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What We're Watching: YouTube snuffs Bolsonaro, Israel probes Pegasus, China rejects COVID inquiry (again)
YouTube pulls Bolsonaro's rants: Google-owned YouTube pulled down a series of videos on the channel of Brazil's populist President Jair Bolsonaro, accusing him of spreading misinformation about the pandemic. YouTube removed more than a dozen clips for touting quack cures for coronavirus or claiming, in defiance of scientific experts, that masks don't reduce COVID transmissions. Last year, Twitter and Facebook also removed some content from Bolsonaro's feeds for similar reasons. But critics say that YouTube's move is too little too late, because Bolsonaro has been spreading misinformation about COVID since the pandemic began. Many Brazilians hold him personally responsible for the country's abysmal pandemic response, which has led to almost 550,000 deaths, the second worst toll in the world. Will YouTube's move change Bolsonaro's message? His weekly address to the nation, where he converses not only with government ministers but also various conspiracy theorists and loons, is broadcast on YouTube. Surely he doesn't want to risk losing that — or does he?
Israel establishes Pegasus probe: The Israeli government has set up a committee to probe recent allegations that an Israeli tech firm's surveillance software, called Pegasus, was licensed to foreign governments, and then used to spy on journalists, dissidents, and human rights activists. Seventeen media companies joined forces to cover this alleged cyber breach. NSO, the Israeli tech firm that licenses Pegasus, says it exports its products to 45 countries with approval from the Israeli government. In an interview after the alleged breach, NSO's CEO said that if the allegations of hacking are true "it is something we will not stand as a company," and claimed there was no link between the 50,000 leaked numbers and the company. NSO also says it welcomes a transparent probe that will clear the company's name. However, the group has not released any more information on its contractual agreements with various governments, like Saudi Arabia, which stands accused of human rights abuses.
China rejects another COVID origins probe: Barely five months ago, China thought it was finally done with probing the origins of the coronavirus, after a joint investigation with the World Health Organization reached the conclusion that, as the Chinese have always said, the virus most likely leaped from bats to humans, via another animal at a Wuhan wet market. Now, with US intelligence looking into the possibility that COVID may have leaked directly from a Wuhan lab — which most scientists say is less likely — Beijing doesn't want to revisit the issue again. The Chinese have turned down a WHO request for another probe, which is itself a big flashpoint in already-frosty US-China ties: the Americans say the Chinese have never been transparent about what happened in the early days of the pandemic, while the Chinese say the Americans only seek to blame China for political reasons. Whichever side you are one, it's important to clarify that a fresh investigation would aim only to ascertain whether the lab leak theory merits further study at all -- it would not reach any conclusions on its own.
Whatsapp logo and binary cyber codes.
What We’re Watching: WhatsApp sues India, US to (re)probe COVID origins, mob boss vs Turkish president
WhatsApp sues India: First it was TikTok. Then Facebook and Twitter. Now WhatsApp is the latest target of India's crackdown on online free speech. The social media messaging app, used by hundreds of millions of Indians daily, has filed a lawsuit against the Indian government to stop a new law that would require WhatsApp to trace users' encrypted messages. The law grants Delhi sweeping powers to block or remove any content that threatens national security, public order, or whatever the Indian government considers to be decency or morality. WhatsApp argues this would violate privacy rights, and is willing to fight it out in court. So far, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been successful in stifling online criticism of his government, especially over its handling of the country's ongoing COVID crisis. But WhatsApp's immense popularity among Indians gives the Facebook-owned tech firm considerable leverage, and at a moment when his approval rating has already hit all-time lows, Modi may fear a backlash if the messaging app suddenly goes offline.
Another COVID origins probe: Did it come from a bat or from a lab? The origins of COVID continue to perplex. But after the WSJreported earlier this week that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology got sick with COVID-like symptoms in November 2019, the Biden administration directed US intelligence agencies to re-investigate the origins of the disease. Barely three months ago, a joint China/WHO probe "concluded" that the virus was most likely transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, but it did not entirely rule out that it could have come from the Wuhan lab. Moreover, many countries questioned the findings because the report was co-written by the Chinese, who have an interest in deflecting blame. Will the new report establish more credibly whether the virus was in fact leaked — accidentally or on purpose — from the Wuhan lab? Biden's spooks have 90 days to find out.
Mob boss vs Turkish president: Sedat Peker, a convicted Turkish mobster who lives in exile, has threatened "all-out war" on the government of strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But it's not with guns, it's with... YouTube. Peker has recently racked up more than 30 million views with videos clips where he sits in what look like various Dubai hotel conference rooms — shirt open to the navel and gold chain blinging — methodically spilling the beans about all kinds of corruption, extra-marital affairs, murders, mob ties, drug trafficking, and other malfeasance by members of Turkey's ruling AKP party, government officials, and even Erdogan himself. The president has defended his officials, but Peker, who is planning to release several more videos, says: "A dog that doesn't know how to bark will call a wolf home." We have no idea what that means, but it sounds like he means business. Special bonus: can any readers tell us what's scribbled on the whiteboard behind Peker in this photo? Let us know here.