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TURKS & CAICOS SUN
JULY 12TH, 2019 – JULY 19TH, 2019
BUSINESS &
TECHNOLOGY
UK plan to control online porn is watched as test case The global push to more tightly operating the system itself. Instead, it’s millions of users. regulate the internet and big tech firms is being outsourced to private companies, They note that tech-savvy spreading to one of the web’s biggest and which can sell their own age verification youngsters will figure out how to how to least visible corners: porn. technology to porn sites. Oversight, evade restriction by using, for example, The British government wants meanwhile, has been handed to the virtual private networks. And there’s a to require porn websites to verify their British Board of Film Classification, a loophole exempting social media sites users are adults. The effort is being film ratings and censorship body akin such as Twitter, where plenty of smutty watched by other countries hoping to to the Motion Picture Association of content is now found. better regulate pornographic content America. The film board acknowledges but has raised concerns about privacy, Privacy campaigners worry that that “age-verification is not a silver censorship and competition. It has run handing over personal information to bullet,” but it will stop kids inadvertently into multiple delays that reflect the access adult sites means a person’s porn coming across inappropriate material. confusion surrounding it. viewing habits can be tracked. Those “Determined teenagers will find ways to “It’s a mess,” said Jim Killock, of fears are compounded by the lack of access pornography.” the London-based Open Rights Group, a privacy and security standards for age There’s also the question of how digital civil liberties group. verification providers. Instead, there’s a the new rules would be enforced on the Killock says the government’s voluntary certification with vague and many porn sites based outside the U.K. blueprints for its online “porn block” imprecise requirements. The film board says it could ask payment don’t do enough to protect personal One age verification provider, providers to withdraw their services and data. Others believe the plan amounts 18+, has said it won’t apply for the U.K. internet service providers to block to economic censorship. And many fear certificate because its digital wallet them. the rules would effectively give more system wouldn’t be recognized. Jackman said the result could be power to a little known company that “There are huge privacy concerns “economic censorship,” because smaller, dominates the internet porn industry. with how the data will be held, because independent British porn producers that Under the plan, which is now the sort of information that people will can’t afford to comply would simply expected to come into force late this year, have to be giving up is highly personal,” shut down. British porn site visitors will be asked to said Myles Jackman, a London-based Online porn is a huge industry, prove they are 18 or older. Options to do lawyer. Also, “there is a risk that that but estimates of its size are notoriously so would include buying a card with an data will be hacked, breached, stolen or hard to come by and there’s no official access code in a shop, where they will published in the public domain.” data. Pornhub, the world’s most popular have to show photo ID, or going online Critics point to data breaches adult site, is the 16th most visited in the to submit a copy of a passport or driver’s at adult-oriented websites, notably a U.K., according to Amazon’s Alexa web license or use a credit card. high-profile hack at infidelity site Ashley analytics . The British government isn’t Madison that exposed personal details of Further raising concerns about
Twitter bans ‘dehumanizing’ posts toward religious groups Twitter now prohibits hate but it has not done so yet, sparking speech that targets religious groups criticism from civil rights groups. “Twitter’s failure to ban by using dehumanizing language, a ban it says may extend to other all forms of dehumanization immediately casts doubt on the categories like race and gender. The social network already company’s commitment to fully bars hateful language directed at stopping hate on the platform,” said individual religious adherents. It Rashad Robinson, the president of also bans hate speech on the basis online racial justice group Color of someone’s race, gender and of Change, in a statement. “It’s no other categories. Tuesday’s change secret that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey broadens the hate speech rule to and other Silicon Valley leaders forbid likening entire religious groups have been reluctant to stamp out to subhumans or vermin, without discrimination and misinformation targeting a specific individual. for fear of a conservative backlash.” Facebook has a similar policy Twitter, along with YouTube dehumanizing speech, and Facebook, has been under fire banning for the prevalence of harassment “statements of inferiority” and attacks and hate on its service. Twitter’s against people or groups who share latest update came after users wrote protected characteristics such as race, in thousands of responses when ethnicity, sexual orientation, caste or the company asked for suggestions religious affiliation. YouTube’s policy also bans on how to expand its hate speech material that promotes “violence or policies. The company says it may hatred” against individuals or groups also ban similar language aimed at based on categories such as age, other groups such as those defined by disability, race, immigration status gender, race and sexual orientation, among others.
M.S. Construction Location: Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands Is seeking Cleaner Duties: Dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, cleaning ceiling vents, restroom cleaning etc To work 5 days a week, Monday – Friday Salary is: $6.25 per hour Please Contact: 241-5134/ 333-0888 This position is new Interested Turks and Caicos Islanders are required to submit copies of their applications to Labour Board #230319
Erebus Inn Ltd. Location: Turtle Cove Marina, Providenciales Is seeking a Labourer Duties include: Cleaning outside the property with sweeper, pick up yard waste and collect leaves. Also include disposing trash, clean windows and door frames To work 6 days per week Salary $6.50 per hour Please Contact: 243-4620 This position is a first time position Applicants who are TC Islanders should send a copy of their Applications to the Labour Board
#230307
This photo taken in London on Monday July 8, 2019, shows a laptop screen displaying the website for AgeID, an age verification system for the British government’s planned online “porn block”. the new system, one of the first age verification systems, AgeID, is owned by a multinational, MindGeek, which is widely recognized as the owner also of some of the most popular adult websites, including YouTube-like portals such as Pornhub, YouPorn and Redtube. In response to a consultation by the film board, numerous people and groups said they were concerned that a company responsible for providing so much pornography online would also become a gatekeeper that potentially allows it access to reams of user data.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to go public by year-end
British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic plans a stock market listing by the end of the year, giving it the much-needed funds to take on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the race to space. The company will list its shares as part of a merger with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp, a special purpose acquisition company, which will also take a 49% stake in Virgin Galactic. Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004 to cash in on burgeoning demand for satellite launch services and, eventually, space travel, a market long dominated by industry stalwarts such as United Launch Alliance - a partnership between Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp. But since its early days, his ambitious timeline for taking customers into space has suffered delays and setbacks. In February, the company took a step closer to its goal of suborbital flights for space tourists when its rocket plane soared to the edge of space with a test passenger for the first time. Rival Blue Origin has launched its New Shepard rocket to space, but its trips have not yet carried humans. SpaceX last year named Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa as its first passenger on a voyage around the moon, tentatively scheduled for 2023. Hundreds of people from 60
countries, including actor Leonardo DiCaprio and pop star Justin Bieber, have paid or put down deposits to fly on one of Virgin’s suborbital flights. Some of Virgin Galactic’s ticket holders have been waiting over 14 years for their trip. A 90-minute flight, which allows passengers to experience a few minutes of weightlessness, costs about $250,000. The cost is expected to come down “dramatically” over the next decade as space travel becomes more accessible to common people, Branson told CNBC on Tuesday. “I think we can do it a lot quicker than aviation did it.” Virgin’s current reservations represent about $80 million in total collected deposits and $120 million of potential revenue. Social Capital Hedosophia’s chief executive officer, Chamath Palihapitiya, will invest $100 million as part of the deal and will become chairman of the combined company. “By embarking on this new chapter, at this advanced point in Virgin Galactic’s development, we can open space to more investors and in doing so, open space to thousands of new astronauts,” Branson said in a statement. The deal was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal, which said the SPAC will invest about $800 million in Virgin Galactic for a 49% stake.