Digital Planet Folgen

We hear about a new plan to drive economies and improve lives across Africa – the Open Internet project between the continent and the EU. A report “The Open Internet as Cornerstone of Digitalisation” is funded by the EU and points out in detail what needs to done to secure easy, reliable and cheap online access without which development will simply stall. We speak to two of the report’s authors – one from the EU and the other from Africa.Monitoring Mangroves in the Pakistan Indus Delta Mangrove forests are hugely impacted by climate change and monitoring them from space with satellites doesn’t deliver enough data to know fully how they are being impacted by rising temperatures and sea levels. Now a pilot project in the Indus River Delta, just south of Karachi in Pakistan, has used drones to image the mangroves allowing the researchers to study one of the world’s largest forests. The project’s director Obaid Rehman is on the show to tell us about their work and also how these mangrove forests can be used for carbon capture. He says their work should lead to more plantations of the forest too.The talk at Web Summit 2022 Technology gatherings are back in full swing and Web Summit in Portugal is one of the biggest. This year’s conference was at full capacity and tech reporter Jane Wakefield joined the queues to see what was preoccupying the tech industry as 2022 draws to an end – and the big thing appears to be the Metaverse.The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington.Studio Manager: Tim Heffer Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz(Image: Getty Images)

A new report shows how the authorities in Iran can track and control protestors phones. An investigation by The Intercept news organisation has found that mobile phone coverage is being switched from a healthy 5G or 4G network to slow and clunky 2G coverage when protestors gather. This means they no longer can communicate using encrypted messages or calls on their smartphones and instead have to rely up traditional phone calls or SMS messages which can be intercepted and understood easily. This, according to the report is being done by a web programme. One of reports authors Sam Biddle, a journalist specialising in the misuse of power in technology, is on the programme.Policing the metaverse Imagine being attacked in virtual reality – will the experience be as traumatic as in real life? Perhaps not yet but in the near future if we are living as least part of our live in the Metaverse, crime will also be part of the virtual life. But currently there is little if no protection if a crime committed against our virtual selves. Now Europol – the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation – has published a report into Policing the Metaverse. Journalist Emma Woollacott has been reading the report and she explains the many perils that we could face and also how we need to act now to manage these crimes in the Metaverse.Hollyplus -a digital twin AI that sings anything you want to (even if you can’t!) Imagine being able to sing any song you like – and in any language you choose – even in musical styles that you have never studied? That’s now possible thanks to artist, musician and composer Holly Herndon. She has trained a computer algorithm to sing like her – the cloned voice can sing in any language or style she chooses – even extending her own vocal range. The project is called Hollyplus and the digital twin has just released its version of Dolly Parton’s song Jolene. The real Holly explains how she’s done this.The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson.Studio Manager: Sue Maillot Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz(Image: Protest in Iran. Credit: Getty Images)

Elon Musk completed on a 44-billion-dollar takeover of Twitter last week. He’s expressed the want to restructure the platform and create a digital ‘town square’, a potential space for free speech, growth and learning. But defining freedom of speech is a minefield, and some parties are afraid that Elon’s vision could provide opportunity for greater disinformation and misinformation. Gareth and Becky Hogge speculate as to whether Twitter can ever fulfil the digital idealism that many first dreamt of at the conception of the internet. As social media platforms have become ever more adept at seeking out and closing bots, a thriving underground ecosystem has grown up where people make a living from setting up multiple fake accounts. Clients buy their services through so called ‘click farms’ that sell packages of likes and shares. For a few dollars a celeb, a business or a politician can simply buy a big following, and influence. A new report highlights the stories of the largely exploited gig economy workers behind the clicks. One of the authors is Rafael Grohmann of University of Toronto, Canada.At the Digital Doorstep is a recent report that shines the spotlight on the manner in which novel doorbell cameras alter the behaviour and management of delivery drivers. Harrison Lewis speaks to the authors, Eve Zelickson and Aiha Nguyen from Data and Society, to find out how some of our doorsteps have become a social enigma; where does surveillance belong on private property when that same space also acts as a work place for others? The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington.Studio Manager: Bob Nettles Producer: Harrison Lewis(Image: Elon Musk 'Chief Twit' Photo Illustration. Credit: Getty Images)