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The Israeli strike on a military base near the Iranian city of Isfahan was part of a cycle of retaliation that has alarmed world leaders, but it produced a largely muted response from both on Friday. Television networks and some officials in both countries played down the significance of the strike, which Israeli and Iranian officials confirmed. In Israel, officials described the strike as a limited response designed to avoid escalating tensions. Pundits on the country’s morning news shows said the strike did not appear to cause significant damage to military sites in Iran. In one video that was widely shared online Friday, a girl throws a paper airplane at an apartment building and compares it to the Israeli strike, giggling as the folded paper hits the concrete structure.

Persons: Israel, ” Dana Weiss, General Siavash Mihandoust, Itamar Ben, Tally Gotliv, ” Organizations: ., State, Israel Channel, Israel, National, Likud Locations: Iranian, Isfahan, Syria, Israel, Iran, “ Israel, Brig

Organizations that are usually focused on climate, housing or immigration are regularly protesting Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which followed the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack and has killed more than 33,000 people, according to local officials. Labor activists are calling for a cease-fire. Black clergy leaders have appealed directly to the White House. Young Americans are using online tools to mobilize voters and send millions of missives to Congress. And an emerging coalition of advocacy groups is discussing how to press its case at the Democratic National Convention this summer.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Democratic, Labor, House . Young, Convention Locations: Gaza

The artificial intelligence lab had exhausted every reservoir of reputable English-language text on the internet as it developed its latest A.I. It could transcribe the audio from YouTube videos, yielding new conversational text that would make an A.I. Ultimately, an OpenAI team transcribed more than one million hours of YouTube videos, the people said. The texts were then fed into a system called GPT-4, which was widely considered one of the world’s most powerful A.I. models and was the basis of the latest version of the ChatGPT chatbot.

Persons: OpenAI, Greg Brockman Organizations: YouTube, Google

☆ Israel Deploys Expansive Facial Recognition Program in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Within minutes of walking through an Israeli military checkpoint along Gaza’s central highway on Nov. 19, the Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha was asked to step out of the crowd. He put down his 3-year-old son, whom he was carrying, and sat in front of a military jeep. Half an hour later, Mr. Abu Toha heard his name called. It turned out Mr. Abu Toha had walked into the range of cameras embedded with facial recognition technology, according to three Israeli intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. After his face was scanned and he was identified, an artificial intelligence program found that the poet was on an Israeli list of wanted persons, they said.

Persons: Mosab Abu Toha, Abu Toha, “, ” Organizations: Hamas Locations: Gaza, Egypt

☆ Where Is Hamas Getting Its Weapons? Increasingly, From Israel.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Maria Abi-Habib | Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Israeli military and intelligence officials have concluded that a significant number of weapons used by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks and in the war in Gaza came from an unlikely source: the Israeli military itself. For years, analysts have pointed to underground smuggling routes to explain how Hamas stayed so heavily armed despite an Israeli military blockade of the Gaza Strip. Hamas is also arming its fighters with weapons stolen from Israeli military bases. What is clear now is that the very weapons that Israeli forces have used to enforce a blockade of Gaza over the past 17 years are now being used against them. Israeli and American military explosives have enabled Hamas to shower Israel with rockets and, for the first time, penetrate Israeli towns from Gaza.

Persons: Israel lobbed Organizations: Hamas, Intelligence Locations: Gaza, Israel

☆ From Opposite Sides of War, a Hunt for Elusive Facts
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The first reports of the Hamas attack were already fusing with rumors, sweeping into social media feeds and private chat groups in an emotionally charged and largely unverified mass. Mr. Schatz, one of the best-known disinformation researchers and fact checkers in Israel, rushed back home to his computer, knowing he had little time to stop the false claims from metastasizing. In a way, he was already too late. Since the initial attack, disinformation watchdogs in the region have been overwhelmed by unfounded narratives, manipulated media and conspiracy theories. The content has spread in enormous volumes at great speed: video game clips and old news reports masquerading as current footage, attempts to disavow authentic photos as artificially generated, inaccurate translations and false accusations distributed in multiple languages.

Persons: . Schatz Locations: Israel, metastasizing

☆ An academic analyzed everything Mark Zuckerberg said publicly for 20 years — but still doesn't feel like he knows him
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-15 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The academic launched the project after the Meta boss discussed privacy issues in interviews. AdvertisementA lot has changed for Mark Zuckerberg since the drunken night at Harvard in 2003 when he decided to release Facemash. Mark Zuckerberg is CEO of Facebook owner Meta. "The Zuckerberg Files came out of a project where I was thinking about how Zuckerberg talks about privacy," Zimmer explained in the documentary. Zimmer thinks the exhaustive project has been "really insightful" in helping track the maturity of both Zuckerberg and his company.

Persons: Michael Zimmer, Mark Zuckerberg's, intentensly, Zimmer, —, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Meta, Kevin Dietsch, David Kirkpatrick, Sheera Frenkel, Kara Swisher, He's, he's, Elon Musk Organizations: Service, Harvard, Facebook, Zuckerberg, San Francisco Chronicle, Capitol, Cambridge, Meta Locations: Marquette, Hawaii

☆ They Thought They Knew Death, but That Didn’t Prepare Them for Oct. 7
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-15 | by ( Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At 76, David Weissenstern has collected the remains of the dead for most of his adult life. But after the Oct. 7 attacks, in which Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people along Israel’s border with Gaza, he can no longer stand the smell of grilled meat. His son Duby Weissenstern, 48, has lost track of time after working successive days and nights to recover those killed on Oct. 7. And his son-in-law Israel Ganot, 32, now gags at the smell of food that has turned rotten. He was in the second wave of recovery workers who reached bodies that had been trapped under rubble for weeks.

Persons: David Weissenstern, Duby Weissenstern, Israel Ganot Organizations: Hamas Locations: Gaza, Israeli, Israel

☆ Facebook staff were less willing to talk to the press than dissenters in the Middle East, a reporter says
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-09 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An NYT reporter said talking to Middle East dissenters was easier than getting to Meta staff. AdvertisementGetting Meta staff to speak was more difficult than finding Middle East dissenters willing to do the same, a reporter told a new documentary about Mark Zuckerberg. Sheera Frenkel of The New York Times made the comments in "Zuckerberg: King of the Metaverse" that's being broadcast on Sky Documentaries in the UK this week. She described a culture of fear within staff at the Facebook and Instagram owner about the media. Sheera Frenkel reports on cybersecurity for The New York Times.

Persons: Sheera Frenkel, —, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Frenkel, New York Times Frenkel, Cecilia Kang, Leakers, Sonya Ahuja, Meta Organizations: Meta, Facebook, Service, The New York Times, Sky, Times, NPR, New York Times, Guardian, Big Tech, Twitter, Harvard, Business Locations: San Francisco, London

Far beneath the Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv, in a bunker known as The Pit, commanders were trying to make sense of reports of Hamas rocket fire in southern Israel early on the morning of Oct. 7, when the call came in. It was a commander from the division that oversees military operations along the border with Gaza. It ordered all emergency forces to head south, along with all available units that could do so quickly. But the nation’s military leaders did not yet recognize that an invasion of Israel was already well underway. Roughly 1,200 people died as the Middle East’s most advanced military failed in its essential mission: protecting Israeli lives.

Organizations: Hamas Locations: Tel Aviv, Israel, Gaza

☆ Israelis Are Angry at Netanyahu, but Chances of His Ouster Are Slim
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-02 | by ( Sheera Frenkel | More About Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has weathered many controversies, including accusations of corruption and allegations this year that a contentious overhaul of the country’s judiciary was a poorly disguised power grab. But he now faces the greatest crisis of his political career. People both inside Mr. Netanyahu’s government and those who hope to see him replaced agree that his standing has never been so low with the Israeli public. And yet — owing to the complexities of Israel’s parliamentary system and the vagaries of war — few paths exist for Mr. Netanyahu to be ousted soon from office. His long-term political prospects and his legacy, however, rest largely on how he handles the coming days, analysts said.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s, Netanyahu Organizations: Mr Locations: Gaza

☆ Some in Netanyahu’s Government Pressure Him to Reject Longer Cease-Fire
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Sheera Frenkel | More About Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

As international pressure grows to extend a temporary cease-fire with Hamas, some right-wing members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are threatening to bring it down if he does not resume fighting in Gaza. While Mr. Ben-Gvir’s departure alone would not topple the government, it would give Mr. Netanyahu a very slim majority to keep his hold on power. But far-right members of Mr. Netanyahu’s government have been critical of the cease-fire, arguing that Israel should continue its military assault on Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu’s approval ratings have steadily declined since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. In a poll conducted by Israel’s Bar-Ilan University earlier this month, trust in Mr. Netanyahu was at 4 percent.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu’s, Itamar Ben, Gvir, Israel, ”, Ben, Netanyahu, Mr, Netanyahu’s, Benny Gantz Organizations: Hamas, “, Israel, Israel’s, Ilan University, Maariv, Mr Locations: Gaza, Israel

☆ El discurso de odio antisemita y antimusulmán prolifera en internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Sheera Frenkel | Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

“Algunos de ellos dicen explícitamente que esta es una oportunidad para regodearse y celebrar el asesinato de judíos en internet”, declaró. “Están intentando atraer público a sus contenidos, y este es un momento de enorme crecimiento para ellos”. Sheera Frenkel es una reportera afincada en la bahía de San Francisco que cubre el impacto de la tecnología en la vida cotidiana, centrándose en las redes sociales, como Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Telegram y WhatsApp. Más deSheera FrenkelSteven Lee Myers cubre temas de desinformación para The New York Times. Ha trabajado en Washington, Moscú, Bagdad y Pekín, donde contribuyó a los artículos que ganaron el Premio Pulitzer por servicio público en 2021.

Nearly two million posts with the hashtag #IsraeliNewNazism appeared on X in that period, and another 40,000 posts featured the hashtag #ZionistsAreEvil or #ZionistsAreNazis. In previous months, the hashtag appeared fewer than 5,000 times a month. Other sites, including TikTok and Facebook, have also experienced surges in hate speech but have removed the content that was flagged to them, researchers said. The hate speech that remained was often more veiled, such as a TikTok trend of using “Austrian painter” as code for Adolf Hitler. From Oct. 7 to Oct. 13, she added, TikTok took down 730,000 videos for violating hate speech rules.

Persons: IsraeliNewNazism, HitlerWasRight, —, LevelGaza, Memetica, ”, Adolf Hitler, TikTok, Pepe the, Noam Schwartz, “, Adi Cohen Organizations: Defamation League, Defamation, Facebook, Times, Palestinian, Nova, 4chan Locations: Austrian, Palestine, Israel, Florida, Gaza

☆ In a Worldwide War of Words, Russia, China and Iran Back Hamas
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Steven Lee Myers | Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The conflict between Israel and Hamas is fast becoming a world war online. Iran, Russia and, to a lesser degree, China have used state media and the world’s major social networking platforms to support Hamas and undercut Israel, while denigrating Israel’s principal ally, the United States. Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have also joined the fight online, along with extremist groups, like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, that were previously at odds with Hamas. “It’s just like everyone is involved,” said Moustafa Ayad, executive director for Africa, the Middle East and Asia at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The institute, a nonprofit research organization in London, last week detailed influence campaigns by Iran, Russia and China.

Persons: denigrating, Al, ”, Rafi Mendelsohn, Cyabra, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, “ It’s, Moustafa Ayad Organizations: Hamas, Islamic, Institute for Strategic Locations: Israel, Iran, Russia, China, United States, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Al Qaeda, Islamic State, Cyabra, Tel Aviv, “, Gaza, Africa, East, Asia, London

Shortly after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, friends and relatives of Gali Shlezinger Idan, who lived in a kibbutz near the Gaza border, received frantic messages to check her Facebook page. Hamas members were using Ms. Idan’s Facebook account to livestream themselves holding her and her family hostage. During the 43-minute broadcast, gunmen forced Ms. Idan and her family to crouch on a tile floor as missiles and gunfire blasted their building. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” said Keren de Via, a friend of the Idan family who watched Ms. Idan’s children hug their parents and cry during the livestream. How could I watch this on Facebook?”In a new war tactic, Hamas has seized the social media accounts of kidnapped Israelis and used them to broadcast violent messages and wage psychological warfare, according to interviews with 13 Israeli families and their friends, as well as social media experts who have studied extremist groups.

Persons: Ms, Idan, crouch, ”, Keren de Organizations: Facebook Locations: Israel, Gali Shlezinger, Gaza

☆ Where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Delivers His Fringe Views: Not on the Trail
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Sheera Frenkel | More About Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In an online meeting with anti-vaccine activists on June 27, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Democrat running for president, falsely said there was good evidence that vaccine research had caused millions of deaths during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic. He also claimed that such research could have created Covid-19, H.I.V. But in an appearance before Congress on July 20, Mr. Kennedy made none of those assertions. In large public forums like Congress, Mr. Kennedy, 69, has moderated his extreme views, while continuing to advocate them in other settings. He did not mention vaccines and limited his comments on Covid to criticism of pandemic lockdowns.

Persons: Robert F, Kennedy Jr, Kennedy, “ Organizations: Democrat, Democratic, New York Times Locations: Iowa , Vermont, Virginia, Ukraine

☆ Meta’s ‘Biggest Single Takedown’ Removes Chinese Influence Campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Sheera Frenkel | More About Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Feb. 27, an article claiming that the United States was behind the bombing of the Nord Stream underwater pipelines in the Baltic Sea was published on the Substack and Blogspot blogging platforms. The posts were part of a Chinese influence campaign that stands out as the largest such operation to date, researchers at Meta said in a report on Tuesday. The effort, which the company said had started with Chinese law enforcement and was discovered in 2019, was aimed at advancing China’s interests and discrediting its adversaries, such as the United States, Meta said. In total, 7,704 Facebook accounts, 954 Facebook pages, 15 Facebook groups and 15 Instagram accounts tied to the Chinese campaign were removed by Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Hundreds of other accounts on TikTok, X, LiveJournal and Blogspot also participated in the campaign, which researchers named Spamouflage, for the frequent posting of spamlike messages, according to Meta’s report.

Persons: —, Meta, Blogspot Organizations: Facebook, Meta Locations: United States, Baltic, Turkish, WhatsApp

Elon Musk has over the last year threatened legal action against tech competitors, employees and people who use Twitter, which he owns. Now he is also taking aim at an organization that studies hate speech and misinformation on social media. The letter cited research published by the Center for Countering Digital Hate in June examining hate speech on Twitter, which Mr. Musk has renamed X.com. The research consisted of eight papers, including one that found that Twitter had taken no action against 99 percent of the 100 Twitter Blue accounts the center reported for “tweeting hate.” The letter called the research “false, misleading or both” and said the organization had used improper methodology. The letter added that the center was funded by Twitter’s competitors or foreign governments “in support of an ulterior agenda.”

Persons: Elon Musk, Musk, “ Organizations: X Corp, Center, Twitter

Elon Musk’s Unmatched Power in the Stars The tech billionaire has become the dominant power in satellite internet technology. Today, more than 4,500 Starlink satellites are in the skies, accounting for more than 50 percent of all active satellites. 53% of active satellites are Starlink.” The Starlink satellites are highlighted and are all operating in low-Earth orbit. How Starlink customers connect to the internet Starlink satellites orbit at much lower altitudes than traditional satellite internet services. “Everywhere on earth will have high bandwidth, low latency internet,” Mr. Musk predicted on the Joe Rogan podcast in 2020.

Persons: Elon Musk’s, Mark, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Elon Musk, Zaluzhnyi, General Zaluzhnyi, Musk, Musk’s, ”, Starlink’s, ” Mykhailo Fedorov, Mr, Biden, ” Dmitri Alperovitch, Sir Martin Sweeting, Sweeting, Mike Blake, Patrick Seitzer, Rafael Schmall, Joe Rogan, Jeff Bezos, Starlink, Russia —, Fedorov, —, Clodagh Kilcoyne, Nancy Pelosi, Colin H, Kahl, Lynsey Addario, messaged Mr, Lloyd Austin, Gregory C, Allen, we’ve, Mykhailo Podolyak, Volodymyr Zelensky, Jason Hsu, Hsu, “ Elon, Michael McCaul of, Tsai Ing, Tsai, Audrey Tang, Mariana Suarez, Thierry Breton, SpaceX, Chérif El, Amazon Organizations: Joint Chiefs of Staff, Ukraine’s Armed Forces, SpaceX, Tesla, Twitter, Mr, U.S . Defense Department, NASA, Senior Pentagon, The Defense Department, Starlink, European Union, Silverado, Accelerator, Surrey Satellite Technology, Reuters, Airbus, Earth, Getty, Satellite, University of Michigan, National Science Foundation, Rivals, Amazon, Origin, Viasat, Pentagon, CNN, The New York Times, U.S, Defense Department, Center for Strategic, International Studies, Elon, Harvard Kennedy School, Republican, House Foreign Affairs, OneWeb, Agence France, European, United Nations Locations: Ukraine, United States, Iran, Turkey, Japan, Starlink, Crimea, Russian, Starlinks, Europe, Taiwan, China, Beijing, British, Colorado, Cape Canaveral, Fla, —, California, Florida, Latin America, Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique, Rwanda, Ukrainian, Russia, Kreminna, Aspen, Colo, Kherson's, Kherson, Dnipro, Shanghai, Taipei, Michael McCaul of Texas, del, Uruguay, European Union

The algorithms powering Facebook and Instagram, which drive what billions of people see on the social networks, have been in the cross hairs of lawmakers, activists and regulators for years. In the papers, researchers from the University of Texas, New York University, Princeton and other institutions found that removing some key functions of the social platforms’ algorithms had “no measurable effects” on people’s political beliefs. In one experiment on Facebook’s algorithm, people’s knowledge of political news declined when their ability to reshare posts was removed, the researchers said. At the same time, the consumption of political news on Facebook and Instagram was highly segregated by ideology, according to another study. Ninety-seven percent of the links to “untrustworthy” news stories on the apps during the 2020 election were read by users who identified as conservative and largely engaged with right-wing content, the research found.

Persons: Instagram Organizations: University of Texas, University of Texas , New York University , Princeton, Facebook Locations: University of Texas , New

To refine their popular technology, new artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT are gobbling up the work of authors, poets, comedians and actors — without their consent. Sheera Frenkel, a technology correspondent for The Times, explains the rebellion that’s now brewing.

Persons: —, Sheera Frenkel Organizations: The Times

That has set off a hunt by tech companies for even more data to feed their A.I. But it was not well understood or seen as especially problematic by the companies that owned the data. “What’s happening here is a fundamental realignment of the value of data,” said Brandon Duderstadt, the founder and chief executive of Nomic, an A.I. “Previously, the thought was that you got value from data by making it open to everyone and running ads. But as the era of easy-to-scrape content comes to a close, smaller A.I.

Persons: OpenAI’s, ChatGPT, ”, Brandon Duderstadt Organizations: Google, Microsoft Locations: upstarts

☆ G.O.P. Targets Researchers Who Study Disinformation Ahead of 2024 Election
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Steven Lee Myers | Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Capitol Hill and in the courts, Republican lawmakers and activists are mounting a sweeping legal campaign against universities, think tanks and private companies that study the spread of disinformation, accusing them of colluding with the government to suppress conservative speech online. The effort has encumbered its targets with expansive requests for information and, in some cases, subpoenas — demanding notes, emails and other information related to social media companies and the government dating back to 2015. Complying has consumed time and resources and already affected the groups’ ability to do research and raise money, according to several people involved. They and others warned that the campaign undermined the fight against disinformation in American society when the problem is, by most accounts, on the rise — and when another presidential election is around the corner. Many of those behind the Republican effort had also joined former President Donald J. Trump in falsely challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, “, ”, Jameel Jaffer Organizations: Capitol, Republican, Columbia University’s

☆ What Is Bluesky and Why Are People Clamoring to Join It?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But unlike Twitter, Bluesky plans to be a decentralized system, meaning people may eventually be able to build their own apps and communities within it. Ms. Graber said it was designed that way so that no individual could create rules for the entire Bluesky community. Bluesky also operates using an “open protocol.” This is unusual because social media platforms have traditionally been walled gardens, meaning that what is posted on individual platforms remains only on that platform. But because Bluesky is trying to be more open, it could someday allow posts to flow between different social media platforms with ease. Last month, a Bluesky user speculated that the app’s name came from Mr. Dorsey’s desire to transform Twitter into an open protocol, freeing Twitter’s bird mascot to a blue sky.

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