News of the Cyber World

[kyonides]

Communist Vietnam Will Force
Local and Foreign Social Media Users
to Register Identity

Vietnamese state media reported on Monday that the communist government is set to issue an amendment to the national telecommunications law before the end of 2023 that requires both foreign and domestic social media users to register their identities with law enforcement.
...
“There are times the authorities can identify social media account holders that violate the laws but cannot track them down because those criminals use cross-border applications. Unverified accounts, no matter on local or foreign platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, will be dealt with,” vowed deputy information minister Nguyen Thanh Lam.

Reuters noted that not all social media platforms operating in Vietnam currently offer identity verification services. It is not yet clear if the new law will force them to implement verification, or how much time they would be given to do so.

The BBC said Vietnamese authorities intend to “monitor and possibly block anonymous accounts” once the new restrictions go into effect.

Spotify Removes Thousands of AI-Generated Songs amid Fraud Concerns

Streaming music giant Spotify has taken action against AI music start-up Boomy, removing tens of thousands of songs from its platform amid growing concerns over streaming fraud and clutter.
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About seven percent of the tracks uploaded by Boomy were removed by the dominant audio streaming service because they were thought to have been artificially streamed by online bots posing as human listeners. The decision was made at a time when the music industry is grappling with issues related to the growing trend of AI-generated songs and the subsequent manipulation of streaming data.

A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed that Universal Music, a major recording company, alerted major streaming platforms to suspicious streaming activity on Boomy tracks. To address the AI streaming problem affecting the entire industry, Spotify responded by removing the flagged content.
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Universal’s Chief Digital Officer, Michael Nash, praised the vigilance of streaming services.

New York Times to Receive $100 Million from Google

The New York Times, one of the wealthiest media companies in the world with annual revenues of $2.3 billion, is about to receive a major payday: $100 million over three years from Google in a deal to feature the newspaper’s content on its platforms.

The corporate legacy media spent the bulk of its lobbying power over the past two years demanding Congress pass the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), a proposed bill that would have forced Big Tech to funnel money to a cartel made up of establishment media companies.

The deal follows other bonanza payments from Google to media companies, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, whose lobbyists pushed heavily for the JCPA while Democrats controlled Congress.

It was a News Corp publication, the Wall Street Journal, that broke news of the NYT’s upcoming big tech windfall.
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The deal includes the Times’ participation in Google News Showcase, a product that pays publishers to feature their content on Google News and some other Google platforms, some of the people said. The product has yet to be launched in the U.S., but is available in other countries including Germany, Brazil and Australia.

News Corp, parent of Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co., is among the publishers that previously have reached agreements with Google over Showcase and other elements.