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India Journalism Tech

YouTube Looking Into Gandhi’s Claim Political Videos in India Suppressed

WSJ YouTube India

That’s the headline on my latest story, an exclusive out Wednesday.

It begins:

YouTube’s chief executive said in an email that the company is looking into a claim by Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi that the Alphabet Inc. unit is suppressing his videos criticizing India’s ruling party and a billionaire who controls a conglomerate accused of wide-ranging fraud.

The March 25 email from YouTube’s Neal Mohan, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, came in response to a letter sent two weeks earlier from the leader of a group of overseas Indians who support Mr. Gandhi’s Congress party.

The letter, which was reviewed by the Journal, included data from Mr. Gandhi’s social-media team making the case that his videos related to “the issue of cronyism of the ruling government with one industrialist, Mr. Gautam Adani,” are receiving views that are significantly lower than YouTube analytics suggest they should be, and are being “suppressed, perhaps unwittingly and algorithmically.”

The data, which was reviewed by the Journal, showed that based on interactions such as likes on two videos alleging Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given special treatment to the company headed by Mr. Adani, the Adani Group, the videos should have received about 2.8 million views combined, but instead got less than a third of that.

The data also suggested Mr. Gandhi’s videos are receiving fewer views because they are now recommended less frequently to users via YouTube’s home page, the letter said.

“Thanks,” Mr. Mohan wrote in reply. “Team is taking a look,” he wrote, without elaborating.

Representatives for Alphabet Inc.’s Google and YouTube didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Representatives for the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr. Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Adani Group didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Newley's Notes

NN306: Pups Prancing on the Pitch

A building in Hong Kong

Sent as a newsletter March 26, 2023. Not on my list? Join here.

👋 Hi friends,

Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter containing my recent Wall Street Journal stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.

Image of the week, above:

🏙 An apartment building here in Hong Kong. I love the textures.

My WSJ latest:

✏️ I’ve had three stories out since my last dispatch.

🇮🇳 From March 6, with my colleague Jeff Horwitz: YouTube, Facebook and Instagram Gave Platforms to Indian Cow-Protection Vigilante

✂️ From March 10, with Jeff and colleagues Salvador Rodriguez and Sam Schechner: Meta Plans New Layoffs That Could Match Last Year’s in Scope

💸 And from March 13, with my colleagues Raffaele Huang and Clarence Leong: Asian Startups’ Confidence in U.S. Banking Wanes After SVB Panic

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) 📱 TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew was grilled by U.S. lawmakers over matters such as where data on users in the U.S. is stored, who can access it, and more.

2) 🧠 The AI revolution has begun, Bill Gates writes, arguing that new tools like ChatGPT could be as disruptive as mobile phones and the internet.

3) ⚖️ Following the guilty verdict in the Alex Murdaugh murder trial earlier this month, the New Yorker’s James Lasdun sums up what he calls a “fittingly theatrical spectacle.”

4) 📈 Gordon Moore, who co-founded Intel and posited that the number of transistors in a computer chip doubles about every two years, a theory known as Moore’s Law, died at the age of 94.

5) 💻 Related: For The Atlantic, Virginia Heffernan visits Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s biggest semiconductor maker.

6) 🌎 Interview with tech visionary Kevin Kelly, who was an editor of the Whole Earth Catalog and founding editor of Wired (and whose “Cool Tools” podcast I have listened to for years).

7) 🖌️ Artvee allows you to search for and download artwork that’s in the public domain.

8) 🔪 “Instagram face” as “an instrument of class distinction.”

9) 🏀 For the first time ever in March Madness, all the number one seeds lost before the Elite Eight, setting up a final four featuring Florida Atlantic, San Diego State, Miami and UConn.

10) 💪 Mental heath break: imagining U.S. presidents as professional wrestlers.

•••

🦴 Dog-related video of the week:

⚽ An excellent dog-on-the-pitch moment.

•••

💡 Quote of the week:

“People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

•••

🤗 What’s new with you? Hit reply to send me tips, queries, random comments, and videos of dogs who just wanna be part of the action.

•••

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Categories
Journalism Tech

Google Halts Download of Chinese App Pinduoduo Over Security Concerns

Google Pinduoduo

That’s the headline on my latest story, out yesterday with my colleague Clarence Leong.

It begins:

Alphabet Inc.’s Google blocked downloads of e-commerce app Pinduoduo after versions of it not carried in its app store were found to contain malware, adding to security concerns about Chinese-developed apps.

The Pinduoduo app, which is owned by PDD Holdings Inc., has been suspended from Google Play over security concerns while it conducts an investigation, a Google spokesperson said Tuesday.

Google Play isn’t available to users in China, which is the biggest market for Pinduoduo, a popular e-commerce platform best known for offering deals for goods by banding consumers together. Android users in China can download apps from app stores operated by Chinese tech companies, such as Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc. Pinduoduo had around 750 million monthly active users during the first quarter of last year—the most recent figure released by the company.

Temu, a popular shopping app in the U.S., also run by PDD, hasn’t been affected and is still available to download, according to Google.

Click through to read the rest.

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Journalism Tech

Asian Startups’ Confidence in U.S. Banking Wanes After SVB Panic

SVB Asia

That was the headline on a story I wrote last week with my colleagues Raffaele Huang and Clarence Leong.

It began:

SINGAPORE—The failure of Silicon Valley Bank reverberated through startups and venture-capital firms from China to Singapore and India during a roller coaster few days that shook confidence in Asia over reliance on U.S. tech financing.

After frantic efforts trying to secure their money, some startup executives said the incident served as a warning despite U.S. authorities stepping in Sunday to shore up the bank’s customers.

“The SVB problem is an episode that reminds us to review our reliance on investment from the U.S.,” said Wang Guanyan, an executive of a Guangzhou, China-based startup that develops virtual-reality games.

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Journalism Tech

Meta Plans New Layoffs That Could Match Last Year’s in Scope

Meta cuts scoop

That was the headline on a March 10 scoop I wrote with my colleagues Jeff Horwitz, Salvador Rodriguez, and Sam Schechner.

(Mark Zuckerberg announced the cuts a few days later.)

The story began:

Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. is planning additional layoffs to be announced in multiple rounds over the coming months that in total would be roughly the same magnitude as the 13% cut to its workforce last year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The new cuts, the first wave of which is expected to be announced next week, are likely to hit non-engineering roles especially hard, the people said. The company is also expected to shut down some projects and teams in conjunction with these cuts.

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India Journalism Tech

YouTube, Facebook and Instagram Gave Platforms to Indian Cow-Protection Vigilante

Monu Manesar India

That was the headline on March 6 story I wrote with my colleague Jeff Horwitz. It began:

Monu Manesar, the alias of an Indian cow-protection influencer, has spent the past six years documenting his personal war against cattle smugglers on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

In openly violent posts that often clashed with the platforms’ stated content policies, his accounts livestreamed car chases of men suspected to be transporting beef or cows—an animal deeply revered in Hinduism. He and fellow vigilantes filmed themselves ramming vehicles, shooting out truck tires and trading gunfire with alleged smugglers. The posts included anti-Muslim slurs and trophy photos of captives bleeding from the head.

Human-rights organizations warned YouTube, a unit of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and Meta Platforms Inc., parent of Facebook and Instagram, that the exploits posed a threat to human life and encouraged violence against Muslims. The Monu Manesar accounts stayed online and continued to rack up followers, however: 210,000 subscribers on YouTube and nearly 150,000 across Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.

Now police in India are investigating Monu Manesar—whose real name is Mohit Yadav, according to police—and his associates in the deaths of two alleged cow smugglers whose charred bodies were found on Feb. 16 in their burned-out vehicle. The episode has sparked new debate over such vigilantism in India and what role social-media platforms play in fomenting religious violence.

Click through to read the rest.

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Newley's Notes

NN305: Huskies Hangin’ Out

WSJ page one Biden Zelensky in Kyiv

Sent as a newsletter Monday, February 27. Not on my email list? Join here.

👋 Hi friends,

Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter containing my recent Wall Street Journal stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.

Image of the week, above:

🇺🇸 🇺🇦 From our Tuesday page one: I loved this photo of President Biden and Ukraine’s President Zelensky in Kyiv. By Evan Vucci of the Associated Press.

My WSJ latest:

🥽 My newest story, out Tuesday with my colleague Raffaele Huang: Meta in Talks to Reboot China Business With VR Headsets

It began:

Tencent Holdings Ltd. is in talks to sell Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.’s popular virtual-reality headset in China, home to the world’s biggest pool of internet users.

Tencent, China’s biggest videogame company, has proposed to Meta that it become the exclusive seller of Meta’s Quest 2 headsets in China, people familiar with the discussion said. Tencent has also sought to publish Chinese versions of existing videogames for the device, they said.

The discussions, which began in recent months, are still at an early stage and a deal might not be reached, some of the people said.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) 🦠 In a new report, the U.S. Energy Department said it has determined that Covid began due to a lab leak, highlighting “how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic’s origin,” my colleagues Michael R. Gordon and Warren P. Strobel report.

2) 🌎 Friday marked one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. Now it’s a war that the U.S. and allies are all-in on helping Ukraine win, writes my colleague Yaroslav Trofimov.

3) 👟 Excellent investigation by Reuters: how used sneakers that Dow Inc. and the Singapore government said were being recycled into playgrounds wound up being sold in Indonesia.

4) 💻 Author Neal Stephenson, who pioneered the concept of the metaverse, talks about the future virtual reality.

5) ✏️ Several news publishers in the U.S. dropped the “Dilbert” comic strip following creator Scott Adams’s comments about Black people.

6) 🤖 Sci-fi magazines are getting swamped with AI-generated submissions.

7) 🇻🇳 Why Ho Chi Minh City is Southeast Asia’s newest hotspot for startups.

8) 🗺 HistoryMaps uses maps, timelines, graphics and more to illuminate the past visually.

9) 😴 I have three words for you: Human Dog Bed.

10) 🐐 Goat-related video of the week: “Apparently goats love tomatoes.” Bonus link: metal music version.

•••

🦴 Dog-related video of the week:

“this husky was supposed to learn how to swim, but discovered that she could just float instead.”

•••

💡 Quote of the week:

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

•••

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Categories
Journalism Tech

Meta in Talks to Reboot China Business With VR Headsets

Meta Tencent VR China

That’s the headline on my latest story, out last Tuesday with my colleague Raffaele Huang. It begins:

Tencent Holdings Ltd. is in talks to sell Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.’s popular virtual-reality headset in China, home to the world’s biggest pool of internet users.

Tencent, China’s biggest videogame company, has proposed to Meta that it become the exclusive seller of Meta’s Quest 2 headsets in China, people familiar with the discussion said. Tencent has also sought to publish Chinese versions of existing videogames for the device, they said.

The discussions, which began in recent months, are still at an early stage and a deal might not be reached, some of the people said.

Among issues that would need to be addressed are how user data would be handled, whether global macroeconomic conditions would be right for a partnership, and whether any deal between two of the biggest tech companies in the U.S. and China could draw scrutiny from Washington and Beijing, the people said. The two companies would also face China’s tight regulations on videogames.

Currently, the headset and its apps aren’t officially available in China. People there can buy devices from parallel importers on e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Taobao and JD.com Inc., and set up the headsets and download apps with a virtual private network to bypass China’s internet firewall.

Click through to read the rest.

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Newley's Notes

NN304: Pooches Playing in Powder

Hong Kong misty skyline

Sent as a newsletter Monday, February 13. Not on my email list? Join here.

👋 Hi friends,

Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter containing my recent Wall Street Journal stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.

Image of the week, above:

A misty Hong Kong, seen from Victoria Harbour last night.

My WSJ latest:

My newest story, an exclusive out Wednesday: Guns Offered for Sale in Facebook Groups Devoted to Religious Extremists in India

It begins:

Facebook users have offered for sale on the platform handguns, rifles, shotguns and bullets to members of a forum devoted to an extremist Hindu organization with a history of violence in India.

Eight posts, some of which had been up since April, caught the eye of Raqib Hameed Naik, the founder of a group that monitors attacks against religious minorities in India. He began reporting them to Meta Platforms Inc. in late January as contravening the company’s publicly stated policy that prohibits private individuals from buying or selling firearms or ammunition on Facebook platforms.

Facebook declined to remove them, saying the posts didn’t violate the company’s rules, according to responses from the company that The Wall Street Journal reviewed.

After the Journal inquired about the posts, Facebook on Tuesday removed them, saying they ran afoul of the company’s policies.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) 🎈The Pentagon says it’s shot down four flying objects over the U.S. That comes after the downing last week, off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, what the government called a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon.

2) 🇨🇳 In recent hours China has fired back (sorry) by saying the U.S. has sent balloons into its airspace more than ten times over the last year, though it didn’t offer evidence.

3) 🎤 Beyoncé won a Grammy for best dance/electronica album for “Renaissance,” breaking the record for the most Grammy wins – 32– in history.

4) 🏀 LeBron James became the NBA’s all-time highest scorer, surpassing the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

5) 💻 How Microsoft’s Bing search engine is harnessing AI and, just maybe, poised to challenge Google.

6) 🚋 Fun travelogue: What it’s like to ride an Amtrak train 43 hours from Chicago to Los Angeles.

7) 🐔 RIP Bob Born, the candy company executive who gave the world Peeps.

8) 📷 Twitter thread: “Portraits famous photographers have taken of their partners.”

9) ⚖️ I was unaware there’s a new – and popular – “Night Court” reboot, complete with John Larroquette.

10) 🌍 What did Earth look like hundreds of millions of years ago? Check out this interactive globe.

•••

🦴 Dog-related video of the week:

“It’s fun.”

•••

💡 Quote of the week:

“Change before you have to.” – Jack Welch

•••

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Categories
India Journalism

Guns Offered for Sale in Facebook Groups Devoted to Religious Extremists in India

WSJ Facebook guns

That’s the headline on my latest story, out February 8. It begins:

Facebook users have offered for sale on the platform handguns, rifles, shotguns and bullets to members of a forum devoted to an extremist Hindu organization with a history of violence in India.

Eight posts, some of which had been up since April, caught the eye of Raqib Hameed Naik, the founder of a group that monitors attacks against religious minorities in India. He began reporting them to Meta Platforms Inc. in late January as contravening the company’s publicly stated policy that prohibits private individuals from buying or selling firearms or ammunition on Facebook platforms.

Facebook declined to remove them, saying the posts didn’t violate the company’s rules, according to responses from the company that The Wall Street Journal reviewed.

After the Journal inquired about the posts, Facebook on Tuesday removed them, saying they ran afoul of the company’s policies.

Click through to read the rest.