International
New York plans a law to limit the addictive network algorithm for minors
New York is preparing to approve a pioneering bill to restrict the absorbing algorithm of social networks for minors, considering that the content they provide is as addictive and harmful as tobacco or gambling.
State legislators have already given it the green light and now only the signature of Governor Kathy Hochul is missing.
“It’s crazy that the internet is not regulated for children. The last time we did something was literally the last century,” the 38-year-old Democratic state senator who has promoted this project, Andrew Gounardes, tells EFE.
The measure does not seek to eradicate the networks themselves in New York, but its recommendation algorithm system that shows the user tirelessly the content that the platform thinks it wants to see – according to its information and history. Therefore, the legislators propose that it be replaced by a system of publications in chronological order, such as the one that existed when the networks were launched.
The final objective of Gounardes – which had the support of the two parties – is to make minors spend less time glued to the phone, but without intervening in what they can see, since content cannot be prohibited without interfering in the first amendment of the Constitution, which protects the rights to freedom of expression.
The idea of Gounardes, who has two young children, is that the under 18-year-old can only see the following content: “The one that his friends, his family, Taylor Swift’s fan page publish…, but not a constant loop of information designed to absorb it in an increasingly deep burrow.”
Andrew Gounardes met with teachers, teenagers and parents to create this bill and heard desolate stories, such as that of a family whose 16-year-old son, who was struggling with depression, committed suicide. His TikTok home page showed how the network had led him to increasingly depressive content, to the point of showing him “recipes for self-injury or suicide.”
For the state senator it is not about having a greater willpower: “They are the same arguments that people made about cigarettes: ‘If you had more self-control, you could stop smoking’. That’s not true, we know that cigarettes are not (only) nicotine, it is a chemical dependence that is formed in you and that makes you addicted.”
Idea that the general surgeon and highest health authority of the country, Vivek Murthy, agrees, who advocated this week to introduce mental health warnings on social networks, similar to those on tobacco packs or alcohol bottles.
New York senators also met with the technology giants – Google, Meta, TikTok Snapchat, among others – to make sure that they can fulfill their requests on social networks.
Despite the fact that the Titans collaborated with politicians, Gounardes assures that they have “11 billion reasons not to want to change the status quo,” referring to the money earned in 2022 by the six largest social media companies for the sale of advertising to children.
Now the bill awaits the signature of Kathy Hochul, who celebrated in the approval of the legislators in X and, according to Gounardes, could sign the document this week.
Then the process would take a year to implement, since the state attorney general, Letitia James, who has also been in favor of the measure, will have to draft the regulations on the bill and New York would give companies a time margin of one year to comply with the law.
When it is in operation, the network that breaches the law would have 30 days to correct the problem or face fines of up to $5,000 per minor user.
“California and Virginia have copied (the project) and we hope that this can soon become the national model,” Gounardes concludes.
International
At least 120 dead in the Gaza Strip in the last 48 hours from Israeli attacks
At least 120 Palestinians have died in the Gaza Strip in the last 48 hours from Israeli attacks and the death toll since the war began amounts to 44,176, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas.
In the case of the injured, the ministry confirmed 205 in the last two days and in total since the war began, on October 7, 2023, they total 104,473, according to that count.
In addition, it is estimated that there are 11,000 missing people under the rubble.
Offensive in Yabalia and Beit Lahia
Although fatalities have been recorded in different parts of the Strip, in the last 40 days Israel’s offensive has focused on the northern half, especially in the cities of Yabalia and Beit Lahia, with more than 2,300 dead since then, and more than 6,000 injured.
Kamal Adwan hospital has been attacked again after an Israeli drone destroyed the electric generator, water tank and oxygen tanks in the center yesterday, where 80 patients remain.
“It seems that there are no limits to the cruelty inflicted on the Palestinians in Gaza. For more than 40 days, the northern population is besieged: surrounded, bombed, deprived of the basic means of survival and forced to flee under threats,” denounced the head of the OCHA (UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs) office for Palestine, Jonathan Whittal.
Whittal said that his teams have been trying to access Yabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanun, the most affected cities, for more than a month, but that the Israeli authorities have rejected all his requests.
“The result? People are under the rubble without being rescued. The sick and the wounded cannot reach the hospitals. Drinking water and food have run out. Lives have been lost,” he said.
International
At least 10 people died at the hands of strangers in a mosque in northern Afghanistan
At least 10 people were killed in an attack by unidentified armed men in a mosque in Baghlan province, in northern Afghanistan, Taliban government sources confirmed to EFE this Saturday.
The attack in the Nahrin district of Baghlan, northern Afghanistan, took place on Thursday night, according to Taliban government deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat.
“Unfortunately, before last night (Thursday night) in a mosque and on a pilgrimage during the night, ten people who stayed for worship were killed by strangers,” he said.
Sufi communities in Afghanistan often spend nights in mosques as a worship practice.
Research to identify the authors
Fitrat assured that investigations are being carried out to identify and bring the perpetrators to justice for this “horrible incident,” for which no armed group has claimed authorship.
“The Islamic Emirate strongly condemns this terrible act and considers it an unforgivable crime,” added Fitrat, who blames extremist groups.
“This act was committed by those extremist groups that have no respect for the blood of other Muslims,” he condemned.
In the last three years, since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, ISIS-Khorasan, the Afghan branch of the jihadist group Islamic State- has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on minorities and members of the Taliban, becoming the country’s greatest security threat.
Minority groups such as the Hazara Shiite community and Sufi practitioners have been frequent targets of violence by extremist groups that try to impose a rigid interpretation of Islam.
The Taliban de facto government has insistently denied that the Islamic State is a security threat to Afghanistan or any other country, while the regime’s secrecy and iron controls on the press have cut off the flow of information on the country’s security situation.
International
Ukraine attacks the port of Berdyansk with missiles, according to pro-Russian authorities
The Ukrainian army attacked the port of Berdiansk, in the Sea of Azov, with missiles on Saturday, according to the pro-Russian authorities of the Zaporyy region today.
“The enemy perpetrated an attack with guided missiles against the port of Berdiansk. The fires caused by the impact have been suffocated,” reported the governor imposed by Moscow, Yevgueni Balitski, on his Telegram channel.
The governor, who was recently received in Moscow by Russian President Vladimir Putin, stressed that the attack did not cause injuries among the civilian population and did not interrupt the work of the port facilities.
In turn, he assured that anti-aircraft defenses continue to be on maximum alert, since new Ukrainian attacks against the city are not ruled out.
At the end of October Kiev had already attacked the strategic port under Russian control since 2022 with a dead old woman.
The Russian army controls more than 70% of Zaporiyia and tries to take control of the rest of the region as it advances at forced marches in neighboring Donetsk.
North Korean soldiers in the Belgorod region, according to Ukraine
Ukraine claims that North Korean soldiers, who until now were only in the Russian region of Kursk, were also transferred to Belgorod, which borders the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv.
“Some soldiers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea were transferred to the border of the Belgorod region,” the head of the Central Intelligence Department of the National Security and Defense Council, Andrí Kovalenko, wrote on Telegram.
The senior Ukrainian official stressed that “they are not in the Kharkiv region,” as some US media had reported based on Ukrainian sources.
The Kremlin rules out a second onde of mobilization
For its part, the Kremlin today ruled out a second wave of mobilization of reservists to fight in Ukraine with a view to the fourth year of fighting in the neighboring country.
“Our citizens very actively sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense,” Dmitri Peskov, presidential spokesman, told the official agency RIA Novosti.
Peskov stressed that volunteers carry out courses in which they are instructed “consciously,” so “now there is no need to talk about mobilization.”
“There are many, hundreds who sign contracts every day,” he added.
The Kremlin has refrained from declaring a new partial mobilization after the first one in September 2022 caused great popular discontent and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of military-age men.
1,000 days of combat
Fighting in Ukraine reached 1,000 days this week with Russian forces advancing in forced marches in the Donbas, although Moscow has not yet been able to expel Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region.
Ukraine hopes to slow down the current Russian offensive with Western authorization to use American and British long-range missiles against targets in Russian territory, which Kiev used against the Bryansk and Kursk regions.
Russia responded on Thursday by launching an Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile at an arms factory in the Ukrainian region of Dnipro.
In addition, on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that there will be more launches and announced the mass production of those new generation missiles capable of circumventing any Western missile shield.
At least 120 dead in the Gaza Strip in the last 48 hours from Israeli attacks
At least 10 people died at the hands of strangers in a mosque in northern Afghanistan
Ukraine attacks the port of Berdyansk with missiles, according to pro-Russian authorities
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