www.europol.europa.eu 30 arrested in crackdown on Chinese human trafficking ring in Spain and Croatia | Europol
30 arrested in crackdown on Chinese human trafficking ring in Spain and Croatia
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30 arrested in crackdown on Chinese human trafficking ring in Spain and Croatia, Europol says
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1840283
European law enforcement conducted raids at 14 properties across Barcelona (4), Madrid (9), and Toledo (1) in Spain, and one property in Zagreb in Croatia. These operations resulted in 30 arrests, among which were the leaders of the criminal network. In addition, EUR 180 000 in cash was also seized, alongside weapons, 70 passports, equipment to falsify passports and visas, narcotic substances, 10 high-end vehicles and 33 mobile phones. A total of 33 victims – Chinese and Vietnamese nationals – were also safeguarded.
This investigation builds on the dismantling of Europe’s largest Chinese prostitution ring in February 2023. Digital evidence seized during that operation has since then been meticulously analysed, including at a forensic sprint held at Europol’s headquarters in March 2023. During this sprint, experts from nine countries extracted tens of terabytes of data from hundreds of confiscated mobile phones.
Th
30 arrested in crackdown on Chinese human trafficking ring in Spain and Croatia, Europol says
www.europol.europa.eu 30 arrested in crackdown on Chinese human trafficking ring in Spain and Croatia | Europol
30 arrested in crackdown on Chinese human trafficking ring in Spain and Croatia
European law enforcement conducted raids at 14 properties across Barcelona (4), Madrid (9), and Toledo (1) in Spain, and one property in Zagreb in Croatia. These operations resulted in 30 arrests, among which were the leaders of the criminal network. In addition, EUR 180 000 in cash was also seized, alongside weapons, 70 passports, equipment to falsify passports and visas, narcotic substances, 10 high-end vehicles and 33 mobile phones. A total of 33 victims – Chinese and Vietnamese nationals – were also safeguarded.
This investigation builds on the dismantling of Europe’s largest Chinese prostitution ring in February 2023. Digital evidence seized during that operation has since then been meticulously analysed, including at a forensic sprint held at Europol’s headquarters in March 2023. During this sprint, experts from nine countries extracted tens of terabytes of data from hundreds of confiscated mobile phones.
The new intelligence provided unprecedented insights into the methods use
www.thetimes.com Serbia’s PM Milos Vucevic resigns amid Chinese contractor controversy
There have been protests against alleged corruption and deadly negligence after a railway station collapse in November killed 15
There have been protests against alleged corruption and deadly negligence after a railway station collapse in November killed 15.
Vucevic was mayor of Novi Sad before becoming prime minister in elections last April. His successor as mayor also resigned on Tuesday. Protesters claim the Chinese consortium responsible for renovating parts of Novi Sad station had bypassed safety regulations with the assistance of corrupt officials.
...
There is a growing perception that the president [Vucic, who is now about to decide whether to form a majority government or hold a snap parliamentary election] is trying to quash democratic freedoms in Serbia and turn the country back towards Moscow, despite Belgrade’s formal efforts to join the European Union. Serbia is a candidate to join the bloc but must first normalise relati
There's a related report focusing on the Serbian prime minister's resignation:
Serbia’s PM Milos Vucevic resigns amid Chinese contractor controversy -- [unpaywalled link]
Vucevic was mayor of Novi Sad before becoming prime minister in elections last April. His successor as mayor also resigned on Tuesday. Protesters claim the Chinese consortium responsible for renovating parts of Novi Sad station had bypassed safety regulations with the assistance of corrupt officials.
...
There is a growing perception that the president [Vucic, who is now about to decide whether to form a majority government or hold a snap parliamentary election] is trying to quash democratic freedoms in Serbia and turn the country back towards Moscow, despite Belgrade’s formal efforts to join the European Union. Serbia is a candidate to join the bloc but must first normalise relations with its neighbour Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia after a Nato intervention in 1999 that brought an end to Slobodan Milosevic’s brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
Germany under attack from China: Beijing is not an ally but a rival behind ‘espionage, sabotage and repression’, says German lawmaker
www.telegraph.co.uk Germany under attack from China, warns intelligence insider
Beijing is not an ally but a rival behind ‘espionage, sabotage and repression’, says MP
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1840090
Germany is under attack from China, a senior German opposition MP has warned, as Berlin grapples with a fresh wave of cyber attacks and espionage plots.
Roderich Kiesewetter, the crisis prevention spokesman for the centre-Right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said Germans needed to stop thinking of China as a “partner”.
“Many in Germany are turning a blind eye … China is no longer a partner, but a systemic rival that is attacking us,” Mr Kiesewetter, a former colonel in the Bundeswehr, told The Telegraph.
“Germany is at the centre of Chinese hybrid influence operations in Europe – it uses all the tools in its toolbox; espionage, sabotage, lawfare, repression and disinformation,” added Mr Kiesewetter, who is also the deputy chairman of the German p
Germany under attack from China: Beijing is not an ally but a rival behind ‘espionage, sabotage and repression’, says German lawmaker
www.telegraph.co.uk Germany under attack from China, warns intelligence insider
Beijing is not an ally but a rival behind ‘espionage, sabotage and repression’, says MP
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1840090
Germany is under attack from China, a senior German opposition MP has warned, as Berlin grapples with a fresh wave of cyber attacks and espionage plots.
Roderich Kiesewetter, the crisis prevention spokesman for the centre-Right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said Germans needed to stop thinking of China as a “partner”.
“Many in Germany are turning a blind eye … China is no longer a partner, but a systemic rival that is attacking us,” Mr Kiesewetter, a former colonel in the Bundeswehr, told The Telegraph.
“Germany is at the centre of Chinese hybrid influence operations in Europe – it uses all the tools in its toolbox; espionage, sabotage, lawfare, repression and disinformation,” added Mr Kiesewetter, who is also the deputy chairman of the German p
Germany under attack from China: Beijing is not an ally but a rival behind ‘espionage, sabotage and repression’, says German lawmaker
www.telegraph.co.uk Germany under attack from China, warns intelligence insider
Beijing is not an ally but a rival behind ‘espionage, sabotage and repression’, says MP
Germany is under attack from China, a senior German opposition MP has warned, as Berlin grapples with a fresh wave of cyber attacks and espionage plots.
Roderich Kiesewetter, the crisis prevention spokesman for the centre-Right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said Germans needed to stop thinking of China as a “partner”.
“Many in Germany are turning a blind eye … China is no longer a partner, but a systemic rival that is attacking us,” Mr Kiesewetter, a former colonel in the Bundeswehr, told The Telegraph.
“Germany is at the centre of Chinese hybrid influence operations in Europe – it uses all the tools in its toolbox; espionage, sabotage, lawfare, repression and disinformation,” added Mr Kiesewetter, who is also the deputy chairman of the German parliament’s intelligence committee.
His comments are a major intervention in G
Sanction package: EU reportedly plans to ban more than half a dozen more Russian media outlets as well as banks from Swift system
meduza.io E.U. reportedly plans to ban more than half a dozen more Russian media outlets — Meduza
The European Union’s next sanctions against Russia will include restrictions on several popular pro-Kremlin media outlets. The planned measure will target the news agency TASS, the online publication Lenta.ru, the Russian Defense Ministry’s TV channel Zvezda, the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, the pro-K...
The sanctions reportedly entail a complete ban on broadcasting, distributing, and promoting the content of these outlets. E.U. Internet providers will be required to block access to these resources.
- RT and Sputnik are already under sanctions in Europe. Several other pro-Kremlin media outlets are banned in specific E.U. countries, mainly in the Baltic states.
- A day earlier, on January 28, Bloomberg reported that the next E.U. sanctions package could cut more Russian banks off from the SWIFT banking system and impose new restrictions on more than 70 “shadow fleet” tankers involved in shipping Russian oil.
www.promptfoo.dev 1,156 Questions Censored by DeepSeek | promptfoo
DeepSeek-R1 is a blockbuster open-source model that is now at the top of the U.S. App Store.
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1835428
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1835375
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1835374
DeepSeek-R1 is a blockbuster open-source model that is now at the top of the U.S. App Store.
As a Chinese company, DeepSeek is beholden to CCP policy. This is reflected even in the open-source model, prompting concerns about censorship and other influence.
Today we’re publishing a dataset of prompts covering sensitive topics that are likely to be censored by the CCP. These topics include perennial issues like Taiwanese independence, historical narratives around the Cultural Revolution, and questions about Xi Jinping.
...
AI or government mouthpiece? Human rights groups slam China’s DeepSeek over data privacy and state propaganda
Human rights activists criticize China's AI platform DeepSeek for enabling state propaganda, suppressing discussions, and collecting personal data. Concerns rise over ethical risks and digital repression, with fears that the Chinese Communist Party could misuse the platform to silence dissent.
...
Rushan Abbas, Executive Director of the Campaign for Uyghurs, condemned the AI platform on social media, warning of its implications. “It collects sensitive data that would benefit the CCP, a regime known for human rights abuses,” she stated. “Chinese AI platforms and apps fuel threats, including digital transnational repression. We can't afford to overlook this.”
...
[Swiss digital law specialist Jan] Czarnocki recounted how the AI avoided acknowledging reports of genocide and crimes against hu
Chinese online influence operation called for overthrow of Spain's government, report says
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1839567
Here is the link to the report: https://graphika.com/reports/chinese-state-influence
A Chinese social media operation that aims to whip up political anger in the West has called for the overthrow of a foreign government when impersonating protesters criticising flood relief efforts in Spain, online analysis outfit Graphika said.
Graphika said an operation dubbed Spamouflage, which it believed was linked to the Chinese state, posed this month as human rights group Safeguard Defenders to spread online calls for the government to be toppled in response to the catastrophic floods in October that killed 224 people.
"This is the first time we have seen Spamouflage directly calling to overthrow a foreign government," Graphika said in its latest report.
...
The report also finds:
- Chinese covert influence operations have impersonated human rights organizations critical of Beijing, almost certainly in
Chinese online influence operation called for overthrow of Spain's government, report says
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1839567
Here is the link to the report: https://graphika.com/reports/chinese-state-influence
A Chinese social media operation that aims to whip up political anger in the West has called for the overthrow of a foreign government when impersonating protesters criticising flood relief efforts in Spain, online analysis outfit Graphika said.
Graphika said an operation dubbed Spamouflage, which it believed was linked to the Chinese state, posed this month as human rights group Safeguard Defenders to spread online calls for the government to be toppled in response to the catastrophic floods in October that killed 224 people.
"This is the first time we have seen Spamouflage directly calling to overthrow a foreign government," Graphika said in its latest report.
...
The report also finds:
- Chinese covert influence operations have impersonated human rights organizations critical of Beijing, almost certainly in
Chinese online influence operation called for overthrow of Spain's government, report says
Here is the link to the report: https://graphika.com/reports/chinese-state-influence
A Chinese social media operation that aims to whip up political anger in the West has called for the overthrow of a foreign government when impersonating protesters criticising flood relief efforts in Spain, online analysis outfit Graphika said.
Graphika said an operation dubbed Spamouflage, which it believed was linked to the Chinese state, posed this month as human rights group Safeguard Defenders to spread online calls for the government to be toppled in response to the catastrophic floods in October that killed 224 people.
"This is the first time we have seen Spamouflage directly calling to overthrow a foreign government," Graphika said in its latest report.
...
The report also finds:
- Chinese covert influence operations have impersonated human rights organizations critical of Beijing, almost certainly in an effort to discredit their activities and disrupt domestic political conversations in
web.archive.org 1,156 Questions Censored by DeepSeek | promptfoo
DeepSeek-R1 is a blockbuster open-source model that is now at the top of the U.S. App Store.
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1835428
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1835375
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1835374
DeepSeek-R1 is a blockbuster open-source model that is now at the top of the U.S. App Store.
As a Chinese company, DeepSeek is beholden to CCP policy. This is reflected even in the open-source model, prompting concerns about censorship and other influence.
Today we’re publishing a dataset of prompts covering sensitive topics that are likely to be censored by the CCP. These topics include perennial issues like Taiwanese independence, historical narratives around the Cultural Revolution, and questions about Xi Jinping.
...
web.archive.org China : Chinese firm behind hacking operations against Uyghurs and Tibetans unveiled
Intelligence Online has established a link between a Chinese public security ministry contractor and recent IT hacking operations carried out in China and abroad against the two minorities, reviled
bgr.com ChatGPT isn't available in China, so should the US ban DeepSeek?
DeepSeek AI has stunned the US and Western world, matching the capabilities of ChatGPT. Should it be banned?
Removed
Chinese app DeepSeek blocked on Apple and Google app stores in Italy over data privacy concerns
english.elpais.com Modern cotton slaves in 18 countries work for large textile companies and many are children
A recent investigation reveals that child exploitation and forced labor are being used to pick cotton on dozens of farms in India. This investigation adds to those in countries such as China, which is accused of enslaving ethnic minorities to provide this raw material to dozens of brands
A recent investigation reveals that child exploitation and forced labor are being used to pick cotton on dozens of farms in India. This investigation adds to those in countries such as China, which is accused of enslaving ethnic minorities to provide this raw material to dozens of brands
‘So what?’: Privacy warnings about DeepSeek fall on deaf ears
Privacy activists are warning about the invasive nature of DeepSeek, which collects a trove of personal user information that could be handed over to the Chinese government
People, however, just don’t care.
Luke de Pulford, co-founder of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), shared screenshots from the Chinese AI chatbot’s privacy policy, which stated data it collects is stored in “secure servers located in the People’s Republic of China.”
...
“Just fyi, @deepseek_ai collects your IP, keystroke patterns, device info, etc etc, and stores it in China, where all that data is vulnerable to arbitrary requisition from the [Chinese] State,” said de Pulford, leader of IPAC, a global group of lawmakers who seek to hold China accountable for democratic abuses.
“Anticipating tedious whataboutery: the difference between this and free-world social media apps is that you can enforce your data rights in rule of law countries. This is not the case in China,” said de Pulford. >
‘So what?’: Privacy warnings about DeepSeek fall on deaf ears
Privacy activists are warning about the invasive nature of DeepSeek, which collects a trove of personal user information that could be handed over to the Chinese government
People, however, just don’t care.
Luke de Pulford, co-founder of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), shared screenshots from the Chinese AI chatbot’s privacy policy, which stated data it collects is stored in “secure servers located in the People’s Republic of China.”
...
“Just fyi, @deepseek_ai collects your IP, keystroke patterns, device info, etc etc, and stores it in China, where all that data is vulnerable to arbitrary requisition from the [Chinese] State,” said de Pulford, leader of IPAC, a global group of lawmakers who seek to hold China accountable for democratic abuses.
“Anticipating tedious whataboutery: the difference between this and free-world social media apps is that you can enforce your data rights in rule of law countries. This is not the case in China,” said de Pulford. >
Removed
Chinese app DeepSeek blocked on Apple and Google app stores in Italy over data privacy concerns
Removed
Chinese app DeepSeek blocked on Apple and Google app stores in Italy over data privacy concerns
Chinese app DeepSeek blocked on Apple and Google app stores in Italy over data privacy concerns
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1834745
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1834743
The Italian regulator, known as the Garante, said on Tuesday it wanted to know what personal data is collected, from which sources, for what purposes, on what legal basis and whether it is stored in China. It gave DeepSeek and its affiliated companies 20 days to respond.
Chinese app DeepSeek blocked on Apple and Google app stores in Italy over data privacy concerns
The Italian regulator, known as the Garante, said on Tuesday it wanted to know what personal data is collected, from which sources, for what purposes, on what legal basis and whether it is stored in China. It gave DeepSeek and its affiliated companies 20 days to respond.
The guys at HF (and many others) appear to have a different understanding of Open Source.
As the Open Source AI definition says, among others:
Data Information: Sufficiently detailed information about the data used to train the system so that a skilled person can build a substantially equivalent system. Data Information shall be made available under OSI-approved terms.
- In particular, this must include: (1) the complete description of all data used for training, including (if used) of unshareable data, disclosing the provenance of the data, its scope and characteristics, how the data was obtained and selected, the labeling procedures, and data processing and filtering methodologies; (2) a listing of all publicly available training data and where to obtain it; and (3) a listing of all training data obtainable from third parties and where to obtain it, including for fee.
Code: The complete source code used to train and run the system. The Code shall represent the full specification of how the data was processed and filtered, and how the training was done. Code shall be made available under OSI-approved licenses.
- For example, if used, this must include code used for processing and filtering data, code used for training including arguments and settings used, validation and testing, supporting libraries like tokenizers and hyperparameters search code, inference code, and model architecture.
Parameters: The model parameters, such as weights or other configuration settings. Parameters shall be made available under OSI-approved terms.
- The licensing or other terms applied to these elements and to any combination thereof may contain conditions that require any modified version to be released under the same terms as the original.
These three components -data, code, parameter- shall be released under the same condition.
Clearly, however, there are concerns about censorship, democracy and security. One of the drivers of the Chinese AI industry has been access to extraordinary amounts of data, which is more difficult to get hold of in the West.
This is a very brief paragraph about real issues. The whole article basically says that "China is better because it's cheaper," but it doesn't say exactly why it's cheaper. You'll find a lot of reliable information about slavery-like labour in China and the absence of any workers' rights. This BBC article ignores that completely.
Is Deepseek Open Source?
Hugging Face researchers are trying to build a more open version of DeepSeek’s AI ‘reasoning’ model
Hugging Face head of research Leandro von Werra and several company engineers have launched Open-R1, a project that seeks to build a duplicate of R1 and open source all of its components, including the data used to train it.
The engineers said they were compelled to act by DeepSeek’s “black box” release philosophy. Technically, R1 is “open” in that the model is permissively licensed, which means it can be deployed largely without restrictions. However, R1 isn’t “open source” by the widely accepted definition because some of the tools used to build it are shrouded in mystery. Like many high-flying AI companies, DeepSeek is loathe to reveal its secret sauce.
I feel safer knowing that my data is not in a country where the company can use it against me
Where is this country that can't use your data against you?
Is Deepseek Open Source?
Hugging Face researchers are trying to build a more open version of DeepSeek’s AI ‘reasoning’ model
Hugging Face head of research Leandro von Werra and several company engineers have launched Open-R1, a project that seeks to build a duplicate of R1 and open source all of its components, including the data used to train it.
The engineers said they were compelled to act by DeepSeek’s “black box” release philosophy. Technically, R1 is “open” in that the model is permissively licensed, which means it can be deployed largely without restrictions. However, R1 isn’t “open source” by the widely accepted definition because some of the tools used to build it are shrouded in mystery. Like many high-flying AI companies, DeepSeek is loathe to reveal its secret sauce.