Seoul: Google’s policy to respect local laws and culture when removing harmful, illegal content from its platforms, like YouTube, applies universally to creators and uploaders across the world, including in South Korea, a senior executive of the US tech giant said on Thursday.
“We comply with the law in each country in which we operate, and we remove illegal content after review and in accordance with the laws that apply in that country,” Jean-Jacques Sahel, head of content policy in Asia Pacific at Google, said in an online press conference for Korean media.
“There are obviously social, cultural differences from one country to another, which results in different laws, and we have to respect that.”
He said when Google receives a notification from a proper authority to remove illegal content, it blocks it locally after reviewing the legality of the content, reports Yonhap news agency.
For example, more than 80 per cent of removal requests from the South Korean authorities in the first half of 2022 were related to privacy and security issues, the Google official said.
“Various content that would be totally acceptable to people in Korea or Northern Europe, that might be far less acceptable to people in parts of Africa or Asia, for instance,” he said. “So we have to respect the particular countries and related laws, and we do that.”
On top of that, Google’s own platform policies apply globally, banning hate speech, sexually explicit content, threats and others.
To enforce its policies at scale and in an effective way, the Google official said the U.S. tech giant has adopted a machine learning programme.
More than 94 of violative videos removed in the fourth quarter of 2022 were first flagged by machines, and more than 71 percent of the violative videos first detected by machines received fewer than 10 views before they were removed from YouTube, he added.
“We now have over 20,000 people across Google working on content moderation and on removal on our platforms,” he said. “And that includes reviewers that are fluent in multiple languages, including Korean, and they carefully evaluate illegal removal requests and user flags or machine flags 24 hours a day, across time zones around the world.”
For some scientists, they are the inevitable next stage of staving off the existential threat of climate chaos. For others, they should not even be talked about.
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, which provide a means of sucking carbon out of the atmosphere, are one of the hottest areas of climate research, but also the most controversial.
The debate over whether and how to develop CDR has been ignited by the release last month of the final section of the comprehensive review of climate science by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report found that ways of capturing and storing carbon dioxide, though expensive, might play a role in trying to keep global temperatures within safe bounds.
But scientists and policymakers are divided. Some say the technology must be the immediate priority for research. Others urge caution, and warn against putting faith in untested technology before we have even fully deployed the reliable low-carbon technologies, such as renewable energy, that we already have.
David King is working with Cambridge University’s department of engineering to try to find ways of refreezing the Arctic Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images
John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, talked of his concerns. “Some scientists suggest that it’s possible there could be an overshoot [of global temperatures, beyond the limit of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels that governments are targeting] and you could clawback, so to speak; you have technologies and other things that allow you to come back.
“The danger with that, which alarms me the most and motivates me the most, is that according to the science, and the best scientists in the world, we may be at or past several tipping points that they have been warning us about for some time,” he said. “That’s the danger, the irreversibility.”
The former UK government chief scientific adviser Sir David King strenuously disagrees. He believes CDR of many kinds will be needed, along with the means to “repair” the climate, such as by refreezing the ice caps, because the world is almost certain to overshoot the global target limit of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
“We are already at 1.35C above pre-industrial levels today,” he said. “We are already experiencing massive warming in the Arctic, where it’s more than 3C above the pre-industrial average.”
A rash of new technology startups bears witness to the potential business opportunity that many companies and investors see in CDR. These fledgling companies are exploring everything from “scrubbers” that chemically remove carbon dioxide from the air, to “biochar”, which creates fertiliser from burning wood waste without oxygen, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) by which carbon dioxide is liquefied and pumped into underground geological formations. They have taken the IPCC report as a spur to investment, and a stamp of approval.
“Growing carbon removal to be in line with the IPCC requires a massive scale-up in the next decade. Startups are meeting this climate challenge by developing a suite of approaches that can make a gigaton impact,” said Tania Timmermann, the chief technology officer of Andes, a company that plans to use micro-organisms to sequester carbon in soil.
Ben Rubin, the executive director of the Carbon Business Council, which represents several CDR specialists, said: “The IPCC report makes clear that the window of opportunity is closing quickly, highlighting the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing emissions is crucial but not enough: the report affirms that gigatonnes of carbon removal are required to help restore the climate,” he said. “Innovators are actively working to meet this climate challenge, by finding cost-effective and responsible ways to deploy carbon removal.”
But the key section of the IPCC report, which ignited the controversy, was fiercely fought over by scientists and governments up until the last moments before the document was finalised. The handful of mentions of CDR in the final 36-page summary for policymakers – which distils the key messages and is compiled by scientists alongside government representatives from any UN member that wants to take part – were only inserted after hours of desperate wrangling.
Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries were most insistent that CDR and CCS should be included and emphasised. In the end, nine references to CDR were left in the summary, and several more to CCS.
“Saudi Arabia brought 10 very experienced negotiators,” said one person. “They tried to take out references to renewable energy and tried to insist that references to carbon capture should be in there instead of, or at least as well as, renewables.”
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A CCS facility in Alberta, Canada. Photograph: Todd Korol/Reuters
But many scientists, campaigners and green experts are unhappy with the references. They fear that giving the impression there are viable options for removing carbon dioxide might engender a false sense of security. Most CDR technologies are unproven, are likely to be limited in scope, take years to develop and will cost large amounts of money.
Lili Fuhr, the director of the climate and energy programme at the Center for International Environmental Law, said: “We need to challenge the idea that we have to do less now, because we can do more later, with technofixes. This is a dangerous idea.”
Friederike Otto, a lead author of the IPCC, and senior lecturer at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, said: “My feeling about CDR is that we should pretend it is not an option. We should act as if CDR will never be achievable. We do not have a technology at the moment that works at scale … so we should make our policies as if CDR is not an option.”
She said pursuing CDR could be a dangerous distraction, and questioned whether it was a good idea to spend money on technologies that offered highly uncertain future benefits, when viable ways of reducing emissions now were not being deployed fast enough. “CDR has already been used as an excuse to dither and delay,” she said.
Otto said: “It’s very important to highlight that we still can keep to 1.5C – we have the knowledge and the tools to do it. But what we do not have is a sense of urgency and political will.”
King acknowledges that some scientists have concerns about CDR, but he believes it is needed because of the failure to act before now. “[Those who object] are taking the exact position I took in 2015, when I was leading global negotiations for the UK,” he said. “But there is no time for messing about now.”
King, who is working with Cambridge University’s department of engineering to try to find ways of refreezing the Arctic, points out that the IPCC report found only a narrow opportunity for the world to limit heating to 1.5C, that relies on massive reductions in greenhouse gases in the next few years, which is unlikely to happen.
“The IPCC does not go nearly far enough on CDR,” he said. “I believe it is more than likely we will hit 1.5C by the end of the decade. It’s false thinking, that the IPCC is saying we can manage [to stay below that level] with reducing emissions. The carbon we have put up [in the atmosphere] will have to be removed. It may cost a fortune, but we have to recognise that the alternative is to lose our civilisation.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
New Delhi: Several students from Jammu and Kashmir aspiring to get admission to Jamia Millia Islamia are in a fix after the university allegedly removed Srinagar as an entrance exam centre.
They say they will now have to spend thousands of rupees on travelling and accommodation in Delhi to sit in the entrance test. Several students alleged that they were getting Delhi as the only option when filling out the application forms online for admission to most undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes.
However, Jamia administration said the Srinagar Centre was not removed for all courses but had to be cancelled for some programmes as the number of applicants in that particular course was fewer than 50.
The admission prospectus had listed seven test centres Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Delhi, Patna, Kolkata, Srinagar and Guwahati. Students were allowed to opt for any of the centres. The prospectus had mentioned that if the number of applicants is either 49 or less, the test for that course will be held in Delhi.
Students say this is unfair and puts avoidable economic burden on them to book air tickets and hotels. They have urged Vice Chancellor Najma Akhtar to allow them to sit in entrance test at a centre in Srinagar.
“I have filled an application form for admission to an LLM programme and three applications for my sister in UG courses. There was no option for Srinagar. I cannot come to Delhi just for an entrance test. It will cost me over Rs 25,000 for travelling and accommodation,” Sameer Ahmed Sofia, 27, told PTI over phone from Srinagar.
“There are scores of students who share my concern. We have not received any communication why Srinagar was removed as the centre. I have asked many students whether their application forms showed Srinagar. All of them have said ‘no’,” he added.
Muneeb Ayub Bhatt, 25, has applied for a PhD course. His father is a carpenter and earns around Rs 400 per day.
“I have done my graduation and post-graduation from Srinagar. Now for a better opportunity and exposure, I want to come to Delhi. Why they are hindering our entry into Delhi? My father earns Rs 400 per day. He is the sole earning member and you are expecting me to come to Delhi to give an entrance test. Where would I stay and how will I manage the travel,” Bhatt said.
Hundreds of students from the Kashmir Valley appear for entrance tests across courses every year.
Jamia Millia Islamia provides reservation and relaxation under special provisions to candidates from Jammu and Kashmir. Their admission is considered over and above not exceeding two seats in the programmes offered by faculties.
The J&K Students Association said despite seats being reserved for students from the Union territory, the university has failed to provide exam centres in Srinagar, making it difficult for students to pursue their dreams.
With the entrance exams scheduled for the first week of June, the association has expressed concern that many students may miss the tests if a centre is not set up locally.
“It would not be possible for candidates staying in far-flung areas to take exams in Delhi due to the scorching heat and financial constraints. It is not possible for a majority of students to afford air tickets and book hotels. It will take them days to reach Delhi and students who have opted for more than one subject will have to stay longer,” the association’s national convenor Nasir Khuehami said.
The JMI has already notified exam schedules for different courses, but has not announced exam centres in Srinagar yet, despite repeated requests by students and parents, he said.
“The remoteness of exam centres should not be a barrier for Kashmiri students, particularly those from marginalised communities. For many, travelling to other states is an expensive and time-consuming process that they cannot afford,” Khuehami added.
Jamia Millia Islamia Registrar Nazim Husain Al-Jafri has termed the students’ allegations “baseless”, saying it takes lakhs of rupees to conduct entrance tests.
“We need to send examination papers, book a centre, hire examiners and supervisor, and send two individuals from the university. It costs us lakhs of rupees to conduct entrance tests. We have a rule that if the number of applicants is either 49 or less, the test of that programme will be conducted in Delhi,” Jafri said.
“It is not like only Srinagar centre has been cancelled. The cancellation has been done at other centres also. This has been notified also,” he added.
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday slammed the government over the removal of references to India’s first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in the new NCERT class 11 political science textbook, calling it a “disgrace”.
References to freedom fighter and India’s first education minister Azad have been removed from the new class 11 political science textbook by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
Tagging a media report on it, Tharoor, a former minister of state for human resource development, tweeted, “What a disgrace. I have no objection to adding neglected figures to the historical narrative, but deleting people, especially for the wrong reasons, is unworthy of our diverse democracy and its storied history.”
As part of its “syllabus rationalisation” exercise last year, the NCERT, citing “overlapping” and “irrelevant” as reasons, dropped certain portions from the course including lessons on Gujarat riots, Mughal courts, Emergency, Cold War, Naxalite movement, among others from its textbooks.
The rationalisation note had no mention of any changes in class 11 political science textbook.
The NCERT has, however, claimed that no curriculum trimming has taken place this year and the syllabus was rationalised in June last year.
“Certain changes not finding mention of in the rationalised content book could be an ‘oversight’,” NCERT Director Dinesh Saklani reiterated.
In the class 11 political science textbook’s first chapter, titled ‘Constitution – Why and How’, a line has been revised to omit Azad’s name from the constituent assembly committee meetings.
The revised line now reads, “Usually, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel or BR Ambedkar chaired these Committees.”
Jaipur: In a startling coincidence, both Congress as well as RSS veterans are expressed solidarity with BJP’s former Rajasthan President Satish Poonia on his removal from the post, terming it a poor decision taken by his party in the election year which will boomerang on it.
Congress leaders accused the BJP of being “two-faced”, saying that on one hand, they are accusing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of adopting an “anti-OBC stand”, and on the other hand, have removed OBC leader Poonia as state party President. They also claimed that Poonia was doing fair work and was a hard working leader as they questioned that why was he removed.
The BJP has appointed Poonia as the Deputy Leader of Opposition in Assembly, after replacing him with C.P. Joshi, but Congress say this is not enough for Poonia.
A video has surfaced in which Congress MLA Mahendra Chaudhary from Nawan assembly seat in Nagaur district is seen saying that Poonia worked so hard and suffered injuries on his hands and legs, yet the BJP removed him from the post of state President. Questioning the change, he claimed that the BJP has not only done wrong to Poonia, but meted injustice to the farmers living in 70 per cent of the villages.
Making him the Deputy Leader of the Opposition won’t help, he said, adding that this act of BJP was wrong.
Chaudhary said that when he became Chief Deputy Whip, there was a different arrangement. He said that the BJP has not given any message by making Poonia the Deputy Leader of Opposition, which “is just no post”. He said that there was no allegation against Poonia, yet he was removed, while Poonia did all the work of the party in a better way.
The video is going viral on social media.
Even state Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra hit back at BJP leaders for attacking Gandhi for his alleged anti-OBC statements, while terming removal of Poonia as the “anti-OBC stand” of the saffron party.
Dotasra asked with what face does the BJP who removed OBC state President talk about OBCs. “The BJP is teaching us the lesson on OBCs, but has itself removed the OBC state President. There is always respect for OBCs in the Congress. Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel and I myself belong to OBC category. BJP only works to divert the attention of the public from the real issues by bringing jumlas,” he quipped.
State minister Subhash Garg even claimed that the BJP will split after removing Poonia from his post.
Meanwhile, the RSS is also dissatisfied with party’s decision and veteran leaders reportedly have expressed their resentment against his removal.
On Friday, there were back to back meetings of RSS veterans including B.L. Santosh, Arun Kumar, among others who expressed their dissatisfaction over the way Poonia was removed.
They said that he should have been given some position before his removal and it could have been conveyed earlier that extension will not be given to him.
Meanwhile, after these meetings, it was decided to announce him as Deputy Leader of Opposition to calm down agitating Jats who form a significant voting bloc in Rajasthan.
New Delhi: Authorities conducted an “encroachment removal” action at the site of an old ‘dargah’ located beside a prominent street near the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin in south Delhi on Saturday amid heavy security deployment, police said.
The dargah of Syed Abdullah urf Bhure Shah, located on a plot near the Sabz Burj — a 16th-century double-domed Mughal-era monument, is “centuries-old” and the saint is revered by people from both Muslim and Hindu communities, said Yusuf Beg, caretaker of the dargah.
A posse of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed when the action was carried out by the authorities at the site facing the busy Zakir Husain Marg.
Beg said that they themselves removed the canopy and steel barriers placed next to the graves to prevent any damage.
“A drive to remove encroachment on the pavement was carried out by the PWD. Adequate security personnel deployment was made,” a senior police officer said.
As the dargah is located in the sensitive Nizamuddin area, paramilitary personnel were also on standby and one of them carried a tear gas shell box as well.
“We have been told to ensure law and order is maintained,” a paramilitary personnel on duty said.
The officials of the Delhi PWD could not be immediately reached for comments.
Beg and his son wept in a corner as a bulldozer removed the extracted canopy and later dug out the flooring made around the graves, which stand very close to the street.
“There are seven graves near the roadside, including that of Baba Bhure Shah and his kin. Now, the graves have all become exposed to the elements, they have ‘chadar’ over them, and in gusty wind or rain, the graves may get affected. There are a few graves on the inner side near a tree. Both Hinds and Muslims visit this dargah, and it is located near the famous Hazrat Nizamuddin dargah,” he told PTI.
The canopy carried ‘ayats’ (verses) from the holy Quran, the dargah caretaker said.
Asked what led to the action, Beg claimed that in February they were called by the district administration authorities and told about the plan to make the pavement free of any encroachment.
“These graves are a few centuries old, and we cannot move them. We do not have documentary evidence to prove its age, so action has been taken. We had already removed some of the steel grills and other structures recently, which were near the street. And, today also, we removed the canopy and steel barriers placed next to the graves ourselves. If it had been done by a bulldozer machine, it could have damaged the graves,” Beg said.
Asked about the structures that were removed by authorities during the action, he said, “A couple of rooms were demolished, and the flooring next to graves was dug up for the pavement.”
A pile of household items, an old clock, some important documents, grain bags, donation boxes, and grillwork objects lay deposited behind two small roofless rooms left as of now. Images of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina are painted on one of its walls.
Two men were seen offering the afternoon ‘namaz’ in one of the rooms as an old tree peeped from above. An ornate lamp removed from the now demolished room lay next to them.
Picking up and patting his pet cat that strolled nervously amid the pile of items, Beg said, “We call him ‘Sheru’, and he grew up amid us. He used to roam around beneath the canopy and often sat next to Baba’s grave.”
Several onlookers, including locals stood nearby, some on the road divider on the Zakir Husain Marg, as the bulldozers swung into action. The traffic was very momentarily halted on one side, near the street facing the Sabz Burj, during the course of the action.
Delhi High Court, in an order on March 14, 2022, observed that the government concerned was “duty bound” to remove all unauthorised constructions that might exist on public land.
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Lucknow: Students of the Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (KMC) Language University on Wednesday continued to demand the removal of the warden, who allegedly stopped them from celebrating Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Jayanti on February 19 even as the university authorities formed a panel to probe the matter.
The students on protest alleged that warden Azam Ansari forcibly removed Shivaji’s portrait from the hostel premises.
Ansari’s plea was that the students had not sought permission from the competent authority and hence he was against such celebrations in the open space of the hostel.
Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak took note of the incident and said in a tweet, “I have been told about it. Students have the right to celebrate it. We will look into it.”
Meanwhile, vice chancellor Prof Narendra Bahadur Singh has set up a three-member inquiry committee which will submit its report to him within a week. He has also removed Ansari from wardenship for the time being.
“We are probing the matter. For free and fair inquiry, Ansari has been relieved from warden’s responsibility till the pendency of the probe. The version of the students will be recorded and Ansari will also be given a chance to explain his point of view. We are not against celebrating the birth anniversary of our heroes,” the vice chancellor added.
A video of the incident has also gone viral on social media in which students are seen preparing to celebrate Shivaji Jayanti by putting up his big portrait in the common area of a hostel.
In the video, Ansari was purportedly seen asking students to get proper permission before organising such celebrations.
Morena: The Railway department has served a notice to Lord Bajrang Bali asking for the removal of the “encroachment” on the Railway land in Sabalgarh town in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district, but withdrew it after realising the mistake, an official said on Sunday.
The notice addressed to Bajrang Bali and issued on February 8, directed the removal of the encroachment within seven days or face action. The encroacher will have to pay the expense if the Railways takes action to remove the structure, it said.
The notice was pasted at the temple of the deity.
After the notice went viral and caused an uproar, the Railways rectified the mistake and issued a new one in the name of the priest of the temple.
Jhansi Railway Division’s PRO (Public Relations Officer) Manoj Mathur said the initial notice was served mistakenly.
“Now, the new notice was served to the priest of the temple,” he said.
Earlier, the notice was served to “Bajrang Bali, Sabalgarh” by the senior section engineer of the Jhansi railway division.
The structure was to be removed for the construction of the Sheopur-Gwalior broad-gauge line.
The new notice, issued on February 10, was served in the name of Harishankar Sharma, the priest of the temple.
New Delhi: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday termed the removal of the AAP government-appointed members from discom boards by Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena “unconstitutional and illegal”.
The lieutenant governor has started a new trend of reversing decisions taken by the elected government of Delhi, Sisodia said at a press conference here.
The deputy chief minister also rubbished the charges that the members appointed by the Arvind Kejriwal government provided benefits to the tune of Rs 8,000 crore to the private discoms.
The LG can get the alleged “scam” investigated by any central agency, he added.
“A new trend has been started by the LG as he reversed the Delhi Cabinet’s four-year-old decision and removed the members appointed to the boards of the discoms. This way, he could now overturn the government’s decisions taken even four-ten years back,” Sisodia said.
The deputy chief minister, who also holds the charge of the power department, said Saxena’s decision was “unconstitutional, illegal and contrary to the established procedures”.
Sisodia also objected to the LG’s decision to remove the members citing “difference of opinion”.
“The ‘difference of opinion’ provision cannot be used like this. There is a procedure to do so and it cannot be cited to frequently reverse the decisions taken by the government,” he said.
Sisodia also alleged that the LG was not following the Constitution and the Supreme Court order which states that his power of taking independent decision was limited to three subjects — police, land and public order.
Following directions of the LG, the Power department through an order on Friday replaced the AAP government’s nominees to the boards of power discoms in the national capital with senior officials.
Those removed from the boards were Jasmine Shah, a spokesperson of the AAP, Naveen Gupta, the son of AAP MP N D Gupta, and other private persons appointed as government nominees “illegally”, LG office sources said.
The finance secretary, power secretary and the MD of Delhi Transco will now represent the city government on the boards of BYPL, BRPL and TPDDL, according to the Power department order.
Sisodia said the “difference of opinion” power given to the LG is meant to be used in the rarest of rare cases. This power can be used in matters related to national security or any such relevant matters, he said.
“LG cannot use this power on a daily basis for every other matter and overturn the decisions of the elected government,” he said.
The transaction of business rules for stating “difference of opinion” has been well defined for this, but the LG is not ready to follow any of those, he charged.
“This ‘difference of opinion’ being mentioned by the LG on every file is unlawful,” he claimed.
Defining the procedure for application of “difference of opinion”, Sisodia said, “It is written in the laws that if LG has a different opinion on any matter decided by the concerned minister, then he must call the minister and discuss the matter and ask him to discuss the same within the Cabinet.”
Then if the Cabinet is also not ready to change its decision, the LG can write to the Centre that there is a “difference of opinion” between the government and him, Sisodia said.
He does not have the power to mention a “difference of opinion” in any case before following the consultation process, Sisodia said.
“LG has no right to overturn the decisions of the CM and the cabinet of the elected government. He can use the ‘difference of opinion’ power only in special circumstances, but keeping all rules and regulations aside, LG is using it to overturn every decision of the government,” sisodia charged.
The LG should understand that he is a citizen of India and has been appointed as per the Constitution so he will have to obey it as well as the orders of the Supreme Court, he said.
The LG only has powers over the matters of police, land and public order. He has no right to take any other decisions except on these three matters. He can only give opinions on the matters decided by the chief minister or the government, he said.
The power of making decisions lies only with the chief minister, ministers and the government, he asserted.
