Our picksPrivacy vs Virus: Privacy the Loser | 5G-Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory | Russia’s COVID-19 Propaganda Coup, and more

Smartphone vs Virus, Is Privacy Always Going to Be the Loser? (Laurent Barthelemy and Richard Lein, AFP)
In Europe, officials, doctors and engineers are looking at how smartphones could be enlisted in the war against the spread of the new coronavirus.
One obvious attraction for health officials is the possibility of using smartphones to find out with whom someone diagnosed with COVID-19 has been in contact.
But can this be done without intrusive surveillance and access to our devices that store a wealth of private information?

Google to Publish User Location Data to Help Govts Tackle Virus (AFP)
Google says it will publish users’ location data around the world from Friday to allow governments to gauge the effectiveness of social distancing measures, brought in to stem the COVID-19 pandemic.
The reports on users’ movements in 131 countries will be made available on a special website and will “chart movement trends over time by geography”, according to a post on one of Google’s blogs.

Activists say authoritarian regimes are using the coronavirus as a pretext to suppress independent speech and increase surveillance. In liberal democracies, others fear widespread data harvesting and intrusion could bring lasting harm to privacy and digital rights.

Trump Compelled These Companies to Make Critical Supplies, but Most of Them Were Already Doing It (Yelena Dzhanova, CNBC)
President Donald Trump, after much reluctance, has used the powers of the Defense Production Act to compel companies to manufacture items in short supply that would aid in the U.S. response to the deadly coronavirus. Trump invoked the Defense Production Act after mounting pressure from Democratic lawmakers, who sent the president a letter earlier in March urging him to use its powers. Here are the companies he’s compelled so far: General Motors, General Electric, Hill-Rom, Medtronic, ResMed, Royal Philips, Vyaire Medical, 3M.

Are Extremists around the World Plotting to Take Advantage of Coronavirus? (Jason Hopkins, National Interest)
ISIS, the far right, and the far left.

U.K. Debunks 5G-Coronavirus Link after Conspiracy Theorists Burn Cell Tower (Jeremy Horwitz, Venture Beat)
While there’s zero factual support for a conspiracy theory linking COVID-19 to 5G cellular technology — and the scientific community has concluded 5G is safe — the U.K. government on Friday was forced to explicitly address the topic after arsonists burned down a cell tower and used Facebook to encourage others to follow suit.
“There is absolutely no credible evidence of a link between 5G and coronavirus,” the U.K.’s Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) tweeted, noting that “inaccurate information” about 5G was being spread online. The DCMS pointed to research debunking the supposed link between 5G and COVID-19, as well as links discussing the actual cause of infection — direct exposure to coronavirus particles spread through physical contact.

The Coronavirus Pandemic Is the Breakthrough Xi Jinping Has Been Waiting for. And He’s Making His Move. (Terry Glavin, Mclean’s)
The Chinese state is committing vast resources to a hybrid strategy of intensified propaganda and information control in lockstep with an aggressive Russian-style disinformation effort

Russia Scores Pandemic Propaganda Triumph with Medical Delivery to U.S. (Amy MacKinnon, Robbie Gramer, Foreign Policy)
Along with China, the Kremlin is looking to gain a geopolitical edge on the West by rushing medical supplies to countries hit hard by the coronavirus.

Trump Called Russia’s Coronavirus Aid to U.S.“Very Nice.” Putin May Use It as a Propaganda Coup. (Robyn Dixon, Washington Post)
When Russia announced it was sending the world’s biggest cargo plane, an Antonov-124, to the United States loaded with medical aid, President Trump called it “very nice.”
But others wonder if the real beneficiary is the Kremlin, leveraging a chance for some pandemic propaganda.
The idea that Russia — under U.S. sanctions for its interference in the 2016 presidential election and its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 — was sending medical aid in a giant military aircraft to the most powerful nation on earth seemed astounding to some longtime Kremlin watchers.
A Russia analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Andrew S. Weiss, tweeted: “This is nuts,” calling it a Kremlin propaganda ploy. Nina Jankowicz, an expert on disinformation at the Wilson Center, said in a Twitter post that it was “mind boggling.”

New York Passes Bill to Prosecute Hate Crimes as Domestic Terrorism (Danielle Ziri, Haaretz)
The law was named after Josef Neumann, who lost his life to injuries sustained during a December anti-Semitic attack in Monsey

The Right Man to Detoxify Labour From Corbynist anti-Semitism (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz)
Keir Starmer wants to quietly move away from Corbynism - in any other time, the Jewish community would demand a more demonstrative repudiation, but not now with the coronavirus

What Would a Hypothetical U.S.-Pakistan War Look Like? (Kyle Mizokami, National Interest)
One word: Hell.