QAnon is ISIS Lookalike | Why Government Failed to Detect SolarWinds Attack | Tracking Android Users, and more

U.S. Exercise Focuses on Role of Police, Courts in West Africa Counterterrorism  (Anita Powell, VOA)
About 80 law enforcement and judiciary officers participated in last week’s inaugural West Africa Joint Operations regional exercise — a small figure compared to the thousands of personnel who sometimes take part in military-led counterterrorism exercises.
But this modest exercise could have a big impact against terrorism, said Julie Cabus, deputy assistant secretary and assistant director of the training directorate in the U.S. Bureau of Diplomatic Security. 

Twitch Will Ban Users for ‘Severe’ Offline Behavior, Including Terrorism and Sexual Assault  (Todd Spangler, Yahoo)
In an unusual step, Twitch, the Amazon-owned livestreaming service popular among gamers, has formally adopted a policy to suspend users if they engage in “severe misconduct” that occurs off the platform. The company noted that it has taken action before against serious and clear misconduct that took place offline — but until now, Twitch “didn’t have an approach that scaled,” it said in announcing the new policy Wednesday. Examples of serious off-service offenses that Twitch will now enforce against under the Off-Service Conduct Policy include: deadly violence, terrorist activities or recruiting, credible threats of mass violence, sexual exploitation of children, sexual assault, and membership in known hate groups. Twitch said it has teamed with a “highly regarded third-party investigative partner to support our internal team” in investigating allegations of off-service policy violations (without identifying the partner). “We will only take action when there is evidence, which may include links, screenshots, video of off-Twitch behavior, interviews, police filings or interactions, that have been verified by our law enforcement response team or our third party investigators,” Twitch said. The approach is not typical: Most internet services limit their enforcement to behavior that occurs solely on their platforms.

E-Commerce Platform Sells Nazi-Glorifying Merchandise, Despite Removal Request  (Shiryn Ghermezian, JNS)
…The Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a nonpartisan advocacy organization, was the first to notice the anti-Semitic and racist items. CEP wrote a letter to GearBubble CEO Donald Wilson on Feb. 4, informing him of the merchandise and asking GearBubble to suspend the accounts that posted the objects. In the letter, CEP noted that the items violate Gearbubble’s terms and conditions, which state that nothing can be posted on the website that is “false, defamatory, misrepresenting, infringes on any other entity’s intellectual property or would interfere with or restrict any other user from using the site. This includes, but is not limited to, posting anything unlawful, obscene, libelous, indecent, invasive of privacy, intellectual property infringement or anything that would cause the potential for civil liability or criminal charges.” More than two months later, CEP still has not received any response from GearBubble. The items remain listed online.

Google Accused of “Illegally” Tracking Android Users  (Keumars Afifi-Sabet, ITPro)
The AAID is unique to all Android devices and can be shared with third parties for more effective targeted advertising

The Suez Grounding Was an Accident. The Next Blocked Chokepoint Might Not Be.  (Scott Savitz, Defense One)
Military planners must bear in mind the tactic of blockships.

The Threat That COVID-19 Poses Now  (Alexis C. Madrigal, The Atlantic)
After a year of waves and surges, the pandemic is entering a “tornado” phase in America. Some communities won’t see the storm, others will be well fortified against disaster, and the most at-risk places will be crushed.

Why Didn’t Government Detect SolarWinds Attack?  (Scott Ferguson, BankInfoSecurity)
Senators Want to Know Why DHS’ Einstein System Did Not Discover the Incident