Facebook has shut down several accounts of a network in Uganda linked to the country’s Ministry of Information. The social media company accused the network of using fake accounts to promote the ruling party and the president.The Facebook accounts shut down were allegedly linked to the “Citizens Interaction Center” at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology.In a statement, Facebook accuses the account holders of using fake and duplicate accounts to manage pages, comment on other people’s content, impersonate users and re-share posts in groups to make them appear more popular than they were.Duncan Abigaba, the deputy head of the center, said the accounts were targeted because of their support for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and the ruling National Resistance Movement or NRM.Abigaba said the action by Facebook is unfair since members of the opposition National Unity Platform party, led by singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine, have been using social media to promote Wine’s presidential candidacy.“So, NRM had to try and sell our candidate as well in the social media space. By selling the candidate, it means you have to employ different tactics including you put out content. And this content you must share it in different groups for it to have as much reach as possible,” said Abigaba.The Uganda Communications Commission wrote to Facebook and Twitter late last year, demanding it shut down several accounts it said were being used wrongly by members of the opposition National Unity Platform.FILE – Uganda’s president and presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni of the ruling party National Resistance Movement waves to his supporters as he arrives at a campaign rally in Entebbe, Feb. 10, 2016.Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo says the commission received a response from Facebook, saying it would investigate the claims.But instead, said Opondo, without any due process, accounts of NRM supporters have been shut down.“They have not told us the nature of the complaint. They have not written even to say we are going to switch you off. And so, it’s a double standard. And that ties very well with what our intelligence is telling us that some of the opposition is working with foreign interests,” he said.The Ugandan government is already disabling some social media platforms. Currently, unless one is using a virtual private network, videos on Facebook cannot be played.The Uganda Communications Commission has also ordered app stores to block over 100 virtual private networks being used by citizens to bypass the blockage.Joel Ssenyonyi, the National Unity Platform spokesperson, denies the party has a hand in the account shutdowns.“We actually wish we had a hand in it. We would actually love to see all the government accounts blocked, because they are using them to justify all the ills that are happening. You know that people get killed and then you see government officials and regime apologists and functionaries go on social media and they justify the killing of people and so on,” said Ssenyonyi. Ugandans go to the polls Thursday with Museveni seeking to extend his 34-year run as president. Bobi Wine has called off his final campaign appearances, due to multiple arrests and police breaking up his rallies.
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Day: January 11, 2021
Social media platform Parler has sued Amazon in response to being removed from Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s web hosting services. Calling the deplatforming a “death blow,” Parler said Amazon engaged in antitrust violations, breached its contract with Parler and interfered with the company’s business relationship with its users. Specifically, the complaint said Amazing breached its contract by not providing Parler 30 days’ notice before cutting it off from its servers. The suit asked a federal court for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Amazon. “Without AWS, Parler is finished, as it has no way to get online,” according to the complaint. “And a delay of granting this TRO by even one day could also sound Parler’s death knell as President (Donald) Trump and others move on to other platforms.” Parler, a social network service popular with conservatives, went offline Monday after Amazon suspended it for allowing posts that encourage violence. Before the site went down, Parler CEO John Matze accused Amazon and other tech giants of a “war on free speech.” Google banned Parler’s smartphone app from its app store on Friday, also citing Parler’s allowance of posts that seek to incite violence in the United States. Apple instituted its own Parler ban on Saturday. The two-year-old Parler saw an increase in users in recent months as social media giants Facebook and Twitter stepped up enforcement of posts that violated their policies. Both Facebook and Twitter suspended Trump’s accounts last week after some of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
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Thousands of girls in Canada have been married before turning 18, researchers said Monday, warning that a rise in unofficial child marriages could make the practice harder to prevent and call into question the country’s global leadership.More than 3,600 marriage certificates were issued to girls younger than 18 in Canada between 2000 and 2018, found a study from McGill University in Montreal.Yet that number is just the tip of the iceberg, as more and more child marriages in recent years have been common-law unions, informal arrangements that provide fewer rights, it found.At least 2,300 common-law partnerships, defined legally as relationships where a couple has lived together for at least a year, involved children under 18 as of 2016, the study showed.The findings contrast with Canada’s positioning as a global leader in the United Nations-backed drive to end child marriage worldwide by 2030, said Alissa Koski, co-author of the study.”Our results show that Canada has its own work to do to achieve its commitment to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (on ending child marriage),” the university professor said.”All the while it is advocating for an end to child marriage elsewhere, the practice remains legal and ongoing across Canada,” Koski said.Canada’s Office of the Minister for Women and Gender Equality was not immediately available for comment.The country committed at least $62.5 million to tackle child marriage worldwide from 2011 to 2016 and has led or supported several U.N. resolutions on the issue in recent years, according to Girls Not Brides, a global campaign group.Girls who marry young are often pulled out of school and are at higher risk of marital rape, domestic abuse and pregnancy complications, activists have said.Canadian law permits children to marry from the age of 16 with parental consent or a court order.About 95% of child marriages in Canada were informal as of 2016, compared with less than half in 2006, the study found.The shift could be in response to growing public disapproval of children entering wedlock, according to the authors, who said informal unions could be more harmful than formal marriage as they offered less social, legal and economic protection.In Quebec, individuals in common-law unions are not entitled to alimony or property if the union ends, the authors said.”This raises questions about how best to address the issue,” the authors said in a statement. “Preventing common-law unions among children will require different and innovative approaches that address the deeper motivations for this practice.”Worldwide, an estimated 12 million girls are married every year before the age of 18 – nearly one girl every three seconds.U.N. experts have predicted the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to an extra 13 million child marriages over the next decade.
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India will roll out an ambitious nationwide vaccination drive against COVID-19 on Saturday, aiming to inoculate 300 million people, or nearly one quarter of the population, by July.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday that with the upcoming immunization drive, which would be the world’s largest such program, the country is entering into a “decisive phase” in the fight against the pandemic.
In the first phase, 30 million health care and frontline workers such as police personnel will be vaccinated. The vaccines will then be administered to about 270 million people above the age of 50 and younger people with serious health problems, according to the Health Ministry.
Modi underlined India’s two major advantages – the two vaccines that have been approved for emergency use are being manufactured domestically, giving it access to millions of doses.
“This is a matter of pride for us,” said the prime minister.
In an interaction with chief ministers on the vaccination drive, Modi also noted Indian vaccines are more cost effective than others in the world.
The price for the first 100 million doses of the British developed AstraZeneca vaccine will be manufactured by an Indian company and is expected to be around $ 2.75 per dose for the government. The vaccine cost will be much higher when it is made available in the private market.
India is hoping its experience in running huge vaccination drives will come in handy as it gears up to launch the COVID-19 immunization program. Every year the government inoculates nearly 55 million infants and pregnant women against diseases such as polio and measles.A health worker pretends to administer a shot of a COVID-19 vaccine to a volunteer during a mock vaccination drill at a school in Dharmsala, India, Jan. 11, 2021.But health experts warn that reaching a far bigger adult population poses much greater challenges — India will need to administer 600 million shots to meet its target of reaching 300 million people over the coming months.
Authorities have trained thousands of health care workers to administer the vaccines, ramped up cold storage equipment such as freezers and refrigerators and set up vaccination centers through the country.
Most of the initial inoculations are expected to be of the AstraZeneca vaccine that is being produced by the Serum Institute of India.
Covaxin, the second vaccine approved for emergency use, has been developed by a domestic company, Bharat Biotech. It will be administered in “clinical trial mode,” as the final results of trials are still awaited.
Some experts have raised concerns about clearing that vaccine without lack of data showing its efficacy, but the drug regulator has said it is “safe.”
Both vaccines will be given in two doses and can be stored at temperatures of two to eight degrees Celsius.
With 10.5 million infections, India is the world’s second worst hit nation, but its daily count of new cases has fallen to less than 20,000 in recent weeks compared to about 95,000 in September, when infections peaked.
There is optimism that the declining number of infections and the vaccination program will not just bring the pandemic under control but also revive an economy reeling under its worst contraction in 40 years.
“With India about to roll out its vaccination program, the accruals of the economic benefits would be significant, especially to sectors such as hospitality, transportation, entertainment, which were hit hard during the pandemic,” according to Deepak Sood, secretary general of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India.
India’s economy, one of the worst hit by the pandemic, is expected to shrink by 7.5% this financial year which ends in March.
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U.S. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced Monday plans to boost production of its COVID-19 vaccine by 50% percent — 2 million doses — this year to meet the global demand.
BioNTech announced the increased supply as part of a presentation at a health care conference. The company said a new production site in Marburg, Germany, expected to become operational by the end of next month, will be able to make as many as 750 million doses per year. That means a total of six facilities will be producing the vaccine — three in Germany, and three operated by Pfizer in the United States.
The partners have already committed 1 billion doses for delivery. Last week, the European Union announced a deal for an additional 300 million doses of the vaccine, doubling their supply.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said last week it is continuing negotiations with the companies about securing doses for the vaccine cooperative COVAX, organized by the agency to provide vaccines for low-income nations. No agreement has been reached.
Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern about wealthy nations buying up the supply of vaccines and leaving none for the developing world. He has argued that the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be defeated unless vaccines are distributed equitably.
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Facebook has taken down several accounts linked to the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, saying they were being used to manipulate public opinion ahead of this week’s presidential election.
The U.S.-based social media giant said Monday it linked the network of accounts to the Uganda’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology.
Facebook said the ministry “used fake and duplicate accounts to manage pages, comment on other people’s content, impersonate users, re-share posts in groups to make them appear more popular than they were.”
The Associated Press quoted presidential spokesman Don Wanyama as saying Facebook was “interfering in the electoral process of Uganda.” He also said, “If people wanted to have the evidence of outside interference, now they have it.”
Voters in the East African country will cast ballots Thursday in a general election that pits President Museveni against 10 challengers, including popular singer-turned-legislator Bobi Wine.
The lead-up to the vote has been marred by increasing violence, numerous human rights violations, and restrictions imposed on opposition candidates and supporters.
The arrests and detentions in November of Wine and Patrick Oboi Amuriat, another presidential candidate, as well as other members of the political opposition, triggered riots and protests. At least 54 people were killed.
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Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has landed on the cover of the February issue of Vogue magazine, but her team says there’s a problem: the shot of the country’s soon-to-be No. 2 leader isn’t what both sides had agreed upon.
Instead of the powder blue power suit Harris wore for her cover shoot, the first African American woman elected vice president is instead seen in more casual attire and wearing Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers, which she sometimes wore on the campaign trail.
Vice President-elect @KamalaHarris is our February cover star! Making history was the first step. Now Harris has an even more monumental task: to help heal a fractured America—and lead it out of crisis. Read the full profile: https://t.co/W5BQPTH7AUpic.twitter.com/OCFvVqTlOk— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) January 10, 2021Harris’ team was unaware that the cover photo had been switched until images leaked late Saturday, according to a person involved in the negotiations over how Harris would be featured on the cover. Harris’ office declined comment and the person spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity.
In a statement, Vogue said it went with the more informal image of Harris for the cover because the photo captured her “authentic, approachable nature, which we feel is one of the hallmarks of the Biden-Harris administration.”
But the magazine said it released both images as digital magazine covers to “respond to the seriousness of this moment in history, and the role she has to play leading our country forward.”
Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent, posed in the light blue suit in front of a gold backdrop for the magazine’s cover. She also posed, more casually dressed in slacks, a blazer and sneakers in front of a pink and green background, for photos that were planned for inside the magazine, the person said. Pink and green are the colors of Harris’ college sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.
Vogue has released both images online, but the photo of a sneaker-clad Harris is the one that will grace the cover of the fashion bible’s print edition.
The person with knowledge of the negotiations said Harris’ team has expressed to Vogue its disappointment over the magazine’s decision.
The cover also generated outrage on social media as posters expressed disappointment in how the magazine decided to present the nation’s first female vice president on its cover.
Harris is set to be sworn in as vice president on Jan. 20.
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Parler, a social network service popular with conservatives, went offline Monday after its web hosting service Amazon suspended it for allowing posts that encourage violence.
Before the site went down, Parler CEO John Matze accused Amazon and other tech giants of a “war on free speech.”
Google banned Parler’s smartphone app from its app store on Friday, also citing Parler’s allowance of posts that seek to incite violence in the United States.
Apple instituted its own Parler ban on Saturday.
The two-year-old Parler saw an increase in users in recent months as social media giants Facebook and Twitter stepped up enforcement of posts that violated their policies.
Both Facebook and Twitter suspended President Donald Trump’s accounts last week after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
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The World Health Organization is sending a team of international experts to China this week to investigate the origins of the coronavirus.It was not immediately clear, however, if the experts, scheduled to arrive Thursday, will be allowed to travel to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus originally emerged in late 2019.“It’s very important that as the WHO is in the lead in fighting the pandemic, that it also has a leading role in trying to look back at the roots of this pandemic so we can be better prepared for the next one,” United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said about the team’s travel to China.China’s announcement Monday about the WHO team’s imminent arrival came on the same day China announced 103 new COVID-19 cases, the country’s biggest jump in infections in more than five months.China Completes First Round of COVID Testing in Locked-down CityAggressive approach used in Shijiazhuang is being adopted in other Asian-Pacific countriesThe rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States has been fraught with problems, according to an Associated Press report.Gianfranco Pezzino, who was the public health officer in Shawnee County, Kansas, until his recent retirement, told AP, “The recurring theme is the lack of a national strategy and the attempt to pass the buck down the line, lower and lower, until the poor people at the receiving end have nobody else that they can send the buck to.”US Vaccine Rollout Hits Snag as Health Workers Balk at ShotsExperts say are fears of side effects from vaccines that were developed at record speed are unfounded The British variant of the COVID-19 virus, thought by scientists to be much more contagious, has been found in France and Russia, according to news reports Sunday.Russia, which has recorded more than 3 million cases of the virus, had already suspended flights from Britain until January 13 and is mandating a two-week isolation period for those traveling from Britain.Meanwhile, Britain continues to grapple with high numbers of cases and deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, with many hospitals at capacity while lockdowns are in effect.“The stark reality is that we will run out of beds for patients in the next couple of weeks unless the spread of the virus slows down drastically,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan said over the weekend.The British variant of the virus has been found in 45 countries and at least eight states in the U.S. Another variant of the virus discovered in South Africa was found in some positive cases in Ireland Sunday.Yet a third new variant has been found in Japan in travelers from Brazil. The Brazil variant is different from the British and South African variants, but the three share a common mutation.British, South African COVID Variants Spreading Around GlobeThe British strain was found in France and Russia, while Ireland recorded a case of the South African versionWhile the variants are worrisome, they are not unexpected. The coronavirus has made thousands of tiny modifications since it was first discovered, researchers say. The African continent confirmed a total of 3 million cases of the virus on Sunday, as many countries are beginning to mark a second wave of infections and impose restrictions. On Sunday, Algeria registered Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus for use, the first African country to do so, Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund said. Algeria’s president was flown to Germany on Sunday for treatment of complications from COVID-19. Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Monday that there are more than 90 million global COVID-19 cases. The U.S. has the most with 22.4 million, followed by India with 10.4 million and Brazil with 8.1 million. Worldwide, nearly two million people have died.
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