Headline Dec. 01/ ''' WORLD'S INTERNET WOBBLES '''

''' WORLD'S INTERNET WOBBLES '''

*THE TRUTH IS THAT NO* one knows what Internet is anymore : as simple and as plain as that, and the tech chiefs give little away in their talks.

INTERNET or that matter Facebook won't protect your privacy. No company cares about how your data is used by third parties. They have no incentive to do so.

San Francisco : *I led Facebook's efforts to fix privacy problems on its developer platform in advance of its 2012  initial public offering. 

What I saw from the inside was a company that organized data collection from its users over protecting them from abuse.

As the world contemplates what to do about Facebook in the wake of its role in Russia's election meddling, it must consider this history.

Lawmakers shouldn't allow Facebook to regulate itself. Because it won't. 

Thanks for the insight, Sandy Parakilas.     

China's homegrown internet companies are keys to its top-down approach. Tech firms are expected to keep content file for 60 days and report to the police any forbidden content.

The government is acquiring small equity stakes in some tech companies in exchange for board seats, giving it a direct role in the governance of new internet titans. 

The tech firms also face tight penalties if they feel to keep users in line. In September, the cyberspace security administration imposed fines on social media platforms owned wholly or in part by three of China's biggest internet companies-

Tencent Holdings, the Alibaba Group and Baidu  -for failing to stop the circulation of fabricated rumors, violence and pornography.

{Companies can be fined up to $76,000 per offense and have their business licenses canceled if they cannot prevent the transmission of banned content.} 

Human rights observers worry that the crackdown may have a chilling effect on political speech that is already tightly curbed.

Last month, for example, the police raided the home of a university professor, Liu Pengfei, who had hosted a current affairs forum on Tencent's WeChat, one of the world's most popular messaging apps.

In exchange for accepting tight controls, China internet companies have been allowed to grow while their foreign rivals were shut of the country.

They can now claim their own technology successes. WeChat has transformed social life in China : People use it to chat, pay bills, transfer money, book a cab and hook up romantically.

China is now embarking on an ambitious project to dominate fields like artificial intelligence, and some say that China could be at an advantage.

It has more than 700 million internet users and it doesn't have a robust legal framework to deal with data privacy intrusions.

That makes it easier for the companies to harness user data -which is core to developing A.I. technology.

Still, China's advantage could be double-edged. Chinese Internet companies have struggled to expand abroad, which experts say stems in part from a dependence on their government.

''To a large extent, the competitive advantage is the political relationship they have with the government there, and that's not something you can carry across borders,'' said Lokman Tsui, an assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Moreover, not all of the new restrictions have been welcomed here. Some of the companies -and internet users- balked at tightened enforcement of rules requiring users of social media platforms to provide their real identities to the companies 

{Although they may still use online pseudonyms}.

Weibo's announcement that it was seeking 1,000 recruits to become supervisors to report illegal content online  -the definitions of which can be expansive -was met by derision on its own site.  

''Online and Offline, Big Brother is watching,'' wrote one user, who used the handle mingxinjianxing.

But when it comes to controversy over Russia's interventions, there has been little discussions here.

Among the few who are discussing It on Weibo, some expressed shock that the United States does not censor information shared on social media platforms.

Mr. Zhao, the young volunteer on Weibo, is typical of those here who believe government control is justified. 

In a restaurant called Europa, Mr. Zhao -who declined to disclose details of where and how he works -described China's system not as ''Big Brother''  so much as a-

Younger brother, which he is, protecting children, like those of his sister, from harmful material. 

''Even though the internet is virtual, it is still part of society,'' he added. ''So in any space I feel no one should create pornographic, illegal or violent posts.''

In his new capacity, he scours Weibo in search of the lurid and illicit. Some posts, he explained, are thinly veiled to solicitations for pornography or prostitution, including-

One message he reported to the police the other day for using what he said was euphemism for selling sex.

When he reports abuse, it is the police that follow up. He excitedly displayed his smartphone to show the latest of his more than 3,000 followers on Weibo : 

The division of the Beijing police that monitors the internet.

''Normally, if you don't do bad things, you don't get followed by the police,'' he said. ''I think this -for someone who has been online for so many years  -is really special.''  

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW!  -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Explorations & Expeditions '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless