Tag Archive for: Cities

Myanmar Security Forces Cut Internet; Rolls in Armoured Vehicles to Major Cities

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After nine days of mass protest demanding a return to civilian rule, armored vehicles have rolled into the Myanmar cities and cut internet access. The armored vehicles appeared in Yangon, Myitkyina, and Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state on Sunday evening. After that day, near the Sule Pagoda in central Yangon, more than a dozen police trucks with four water cannon vehicles were deployed.

“Internet Shutdown”- a major tool in protest

As a sign of averting the protest, the Myanmar coup last week saw an internet shutdown. Again, a near-total internet shutdown has come into effect from Monday, 1 am. Early Monday morning, the internet blackout lasted eight hours dropping the connectivity to 15% of the ordinary level. Even the crackdown on protests has drawn international criticism. A resident of Yangon, Win Tun told a news agency, “To do bad things, the military has shut down the internet. We didn’t sleep the whole night so we could see what happen”.

Also Read: Myanmar Ends Civilian Rule, New Zealand Suspends Military and Political Ties after the Coup

Junta fired to disperse protesters

To disperse protesters at a power plant, on Sunday, security forces opened fire at them. In the Northern state of Kachin, soldiers were deployed to the power plants, leading to a confrontation with demonstrators. The police were seen aiming long guns into the air amid sounds that resembled gunfire. Local media stated that few of the people were injured by the rubber bullets that were fired into the crowd. But, there was no immediate confirmation of a death toll and no comment from the government.

Civil Disobedience Movement

Since February 8, many staff had stopped coming to work causing delays to international flights.  The junta has threatened action against the civil servants and ordered them back to work. The civil servants and the government employees are also on strike, in addition to the protests that result in the disruption of train services throughout the country. Even the work of many government departments had effectively ground to a halt. Richard Horsey said, “This has the potential to also affect vital functions- the junta can replace engineers and doctors, but not power…

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Cities, county still reeling in wake of cyberattack

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TEXARKANA, Texas — As multiple agencies in both Texarkanas and Bowie County remain crippled by a ransomware attack discovered more than a month ago, frustration at a lack of information and progress grows among officials and personnel.

The attack on Texarkana Water Utilities, which handles information technology services for both the cities of Texarkana, Texas, and Texarkana, Arkansas, as well as Bowie County, Texas, was discovered Dec. 6. Agencies including the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office; Texarkana Texas Police Department; Texarkana Arkansas Police Department; Bowie County District Attorney’s Office; Bowie County District Clerk’s Office; Bowie County Clerk’s Office; Bowie County probation; Bowie County Justices of the Peace; and multiple other offices have been seriously impacted by the cyber attack.

“At this point I have no knowledge from the county judge’s office other than a short note about the ransomware,” Bowie County Justice of the Peace Nancy Talley said. “I’m in the dark like everyone else.”

Bowie County Judge Bobby Howell said a criminal investigation into the matter is ongoing and that the county has been advised to refrain from issuing public statements by a Pennsylvania law firm.

“Be patient. We will put some information out when the time is right,” Howell said.

Howell said the process of “rebuilding the network” is ongoing though he lamented one would need a “crystal ball” to know when digital processes and infrastructure would be restored and whether data has been irretrievably lost.

“It’s a complex organization,” Howell said.

Howell was reluctant in interviews this week to reveal the name of the law firm advising the county and has declined to provide the Gazette with a copy of the county’s relevant insurance policy. Shortly after 6 a.m. Thursday morning Howell texted contact information for the Mullen Coughlin firm of Devon, Pennsylvania, to Gazette staff. The firm’s website states it specializes in data privacy and incident response services.

A representative of Mullen Coughlin did not respond to a request for comment.

Bowie County Emergency Management Coordinator Lance Hall did not respond to calls from the Gazette this week other than a text message response…

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Boston joining other cities in again tightening restrictions

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BOSTON (AP) — Boston is joining several other cities including Arlington, Brockton, Lynn, Newton, Somerville, and Winthrop in again tightening restrictions in an effort to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, which has again surged in Massachusetts.

Starting Wednesday, Boston will return to what Mayor Marty Walsh described as a modified version of phase two of the state’s reopening plan.

Walsh said the steps were needed following a steady climb in COVID-19 cases in the weeks following Thanksgiving.

“Unfortunately, we are at the point where we need to take stronger action to control COVID-19 in Boston,” Walsh said.

Under the tighter restrictions, several kinds of businesses will have to close their doors for at least three weeks beginning Wednesday including: movie theaters; museums; aquariums; (backslash)indoor recreational and athletic facilities (exempting college and professional sports); sightseeing and tour buses including duck boats, harbor cruises and whale watching cruises; indoor historical sites; indoor and outdoor gaming arcades; bowling alleys; driving ranges; batting cages; and rock-climbing facilities.

Other industries may remain open in Boston with additional restrictions.

Offices can remain open at 40% capacity. Indoor dining in restaurants can stay open with restricted bar seating and with a 90-minute limit on meals strictly enforced. Activities such as pool tables, darts, trivia, etc. will be prohibited.

Outdoor event spaces used for gatherings and celebrations and outdoor theaters and outdoor performance venues may continue to operate with a 25-person capacity limit.

A look at other coronavirus-developments in Massachusetts:

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WWII VETERAN VACCINATED

A World War II veteran in Massachusetts was among the first VA patients in the country to receive a coronavirus vaccine on Monday.

VA Bedford Healthcare System said on Twitter that 96-year-old Margaret Klessens received the inoculation at around noon.

The former Somerville resident, who served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, is currently a resident in the Community Living Center at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford.

Klessens enlisted in 1943 when she was 19-years-old, The Boston…

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California Cities Voting On Ridiculous Resolution Asking Congress For Section 230 Reform… Because Of Violence At Protests?

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I attended an Internet Archive event (virtually, of course) yesterday, and afterwards one of the attendees alerted me to yet another nefarious attack on Section 230 based on out-and-out lies. Apparently the League of California Cities has been going around getting various California cities to vote on a completely misleading and bogus motion pushing for Congress to reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. It was apparently put up first by the city of Cerritos, which is part of Los Angeles County (almost surprised it wasn’t started in Hollywood, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that the impetus behind it was Hollywood people…). Basically, cities are voting on whether or not the League of California Cities should officially call on Congress to amend Section 230 in drastic ways… all because of some violence at recent protests about police brutality. The process, apparently, is that one city (in this case Cerritos) makes the proposal, and gets a bunch of other cities to first sign on, and then various other cities take a vote as to whether it becomes official League policy (after which they’d send a letter to Congress, which Congress would probably ignore).

And, if you just read the nonsense that the originating proposal put out there, and had no idea how Section 230, the internet, the 1st Amendment or the 4th Amendment works, it might sound like a good idea. Except that what the proposal says is utter nonsense, disconnected from reality.

This resolution states that the League of California Cities should urge Congress to amend Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) to limit the immunity provided to online platforms where their forums enable criminal activity to be promoted.

Ultimately, the policy objectives proposed under this resolution, if enacted, would incentivize social media companies to establish and implement a reasonable program to identify and remove content that solicits criminal activity.

Except that Section 230 already says there’s no immunity for platforms if they enable federal criminal activity. So this is a made up concern. Second, if you changed 230 in the manner they want, they’re simply wrong that it “would incentivize social media companies to establish and implement a reasonable program to identify and remove content that solicits criminal activity.” Because every major social media platform already has such a program. The problem is not that they don’t have incentives. The problem is that not everyone will ever agree on what the “right” moderation is.

Incredibly, the proposal handwaves away the idea that putting more liability on internet websites might lead to more censorship:

While there is certainly an argument to substantiate concerns around censorship, the use of social media as a tool for organizing violence is equally disturbing.

Tomato, tomahto.

Also, the proposal seems to blame violence that broke out at various protests this summer… on social media, claiming that’s why 230 must change.

Although the majority of protests were peaceful, some demonstrations in cities escalated into riots, looting, and street skirmishes with police. While much of the nation’s focus has been on addressing police misconduct, police brutality, and systemic racism, some have used demonstrators’ peaceful protests on these topics as opportunities to loot and/or vandalize businesses, almost exclusively under the guise of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. It has been uncovered that these “flash robs” were coordinated through the use of social media. The spontaneity and speed of the attacks enabled by social media make it challenging for the police to stop these criminal events as they are occurring, let alone prevent them from commencing altogether.

As these events started occurring across the country, investigators quickly began combing through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram seeking to identify potentially violent extremists, looters, and vandals and finding ways to charge them after — and in some cases before — they sow chaos. While this technique has alarmed civil liberties advocates, who argue the strategy could negatively impact online speech, law enforcement officials claim it aligns with investigation strategies employed in the past.

So, let me get this straight. First, we should blame social media — and not police brutality and militarization — for the cases where violence has broken out at a few protests. And the way to deal with violence organized on social media is to… hold the social media platforms liable rather than those that engaged in or encouraged the violence? Are these people for real?

Also, the full proposal goes way beyond what is described regarding violence at protests. This is what it says:

  1. Online platforms must establish and implement a reasonable program to identify and take down content which solicits criminal activity; and
  2. Online platforms must provide to law enforcement information which will assist in the identification and apprehension of persons who use the services of the platform to solicit and to engage in criminal activity; and
  3. An online platform that willfully or negligently fails in either of these duties is not immune from enforcement of state and local laws which impose criminal or civil liability for such failure.

That would be a massive and problematic change to Section 230. First, as it stands, websites already have tremendous incentive to identify and take down content which solicits criminal activity — and many of them try to do exactly that. Changing 230 will not change that — but will lead to fewer places for people to communicate and put tremendous limits on the ability to speak freely online.

The second prong has nothing to do with Section 230 and raises significant 4th Amendment concerns about when a website should have to hand over private information on someone without any warrant or judicial review. That should be frightening to everyone.

This entire proposal is horrifically authoritarian, and is questionable on both 1st and 4th Amendment grounds, but a bunch of cities are signing onto it because the proposal is extremely misleading about how the internet works, how Section 230 works, and what this all means. While I’m not sure that Congress really gives a shit what the League of California Cities has to say about Section 230, it’s yet another way in which people from all over the place are attacking the law that made the internet, because they’re mad that people they don’t like are doing stuff they don’t like.

Thankfully, at least one California city has rejected the proposal. Last night the city of Hayward rejected the proposal, despite it getting support from the local police chief and the city attorney who, I’m told, used the totally bogus “fire in a crowded theater” line, suggesting that was the law of the land (it’s not) and other wrong and misleading cliches, including “freedom of speech isn’t free.” Thankfully, some on the city council (and the mayor) seemed to recognize that this was a dangerous, half-baked proposal and voted it down. I hope other cities do the same.

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