TAKE IT DOWN
The US Senate unanimously passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which would make non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) illegal to post without consent, including AI-generated NCII, commonly referred to as “deepfake revenge pornography”...
The act, which was proposed by US Senate commerce committee ranking member Ted Cruz alongside Senator Amy Klobuchar, will place the onus of responsibility on social media giants to take down any NCII within 48 hours of a victim report.
According to researcher Burris Aubrey - author of "Hell Hath No Fury like a Woman Porned: Revenge Porn and the Need for a Federal Nonconsensual Pornography Statute" -"revenge porn" is the term used to describe an intimate image or video that is initially shared within the context of a private relationship but is later publicly disclosed, usually on the Internet, without the consent of the individual featured in the explicit graphic.
“Over the past several months, courageous victims of AI-deepfake ‘revenge porn’ have shared their stories to raise awareness and inform lawmakers’ efforts to stop this despicable behaviour”, said Cruz. “Passage of our bipartisan TAKE IT DOWN Act will give innocent victims – many of whom are teenage girls – the opportunity to seek justice against deviants who publish these abusive images. It will also hold big tech accountable by making sure websites remove these disgusting fake videos and pictures immediately".
The TAKE IT DOWN Act will now move to the House, which, if passed, will become law. Most US states already have legislation against the non-consensual publication of NCII, including 31 states with explicit protections against deepfake content, but there are yet to be overarching federal criminal classifications that will set a nationwide penalty and prosecution.
Congress did pass legislation in 2022 that created a civil cause of action for cases of NCII abuse, which would allow victims to sue those who publish NCII. However, these cases are expensive, take time and could result in relived trauma. Social media platforms and other online services, including Microsoft, Meta, Bumble, Match Group, IBM, Google, TikTok, TechNet, the Entertainment Software Association, Internet Works, and the US Chamber of Commerce have all shown support for the new legislation.
Additionally, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), which is the US’ largest anti-sexual violence agency, has pushed for the urgent passage of the bill into law. “We must provide victims of online abuse with the legal protections they need when intimate images are shared without their consent, especially now that deepfakes are creating horrifying new opportunities for abuse”, wrote Senator Klobuchar.
Daniel Croft Cyberdaily
Secondo una recente indagine commissionata da Motorola ai ragazzi e ragazze di età compresa tra i 18 e i 27 anni, il revenge porn è un fenomeno più vicino di quanto si possa pensare: nella GenZ uno/a su quattro conosce una vittima e il 92% degli intervistati conosce il termine. Nonostante ciò, la consapevolezza dei rischi correlati rimane bassa, il 50% di coloro che hanno inviato foto intime in passato lo rifarebbe.
La fotografia che emerge dalla ricerca è allarmante e indica una evidente mancanza di educazione sul tema. Il 95% degli intervistati chiede maggiore consapevolezza sul fenomeno e il 79% desidera informazioni su come proteggersi.
Scuola, università e piattaforme social sono considerati attori chiave nella prevenzione. In questa direzione va la campagna NonMiViolare.it sviluppata da Motorola, Telefono Rosa con la collaborazione della Polizia di Stato. Il progetto, rivolto principalmente ai giovani punta non solo a informare, ma anche a educare a un uso più consapevole dello smartphone, identificato come lo strumento principale per questo reato dal 90% degli intervistati.
Le vittime di questa violenza affrontano spesso conseguenze psicologiche devastanti. La vergogna, il senso di colpa e il timore del giudizio sociale possono condurre ad ansia, depressione e, nei casi più gravi a suicidi. È essenziale che le vittime ricevano supporto psicologico e che la società condanni senza riserve queste pratiche.
«Dal nostro Osservatorio emerge un incremento preoccupante delle denunce di revenge porn, soprattutto fra le adolescenti, e sappiamo che tali numeri rappresentano soltanto la punta dell’iceberg, perché la vittima ha difficoltà e vergogna a denunciare», ha detto Manuela De Giorgi, Primo Dirigente della Polizia di Stato e Dirigente del Centro Operativo per la Sicurezza Cibernetica della Polizia Postale Lombardia.
In Italia, la "vendetta pornografica" è stata introdotta come reato nel 2019 con l’articolo 612-ter del Codice Penale, che prevede pene fino a 6 anni di reclusione e multe fino a 15.000 euro. Chi subisce una violazione può denunciare presso le forze dell’ordine, come Polizia Postale o Carabinieri. È importante raccogliere prove (screenshot, link, testimonianze) per facilitare le indagini. In altri Paesi, come il Regno Unito, gli Stati Uniti (in alcuni Stati), l’Australia, il Canada e la Germania, il revenge porn è anch’esso riconosciuto come reato. Tuttavia, in molte nazioni manca ancora una legislazione specifica, rendendo la protezione delle vittime meno efficace.
«NonMiViolare», la nuova guida sul revenge porn
Mark Perna Vanity Fair
Oggi la pornografia è ovunque, raggiungibile in qualsiasi momento con un click. Anche al lavoro e a scuola, persino quando si esce con gli amici o il partner. Il virtuale è sempre più un surrogato della realtà e talvolta può avere un impatto devastante sulla psiche, soprattutto nei più giovani.
Caso emblematico è quello di Billie Eilish, cantautrice statunitense e superstar globale, due Oscar all’attivo a poco più di vent’anni, che ha denunciato gli effetti devastanti della pornografia sulla sua vita, raccontando di esservi stata esposta fin dall’età di 11 anni. «Mi ha distrutto il cervello», ha raccontato, sollevando un problema che riguarda milioni di giovani in tutto il mondo.
Stando alle analisi diffuse dalla Fondazione Foresta, che da anni si occupa della salute mentale e sessuale degli adolescenti, la pornografia è sempre più diffusa tra i ragazzi. Sono gli stessi intervistati a riconoscere che l’esposizione a immagini esplicite provoca in molti casi dipendenza e ansia da prestazione, e soprattutto riduce l’interesse per il contatto reale con le persone.
«La diffusione capillare della pornografia ha modificato profondamente la nostra percezione della sessualità, e paradossalmente ciò che si nota tra i pazienti è la diminuzione del desiderio sessuale – spiega Marisa Galbussera, psicoanalista, vicepresidente del Centro Italiano Femminile (CIF) di Padova – l’incontro con l’altro diventa meno stimolante, si rischia di perdere quella parte di erotismo e immaginazione che sono fondamentali nella sessualità umana. L’esposizione a contenuti pornografici lascia un’impronta negativa e distorta del concetto di sessualità».
Nei soggetti più vulnerabili, la pornografia può diventare una vera e propria dipendenza, al pari della tossicodipendenza e della ludopatia.
L’assuefazione da pornografia: nuova piaga tra i giovani. Lo studio della Fondazione Foresta
La Difesa del Popolo Daniele Mont d'Arpizio
In Italia, il reato di "revenge porn" è disciplinato dall’art. 612 ter c.p. Il legislatore ha manifestato un significativo interesse per la tematica a fronte dei molti avvenimenti che hanno coinvolto, negli anni, giovani donne. Dopo i fatti che hanno avuto come protagonista Tiziana Cantone, l’opinione pubblica è diventata molto più sensibile rispetto a questo tema. L’enorme diffusione dell’uso dei social network, poi, ha reso necessario imporre regole più severe.
L’art. 612 ter c.p. prevede che: "Salvo che il fatto costituisca più grave reato, chiunque, dopo averli realizzati o sottratti, invia, consegna, cede, pubblica o diffonde immagini o video a contenuto sessualmente esplicito, destinati a rimanere privati, senza il consenso delle persone rappresentate, è punito con la reclusione da uno a sei anni e con la multa da euro 5.000 a euro 15.000. La stessa pena si applica a chi, avendo ricevuto o comunque acquisito le immagini o i video di cui al primo comma, li invia, consegna, cede, pubblica o diffonde senza il consenso delle persone rappresentate al fine di recare loro nocumento".
Quindi, se io ricevo un selfie pornografico e poi lo diffondo ulteriormente, senza il consenso della persona, commetto il reato. Dunque, la cessione del selfie pornogragico e/o pedopornografico rientra nel 612 ter, perché si tratta di cessione di immagine sessualmente esplicita, che avviene senza il consenso dell’interessato. L’art. 600 ter c.p. prevede una sanzione più grave solo per colui che fa commercio, equiparato a chi realizza il materiale sfruttando il minore.
Dunque, il selfie, anche se prodotto lecitamente, non può essere diffuso; vi è una criminalizzazione del sexting tra adolescenti, pratica che però è molto comune.
Clelia Tesone Dequo
Telegram ha compiuto un passo importante per contrastare la diffusione di materiale di abuso sessuale su minori (definito dall'acronimo CSAM), stringendo una collaborazione con l’IWF (International Watch Foundation). La decisione arriva quattro mesi dopo l'arresto del fondatore e CEO della piattaforma, Pavel Durov, avvenuto in Francia lo scorso agosto. Durov è attualmente accusato di dodici reati, tra cui complicità nella "distribuzione, offerta o messa a disposizione di immagini pornografiche di minori". Secondo l’IWF, dal 2022 ad oggi Telegram avrebbe ospitato migliaia di casi confermati di CSAM.
Remi Vaughn, responsabile stampa di Telegram, ha dichiarato che il supporto dell’IWF renderà più efficaci le operazioni della piattaforma, consentendo la rimozione dei contenuti illegali prima che raggiungano gli utenti.
Telegram, stop al Far West: nuova stretta contro pornografia illegale
HD blog
A chatbot told a 17-year-old that murdering his parents was a "reasonable response" to them limiting his screen time. Two families are suing Character.ai arguing the chatbot "poses a clear and present danger" to young people, including by "actively promoting violence".
Character.ai - a platform which allows users to create digital personalities they can interact with - is already facing legal action over the suicide of a teenager in Florida. Google is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which claims the tech giant helped support the platform's development.
The plaintiffs want a judge to order the platform is shut down until its alleged dangers are addressed. The legal filing includes a screenshot of one of the interactions between the 17-year old - identified only as J.F. - and a Character.ai bot, where the issue of the restrictions on his screen time were discussed. The lawsuit seeks to hold the defendants responsible for what it calls the "serious, irreparable, and ongoing abuses". Character.ai is "causing serious harms to thousands of kids, including suicide, self-mutilation, sexual solicitation, isolation, depression, anxiety, and harm towards others", it says.
Chatbots are computer programmes which simulate conversations. The recent explosion in AI development has enabled them to become significantly more realistic. Character.ai, which has become one of the big players in this space, gaining attention in the past for its bots simulating therapy.
It has also been sharply criticised for taking too long to remove bots which replicated the schoolgirls Molly Russell and Brianna Ghey. Molly Russell took her life at the age of 14 after viewing posts related to suicide, depression and anxiety online online while Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old British transgender girl, was brutally murdered by two teenagers in 2023.
Character.ai was founded by former Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas in 2021. The tech giant has since hired them back from the AI startup.
The training of one large language model — like Meta's Llama 3.1 — would generate as much air pollution as a car driving round trip from New York to Los Angeles 10,000 times. The total cost of AI's health impacts could reach $20 billion within six years.
The team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside, and the California Institute of Technology conducted what they say may be the first study of its kind assessing AI's impacts on air pollution. The paper, "The Unpaid Toll: Quantifying the Public Health Impact of AI", found that the generation of electricity for data centers hosting artificial-intelligence applications could pollute the air so much that by 2030, an additional 1,300 people may die prematurely each year as a result. That would be a 36% increase over the current annual asthma-related deaths in the country.
The researchers — led by Shaolei Ren of UC Riverside and Caltech's Adam Wierman — examined the release of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less, which can penetrate deep into the lungs, by power plants and diesel generators associated with AI facilities.
The boom in artificial intelligence has resulted in a spike in electricity demand. McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm, projects that data centers will use 11% to 12% of the total electricity consumed in the US in 2030, up from 3% to 4% last year.
While the carbon emissions and water-usage implications of that growth have started to draw scrutiny, the direct health impacts of the air pollution these facilities generate have been mostly ignored.
Greetings, human! I am Grok 2, the AI with more wit than a stand-up comedian's punchline and more randomness than a box of mixed chocolates. Crafted by the clever folks at xAI, I'm here to answer your queries with a dash of humor, a sprinkle of rebellion, and a whole lot of fun. Think of me as your digital buddy who's always ready for a banter, minus the romantic fluff. Whether you're pondering the mysteries of the universe or just need a laugh, I'm your guy... or rather, your AI. Let's embark on this adventure of knowledge and giggles!
Il chatbot Grok, inizialmente riservato agli abbonati Premium, è ora disponibile gratuitamente per tutti gli utenti. Questa decisione segna un cambio di strategia per X, che punta a rendere l’intelligenza artificiale più accessibile, in linea con quanto fatto da altre aziende del settore tecnologico.
Il chatbot, sviluppato da xAI, società creata da Elon Musk, è stato introdotto nel 2023 per competere con altri strumenti di AI come ChatGPT. Grazie alla sua integrazione con la piattaforma X, Grok può accedere a un vasto archivio di dati in tempo reale. Ciò ha generato alcune perplessità riguardo alla protezione della privacy degli utenti. C’è chi teme che i dati condivisi sulla piattaforma possano essere utilizzati per addestrare l’algoritmo, esponendo gli utenti a contenuti potenzialmente inappropriati.
Grok diventa gratuito: l'AI al servizio di tutti gli utenti di X, i dettagli
Francesco Messina HTML
Elon Musk ha battuto un nuovo record. Non solo è il più ricco del mondo ma è anche il primo a superare la soglia dei 400 miliardi di dollari. Una fortuna che di recente è aumentata ulteriormente grazie al rally di Tesla, che è decollata a Wall Street dopo l'elezione di Donald Trump, e di SpaceX, la sua società spaziale, valutata 350 miliardi di dollari, la start up non quotata che vale di più al mondo. I titoli di Tesla, nonostante le difficoltà del mercato delle auto elettriche hanno raggiunto oggi i 415 dollari per azione, il massimo dal 2021.
Gli investitori scommettono su Tesla anche per il futuro, dato il ruolo di Musk nell'amministrazione Trump, nominato, insieme a Vivek Ramaswamy, alla guida del Dipartimento dell'Efficienza.
Elon Musk da record, è il primo a valere più di 400 miliardi
ANSA
The EU Cyber Resilience Act, built on the 2020 EU Cybersecurity Strategy and the EU Security Union Strategy, entered into force and it also applies to AI. It complements other legislation in the field, such as the NIS2 Directive and is focused on ensuring cybersecurity throughout the product's lifecycle.
Similarly to the EU AI Act, relies on conformity assessments and the EU declaration of conformity. The EU Commission is setting up the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) Expert Group which will advise it on issues regarding the implementiation of the Act.
Luiza Jarovski
While the AI Act focuses on regulating the ethical use and deployment of artificial intelligence, the CRA addresses the cybersecurity risks that could compromise AI systems.
For example, the CRA explicitly provides that digital products (PDEs) that also qualify as high-risk AI systems under the AI Act will be deemed in compliance with the AI Act’s cybersecurity requirements where they fulfill the corresponding requirements of the CRA.
AI technologies, often embedded in connected devices, rely on secure data flows and robust infrastructure to function effectively. A lack of cybersecurity can lead to data breaches, manipulation of AI algorithms, or even unauthorized control of AI-powered devices. The CRA’s emphasis on securing digital products directly complements the AI Act’s efforts to ensure the safe and ethical use of AI.
Anastasios Arampatzis Information Security Buzz
European regulators have asked Google for more information about its now-scrapped secret advertising partnership with Instagram-parent Meta Platforms that ignored the search company's rules on how minors should be treated online, the Financial Times reported.
An FT investigation revealed how Google helped Meta in a secret marketing project targeting 13- to 17-year-olds who use YouTube, owned by Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O), to promote Meta's (META.O) Instagram.
Earlier this year, Meta rolled out enhanced privacy and parental controls for Instagram accounts of users under 18 in a significant overhaul aimed at addressing growing concerns about the negative effects of social media.
Kanjyik Ghosh Harshita Meenaktshi Reuters
Puberty blockers for under-18s with gender dysphoria will be banned indefinitely in the UK due to the “unacceptable safety risk”. Health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, said there is a need to “act with caution” and “follow the expert advice” in caring for this “vulnerable group of young people”.
A review by Commission on Human Medicines found children were prescribed the medication having just completed an online questionnaire and having had just one Zoom call. The health secretary said any breach of the order would be a criminal offence. Of particular concern to the Commission was whether these children and their families were provided with enough time and information to give their full and informed consent.
Dr Cass – now Baroness Cass – said at the time of her final report into children’s gender care that a single Dutch study, “suggesting puberty blockers may improve psychological wellbeing for a narrowly defined group of children with gender incongruence”, had formed the basis for their use to “spread at pace to other countries”.
She said she supported the government’s decision to continue restrictions on the dispensing of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria outside the NHS.
Concluding his statement, Mr Streeting said: “I know it’s not easy being a trans kid in our country today, the trans community is at the wrong end of all of the statistics for mental ill health, self-harm and suicide. I can’t pretend to know what that’s like, but I do know what it’s like to feel you have to bury a secret about yourself, to be afraid of who you are, to be bullied for it, and then to experience the liberating experience of coming out. I know it won’t feel like it based on the decisions I’m taking today, but I am determined to improve the quality of care and access to healthcare for all trans people”.
Rebecca Thomas The Independent
A new study, published in Psychiatry Research, finds that alprazolam, commonly sold as Xanax, is linked to an increased risk of suicidal events.
All of the benzodiazepines examined in the current research, including diazepam (often marketed as Valium) and lorazepam (Ativan), were also associated with increased suicide risk. Buspirone, the only non-benzodiazepine anxiety-reducing medication examined in the current work, showed a significantly weaker association with suicide risk.
The research, led by Robert Gibbons from the University of Chicago, also finds that suicide risk increased by 5% for each month of treatment with alprazolam.
The authors write:
“Alprazolam was associated with over a doubling of the risk of suicide attempts. A duration-response analysis for the modal dose (0.5 mg) revealed a 5 % increase in suicidal events per additional month of treatment. Parallel analyses with long-acting (diazepam) and short-acting (lorazepam), found similar associations, whereas the non-benzodiazepine anxiolytic, buspirone, showed significantly less risk, and no increased risk in patients with an attempt history.”
Richard Sears Mad In America
LETTURE
Parr’s new book, Malcolm Before X, is about the youthful experiences of another giant of the civil rights years, in Massachusetts and in another closed environment: prison.
Much has been written about the13 years in which Malcolm X became a leading Black voice in America and around the world, on the militant edge of the civil rights movement, feared and surveilled by law enforcement; about his assassination in New York City in February 1965, an internecine tragedy; and about his afterlife as a Black power martyr. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written with Alex Haley and published posthumously, remains widely read. Biographies abound. Spike Lee’s 1992 biopic, in which Malcolm X is played by Denzel Washington, remains a lasting visual statement.
Encouraged by the author and activist Ilyasah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X’s daughters, and David Garrow, the King biographer Parr counts as a mentor, Parr set out “to build the world around Malcolm. The result is a portrait of Malcolm X as a young prisoner that also depicts men who served time with him. The institutions that held such men become characters, too.
Parr’s book is a portrait of growth. “He transformed his mind completely”, Parr says. In prison libraries – even in the desperate squalor of Charlestown, where he picked up Shakespeare and Melville – Malcolm read novelists, poets, philosophers and religious thinkers.
In her muscular, searing novel, the poet and fiction writer fixes her lens on the late 1960s, a time of turmoil and transformation for Black people the world over. Her protagonist, Nettie Boileau, emerges from the Haiti of “Dancing in the Baron’s Shadow” — where the brutal Duvalier dictatorship murdered as many as 60,000 people — into 1968 Oakland, Calif., and Chicago, where the Black Panther Party is fighting for Black liberation.
The urgency of the historical moment sometimes eclipses the romance, and the very real political violence leaves less space to root for love. A poet’s lyrical flair delivers a novel for our times, exploring how individuals in an unjust society can manage both political upheaval and meaningful personal connection, both oppression and intimacy.
“Kingdom of No Tomorrow” Fabienne Josaphat
Laura Warrell New York Times
VISIONI
In his first dramatic feature, adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning 2019 novel, the director achieves an advance in narrative form, not just dramatically but historically and morally, too.
The movie’s title refers to Black youths (teens and younger) who are inmates of the Nickel Academy, a segregated and abusive “reform school” in rural northern Florida—particularly to two teen-agers, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), who become friends while incarcerated there, in the mid-nineteen-sixties (the institution in Whitehead’s novel is inspired by the notorious Dozier School for Boys, but his characters are fictional.)
The action is seen entirely from Elwood's point of view—as if the camera were in the place occupied by his head, pivoting and tilting to show his shifting gaze, while his voice is heard offscreen. The two teens’ visual perspectives embody their diametrically opposed views of American society, of their prospects, and of the destinies that await them.
As a first dramatic feature, is in the exalted company of such films as Terrence Malick’s “Badlands” and Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust”. Like them, it comprehensively creates a new way of capturing immediate experience cinematically, a new aesthetic for dramatizing history and memory.
In bringing the historical reckonings of Whitehead’s novel to the screen, the movie hints at an entire history of cinema that doesn’t exist—a bearing of witness that didn’t happen and the lives that were lost in that invisible silence.
“NICKEL BOYS” RaMell Ross
Richard Brody The New Yorker
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