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BEIJING (Reuters) - China is investigating its top social media sites, including WeChat and Weibo, for failing to comply with cyber laws, the latest step in the country's push to secure the internet and maintain strict Communist Party control over content.

President Xi Jinping has made China's "cyber sovereignty" a top priority and has also reasserted the ruling party's role in limiting and guiding online discussion. Surveillance is being further tightened ahead of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party later this year, when global attention will be on news coming from the world's No.2 economy.

Apart from Tencent Holdings Group Ltd's WeChat and Weibo Corp, China's Cyberspace Administration said it was also investigating Baidu Inc's forum site Tieba over failing to comply with strict new laws that ban content which is obscene, violent and deemed offensive by the Communist Party.

"Users are spreading violence, terror, false rumors, pornography and other hazards to national security, public safety, social order," the regulator said on its website.

Baidu said it felt "deep regret" over the content and will "actively cooperate with government departments to rectify the issue and increase the intensity of auditing".

Tencent and Weibo did not respond to requests for comment.

Shares of the Hong Kong-listed firm were in the red after the news, down almost 5 percent. Investors will now be waiting to see how shares of the U.S.-listed firms react.

Just last month, all three were asked to carry out immediate "cleaning and rectification" at a meeting with authorities who cited examples of illicit content, including rumors about party officials and misrepresenting Chinese military history.

Prior to the meeting, Weibo was asked to partly close its video site over violations, wiping out a total $1.3 billion worth of stock between Weibo and parent firm Sina Corp.

In recent months, regulators have taken severe and unprecedented moves to shutter content and media across a variety of platforms. In May, it released regulations for online news sites and network portals that expanded curbs on content and required all services to be overseen by party-sanctioned editorial staff.

It has taken down popular celebrity gossip social media accounts and there has also been a sweeping campaign to remove virtual private network apps that allow users to circumvent China's so-called 'Great Firewall' and access foreign websites.

Western social media websites like Facebook and Twitter are banned by the country's censors, which in turn has helped drive up the popularity of home-grown messaging app WeChat and microblogging service Weibo.

WeChat and Weibo have about 940 million and 350 million monthly active users, respectively.

Reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Neil Fullick and Himani Sarkar

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China investigates top local social media sites in push to control content - Reuters

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A British bill is trying to give social media users more control over what stays on the Internet.

The British government has proposed a bill that would allow individuals to ask for their old childhood posts to be completely erased from social media websites.

The Data Protection Bill, introduced by Digital Minister Matt Hancock on Monday, seeks to give Britons more control and protection when it comes to their personal data. Its similar to the European Unions right to be forgotten rule, which also allows people to ask for their personal datato be removed from search engines such as Google.

READ MORE:6 tips to protect your personal information when using public Wi-Fi

But one researcher says nothing similar is in the works in Canada, although it could happen in the future.

I think, in general, the European Union is ahead of us in terms of data policy, Anatoliy Gruzd, director of research at Ryerson Social Media Lab in Toronto, told Global News.

In an email, theOffice of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) told Global News that while no right to be forgotten law currently exists, the commission helps individuals who have concerns about their privacy being violated. It outlined its role in a January 2016 discussion paper called,Online Reputation: What are they saying about me?

READ MORE:Free Wi-Fi has driven 88% of Canadians to put their personal info at risk, report finds

Individuals have been turning to the OPC for assistance when they come across websites that have posted their personal information without consent, the paper reads.

The OPC also launched consultations about online reputation last year, which it says will help form any future changes to rules.

The proposed U.K. law would ensure that sites such as Facebook will have to delete a users posts if asked, unless there is a legal reason to keep it online. It would also require companies to disclose what personal data they have to the corresponding individual. In addition, it would createoffences for those who break data rules.

WATCH:If you dont have privacy, you dont have you, Edward Snowden says

The countrys information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, praised the proposed changes in a press release.

We are pleased the government recognizes the importance of data protection, its central role in increasing trust and confidence in the digital economy, and the benefits the enhanced protections will bring to the public, Denham said, according to the release.

READ MORE:5 Canadians on what social media is doing to their mental health

Gruzd says there is a lack of transparency in the data industry, which lawmakers are trying to correct with more regulations on who is accessing data and how its being used.

Its to give more power to people who actually created the data, he explained.

While social media users can delete their posts from websites, Gruzd notes theres a huge difference in asking for data to be deleted.

READ MORE:6 steps Canadians can take when they spot hate speech online

When you delete your post, the data stays on multiple servers, Gruzd, who is also an associate professor at Ryerson University, said.

He explained that most social media users have little information about who has access to their data, and the servers it exists on.

While the information is disclosed in a websites terms and conditions, Gruzd points out that users rarely read it before clicking accept. Social media websites can then sell data to advertisers and other organizations.

If these data protection rules are enforced, Gruzd says the social networks will have to adjust their policies and algorithms accordingly.

2017Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Canada lags as Britain moves to give citizens more control over personal data - Globalnews.ca

Aubrey Plaza has "self control" when it comes to social media.

The 33-year-old actress plays the Instagram obsessed titular character in her upcoming movie 'Ingrid Goes West', and whilst she admits that she allowed herself to "indulge" in the photo sharing app in preparation for her role, she insists she knows when it's "time to get off" in real life.

Speaking to People magazine, Aubrey said: "I did allow myself to indulge in going down those rabbit holes of Instagram and to really look at other people's stuff way too long.

"In my real life I don't do that, I have enough self control to go, 'Okay, I've been on here too long - I don't need to be looking at my ex-boyfriend's girlfriend's page.' When I find myself looking at stranger's pictures and going, 'Oh, I wish I was doing what they were doing,' I'm like, 'Okay that's enough, time to get off.'"

It comes after the 'Parks and Recreation' star said earlier this year that she "feels bad" if she spends too much time online.

She said at the time: "I'm familiar with going online and spending hours on there that ultimately make me feel bad about myself.

"So I think there were definitely times on set when I would just allow myself to go there, to exist in that space that we all are familiar with, but some of us don't really go into full force."

Meanwhile, Aubrey's co-star Elizabeth Olsen - who plays Instagram celebrity Taylor Sloane who is stalked online by Ingrid in the comedy - previously said she would enjoy using social media more herself if she wasn't famous.

Asked if she likes using social media, she said: "I think I'd enjoy it if I weren't an actor. There are a lot of funny things that are shared on it, and a lot of my friends, especially during the election year, would show me really funny things that were being passed around the internet that like, went viral -- I don't know what qualifies something as viral."

Originally posted here:
Aubrey Plaza has 'self control' over social media - Star Local Media

The Sell Sider is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community.

Today's column is written by Alessandro De Zanche, global product and strategy lead, audience activation at GfK.

In the last two or three years, its become increasingly common for publishers to unite to share audience data and extend the reach and quality of their audiences. By creating these alliances, they increase their appeal to brands and media agencies.

Alliances vary, with some focusing on inventory, others on data and some covering both. Examples include Nucleus Marketing Solutions in the US, Pangaea Alliance and Symmachia in the UK, Gravity, Skyline, La Place Media and Audience Square in France, emetriq and the newly launched Login Alliance in Germany and Digital Premium in Brazil.

They can face the triopoly of Facebook, Google and Amazon with more confidence but also platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat. Where individually publishers would struggle to demonstrate dominance online, together, they offer a more attractive digital proposition to brands and media agencies.

Its puzzling to me how marketers see publishers, the triopoly and platforms as mutually exclusive, particularly given that the context of each one and their users state of mind are often completely different and, in many cases, complementary.

I see many benefits of the aggregated offering that a publishers alliance can provide. And I can see why it appeals to some brands and media agencies. This joined-up approach can, for example, provide brands and agencies with quality audiences and context at scale to mitigate issues related to data quality, brand safety and fake news.

For individual publishers, this approach can help them overcome the likelihood of being rejected by a brand or agency because they lack the necessary audience reach.

While publishers alliances can be seen as a good start to overcoming these issues, I cant help feeling that they smack of damage control by the category. Whats more, they are definitely not without their challenges.

The Challenges To Consistency And Data Quality

While five publishers may each contribute a travel audience segment, this wont necessarily add up to a high-quality, representative travel audience. The reason for this is that each audience provided would be the result of the different data sources, tools and techniques implemented by the individual publishers at source.

For example, Publisher A might build its travel segment by collecting data on all site visitors who read travel articles. Publisher B, on the other hand, might base its travel segment on travel articles plus the keywords that people use to search its site. Then theres Publisher C, which not only publishes travel content but also sells travel packages and uses its conversion data to construct segments. So, here you have three travel segments built in distinctly different ways one using page views, one using page views plus search and one adding real conversions to the process.

All three travel segments might be combined under the existing publishers alliance regime, even though each has been built in a completely different way. Inconsistencies in the way the segments are produced can create unreliable targeting, personalization, recommendation, creative optimization or whatever the data is used for, which can impact the end results.

Added to this challenge are the potential issues that stem from the different privacy policies currently implemented by publishers and that are likely to arise from the introduction of Europes General Data Protection Regulation.

A Simple Solution?

I believe that publishers require a leap of faith if they will be able to really compete in the digital world. They must let go and give up some individual, siloed control of their audience data to be competitive and truly valuable as part of an alliance.

This solution appears deceptively simple but, as anyone who works in publishing will tell you, it is not. So, how might the category achieve it?

By suggesting that publishers give up their competitive fears, lets be clear that I am not advocating that they give up their competitiveness or any commercial advantage. Im also not proposing that publishers need to pool 100% of their data. Those publishers that have in place a paywall, for example, might have a lot of data from subscriptions and not want to share this information. Of course, they shouldnt have to. And yet, a significant quantity of data does need to be shared, and the actual amount to be shared needs to be agreed upon for the publishers alliances to be effective.

Once publishers have reached an agreement on how the data is handled and how much of it is shared, it should be handed over to an independent entity in the rawest possible form. From here, it can be processed in a consistent and streamlined way for data science, either based on traditional methods or artificial intelligence, to create the final product.

Creating such a shared yet separate entity will be vital for overcoming any competitive fears and data quality issues. All shared audience and content data should flow into it to be assessed by independent data scientists and product managers who are dedicated to the development of high-quality, common data solutions and the protection of users privacy.

I believe publishers should take ownership of this separate entity and not hand it over to a third party to manage. If publishers want to remain relevant and involved, they need to double their efforts and take their future into their own hands.

I also believe that for individual publishers to move beyond those competitive fears that hold their alliances back, they need to rethink their data revenue model, as it is not always easy to identify the most valuable data or quantify the impact of different data sources. Ultimately, if the publishers alliances are to overcome data quality issues, they need to collectively come up with a common data strategy.

Publishers alliances offer a real opportunity for publishers to extend their reach and share of brands and media agencies digital media budgets. However, to fully realize the potential, publishers must work more closely together to provide real value in a more sophisticated way, rather than through marketing stunts or cost-saving exercises. Only then can they overcome the challenges that threaten their survival and success.

It will not be easy, but publishers must give up some short-term competitive advantage to win a brighter future as a category.

Follow Alessandro De Zanche (@fastbreakdgtl), GfK (@GfK) and AdExchanger (@adexchanger) on Twitter.

Continued here:
Publishers' Alliances: Damage Control Or Potential For A Brighter Future? - AdExchanger

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump. Photograph: Wong Maye-E, Pablo Martinez Mons/AP

An accidental spark could ignite a catastrophic conflagration in north-east Asia, Chinese state media has warned, after Donald Trump threatened to unleash fire and fury on North Korea.

In an English-language commentary, Chinas official news agency, Xinhua, said tit-for-tat confrontations between Washington and Pyongyang would lead nowhere and argued dialogue was the only way to defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis.

South Korea, whose capital is just 35 miles from the North Korean border, needed to be particularly wary of how a war of words might spiral out of control.

For Seoul, an uncontrolled situation and even perhaps any accidental spark could trigger a conflict and prove to be a disaster it cannot afford, Xinhua warned.

Other Communist party-run media outlets weighed in on the latest slanging match between the US and North Korean leaders on Thursday, with one newspaper likening the situation to a train racing down an increasingly dark tunnel.

Hu Xijin, the outspoken editor of the Global Times, a nationalist Communist party-controlled tabloid, claimed the US would come off worse from any military clash with North Korea since it had far more to lose.

The US is more powerful than North Korea but in a real showdown I dont think they would beat North Korea. There is a Chinese saying: A man with nothing to lose, doesnt fear a man with something to lose, he said in an online opinion video.

The Chinese language edition of Hus newspaper made the same point, in more poetic terms. The barefoot man does not fear he who wears shoes, it said.

Continuing to punish North Korea with sanctions and threats of military action was like wringing an almost completely dry towel to expel the last couple of drops of water, the Global Times added.

Experts say Trumps incendiary declaration will have displeased the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who is currently gearing up for a key political congress this autumn marking the end of his first term as Chinas top leader. Trumps comments came less than 72 hours after China had thrown its weight behind a UN security council resolution bringing tougher sanctions against Pyongyang in what it saw as a big concession to the US.

However, Liu Ming, a North Korea expert from the Shanghai academy of social sciences, said Beijing would not read too much into the US presidents ultimatum to Kim Jong-un.

He has made boorish remarks before and we all know what kind of person he is. Trumps a boorish person ... If we took all of his comments as hard policy then China-US relations would deteriorate immediately.

Shen Dingli, an international relations expert from Shanghais Fudan university, said Trump had used tough talk to force concessions from China on trade and now hoped to do the same with North Korea and its weapons programs. But if [Pyongyang] uses its own fury to deal with Trumps fury then it could lead to a very dangerous scenario.

Trump is not stable, Shen said. But luckily his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is.

Additional reporting by Wang Zhen

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Chinese media warn Trump's war of words with North Korea could spiral out of control - The Guardian