Welcome back to Lately, The Globe’s weekly tech newsletter. If you have feedback or just want to say hello to a real-life human, send me an e-mail.
In this week’s issue:
🤐 Leaked documents reveal the inner workings of China’s Great Firewall
⚠️ Graphic videos of Charlie Kirk shooting proliferate on social media
📱 The new iPhone Air (and an exciting AirPod development)
🤳 Foreign TikTok accounts dominated Canadian federal election coverage
CENSORSHIP
The global expansion of China’s Great Firewall technology
The Great Firewall is China’s nationwide system of online censorship and surveillance.WANG ZHAO/AFP/Getty Images
China’s Great Firewall is the vast online censorship and surveillance apparatus that blocks social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok, surveils online dissent and prevents anti-government organizing from occurring online. For years, we’ve heard about what China’s firewall keeps out – but much less about how it actually operates.
Now, a massive leak of more than 100,000 internal documents viewed by The Globe and Mail, as well as researchers from InterSecLab, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, is shedding light on the development of the Great Firewall and how similar technology is being deployed to governments around the world.
The Globe’s Asia correspondent James Griffiths reviewed these documents linked to Geedge Networks, the little-known Chinese company that was critical in the development of the firewall. The documents also reveal Geedge’s surveillance tools have been exported to the governments of Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, where it has been instrumental in enabling that country’s military junta to enforce a ban on VPNs. Read the full article.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Videos of Charlie Kirk shooting spreads on social media
Within minutes of the shooting of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, videos of the attack began to proliferate on social media. On X, TikTok and Instagram, the graphic footage was posted and reshared, amassing millions of views in the first few hours after the shooting. Social media companies say they remove or block violent content from being disseminated on their platforms, but during breaking news events, such as school shootings and other mass casualty incidents, graphic photos and videos spread rapidly on the platforms. A day after the shooting, videos of it were still live on X.
POLITICS
Foreign TikTok influencers shaped Canadian social media during federal election
A small number of TikTok accounts, with millions of views, dominated political discourse during Canada’s general election campaign, with U.S. influencers playing a big role in shaping narratives. A report by the global non-profit Reset Tech found that 100 TikTok accounts generated almost two-thirds of viral political views during the campaign leading up to the election. Of those accounts, U.S. influencers drew half of views, despite making only 23 per cent of the posts.
Meanwhile, Canadian accounts produced more than three quarters of viral posts about the election on TikTok, but only captured half of views, the report said. The U.S. creator who generated the most views was Aaron Parnas, a political commentator who is critical of the Donald Trump administration. His posts on Canadian politics were the third most popular in the general election campaign, behind CBC news and CTV news.
What else we’re reading this week:
Meta’s elite AI unit sparks tension with old guard (The Wall Street Journal)
Anonymity is dead and we’re all content now (The Verge)
Are Republicans changing their minds about AI safety? (Platformer News)
Adult Money
APPLE
Apple's new iPhone 17 lineup features the iPhone Air.Manuel Orbegozo/Reuters
iPhone Air, $1,449
September means the return to school, pumpkin spice lattes – and Apple product launches. This week the company released its iPhone 17 lineup, plus the new slimmed-down and lightweight iPhone Air. It only comes with one main camera, but the front-facing camera has improved sensors that apparently make horizontal selfies look better.
Although the iPhone Air was the centrepiece of the launch, I’m personally intrigued by the AirPods Pro 3, which will feature live language translation. If both people in a conversation are wearing the new AirPods, the earbuds will translate conversations in near real time, the company said. Earlier this year, Google announced its new Pixel 10 phones would feature AI-powered live voice translation, so it looks like Apple is itching to compete.
Culture radar
ANIMATION
Canada’s animation industry faces off against AI
On the surface, the resounding success of made-in-Canada exports such as Paw Patrol and Care Bears could create the impression that Canada’s animation sector is doing just fine. It’s not. In a recent article, The Globe’s arts reporter Josh O’Kane found that the industry is facing a plethora of problems, ranging from waning interest from streamers for animated series to surging inflation to the ripple effects of the 2023 Hollywood strikes.
The greatest threat is the spectre of generative artificial intelligence, which pits artistic value against shareholder-appeasing cost-cutting. The full shape of that threat has yet to become clear, but the industry is already debating how to ethically use AI models trained on copyrighted media, while workers are worried that producers could reroute money bookmarked for new animation projects toward automation tools instead. Read the full story here.