Killer Robots | Ransomware Demands Boom | Disinformation & E-commerce Platforms, and more

Lately, Big Tech advocates have begun to promote the idea that extremist and terrorist content online remains an issue solely for smaller social media sites and alternative encrypted platforms. While tackling extremism and terrorism on smaller and alternative sites is certainly worth getting ahead of, the overall narrative here is more than a little convenient for Silicon Valley and flawed in a number of crucial respects.

‘Hate Speech’: More Right-Wing Groups Could Be Listed as Terrorist Organizations  (Anthony Galloway, Sydney Morning Herlad)
More right-wing extremist groups could be declared terrorist organisations after Labor and Liberal MPs unanimously backed the listing of neo-Nazi group Sonnenkrieg Division. Liberal senator James Paterson, chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, called on the government to investigate more “like-minded organisations with a mind to listing them as terrorist organisations under the Criminal Code, if they meet the criteria”. Committee chair, James Paterson, says more right-wing extremist groups could be declared terrorist organisations after the listing of neo-Nazi group, Sonnenkrieg Division. In March the then home affairs Minister Peter Dutton announced the UK-based group Sonnenkrieg Division would become the first right-wing extremist organisation listed as a terrorist organisation in Australia. Federal Parliament’s security and intelligence committee examined the listing and backed the move in a report tabled on Wednesday night. The report found Sonnenkrieg Division “seeks to encourage lone-actor terrorist attacks against its political, racial, and ethnic enemies”. “SKD members acting on behalf of the organisation, have encouraged, promoted, and glorified terrorist acts through online propaganda,” the report said.

Germany to Repatriate Army Platoon Accused of Rightwing Extremism  (Financial Times)
Germany is repatriating a Bundeswehr platoon from Lithuania after its soldiers were accused of rightwing extremism and sexual assault, in a case that has again exposed the prevalence of hard-right views in Germany’s armed forces. The incident comes just months after the defence ministry was forced to undertake a wide-ranging reform of its elite military division, the Kommando Spezialkräfte (KSK), and disband one of its companies after some of its members were found to have rightwing sympathies. It was also announced on Wednesday that investigators are probing a number of police officers in the western state of Hesse who belonged to an elite unit known as the Special Operations Command, or SEK, and had allegedly shared banned Nazi content in a chat group. A spokesperson for the German defence ministry said the armoured infantry platoon stationed in Lithuania was being investigated for suspected sexual coercion, using racist and anti-Semitic insults, and “extremist behaviour”. The platoon is part of a Nato battle group in Lithuania known as “enhanced forward presence” which is designed to improve the alliance’s deterrence capability against Russia. The 600 soldiers stationed there for the Bundeswehr, or federal armed forces, carry out joint exercises with the Lithuanian army and are supposed to act as a “tripwire” should tensions with Moscow escalate.

Disinformation Challenges on E-commerce Platforms  (Patrick Jones. Brookings)
Following the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, social media companies came under intense scrutiny for their role in incubating the mob attack. The CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter were hauled before Congress to testify, and congressional critics of the company cited the assault as the latest reason why these companies should be stripped of their liability protections. But amid this focus on the role of online platforms in fueling conspiracy theories about a stolen election, e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Etsy, and eBay have escaped scrutiny. While Etsy banned QAnon-related merchandise in October and Amazon and eBay made the same commitment in late January, the success of these efforts, much like those of other social media platforms, has been mixed at best. 

As Ransomware Demands Boom, Insurance Companies Keep Paying Out  (Josephine Wolff, Wired)
While major carriers like AXA have backed away from covering ransoms, don’t expect the industry at large to break the vicious cycle.

Was a Flying Killer Robot Used in Libya? Quite Possibly  (Zachary Kallenborn, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
Last year in Libya, a Turkish-made autonomous weapon—the STM Kargu-2 drone—may have “hunted down and remotely engaged” retreating soldiers loyal to the Libyan General Khalifa Haftar, according to a recent report by the UN Panel of Experts on Libya. Over the course of the year, the UN-recognized Government of National Accord pushed the general’s forces back from the capital Tripoli, signaling that it had gained the upper hand in the Libyan conflict, but the Kargu-2 signifies something perhaps even more globally significant: a new chapter in autonomous weapons, one in which they are used to fight and kill human beings based on artificial intelligence.

Climate Change Is Remaking South Asia’s Monsoon  (Economist)
A bad season can cut economic growth by a third.