Technology

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/34990039

Archived

In 2010, an elite unit of the Chinese police entered an Apple shop in Shanghai and violently assaulted the customers. The attack was so brutal that the floor tiles subsequently had to be replaced: they were too bloodstained. Those customers had been waiting in line for days for the latest iPhone; their crime was to refuse to leave upon learning that the shop had sold out of stock.

Yet no official record of this event exists. The shop’s cameras were cut and employees had their phones wiped. “It shows you how quickly the Chinese can brush everything under the carpet,” one person present tells journalist Patrick McGee. “It was like a mini-Tiananmen Square.” The incident is one small example in McGee’s eye-opening book, Apple in China, of how the Californian iPhone maker has “bound its future inextricably to a ruthless authoritarian state”.

When people think of Apple’s presence in China, the focus tends either to be on the cheap manufacture of the company’s parts and the poor working conditions at those factories, or on the censorship of content on Apple devices inside the country. McGee, a journalist at the Financial Times, breaks down in much greater detail the relationship between this capitalist company and communist nation – a relationship so intertwined and complex that it will take decades to unravel. He makes the argument that not only has China effectively made Apple what it is today, but the reverse is also true. “China wouldn’t be China today without Apple,” McGee writes. “[Apple’s] investments in the country have been spectacular, rivalling nation-building efforts.”

[...]

The more Apple invests in both training these [Chinese] contracted factory workers and paying for special machinery that could only be used for its products – in 2018 the value of Apple’s “long-lived assets” in China peaked at $13.3 billion – the more it becomes bound to the country. [Apple contractor's] Foxconn hubs, for example, are now surrounded by hundreds of sub-suppliers that cater to Apple’s every whim. “Anything we wanted, we could get it,” one engineer recalls. “Whatever we needed, it would happen.”

[...]

Apple is notoriously secretive, but McGee proffers dozens of first-hand accounts of how the company essentially bumbled its way into becoming hooked on China. By the time Apple executives realise that the Chinese president Xi Jinping is ramping up repression at home and taking a more combative stance in international affairs, it’s too late to untangle the relationship: those business ties, McGee writes, are “unbreakable”. In 2016, when the Chinese authorities make it clear that they can remove, whenever they want, the cheap and plentiful labour on which Apple relies, Cook is compelled to make a trip to the Chinese Communist Party headquarters. The company pledges to invest $275 billion in China over the next five years. It does not, unsurprisingly, announce this investment to the Western press.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/34921358

The new endorsements bring the total number of supporters—including France—to 36.

The UN Open Source Principles, recently adopted by the UN Chief Executive Board's Digital Technology Network (DTN)Opens a new window provide guidelines to promote collaboration and the adoption of open-source technologies within the UN and globally. Open Source United, a community of practice established by the DTN, works to advance open source technologies across UN agencies, funds and programmes. It encourages collaboration and scalable solutions to support delivery of UN mandates.

The UN Open Source Principles consist of eight guidelines that offer a framework for the use, development, and sharing of Open Source software across the organization.

Archived

TikTok is failing to address serious risks of harm to young users’ mental and physical health almost 18 months after Amnesty International highlighted these risks in a groundbreaking report.

The 2023 research revealed that children were at risk of being drawn into toxic “rabbit holes” of depression and suicide related content on TikTok’s ‘For You’ feed.

In an investigation using accounts to simulate 13-year-olds online, Amnesty International found that within 20 minutes of starting a new account and signalling an interest in mental health, more than half of the videos in TikTok’s ‘For You’ feed related to mental health struggles. Multiple of these recommended videos in a single hour romanticised, normalised or encouraged suicide.

[...]

Despite TikTok’s growing user base, particularly in countries with young populations like Kenya, where the median age is 20, the platform is yet to conduct a basic child rights due diligence to address any risks posed to its youngest users.

TikTok’s response to our latest research questions on what it is doing to makes the app safer for young users reveals that seven years after becoming available internationally, the company is still waiting for an external provider to complete a child rights impact assessment for the platform, a key responsibility under international human rights standards for businesses.

[...]

TikTok states, “like other apps, TikTok collects information that users choose to provide, along with data that supports things like app functionality, security, and overall user experience” and that “viewing a video doesn’t necessarily implicate someone’s identity”.

And yet TikTok’s ‘For You’ feed clearly picks up on a person’s emotional state when it amplifies masses of depression and even suicide-related content and then uses their susceptibility to this content to recommend more of it, regardless of the potential harms.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2821089

After 2,5 years of intensive research and programming efforts, the entire Openwebsearch.eu project team is excited to grant access to its pilot of the first-ever federated pan-European Open Web Index (OWI).

From June onward, commercial and scientific development teams of any size as well as interested individuals are welcome to access and make use of almost a petabyte (and growing) of open web data under a general research license or – upon request – under a designated commercial license as well.

Given that the European Commission has launched the InvestAI initiative to mobilize €200 billion of investment in artificial intelligence, the Open Web Index comes with perfect timing.

The OpenWebSearch.eu consortium actively calls early adopters to pioneer innovative projects surrounding vertical web search, argumentative search, LLM applications including RAG and more.

“The OWI symbolizes a first step towards true European digital sovereignty and is a fundamental step in paving the way for a comprehensive open European AI landscape.“ says Community Manager Ursula Gmelch and further:

“Our goal behind this initial pilot phase is to onboard a range of projects from diverse domains to get early feedback in. We look forward to users confirming the quality and value in current functionalities and/or helping us pivot in such ways that real market demands can be met and further expanded upon.“

An official kick-off event will be hosted on 6 June from 10 am to 12 am CEST via Zoom.

Registration to the event is open under the following link:

https://cscfi.zoom.us/meeting/register/eATIpDQ5TZidh4Jzkim6FQ#/registration

[,,,]

Residents in and around Bessemer are furious over Project Marvel, a plan to build a 4.5-million-square-foot data processing facility on 700 acres of wooded land. Public officials have been sworn to silence.

If built to planned capacity, the data center would be one of the largest in the United States and could become one of the largest single consumers of electricity in the state. Of nearly a dozen residents interviewed by Inside Climate News, none expressed support for the project as planned. Instead, all shared fear and frustration over their inability to obtain information about the $14.5 billion proposal from politicians charged with representing the public.

Efforts by Inside Climate News to speak with public officials in Bessemer about the proposal, called Project Marvel, were met with silence. The mayor, his chief of staff and the city’s attorney all signed a non-disclosure agreement with the developer, staffers said, and would not be able to answer questions about the project.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/34664325

Archived

Ahead of the Romanian presidential election runoff on Sunday 18th May, Refute has uncovered a widespread international influence operation targeting Romanian expat voters on TikTok.

The campaign includes inauthentic—in some cases, AI generated—videos deliberately targeting locations with high Romanian expat populations across Europe.

Refute detected approximately 32,500 videos on TikTok containing slogans promoting populist candidate George Simion and annulled candidate Calin Georgescu. Many of these videos are inauthentic, such as videos that have been duplicated in a coordinated manner across dozens of accounts.

Despite the fact that only 24% of Romanian nationals live outside of Romania, 48% of engagement with these videos (40 million likes and comments) came from outside Romania. Countries outside of Romania with the greatest share of engagement were the UK (15%), Italy (7%), Germany (7%), Spain (5%) and France (2%).

“The fact that nearly half of engagement with videos pushing populist candidates comes from outside of Romania—twice the percentage of Romanians living abroad—indicates that Romanian expat voters are being disproportionately targeted to manipulate the election rerun." -- - Vlad Galu, Refute co-founder and CTO and Romanian native

[...]

“We’ve already seen the use of influencers and bot farms in the November 2024 election, but this is a new example of a sophisticated influence operation crossing international boundaries to sway Romanian voters living abroad,” added Tom Garnett, Refute co-founder and CEO.

“Refute’s platform uses learnings from behaviours observed in last year’s election to automatically score and predict coordinated and inauthentic behaviour with unmatched speed and accuracy.”

[...]

The November 2024 Romanian presidential election was annulled due to alleged foreign interference, which is thought to have contributed to the success of first round winner George Simion, as well as continued support for the banned candidate Calin Georgescu.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2776105

The European Commission has informed TikTok of its preliminary view that the company does not fulfil the Digital Services Act (DSA)'s obligation to publish an advertisement repository. Such an advertising repository is critical for researchers and civil society to detect scam advertisements, hybrid threat campaigns, as well as coordinated information operations and fake advertisements, including in the context of elections.

The Commission has found that TikTok does not provide the necessary information about the content of the advertisements, the users targeted by the ads, and who paid for the advertisements. Moreover, TikTok's advertisement repository does not allow the public to search comprehensively for advertisements on the basis of this information, thereby limiting the usefulness of the tool.

[...]

TikTok now has the possibility to exercise its rights of defence by examining the documents in the Commission's investigation file and by replying in writing to the Commission's preliminary findings. In parallel, the European Board for Digital Services will be consulted.

If the Commission's preliminary views were to be ultimately confirmed, the Commission may issue a non-compliance decision, which may trigger a fine of up to 6% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the provider as well as an enhanced supervision period to ensure compliance with the measures the provider intends to take to remedy the breach. The Commission can also impose periodic penalty payments to compel a platform to comply.

[...]

[The EU sees the advertisement repository as a vital tool enabling researchers to detect scam ads and coordinated campaigns that aim to disrupt elections such as it happened in Romania that was plunged into political chaos last year when the first round of the presidential election was annulled. Back then, the country’s intelligence services alleged that Russia had mounted an online campaign to promote a far-right and previously widely unknown politician who topped the poll. On Sunday [May 18], Romania will choose between two candidates in the second round of the rescheduled presidential elections.]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2772572

Viginum, the French government body responsible for monitoring foreign digital interference, published a detailed report uncovering a large-scale Russian influence operation that used TikTok to sway Romania’s presidential race in December last year.

The campaign, backed by Russian-linked networks, boosted fringe candidate Calin Georgescu and ultimately led Romanian authorities to annul the vote.

...

Viginum is now calling on France and other EU countries to increase oversight of digital advertising and influencer activity ahead of upcoming elections.

“The absence of transparency about the origin of funding and advertisements allowed the foreign network to move while remaining virtually invisible, directly reaching a gigantic electoral pool,” the report said.

Romania’s elections this month [on May 18] will be followed by votes in Albania and Poland, raising concerns that similar campaigns could target those countries next.

...

[Sergiu Miscoiu of Babes-Bolyai University] said Russian disinformation efforts across Eastern Europe are rarely designed to promote Russia directly. Instead, they aim to erode confidence in democratic institutions.

“They will try just to seed doubts about the European Union, about liberal democracy, to create alternative narratives, and through fake news and disinformation, to weaken the trust in the authorities,” he said.

One recent example is a false campaign claiming that young Europeans would be forcibly sent to fight in Ukraine. The rumour spread widely among Romanian and Bulgarian communities, stoking fear and distrust.

Other operations target everyday frustrations.

“There would be a report on ‘Eastern countries getting the rotten apples, the expired bananas, the second-hand services, and so they remain second-hand Europeans, while all the good products are reserved for the Western Europeans’,” said Miscoiu.

Viginum had already issued warnings last year about Russian attempts to meddle in European elections. Its latest findings suggest that while the Romanian vote was re-run, the tactics used to disrupt it are still in play.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2772422

Google, Microsoft, Amazon, X, and the entire tracking-based advertising industry rely on the “Transparency & Consent Framework” (TCF) to obtain “consent” for data processing. This evening [May 14] the Belgian Court of Appeal ruled that the TCF is illegal. The TCF is live on 80% of the Internet.

The decision arises from enforcement by the Belgian Data Protection Authority, prompted by complainants coordinated by Dr Johnny Ryan, Director of Enforce at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. The group of complainants are: Dr Johnny Ryan of Enforce, Katarzyna Szymielewicz of the Panoptykon Foundation, Dr Jef Ausloos, Dr Pierre Dewitte, Stichting Bits of Freedom, and Ligue des Droits Humains.

[...]

U.S. energy officials are reassessing the risk posed by Chinese-made devices that play a critical role in renewable energy infrastructure after unexplained communication equipment was found inside some of them, two people familiar with the matter said.

Power inverters, which are predominantly produced in China, are used throughout the world to connect solar panels and wind turbines to electricity grids. They are also found in batteries, heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers.

While inverters are built to allow remote access for updates and maintenance, the utility companies that use them typically install firewalls to prevent direct communication back to China.

However, rogue communication devices not listed in product documents have been found in some Chinese solar power inverters by U.S experts who strip down equipment hooked up to grids to check for security issues, the two people said.

Over the past nine months, undocumented communication devices, including cellular radios, have also been found in some batteries from multiple Chinese suppliers, one of them said.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/34459495

The woman who appeared before the Munich Labor Court earlier this year was once considered a star of German scientific research. The researcher, whose name we are shortening to Z., was celebrated, honoured, and in high demand. She revolutionised an entire field; her lectures filled halls, she was showered with praise and prestigious awards. She was among the most frequently cited researchers in Germany and gained international attention as a top talent.

But her employment with the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Luft- und Raumfahrtzentrum, DLR) quietly came to an end almost unnoticed. No one spoke publicly about the reasons for her dismissal. In 2022, Z. lost her prestigious position there, and took legal action.

[...]

It was a suspicion of espionage that led to the DLR’s break with the brilliant researcher from China. A grave allegation that could destroy her career, should it be substantiated.

[...]

At this stage, it is neither possible to confirm nor deny whether Z. was in fact spying for China at the DLR.

[...]

[As an] investigation reveals, Z. maintains extensive connections to the Chinese defence apparatus. In Munich, she orchestrates a network of doctoral candidates and visiting researchers who previously worked at institutions linked to the military in China.

It cannot be ruled out that intelligence from Munich may have flowed into Chinese military technology. Several of the institutions with which Z. collaborated on research projects are involved in China’s notorious satellite programme. Experts suspect that the programme is intended, among other things, to monitor naval movements in the South China Sea – crucial to the territorial dispute over Taiwan.

[...]

At the TUM she is responsible for publicly funded multi-million-euro projects in the field of remote sensing combined with AI or social media data. She develops highly complex algorithms to extract geoinformation from satellite imagery – enabling, for example, the mapping of cities or the tracking of natural disasters.

[...]

According to the official project description, the research findings [of projects led by Z.] would be “invaluable for many scientific, governmental, and planning tasks.” This project supposedly puts Germany in “pole position” in the race for this technology.

In another publicly funded project, Z. explored the extent to which social media posts can be integrated into Earth observation, and delivered impressive findings. Her algorithms help determine, for instance, whether buildings are residential properties or offices. In her interview with the Helmholtz magazine, she says: “We know, for example, that in a residential building, many tweets are sent in the morning and evening, whereas in an office building, they are mainly sent during the day.”

[...]

For those at the TUM, where she remained a professor, the exact circumstances of her dismissal from the DLR were initially unknown. However, some of the roughly 40 members of staff at her department began to prick up their ears. Rumours started to circulate among employees in the department about supposed irregularities on the servers under Z.’s supervision.

It was the period shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Experts assumed that China could attack Taiwan in the near future. In light of global political threats, research collaborations with China were under greater scrutiny than ever before. Since 2022, CORRECTIV has published several investigations revealing how the Chinese state apparatus systematically uses research findings from international collaborations to advance its military technologies. This has been state doctrine in China for years and is referred to as the “military-civil fusion”.

Just over a year ago, a woman from Z.’s immediate professional circle contacted CORRECTIV with an initial tip-off. She wondered whether the research being carried out at the department might be falling into the hands of the Chinese military.

[...]

Z.’s biography is certainly impressive, but her official CV at on the TUM website does not disclose where she got her bachelor’s degree: namely, the National University of Defence Technology (NUDT) in Changsha – China’s most important military institution. It reports directly to the Central Military Commission, the highest military authority in the People’s Republic.

[...]

A “very large volume of data” from the satellite was reportedly transferred to a server under Z.’s supervision. Apparently, there was a “permanent streaming connection” between this server at the TUM and the DLR. While this was, in principle, permitted, the DLR’s counterintelligence team later determined that the server had not been adequately secured. According to their findings, it was not protected by the “TUM’s firewall” and was accessible from anywhere on the internet.

[...]

According to the DLR, a hacker attack on the server occurred in May 2022. The server was allegedly used for so-called Bitcoin mining – where cybercriminals illegally generate cryptocurrency using third-party servers or computers. The DLR concluded that “unauthorised third parties” thereby had access to all data stored on the server – including to the aforementioned sensitive satellite data.

[...]

She [Z.] hired individuals from institutions with military affiliations in China on many occasions, at times bypassing the DLR’s security clearance procedures. According to the DLR’s written statement to the works council, one such case was the original trigger for her dismissal in 2022: Z. is said to have made multiple attempts to continue funding a doctoral student with DLR funds, despite the institution’s rejection of him. Z. responded by saying that “there were never any specific or individual security concerns” about the researcher in questions. This, she argued, amounted to blanket suspicion.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2684489

Archived version

Solar panels with suspected links to Chinese slave labour have been installed by dozens of organisations including Manchester City, Cheltenham Racecourse and David Lloyd gyms, The i Paper can reveal.

The scale of Britain’s use of solar panels made by firms alleged to have used components made from the forced labour of minorities in China can be disclosed for the first time.

As well as commercial premises, the locations include schools, hospitals and universities across the country. There is no suggestion that any of the organisations installed solar panels with knowledge of links to Chinese slave labour.

...

[The investigation] has mapped 84 non-residential locations where solar panels have been installed with links to alleged slave labour. The data is based on evidence provided by Sheffield Hallam University’s Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and open source analysis.

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Last week, growing concerns over Britain’s use of Chinese panels with links to Uyghur oppression forced [UK] Energy Secretary Ed Miliband into banning them from being used by the state-funded Great British Energy company unless it can “ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place” in its business or supply chains.

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IPAC’s senior analyst Chung Ching Kwong believes [the] disclosures are a conservative estimate of the UK’s use of such tainted technology, because of the lack of transparency about the original source of materials used in many panels.

“UK consumers are unknowingly complicit in Uyghur forced labour,” said Ms Kwong. “Our work shows how big a mountain the government has to climb to root out slave-made renewables.”

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Professor Laura Murphy at the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University has led the way in tracing the original source of polysilicon in these panels. Her latest report in 2023 detailed how a number of Chinese firms had “high” exposure to production in Xinjiang. As well as Jinko, these included: JA Solar, Qcells, Canadian Solar, Trina Solar, and LONGi Solar.

Her report stated: “None of the companies that were engaged in state-sponsored labour transfers in 2021 has announced any changes to its recruitment methods or shown any resistance to participation in the PRC (Peoples Republic of China) Government’s programmes. Indeed, since that time, the PRC Government’s labour transfer programme has only increased in scale and the pressure on companies to absorb the workers the state deemed to be surplus remains high.”

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The UK formed the Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) with trade organisations in a bid to tackle human rights challenges within the global solar supply chain including “rigorously” auditing some Chinese sites. Trini Solar and JA Solar are members. The latter firm was suspended in January after the US banned panels made by one of its subsidiaries but was reinstated after the SSI concluded its supply practices had changed.

SSI’s chief executive Rachel Owens said: “We are acutely aware of the complexities involved in verifying supply chain links that may be several tiers removed from the end-product. That is precisely why the SSI, together with a large range of stakeholders including civil society, human rights experts, international financial institutions and industry, developed the SSI Supply Chain Traceability Standard. It will be implemented in 2025.”

...

Some Chinese firms have criticised Sheffield Hallam’s report, claiming it disregards corporate due diligence policies.

But Prof Murphy who strongly defended her research, warned against companies taking the words of Chinese firms as evidence that supply chains are clean.

She said: “A simple attestation that forced labor has been excluded simply isn’t enough to ensure that modules are in fact free and clear of forced labor.”

Chloe Cranston at Anti-Slavery International, claimed a lack of extensive testing of Chinese manufacturers has made the UK a “dumping ground” for panels linked to slave labour.

She said: “What we were seeing is many of the big solar companies… essentially creating one clean supply chain for the US to meet the requirements there but then they were not having to take those same steps in other markets globally meaning that the UK market was opening itself up as a dumping ground.”

...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33718690

Archived

[...]

CryptPad has now become the preferred platform for collecting form submissions, at least for one of their recent initiatives.

[...]

As part of the UN Open Source Principles initiative, the UN has invited other organizations to support and officially endorse these principles. To collect responses, they are using CryptPad instead of Google Forms.

This initiative aims to promote the adoption of open source technologies within the UN, while encouraging collaboration, ensuring transparency, and safeguarding user data.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33585643

Archived

[...]

Donald Trump’s order, which will come into effect on May 2, which will end the duty-free status of goods from China and Hong Kong under $800 in the United States, could fundamentally shake the American operations of Chinese e-commerce giants. In response to the shrinking market, companies – led by Shein, Temu and AliExpress – are expected to redirect their unsold stocks to Europe. This could have serious consequences for EU trade, industry and the budget.

[...]

According to current EU regulations, imported small packages under the value threshold of 150 euros are duty-free. The French newspaper L’Express estimates that around 12 million such small packages arrive in the EU every day, worth a total of €4.6 billion a year. The fact that around 65% of packages are deliberately undervalued helps to circumvent customs borders. The trend is already visible in France: according to the CEO of La Poste, one in four packages arriving comes from the Shein or Temu platforms.

[...]

In response to the expected import pressure, the European Commission has set up a monitoring task force to monitor early signs of a Chinese parcel tsunami. Olof Gill, the Commission’s customs spokesman, confirmed that if it is proven that the increasing imports are causing industrial damage, they are ready to introduce protective measures – such as safeguard duties or quotas. The French economy ministry is particularly active in calling for a swift response, stressing that Europe should not bear the consequences of US political decisions.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33548424

Archived

• The agency said that before DeepSeek’s chatbot was removed from app stores in South Korea, the company was transferring user data to firms in China and the U.S. without consent.
• The findings were released in relation to an ongoing investigation into DeepSeek, and the company has been sent corrective recommendations.

South Korea’s data protection authority has concluded that Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek collected personal information from local users and transferred it overseas without their permission.

The authority, the Personal Information Protection Commission [PIPC], released its written findings on Thursday in connection with a privacy and security review of DeepSeek.

It follows DeepSeek’s removal of its chatbot application from South Korean app stores in February at the recommendation of PIPC.

[...]

During DeepSeek’s presence in South Korea, it transferred user data to several firms in China and the U.S. without obtaining the necessary consent from users or disclosing the practice, the PIPC said.

The agency highlighted a particular case in which DeepSeek transferred information from user-written AI prompts, as well as device, network, and app information, to a Chinese cloud service platform named Beijing Volcano Engine Technology Co.

[...]

When the data protection authority announced the removal of DeepSeek from local app stores, it signaled that the app would become available again once the company implemented the necessary updates to comply with local data protection policy.

That investigation followed reports that some South Korean government agencies had banned employees from using DeepSeek on work devices. Other global government departments, including in Taiwan, Australia, and the U.S., have reportedly instituted similar bans.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33547213

Archived

In an interview with La Tribune Dimanche, Eric Lombard, the French Minister of Economy discussed the rising influx of Chinese low-cost products into France amid Donald Trump’s customs measures. The minister plans to announce new actions within the next ten days.

Is France on the verge of being flooded with Chinese products from Temu and Shein, e-commerce platforms known for their unbeatable prices? This concern looms large in France, especially within the retail sector, following Donald Trump’s announcement of a staggering 145% customs duty on Chinese goods. As a result, China might look towards flooding the European market, particularly France, with these small packages. When asked about this in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche on April 20, Economy Minister Eric Lombard expressed his determination not to stand idly by.

“We must curb this phenomenon,” he firmly stated. For him, the threats posed by these websites are threefold: social, health, and environmental. He elaborated, “These shipments directly compete with our businesses and merchants. Some products do not meet European standards, and the people manufacturing them work under conditions that are not aligned with our values. It’s also an environmental absurdity.”

[...]

The minister also highlighted some staggering statistics: “The volume of goods is enormous: 400 million items were shipped last year. Nearly 800 million are projected this year. […] Just to the European market, that’s 600 jumbo jets taking off each night from China!”

[Edit typo.]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33521349

Archived

*Key Findings *

• In March 2025, senior members of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) living in exile were targeted with a spearphishing campaign aimed at delivering Windows-based malware capable of conducting remote surveillance against its targets.
• The malware was delivered through a trojanized version of a legitimate open source word processing and spell check tool developed to support the use of the Uyghur language. The tool was originally built by a developer known and trusted by the targeted community.
• Although the malware itself was not particularly advanced, the delivery of the malware was extremely well customized to reach the target population and technical artifacts show that activity related to this campaign began in at least May of 2024.
• The ruse employed by the attackers replicates a typical pattern: threat actors likely aligned with the Chinese government have repeatedly instrumentalized software and websites that aim to support marginalized and repressed cultures to digitally target these same communities.
• This campaign shows the ongoing threats of digital transnational repression facing the Uyghur diaspora. Digital transnational repression arises when governments use digital technologies to surveil, intimidate, and silence exiled and diaspora communities.

[...]

The Uyghur diaspora, alongside Tibetans and, more recently, exiles from Hong Kong, is one of China’s primary targets for transnational repression. In their homeland, the Xinjiang region in northwestern China (which most Uyghurs prefer to call by its historical name East Turkestan), Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are forced to live under a high-tech police state, built on a sweeping system of mass surveillance, mobility controls, and internment camps, as well as a comprehensive control over their cultural and religious life. Chinese authorities follow individuals even outside China, targeting Uyghurs living in exile or in the diaspora with tactics ranging from physical attacks and extradition requests to digital threats and surveillance. China’s extensive campaign of transnational repression targets Uyghurs both on the basis of their ethnic identity and activities. Diaspora members who engage in human rights advocacy and raise international awareness on China’s suppression of their culture and community draw particular attention from Chinese authorities.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/32848522

Archived

Though less well-known than groups like Volt Typhoon and Salt Typhoon, Brass Typhoon, or APT 41, is an infamous, longtime espionage actor that foreshadowed recent telecom hacks.

As China continues its digital gambit around the world, researchers are warning that hacking activity from long-tracked groups is evolving and blending together. On top of that, attackers are hiding their campaigns more effectively and blurring the lines between cybercriminals and state-backed hacking.

Last year, revelations rocked the United States federal government that the Chinese hacking group known as “Salt Typhoon” had breached at least nine major US telecoms. And the group’s rampage even continued into this year in the US and other countries around the world. Meanwhile, the Beijing-linked hacking group “Volt Typhoon” has continued to lurk in US critical infrastructure and utilities around the world. Meanwhile, the notoriously versatile syndicate known as Brass Typhoon—also called APT 41 or Barium—has been operating in the shadows.

[...]

Brass Typhoon is known for having carried out a notable string of software supply chain attacks in the late 2010s and for brazen attacks on telecoms around the same time in which the group specifically targeted call record data. The gang is also known for its hybrid activity, carrying out hacks that align with Chinese state-sponsored espionage by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, but also moonlighting on seemingly cybercriminal projects, particularly focused on the video game industry and in-game currency scams.

Research indicates that Brass Typhoon has continued to be active in recent months with financial crimes targeting online gambling platforms as well as espionage targeting manufacturing and energy firms. Its sustained activity has run in parallel to Salt and Volt Typhoon’s recent, attention-grabbing campaigns, and analysis increasingly shows that China’s state-backed hacking operations must be viewed comprehensively, not just in terms of individual actors.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/32836649

Archived

A Chinese state-owned company that was previously sanctioned by the U.S. for facilitating human rights abuses against Uyghurs is now training police officers in Tibet on hacking techniques and digital forensics, according to a watchdog organization.

SDIC Intelligence Xiamen Information Co Ltd, a digital forensics company better known as Meiya Pico, won a contract in mid-2023 to build two labs at the Tibet Police College: one on offensive and defensive cyber techniques and the other on electronic evidence collection and analysis. Details of the approximately $1.32 million contract were analyzed and released on Wednesday by Turquoise Roof, a research network focused on Tibet.

The contracts include “servers for the cyber range, network switches, intrusion simulation software, forensic workstations and] evidence storage systems,” the researchers said.

Founded in 1999 as an independent company, Meiya Pico is now state-owned, and as of 2019 it reportedly had a 45% market share of China’s digital forensics market. Its products have raised controversy globally for their invasiveness, including a spyware app called MFSocket that police have allegedly installed on phones throughout the country during inspections of smartphones.

[...]

According to the company, it has conducted training courses in 30 countries as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/32835964

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In one [Tiktok] video that has nearly 10 million views, a creator claims to be able to sell yoga pants from the same manufacturer that supplies Lululemon for $5-$6, instead of the $100 they sell for in the United States.

“The material and the craftsmanship are basically the same because they come from the same production line,” she says, standing in front of what appears to be a factory.

In another, a man standing on a factory floor claims to have access to manufacturers that produce Louis Vuitton bags, which he says can be sold directly to customers for $50.

But both companies deny their products are finished in China, and experts told The Independent the videos are likely an effort by counterfeit or “dupe” manufacturers to take advantage of the chaos over the tariffs to boost their sales.

“They're trying to conflate the fake manufacturers in China with the real manufacturers,” said Conrad Quilty-Harper, author of Dark Luxury, a newsletter about the luxury goods industry.

“They're very clever with their social media, and they’re very effective at driving demand in the West,” he added.

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Louis Vuitton has said repeatedly that it does not manufacture products in China.

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TikTok users have reported seeing the videos appear in their feeds in recent days as the trade war between the U.S. and China continues to heat up.

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The counterfeit market in China is the largest in the world. U.S. Customs seized counterfeit items worth some $1.8 billion in recommended retail price in 2023.

Quilty-Harper said the counterfeit industry in China has been a concern for Western companies for years. And the enforcement of trademark and intellectual property rights internally has tended to depend on the geopolitical climate.

“In the past, the Chinese authorities have been stricter on it, and sometimes they've been looser on it, and often that's to do with the relationship with the US and previous presidents,” he said.

“This is part of a huge geopolitical battle between America and China over intellectual property. And it's just fascinating to see this sort of propaganda fight happening on these very high-traffic TikTok videos,” he added.