Amnesty International criticizes Houthis for harassing media, prosecuting journalists

Special Amnesty International criticizes Houthis for harassing media, prosecuting journalists
Houthi fighters rally in Sanaa, Yemen, April 19, 2019. (Reuters)
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Updated 21 December 2022

Amnesty International criticizes Houthis for harassing media, prosecuting journalists

Amnesty International criticizes Houthis for harassing media, prosecuting journalists
  • The international human rights advocacy organization criticized the Houthis for violently attacking opposition media outlets
  • Amnesty International: The Houthis must quash the death sentences imposed on four journalists, who are facing execution following a grossly unfair trial

AL-MUKALLA: Amnesty International has called on the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen to stop prosecuting imprisoned journalists and cease its harsh assault on the media, the latest in a succession of international condemnations of the militia’s maltreatment of prisoners and suppression of free expression.

The international human rights advocacy organization criticized the Houthis for violently attacking opposition media outlets, arresting and prosecuting journalists, and sentencing outspoken journalists to death or lengthy jail terms. 

“Amnesty International calls on the Houthi de facto authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all journalists, political activists, human rights defenders, and others unlawfully imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their human rights,” the organization said in a statement. 

“The Houthis must also quash the death sentences imposed on the four journalists, who are facing execution following a grossly unfair trial, and ensure their immediate release.”

The international outrage at the treatment of media figures stems from reports that the Houthis are mentally and physically abusing four Yemeni journalists, confining them to segregated cells, and denying them life-saving drugs. 

Relatives and campaigners said that Tawfiq Al-Mansouri, one of the four arrested journalists, may die in captivity as a result of the escalating brutality by his captors and inadequate medical care, since he has suffered chronic illnesses during his seven-year incarceration. 

The Houthis also drew the ire of foreign organizations when they shut down a number of independent radio stations in Sanaa for refusing to broadcast the movement’s slogans. “They must also end their arbitrary restrictions on radio stations’ freedom of expression such as shutting them down and trying to control their narrative,” Amnesty said.

The group added that since 2015, the Houthis have arbitrarily kidnapped, assaulted, forcibly disappeared, and prosecuted at least 75 journalists, human rights activists, professors, and others seen by the militia as outspoken. “All 75 were targeted because of their work as journalists or for peacefully exercising their human rights including their rights to freedom of expression, association, and belief,” it added.

The organization’s estimate for the number of kidnapped critics is small in comparison to estimates given by Yemeni human rights organizations, who place the number in the hundreds.

The Houthis seized power in Yemen in a military coup in late 2014 and rapidly spread across the country, igniting a civil war that has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people, and causing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The Houthis have kidnapped hundreds of individuals from Sanaa and other regions they control, subjected them to horrific torture, and then tried them in court.

According to activists, many detainees perish as a result of torture, while scores of those released die soon after returning home from illnesses which developed in captivity. 

At the same time, former captives said that worldwide criticism of the Houthi’s torture of journalists may not result in the intended outcomes. Hisham Al-Yousifi, a Yemeni journalist who was abducted by the Houthis in 2015 and released during a major prisoner swap in 2020, noted that international condemnation and appeals have no effect on the Houthis, and militia only released him and other detainees in exchange for their fighters. 

“These statements and condemnations will not result in the journalists’ release, in my opinion,” Al-Yousifi said, adding that he was held by the Houthis for five years despite over 150 pleas and statements from rights organizations demanding this freedom. 

“Actual steps should be taken on the ground by denying the Houthis help from international organizations. The UN can assist by labeling the Houthis a terrorist organization for their barbaric treatment of journalists,” Al-Yousifi said.

Yemeni journalists have long demanded that the internationally-recognized Yemeni government and the UN envoy for Yemen push for another prisoner exchange with the Houthis including the names of critically ill journalists on the list of those requested.


Twitter Blue shakeup to scrap privileges for non-paying users, Musk says

Twitter Blue shakeup to scrap privileges for non-paying users, Musk says
Updated 28 March 2023

Twitter Blue shakeup to scrap privileges for non-paying users, Musk says

Twitter Blue shakeup to scrap privileges for non-paying users, Musk says
  • ‘Only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over’
  • From April ‘legacy’ users will pay either $8 a month or $84 per year

LONDON: Twitter chief Elon Musk has announced putting more of the social media platform’s features behind a paywall by giving the paid blue tick service a shakeup.

As of April 15, only the tweets of verified Blue subscribers will be promoted to others on the “For You” stream.

Paid blue tick owners will also be the only ones to vote in polls.

“This is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over,” said Musk in a tweet on Monday. “It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle.”

“Voting in polls will require verification for same reason,” Musk added.

Despite this, Musk later tweeted: “That said, it is ok to have verified bot accounts if they follow terms of service and do not impersonate a human.”

Last week, Twitter stated that “legacy” accounts, which have a free blue tick, including celebrities, government officials, and other high-profile users, would lose their free verification starting in April.

To maintain their verification, those accounts will have to pay a fee of either $8 a month or $84 per year.

Twitter Blue subscribers currently pay $7 a month.

After Musk took control of Twitter in October last year, he turned to a subscription-based model to shift the firm away from being dependent on advertising for revenue, especially as a large number of the platform’s ad base withdrew following his takeover.


UK court charges Twitter user who hailed killing of French teacher with encouraging terrorism

UK court charges Twitter user who hailed killing of French teacher with encouraging terrorism
Updated 28 March 2023

UK court charges Twitter user who hailed killing of French teacher with encouraging terrorism

UK court charges Twitter user who hailed killing of French teacher with encouraging terrorism
  • Ajmal Shahpal has been found guilty of posting tweets urging followers “to commit, prepare, or instigate acts of terrorism,”
  • The convict praised in a tweet the murderer of Samuel Paty, who was beheaded in 2020.

LONDON: A court in England found a Twitter user guilty of two charges related to encouraging terrorist acts after he shared a photo of a victim’s severed head, calling for the decapitation of anyone who insults his religion.

Ajmal Shahpal, 41, of Nottingham was convicted Monday, following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court, of posting tweets that incite others “to commit, prepare, or instigate acts of terrorism,” according to BBC News.

Jurors convicted Shahpal by majority verdicts of intentionally encouraging terrorist acts and of doing so recklessly. He was cleared of a third charge of a similar nature.

The defendant denied the offenses despite tweeting a photo of Samuel Paty, the French teacher killed in 2020 by an extremist for showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and captioning it, “the insolent had been sent to hell.”

He also praised the murderer for being “as brave as a lion.”

Judge Melbourne Inman KC rejected a bail application after the rulings, keeping Shahpal in custody for sentence on April 13.

Prosecutor Dan Pawson-Pounds, who opened the Crown’s case against Shahpal, said the convict encouraged terrorist acts “by publishing tweets on his Twitter account which specifically encouraged others to behead those who he believed had insulted his religion, his religion being Islam.”

Other tweets on Shahpal’s public account urged his following to kill anyone who insults Islam.

The convict claimed he merely retweeted other people’s views “to have some more followers.”

He told jurors: “A friend of mine who set up this account for me, he told me that if you do this, you are going to get more followers.”


Burkina junta orders France 24 off air after Al-Qaeda interview

Burkina junta orders France 24 off air after Al-Qaeda interview
Updated 27 March 2023

Burkina junta orders France 24 off air after Al-Qaeda interview

Burkina junta orders France 24 off air after Al-Qaeda interview
  • Burkina Faso has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2015
  • France 24 has been accused of ‘legitimising the terrorist message’ in the country

OUAGADOUGOU: The military junta in Burkina Faso on Monday suspended all broadcasts by the France 24 news channel in the west African country after it interviewed the head of Al-Qaeda North Africa.
Burkina Faso, which witnessed two coups last year, is battling a jihadist insurgency that spilled over from neighboring Mali in 2015.
“By opening its channel to the head of AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), France 24 not only acts as a communications agency for these terrorists but also offers ... legitimacy to terrorist actions and hate speech,” the junta spokesman said, referring to a March 6 interview with AQIM head Abu Ubaydah Yusuf Al-Annabi.
“Therefore the government has decided... to suspend sine die the diffusion of France 24 programs on all national territory,” spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo said.
The France 24 broadcast was cut around 0900 GMT on Monday, AFP journalists said.
On March 6, France 24 broadcast written replies given by Al-Annabi to 17 questions posed by the news channel’s specialist on jihadist issues, Wassim Nasr.
“We believe this is part of a process of legitimising the terrorist message and we know about the effects of this message in this country,” Ouedraogo later told RTB national television.
In Paris, France 24 hit back branding the Burkinabe government statement “outrageous and defamatory.”
“The management of France 24 condemns this decision and disputes the baseless accusations calling into question the channel’s professionalism,” the broadcaster said.
It stressed that the AQIM chief’s interview had not been directly aired but used as an account to confirm that the group had detained a French hostage who was released in Niger last week.
“The security crisis the country (Burkina Faso) is going through must not be a pretext for muzzling the media,” France 24 said.
The French foreign ministry also issued a statement saying it “regrets” the suspension and voicing “constant and determined commitment in favor of press freedom.”


In December, the Burkina junta suspended Radio France Internationale (RFI), which belongs to the same France Medias Monde group as France 24, accusing the radio station of airing a “message of intimidation” attributed to a “terrorist chief.”
Both RFI and France 24, which cover African affairs closely and are popular in francophone nations, have been suspended in neighboring Mali, which is also run by a military junta fighting jihadist forces.
According to France 24 one third of Burkina’s population watches the channel every week.
The military government in Ouagadougou said it would continue to “defend the vital interests of our people against anyone who acts as a loudspeaker for terrorist acts and the divisive hate speech of these armed groups.”
In March, the ruling junta in Mali announced the suspension of the broadcasting authorization granted to RFI and France 24, after they published stories implicating the national army in abuses against civilians.
One of the world’s poorest nations, Burkina Faso’s soldiers staged two coups in 2022 over the failure to tackle the threat from jihadist groups.
More than 10,000 civilians, troops and police have been killed, according to one NGO estimate, and at least two million people have been displaced.
With jihadists effectively controlling about 40 percent of the country, according to official figures, junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore vowed to recover lost territory after taking power in September.
But jihadist attacks have escalated since the start of the year, with dozens of soldiers and civilians killed every week.
Former colonial power France has in the past year withdrawn troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic.
The pullout from Mali and Burkina Faso, where French soldiers were supporting the Sahel nations in the long-running insurgency, came on the back of a wave of local hostility.


Twitter: Parts of its source code leaked online

Twitter: Parts of its source code leaked online
Updated 27 March 2023

Twitter: Parts of its source code leaked online

Twitter: Parts of its source code leaked online
  • Twitter said code posted on GitHub infringe copyrights, requested to be taken down

NEW YORK: Some parts of Twitter’s source code — the fundamental computer code on which the social network runs — were leaked online, the social media company said in a legal filing on Sunday that was first reported by The New York Times.
According to the legal document, filed with the US District Court of the Northern District of California, Twitter had asked GitHub, an Internet hosting service for software development, to take down the code where it was posted. The platform complied and said the content had been disabled, according to the filing. Twitter also asked the court to identify the alleged infringer or infringers who posted Twitter’s source code on systems operated by GitHub without Twitter’s authorization.
Twitter, based in San Francisco, noted in the filing that the postings infringe copyrights held by Twitter.
The leak creates more challenges for billionaire Elon Musk, who bought Twitter last October for $44 billion and took the company private. Since then, it has been engulfed in chaos, with massive layoffs and advertisers fleeing.
Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission is probing Musk’s mass layoffs at Twitter and trying to obtain his internal communications as part of ongoing oversight into the social media company’s privacy and cybersecurity practices, according to documents described in a congressional report.


Microsoft threatens to restrict data from rival AI search tools — Bloomberg News

Microsoft threatens to restrict data from rival AI search tools — Bloomberg News
Updated 27 March 2023

Microsoft threatens to restrict data from rival AI search tools — Bloomberg News

Microsoft threatens to restrict data from rival AI search tools — Bloomberg News
  • The company has told at least two customers that using its Bing search index to feed their AI chat tools violates the terms of their contract

Microsoft Corp. has threatened to cut off access to its Internet-search data, which it licenses to rival search engines, if they do not stop using it as the basis for their own artificial intelligence chat products, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.
The company has told at least two customers that using its Bing search index — a map of the Internet that can be scanned in real time — to feed their AI chat tools violates the terms of their contract, the news agency said, citing people familiar with the dispute.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft may also terminate licenses providing access to its search index, Bloomberg added.
“We’ve been in touch with partners who are out of compliance as we continue to consistently enforce our terms across the board,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters, adding that the company will continue to work with them directly and give information needed to find a path forward.
The maker of the Windows operating system had said in February it was revamping its Bing search engine and Edge Web browser with artificial intelligence, signaling its ambition to retake the lead in consumer technology markets where it has fallen behind.
The upgraded Bing search engine was rolled out to users late last month.