latest tech giants to turn to AI to help run their data centres, which can be hazardous places for the workers that build and maintain them ➤ TechCrunch
AI’s real danger - Kenan Malik explains why the human quality we should be concerned about when it comes to artificial intelligence is bias rather than sentience ➤ The Guardian
Stat of the week
97%
Percentage of LGBTQ+ youth that have seen content online that could be described as ‘homophobic, biphobic or transphobic ➤ Future of Privacy Forum
Singapore’s “fake news” laws - The country has proposed laws that will grant regulators the power to order social media services to remove or block online content deemed harmful, especially to young people ➤ Bloomberg
“For much of the LGBTQ+ youth, the Internet is the only place they feel safe to express their sexuality and connect with other LGBTQ+ youth. Potential violations can lead to privacy harms in the form of online outings and harassment.”
Algorithm to the rescue? - A team of coders is developing a new algorithm to try to tackle gender abuse online ➤ The Times
Bytes and Pieces
Metaverse Standards Forum - Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and other tech companies have created this new oversight group which aims to drive open interoperability in the metaverse ➤ TechCrunch
Character development - Twitter is preparing to launch Twitter Notes, a new feature that would support the direct publishing of long-form content on the platform ➤ TechCrunch
Web Foundation in the News
A4AI Nigeria Coordinator Olusola Teniola was quoted in an article by Punch Nigeria about the effect of Nigeria's SIM-NIN verification policy on internet subscriber numbers.
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