Category: Blog

Its conclusions provided a counterpoint to international critics who said that Mr. Yanukovych’s government had prosecuted and convicted the former Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, on corruption charges in 2011 for political reasons and …
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Jennifer Peltz, The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ” The heads of Britain, France and Italy are setting an ambitious goal for tech companies to tackle online postings that promote terrorism: Take them down within an hour or two.

Convening world and tech leaders Wednesday at the United Nations, British Prime Minister Theresa May said that internet companies are making progress but need to go “further and faster” to keep violent extremist material from spreading online.

The average lifetime of Islamic State extremists’ online propaganda shrank from six days to 36 hours in the first six months of this year, May said.

“That is still 36 hours too long,” she said.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni joined May in leading what she called a first-of-its-kind session on the sidelines of annual U.N. General Assembly meeting of global leaders.

It comes as internet services are facing increasing pressure to rid themselves of messages that, authorities say, provide inspiration and instructions for militant attacks. With potential legal consequences looming ” May and Macron have suggested their countries could impose legal liability and fines if tech companies don’t do enough to deal with extremist material ” online giants are eager to show they’re taking the issue seriously.

This summer, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Google-owned Youtube launched a joint counterterrorism initiative to collaborate on technology and work with experts. Menlo Park, California-based Facebook announced it had started using its artificial intelligence capabilities to find and remove extremist content, as it does to block child pornography. The company now has 150 engineers, content reviewers, language specialists, academics and former law enforcement figures focused on counterterrorism, global policy and counterterror head Monika Bickert told the U.N. gathering Wednesday.

San Francisco-based Twitter recently said it suspended 300,000 accounts for promoting terrorism just in the first six months of this year, the great majority flagged by its own internal efforts before posting anything. Youtube has more than doubled the number of violent extremist videos removed in recent months, Google Senior Vice President Kent Walker said Wednesday as he announced the Mountain View, California-based company would commit millions of dollars to research on combatting extremist content online.

“Removing all of this content within a few hours, or even stopping it from getting there in the first place, poses an enormous technological and scientific challenge that we continue to undertake,” he told the world leaders. “The haystacks here are unimaginably large, and the needles are both really small and constantly changing.”

Another challenge: taking on extremist postings without impinging on free speech. Walker acknowledged “we still don’t always get this right”: YouTube’s machine learning protocols recently removed activists’ videos from Syria’s civil war amid a search for graphic or pro-terrorist material, for example. The company said it would restore any videos improperly taken down, and at least some have already been returned.

There are other issues at play, as well: “We all know there are economic interests there, there are privacy problems,” Gentiloni said. But “we can’t reduce our ambition because of the difficulties.”

U.S. Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Claire M. Grady, meanwhile, said internet giants needed to ramp up work on extending the counterterrorism effort to smaller platforms; the big firms say they’re doing so.

Beyond wiping terrorist messages off the web, the leaders agreed they needed to help moderate voices counter those messages.

“We have to try to bring back these vulnerable people who are likely to be radicalized to the tenets of common sense,” Macron said.

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Port operators have asked the government to bring their current contracts under the purview of the new Major Port Authorities Bill, 2016, which, when enacted, will replace the law in operation.Parliament is expected to pass the Bill in its next session.

The new Bill has been brought to ensure quicker and transparent decision making, benefiting stakeholders and creating better project execution capability.

“Previous concession agreements were rigid, but after 2013, the agreements were made flexible. Therefore, we want to shift to the flexible framework,” Manish Gupta, head, port business, Vedanta, told Business Standard. The Bill is aimed at reorienting the governance model in central ports to the landlord port model in line with global practices.

• The Major Port Authorities Bill, 2016, was tabled in the Lok Sabha in December last year to replace the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963

• With the passage of the Bill, the Tariff Authority for Major Ports will cease to exist, but the regulations passed by the TAMP before 2013 will be applicable to the contracts before that

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First Green Bank in Orlando, Fla., isn’t shy about making its principles public — and that includes working with medical marijuana companies.

Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have laws that legalize marijuana in some way, but it remains illegal at the federal level. This tension between state and federal law has created a quandary for financial institutions about how they should approach this growing industry.

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Law firm Hogan Lovells has revealed up to 90 roles could be cut or shifted away from the London office.

Around 78 business services roles and 12 legal support positions in London will be cut or transferred to Johannesberg or Birmingham.

It is understood that the majority of roles will move but there is almost certain to be some staff who will stop working at the firm.

Hogan Lovells said the decision has been taken as part of a move to “build on the firm’s increased use of advanced technologies and legal project management”.

More broadly, there is widespread disruption across law firms, many of which have large insurance practices, as technology replaces human roles.

Voice recognition software and business processing technology means back office and support roles are no longer needed. 

Insurance law firms Pinsent Masons and BLM have announced redundancy programmes.

Meanwhile, Slater and Gordon is slashing jobs abroad, although its troubles largely stem from its disastrous acquistions of Quindell’s legal services arm.

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As law firms look for ways to offer legal services to clients more efficiently and with more predictable fee structures, the use of online legal research platforms remains essential – and it’s not cheap.

“It is a significant cost consideration for a firm – usually in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for a large or …

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Lexpert Roundup on the Business of Law

Lexpert identifies and reports on emerging business issues and practice areas in the business of law. Whether online, in our magazine or in the DealsWire e-newsletter, we chronicle deals and lawsuits of interest, and cover issues of broad concern to the legal profession and those who purchase legal services. We hope you enjoy this sampling of our latest content.

From the DealsWire: Soliciting dealer arrangements | Telecom deal surge | Scotiabank’s naming rights

The Lexpert DealsWire (subscribe here) documents facts, figures and key legal players behind recent deals. This week’s announced deal spotlight features the key players and figures in Alamos Gold’s $905-million deal to buy Richmont Mines.

In our closed deals section, we look at Adidas’ sale of CCM Hockey, as well as Fairfax closing its $190-million investment in AGT Food and Ingredients.

We also look at the players behind Rogers Sugar and Lantic acquiring L.B. Maple Treat Corp.; and Gibraltar Growth Corp. (SPAC) in its qualifying acquisition.

Flexibility Wins the Race

When it comes to cannabis, “joint” venture takes on a whole new meaning. Amid huge regulatory uncertainty – and the looming deadline next July – lawyers understood the need for flexibility when structuring the JV that established Pure SunFarms Corp.

Accounting Firms in Law: The Long Game

For the most part, the Big Four are maintaining a studied insistence that they’re not poaching on lawyers’ hallowed territory of high-end business law. But there’s plenty of evidence that their long-term goals reach well beyond the scope of what they have characterized as “complementary” legal services.

Artificial Intelligence: Due Diligence 3.0

Many associates are in a certain negative mood about the efficacy of manual due diligence. Lawyers, being human, get tired and cranky, with unfortunate implications for voluminous due diligence in M&A. The good news? Artificial intelligence may give junior lawyers their lives back. By automating labour-intensive, low-value tasks, artificial intelligence systems free up lawyers and other legal professionals to concentrate on complex, high-value projects.

Resource nationalism: do the riches outweigh the risks?

With a growing number of mining companies moving into higher-risk countries in recent years in the search of the next big deposit, they and their investors are increasingly grappling with a resurgence in resource nationalism that can badly buffet share prices.

Back to the Future

For anyone who spends considerable time in legal or academic pursuits, September is as much a marker of a new year as is January, writes Lexpert ‘s editor-in-chief, Jean Cumming. Lawyers take particular interest at this time of year in their CLE and other educational options, in part because the annual compulsory education deadline looms, but more generally because it’s an opportune moment to consider career and personal satisfaction.

The Dough Is in the Data

While software and hardware remain important In the digital world, data is fast taking centre stage, writes Technology columnist George Takach. Because there is now so much of it, and it can be analyzed (and therefore commercialized) very profitably, lawyers and others must increasingly consider the legal, contractual and regulatory implications of their data operations.

Follow @Lexpert on Twitter.

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LONDON: Calls are mounting for social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to do more to tackle online extremist material, as a new report from UK think-tank Policy Exchange finds that Daesh is producing more than 100 pieces of online content every week.
“For at least a year, the production of content has continued despite the death of key figures, loss of territory and ongoing fighting,” the report said.
The think-tank found that while extremists are increasing their use of the encrypted messaging service Telegram to communicate with each other, they have not abandoned other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to spread their message.
Twitter accounts for 40 percent of identifiable traffic to extremist content online. Twitter is “a crucial gateway to the uninitiated — to those ISIS (Daesh) most hopes to target via its outreach,” it said.
The report outlined suggestions on how to tackle the problem, including a new law that would criminalize the “aggravated possession and/or persistent consumption of material that promotes hatred and violence, in the service of a political ideology.”
The aim would not be to criminalize every individual that ‘stumbles’ across extreme material, it said.
Policy Exchange also calls for tech companies to implement “more stringent” codes of conduct that “explicitly” reject extremism.
The establishment of a new independent regulator of social media content was a further recommendation. It also suggested a financial penalty system for UK-based subsidiaries of the tech companies, administered by the regulator to force compliance.
According to a survey conducted by the think tank, 74 percent of respondents would like to see legislation in place that criminalize the “persistent consumption” of extremist online content.
Approximately two-thirds of respondents believe the Internet should be regulated with extremist material controlled. Around 25 percent said it should be “completely free” without any limits of free speech.
In response to the report, Facebook said it was working “aggressively” to remove terrorist content from its platform.
“We’ve also built a shared industry database of ‘hashes’ — unique digital ‘fingerprints’ — of violent terrorist videos or images, which we’re actively expanding and is helping us to act on such content even more quickly,” said a Facebook spokesperson.
Twitter said on Sept.19 that it has suspended close to 300,000 accounts for violations related to the promotion of terrorism in the first half of this year. It said that 95 percent of those accounts were flagged by internal spam-fighting tools, while 75 percent of the accounts were closed down before their first tweet, the social media company said in its 11th biannual transparency report.
Google said it was “committed” to tackling online extremism. “Violent extremism is a complex problem and addressing it is a critical challenge for us all,” it said in a statement send to Arab News.
“We are making significant progress through machine learning technology, partnerships with experts, and collaboration with other companies through the Global Internet Forum — and we know there is more to be done.”
Telegram told Arab News in August that it takes down an average of 200 terrorism-related channels every day “before they can get any traction.”
Telegram did not respond to requests for comment other than to cite the company website which outlines its policy on terrorism.
The company argues that if you ban existing encrypted messaging services, extremist groups will easily switch to other methods of communication such as using coded language on any public channel or even making their own encrypted app.

LONDON: Calls are mounting for social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to do more to tackle online extremist material, as a new report from UK think-tank Policy Exchange finds that Daesh is producing more than 100 pieces of online content every week.
“For at least a year, the production of content has continued despite the death of key figures, loss of territory and ongoing fighting,” the report said.
The think-tank found that while extremists are increasing their use of the encrypted messaging service Telegram to communicate with each other, they have not abandoned other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to spread their message.
Twitter accounts for 40 percent of identifiable traffic to extremist content online. Twitter is “a crucial gateway to the uninitiated — to those ISIS (Daesh) most hopes to target via its outreach,” it said.
The report outlined suggestions on how to tackle the problem, including a new law that would criminalize the “aggravated possession and/or persistent consumption of material that promotes hatred and violence, in the service of a political ideology.”
The aim would not be to criminalize every individual that ‘stumbles’ across extreme material, it said.
Policy Exchange also calls for tech companies to implement “more stringent” codes of conduct that “explicitly” reject extremism.
The establishment of a new independent regulator of social media content was a further recommendation. It also suggested a financial penalty system for UK-based subsidiaries of the tech companies, administered by the regulator to force compliance.
According to a survey conducted by the think tank, 74 percent of respondents would like to see legislation in place that criminalize the “persistent consumption” of extremist online content.
Approximately two-thirds of respondents believe the Internet should be regulated with extremist material controlled. Around 25 percent said it should be “completely free” without any limits of free speech.
In response to the report, Facebook said it was working “aggressively” to remove terrorist content from its platform.
“We’ve also built a shared industry database of ‘hashes’ — unique digital ‘fingerprints’ — of violent terrorist videos or images, which we’re actively expanding and is helping us to act on such content even more quickly,” said a Facebook spokesperson.
Twitter said on Sept.19 that it has suspended close to 300,000 accounts for violations related to the promotion of terrorism in the first half of this year. It said that 95 percent of those accounts were flagged by internal spam-fighting tools, while 75 percent of the accounts were closed down before their first tweet, the social media company said in its 11th biannual transparency report.
Google said it was “committed” to tackling online extremism. “Violent extremism is a complex problem and addressing it is a critical challenge for us all,” it said in a statement send to Arab News.
“We are making significant progress through machine learning technology, partnerships with experts, and collaboration with other companies through the Global Internet Forum — and we know there is more to be done.”
Telegram told Arab News in August that it takes down an average of 200 terrorism-related channels every day “before they can get any traction.”
Telegram did not respond to requests for comment other than to cite the company website which outlines its policy on terrorism.
The company argues that if you ban existing encrypted messaging services, extremist groups will easily switch to other methods of communication such as using coded language on any public channel or even making their own encrypted app.

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Gwinnett County Police officers will soon be wearing body cameras, as county commissioners approved a $30,666 contract for the equipment on Tuesday.

The contract is on a quarterly basis, and can be renewed for a period of five years, three months at a total cost of $4.4 million, according to county documents.

“Body-worn cameras can improve the quality of our high quality public service expected from out police department, sheriff’s department and corrections department,” said Police Chief Butch Ayers, addressing commissioners during their work session.

The contract was awarded to Axon Enterprise, Inc., which apparently scored highest among the nine bidding firms, and it includes a data management system and all the necessary licenses required.

“Body-worn cameras can effectively capture incidents between officers and citizens that can be of evidentiary value on solving criminal activity,” said Ayers.

The initial contract expires on Dec. 31.

The program is expected to be fully implemented in the first two quarters of 2018.

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The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, which has faced criticism from preservationists over planned alterations to its 1962 addition, has announced the hiring of two consulting firms specializing in preservation issues.

In a statement released Monday, the gallery announced that it will work with the Buffalo-based group Preservation Studios, New York City-based PBDW Architects and other groups to “review and adjust this initial concept, to make progress toward the first iteration of an architectural design.”

Albright-Knox communication director Maria Morreale said in an email that the hiring of preservation consultants had been part of the gallery’s plan since the fall of 2016, when the timeline for the project was announced. The firms were identified and hired in the spring and summer of this year by OMA, the architect the gallery hired to design the expansion, she added.

According to the release, the gallery will soon announce another series of public meetings on the expansion project and will welcome “continued opportunities for public input, which has already significantly shaped the proposed concept.”

“Based on our extensive experience working with public agencies and the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards on many projects with historic preservation components, we are advising the Albright-Knox team as the proposal moves from a concept toward a design,” Yots, the former executive director of Preservation Buffalo Niagara.

Yots’ firm, he continued, would work to ensure “that the eventual proposal will sensitively address the historic resources on the site, including the Frederick Law Olmsted Park, and the buildings by E.B. Green and Gordon Bunshaft, while providing the critically needed expansion of gallery space.”

Will preservationists again change the course of Albright-Knox expansion?

When the Albright-Knox released the initial renderings showing the framework of OMA’s design for the expansion, preservationists took issue with the plan’s treatment of Gordon Bunshaft’s 1962 addition.

At the heart of their opposition is the gallery’s plan to eliminate the central courtyard and surrounding galleries of the Bunshaft addition, leaving only its glass-box auditorium completely intact and modifying its lower-level galleries into educational space.

Shortly after the renderings were released, Buffalo Preservation Board President Paul McDonnell sent a letter to gallery director Janne Sirén arguing that the plan violated the Secretary of the Interior’s standards for historic preservation and implored the gallery to work with the board to address preservationists’ concerns.

In a phone interview on Tuesday, McDonnell praised the gallery’s decision, saying that it demonstrated officials’ sensitivity to the historic significance of the site and of Bunshaft’s understated addition.

“We’re glad that they’re acknowledging the importance of it and hiring experts to basically protect it,” he said. “We just want to make sure we’re part of the process and I think this makes sure that we are. We’re anxious to sit down with OMA and the Albright-Knox to further discuss their plans.”

Both Yots and Morreale declined to speak with a reporter about what the work of the preservation firms will entail or to discuss the galley’s preservation goals, even broadly.

“We will be sending these updates periodically to let people know where we are at,” Morreale wrote, “but we have nothing further to add at this point.”

email: cdabkowski@buffnews.com

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