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TURKS & CAICOS SUN
FEBRUARY 18TH, 2017 – FEBRUARY 25TH, 2017
WORLD NEWS BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
Fake news is ‘killing people’s minds’, says Apple boss Tim Cook
Apple CEO Tim Cook is urging governments and technology firms like his own to help stem the spread of falsehoods Fake news is “killing showed a relatively modest people’s minds”, Tim Cook, the audience was there. head of Apple, has said. The Trump’s spokesman, Sean technology boss said firms such Spicer, insisted that the event had as his own needed to create tools attracted “the largest audience that would help stem the spread ever to witness an inauguration of falsehoods, without impinging ” and Trump said he believed the on freedom of speech. crowd went “all the way back to Cook also called for the Washington Monument”. governments to lead information Images from the moment campaigns to crack down on fake Trump was taking the oath showed news in an interview with a British the crowd was relatively small and national newspaper. The scourge went nowhere near as far back of falsehoods in mainstream down Washington’s National Mall political discourse came to the as the monument. Other evidence fore during recent campaigns, suggested a relatively small crowd during which supporters of each in attendance. side were accused of promoting Senior aide Kellyanne misinformation for political gain. Conway later characterised “We are going through the Trump administration’s this period of time right here falsehoods as “alternative facts”. where unfortunately some of Fake anti-Trump stories the people that are winning are during the election included one the people that spend their time in which it was falsely claimed trying to get the most clicks, not that he had groped the drag queen tell the most truth,” Cook told and television presenter RuPaul. the Daily Telegraph. “It’s killing Hillary Clinton was scrutin ised people’s minds, in a way.” over her claim that there was “no And the US president’s evidence” her emails had been team has been caught sending hacked because the FBI director, aides out to insist that a James Comey, had concluded it huge crowd had attended his was likely they had been. inauguration, when the evidence A study by economists
at Stanford University and New York University published two months after November’s US presidential election found that in the run-up to the vote, fake antiClinton stories had been shared 30 million times on Facebook, while those favouring her were shared eight million times. It said: “The average American saw and remembered 0.92 pro-Trump fake news stories and 0.23 pro-Clinton fake news stories, with just over half of those who recalled seeing fake news stories believing them.” But it called into question the power of fake news reports spread on social media to alter the outcome of the election, saying that, “for fake news to have changed the outcome of the election, a single fake article would need to have had the same persuasive effect as 36 television campaign ads”. Nevertheless, Cook demanded action to decrease the reach of fake news. “We need the modern version of a public service announcement campaign. It can be done quickly, if there is a will.” He added: “It has to be ingrained in the schools, it has to be ingrained in the public. There has to be a massive campaign. We have to think through every demographic... It’s almost as if a new course is required for the modern kid, for the digital kid. “In some ways kids will be the easiest to educate. At least before a certain age, they are very much in listen and understand [mode], and they then push their parents to act. We saw this with environmental issues: kids learning at school and coming home and saying why do you have this plastic bottle? Why are you throwing it away?”
Verizon close to Yahoo deal, price cut of $250-350 million Verizon Communications Inc is close to a revised deal to buy Yahoo Inc’s core internet business for $250 million to $350 million less than the original agreed price of $4.83 billion, according to a source briefed on the matter. Since last year, Verizon had been trying to persuade Yahoo to amend the terms of the acquisition agreement to reflect the economic damage from two cyber attacks. A source told Reuters that the deal, which could come as soon as this week, will entail Verizon and Yahoo sharing the liability from potential lawsuits related to the data breaches. Another person familiar with the situation said the price cut was likely to be around $250 million, a figure that Bloomberg reported earlier on Wednesday. A representative from Verizon declined to comment. Yahoo did not immediately respond to requests for comment. “Maybe this isn’t quite as much of a discount as initially thought, but it’s at least something,” said Dave Heger, senior equity analyst at Edward Jones. Verizon hopes to combine Yahoo’s search, email and messenger assets, as well as advertising technology tools, with its AOL unit, which Verizon bought in 2015 for $4.4 billion. Verizon has been looking to mobile video and advertising for new sources of revenue outside an oversaturated wireless market. But Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo has been under scrutiny by federal investigators and lawmakers since disclosing the largest known data breach in history in December, months after disclosing a separate hack. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a probe into whether Yahoo should have disclosed the breaches, which occurred in 2013 and 2014, sooner, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal last month. On Wednesday, Yahoo sent a warning to users whose accounts may have been accessed by intruders between 2015 and 2016, as part of a data security issue related to the breach it disclosed in December. A person familiar with the matter said notifications have gone out to a mostly final list of users.
Canada’s Trudeau tells EU: the world needs you Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised the European Union on Thursday as an unprecedented model for peaceful cooperation, in a speech to EU lawmakers that contrasted sharply with the critical stance of U.S. President Donald Trump. Speaking to the European Parliament a day after it backed a comprehensive free trade deal between Canada and the EU known as CETA, Trudeau said the 28-nation bloc had a crucial global role to play. By contrast, Trump has questioned the value and future of the EU and has applauded Britain’s shock decision to leave it. “You are a vital player in addressing the challenges that we collectively face as an international community ... Indeed the whole world benefits from a strong EU,” Trudeau told delighted EU lawmakers in his speech, delivered in English and French. Canada and the EU share a belief in democracy, transparency and the rule of law, human rights, inclusion and diversity, said Trudeau, who is also due to visit Germany on his European tour. “We know that, in these
times, we must choose to lead the international economy, not simply be subject to its whims,” he added. CETA AS MODEL TO TRUMP? With the passage of their trade deal, Canada and the EU offer a counter to Trump, who has withdrawn from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and wants to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump told Trudeau in talks in Washington on Monday that the United States would only be “tweaking” its trade ties with Canada. For Canada, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the EU is important to reduce its reliance on the neighbouring United States as an export market. For the EU, it is a first trade pact with a G7 country and a timely success after Britain’s vote to leave the bloc last year harmed its credibility. Brexit supporters want to focus more on reviving trade with former British colonies, including Canada. “We are in a globalised world and how we make sure that we are turning that into opportunities for small businesses and our citizens is
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with European Parliament President Antonio Tajani. the challenge of our time,” said Trudeau. Trump got elected partly by those who felt opportunities were slipping away, fearing for themselves and their children, Trudeau said, anxieties shared by people in Canada and Europe. “Hopefully this spring the vast majority of the provisions of CETA are going to start impacting small business, workers, consumers. People
will immediately begin to see the tangible benefits that come from trade deals such as this one.” Both Canada and the EU have to ensure that CETA, set to come into force in months, worked. “If we are successful, CETA will become the blueprint for all ambitious, future trade deals. If we are not, this could very well be the last. So make no mistake, this is an important moment for us.”