DARK CLOUDS ON THE HI-TECH HORIZON

Posted by AsiaViews | Apr 2, 2018 | 0 |

For more than a decade, the Internet hi-tech industry has enjoyed a honeymoon of sorts with people around the world. Now as the internet population has boomed to just below 8 billion users, there are clouds on the high-tech horizon. The Facebook – Cambridge Analytica affair is just the tip of the iceberg. There was so much excitement with the new hi-tech industry that people forget risks come with progress.

Just as the telephone, the automobile, antibiotics and electricity have improved the quality of life, they each pose dangers when used haphazardly. It is necessary for governments to impose regulations to protect individuals. The wonder children of the economy are coming of age and this will kill the pace of growth.

Recently Mark Zuckerberg has shown a position that IS commendable but inadequate. He is acknowledging the Cambridge Analytica breach as a case of abuse when it is fundamentally a case of Facebook irresponsibility. It is historic because so far the cases getting the most attention are where rules are broken for antisocial ends. Now the rules themselves are being questioned.

Southeast Asia is experiencing a rapid growth of Internet, digital, social media and mobile activity. With more than 370 million Internet users in January 2018 and double-digit growth in most segments of most economies of the region, the digital sector is dominant and attracting a lot of interest.

Grab, which started out as a taxi-hailing app in Kuala Lumpur in 2012, became the region’s dominant ride-hailing service in past years with $4 billion raised from investors. It was most recently valued at $6 billion, with more than 86 million mobile app downloads. It currently offers services in more than 190 cities across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. Now it is being taken over by Uber which sends signals the limits of globalization. Uber is being beset with management problems

There are also issues with technology, as shown In the tragedy of a fatal accident involving an autonomous test vehicle and a pedestrian. Companies are investing billions of dollars to develop the technology. Full driverless systems can save the most lives by being more alert and capable than human drivers and relieving them of all control of vehicles, their argument continues. Now this is seriously questioned.

But the most formidable challenge has been the erosion of privacy, highlighted by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Because technology companies now deal with billions of consumers, any individual is insignificant. And since for most technology companies the individual consumer is also a product, whose information is sold to others for a profit, he or she is doubly disempowered, Fareed Zakaria of CNN/GPS writes.

Technology is dangerous when it is in error. It is even more so so when it supports an antisocial business model.

wimarw@gmail.com

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

DARK CLOUDS ON THE HI-TECH HORIZON