#Ekō

[bauerntanz]

Neu seit Freitag: Der Digital Services Act der EU

Neu seit Freitag: Der #Digital_Services_Act der #EU. Europa macht einen ersten großen Schritt zur Transparenz und Sicherheit von Online-Diensten. via @netzpolitik

Chronologische Feeds, verbesserte Transparenz in der Werbung und mehr Schutz vor Manipulation: Seit Freitag müssen sich große Online-Dienste wie Facebook oder Google an neue EU-Regeln halten. Netzpolitik.org gibt in seinem Beitrag einen Überblick, welche Änderungen Nutzer:innen erwarten können – und was noch ansteht. Der Digital Services Act der EU bringt neue Regeln für Online-Plattformen. –…

[curiousechoo]

OC Update: Ekō returns!! :D

I’ve made a lot of changes to her during the past months, and still developing with extra help as well as generating ideas on my own. I made her name Ekō so that was the name, Echō, doesn’t confuse others

I originally planned her to be an aerial bot, but taking knowledge from TFA more, I’ve decided to use another form in the meantime (which is lightbright’s design).

The story for her is still in progress, but I plan to post it another time when I can, but just wanted to share my practice doodles here :]

+ additional human ekō version (one being the funny idea where her eyes light up in the dark)

[curiousechoo]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- 💥💥💕💕💕💕

Yes she has electric powers 🤭

PLEASE SHOW THEM LOVE PLEASE-

Speaking of Ekō content

Haven't done fake screenshots in a while, so have one of Ekō discovering her electric superpowers ⚡️

The character belongs to @curiousechoo

[odinsblog]

Musk reactivated the accounts of Brazilian far-right politicians Carla Zambelli, Gustavo Gayer, and Nikolas Ferreira. Ferreira, a Bolsonaro supporter, openly questioned the security of Brazil’s electronic voting machines, even though he won his local legislative race.

“All of these names have been problematic for years on social media,” says Flora Rebello Arduini, campaign director at the nonprofit advocacy organization Ekō. “They've been pushing for the far-right and election misinformation for ages.”

When Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, later renaming it X, many activists in Brazil worried that he would abuse the platform to push his own agenda, Arduini says. “He has unprecedented broadcasting abilities. He is bullying a supreme court justice of a democratic country, and he is showing he will use all the resources he has available to push for whatever favors his personal opinions or his professional ambitions.”

Under Musk, X has become a haven for the far right and disinformation. After taking over, Musk offered amnesty to users who had been banned from the platform, including right-wing influencer Andrew Tate, who, along with his brother, was indicted in Romania on several charges including with rape and human trafficking in June 2023 (he has denied the allegations). Last month, one of Tate's representatives told the BBC that "they categorically reject all charges."

A 2023 study found that hate speech has increased on the platform under Musk’s leadership. The situation in Brazil is just the latest instance of Musk aligning himself with and platforming dangerous, far-right movements around the world, experts tell WIRED. "It's not about Twitter or Brazil. It's about a strategy from the global far right to overcome democracies and democratic institutions around the world," says Nina Santos, a digital democracy researcher at the Brazilian National Institute of Science & Technology who researches the Brazilian far right. “An opinion from an American billionaire should not count more than a democratic institution.”

This also comes as Brazil has continued working to understand and investigate the lead-up to January 8, 2023, when election-denying insurrectionists who refused to accept right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat stormed Brazil’s legislature. The TSE, the country’s election court, is a special judicial body that investigates electoral crimes and is part of the mechanism for overseeing the country’s electoral processes overall. The court has been investigating the dissemination of fake news and disinformation that cast doubt on the country’s elections in the months and years leading up to the storming of the legislature on January 8, 2023. Both Arduini and Santos believe that the accounts Musk is refusing to remove are likely connected to the court’s inquiry.

“A life-and-death struggle recently took place in Brazil for the democratic rule of law and against a coup d'état, which is under investigation by this court in compliance with due legal process,” Luís Roberto Barroso, the president of the federal supreme court, said in a statement about Musk’s comments. “Nonconformity against the prevalence of democracy continues to manifest itself in the criminal exploitation of social networks.”

Santos also worries that Musk is setting a precedent that the far right will be protected and promoted on his platform, regardless of local laws or public opinion. “They are trying to use Brazil as a laboratory on how to interfere in local politics and local businesses,” she says. “They are making the case that their decision is more important than the national decision from a state democratic institution.”

Though Musk has claimed to be a free-speech advocate, and X’s public statement on the takedowns asserts that Brazilians are entitled to free speech, the platform’s application of these principles has been uneven at best. In February, on order of the Indian government, X blocked the accounts Hindutva Watch and the India Hate Lab in India, two US-based nonprofits that track incidents of religiously motivated violence perpetrated by supporters of the country’s right-wing government. A 2023 study from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard found that X complied with more government takedown requests under Musk’s leadership than it had previously.

In March, X blocked the accounts of several prominent researchers and journalists after they identified a well-known neo-Nazi cartoonist, later changing its own terms of service to justify the decision.

—Elon Musk Is Platforming Far-Right Activists in Brazil

[muichirolover14]

Melody Breathing🎶

You may use this for any use, just please credit me.

Melody Breathing is derived from Sound Breathing and focuses on smooth movements, flexibility, and speed. It has 12 forms and instead of "forms" this uses "scales".

Scale of Harmony (Wa no Scale):

Practitioners move in fluid, harmonious motions. Their attacks flow seamlessly.

Effect: Enhances coordination and balance, allowing precise strikes.

Scale of Crescendo (Zōka no Scale):

This scale builds momentum. The user's speed gradually increases during battle.

Effect: Accelerates movement and attack speed over time.

Scale of Vibrato (Biburāto no Scale):

Practitioners create ripples in the air, confusing opponents. Their movements waver like a musical vibrato.

Effect: Disrupts enemy focus and perception.

Scale of Adagio (Adājo no Scale):

In this slow-paced scale, the user conserves energy. They remain calm and composed.

Effect: Reduces fatigue and allows sustained combat.

Scale of Legato (Regāto no Scale):

Practitioners glide effortlessly, connecting attacks seamlessly. Their movements are like a continuous melody.

Effect: Smooth transitions between offensive and defensive maneuvers.

Scale of Staccato (Sutakāto no Scale):

This rapid, punctuated scale focuses on short bursts of movement. Attacks strike like staccato notes.

Effect: Quick, unexpected strikes catch opponents off guard.

Scale of Chromatics (Kurōma no Scale):

Practitioners shift between different styles and techniques rapidly. Their adaptability surprises foes.

Effect: Versatility in combat, allowing them to respond to various situations.

Scale of Lyricism (Ririzumu no Scale):

This scale emphasizes grace and elegance. The user's movements resemble a poetic dance.

Effect: Enhanced agility and flexibility.

Scale of Ostinato (Osutināto no Scale):

Practitioners repeat specific sequences of attacks relentlessly. Their strikes become predictable yet unstoppable.

Effect: Overwhelms opponents with relentless assault.

Scale of Cadenza (Kadenza no Scale):

The pinnacle of Melody Breathing. Practitioners reach a state of perfect flow, transcending physical limitations.

Effect: Temporarily achieves peak speed, reflexes, and precision.

Scale of Echo (Ekō no Scale):

This scale echoes the user's movements, creating afterimages. Opponents struggle to track the real attack.

Effect: Generates illusions, confusing enemies.

Scale of Encore (Onkō no Scale):

The final scale channels all energy into a climactic strike. It's a one-shot, decisive move.

Effect: Unleashes a devastating attack, beheading multiple demons or one powerful demon quickly.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil’s Indigenous Lands at Stake: Marco Temporal’s Potential Boon for Mining Titans

Amid an impending Supreme Court decision, our latest report dives into the risks of this legal thesis, potentially jeopardizing Indigenous territories for the benefit of powerful mining companies

The Marco Temporal or “Time Limit” legal thesis trial, set to shape the future of Indigenous land demarcation in Brazil, will resume by Brazil’s Supreme Court on September 20. The thesis would curtail the rights of Indigenous peoples to lands they occupied or claimed prior to October 5, 1988, when the Brazilian Constitution was enacted. Its decision will immediately apply to 217 judicial cases pending in the courts and, in the case of the thesis’s approval, may also enable mining projects in at least 77 non-ratified territories, according to a recent report by the organization Ekō. 

The analysis highlights an alarming fact: of the 120 Indigenous territories awaiting so-called demarcation, or government recognition, 77 are being eyed for 736 mining requests registered with Brazil’s National Mining Agency. Just let that number sink in for a moment.

We stand on the edge of a decision that will significantly impact Indigenous peoples’ lands, their lives, and our collective future. If approved, it’s not just a win for mining magnates like Vale, Bunge, and Anglo American. It’s an irreversible loss for Indigenous rights, the Amazon rainforest, and for 77 yet-to-be-recognized Indigenous territories.

Continue reading.

[earlicking]

Echo Night (エコー ナイト, Ekō Naito) PSX (1998)

[mariacallous]

Earlier this month, a German court ruled that the country’s nationalist far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), was potentially “extremist” and could warrant surveillance by the country’s intelligence apparatus.

Campaign ads placed by AfD have been allowed to appear on Facebook and Instagram anyway, according to a new report from the nonprofit advocacy organization Ekō, shared exclusively with WIRED. Researchers found 23 ads from the party that accrued 472,000 views on Facebook and Instagram and appear to violate Meta’s own policies around hate speech.

The ads push the narrative that immigrants are dangerous and a burden on the German state, ahead of the European Union’s elections in June.

One ad placed by AfD politician Gereon Bollmann asserts that Germany has seen “an explosion of sexual violence” since 2015, specifically blaming immigrants from Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The ad was seen by between 10,000 and 15,000 people in just four days, between March 16 and 20. Another ad, which had more than 60,000 views, features a man of color lying in a hammock. Overlaid text reads, “AfD reveals: 686,000 illegal foreigners live at our expense!”

Ekō was also able to identify at least three ads that appear to have used generative AI to manipulate images, though only one was run after Meta put its manipulated media policy into place. One shows a white woman with visible injuries, with accompanying text saying “the connection between migration and crime has been denied for years.”

“Meta, and indeed other companies, have very limited ability to detect third-party tools that generate AI imagery,” says Vicky Wyatt, senior campaign director at Ekō. “When extremist parties use those tools with their ads, they can create incredibly emotive imagery that can really move people. So it's incredibly worrying.”

In its submission to the European Commission's consultation on election guidelines, obtained by a freedom of information request made by Ekō, Meta says “it is not yet possible for providers to identify all AI-generated content, particularly when actors take steps to seek to avoid detection, including by removing invisible markers.”

Meta’s own policies prohibit ads that “claim people are threats to the safety, health, or survival of others based on their personal characteristics” and ads that “include generalizations that state inferiority, other statements of inferiority, expressions of contempt, expressions of dismissal, expressions of disgust, or cursing based on immigration status.”

“We do not allow hate speech on our platforms and have Community Standards that apply to all content—including ads,” says Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts. “Our ads review process has several layers of analysis and detection, both before and after an ad goes live, and this system is one of many we have in place to protect European elections.” Roberts told WIRED the company plans to review the ads flagged by Ekō but didn’t respond to questions about whether the German court’s designation of the AfD as potentially extremist would invite further scrutiny from Meta.

Targeted ads, says Wyatt, can be powerful because extremist groups can more effectively target people that might sympathize with their views and “use Meta’s ads library to reach them.” Wyatt also says this allows the group to test which messages are more likely to resonate with voters.

The AfD has a long history of portraying immigrants as a threat to the Germany. In January, German media reported that the AfD had secretly met with members of neo-Nazi groups to discuss expelling immigrants from the country, or what they dubbed “re-migration.” Ekō found that some of the ads placed by the AfD included the hashtag #remigration.

Experts say that social platforms, particularly Facebook, have been integral to the AfD’s growth. “Facebook was their main platform from the beginning,” says Juan Carlos Medina Serrano, a former researcher at the Bavarian School of Public Policy, who studied the rise of the AfD’s presence online. “It's hard to get into German politics. There have been other right-wing parties before the 2010s, and the AfD is the only one that made it to being one of the main parties in recent elections.”

Because they were not platformed by traditional media, the AfD invested heavily in social media, says Serrano. “They have been very adept at designing polarizing content that goes viral.”

In a 2021 interview with DW, the party’s own press officer said that Facebook had been integral to the party’s success: “Without Facebook, I don't believe that the AfD could have become successful so quickly.” The party has also seen recent success on TikTok, where Medina says its message has resonated with younger voters.

In February, Meta published a blog post outlining its plans for the EU elections. But last month, the EU announced that it was investigating Meta for potentially violating the Digital Services Act and not doing enough to combat election-related disinformation.

“Companies cannot be trusted and are completely unreliable in enforcing their own self-governance rules,” says Aurel Eschmann, campaigner at LobbyControl, a German civil society organization that promotes transparency in elections. “Particularly if there's a conflict of interest with the content that generates the most activity, they will be unwilling to ban that sort of content.”

Experts worry that allowing entities like the AfD to push divisive ads and organic content on social media is helping to accelerate the rise of the antidemocratic far right across the EU.

“I definitely think that the platforms have failed to understand their impact on society, on how this content is transforming the whole European electorate,” says Serrano. But, he says, now that the AfD is an established part of the German government, it makes it difficult for any platform to ban it, despite its use of hate speech or anti-immigration rhetoric. “They cannot completely ban a political party, but they should be able to moderate it.”

[ehmuhree]

Petition to stop financing Israeli forces

On the morning of September 10, Israeli forces massacred 40 people sheltering in a humanitarian safe zone. Campaigners from the consumer watchdog group Ekō (who have successfully influenced several companies and governments before) are working round the clock to cut funding to the weapons companies that are supplying the Israeli government, and more than ever we need to keep up the pressure.

It's all illegal. The International Court of Justice in The Hague confirmed that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory -- including Gaza -- breaks the law. Netanyahu says he’d “fight with fingernails” — but the truth is that he depends on arms pouring in from weapons manufacturers, which depend on financing from our banks.

Tell the banks to stop.

Sign the petition and share widely.

[opxstudio]

Making of the new Ekō identity

https://opx.studio/project/eko

[septmilleneurones]

Ekō do some activism against pesticide use by the major players.

glad to know that this information will probably do absolutely nothing to change individuals or farmers’ minds on using pesticides

[marinatedsaltea]

“Ah, it’s a wonderful cat life”

I realised that this song summed up their story very well so I couldn’t resist making a small doodle, yet it turned into something more serious after I got carried away with a background.

Context: Nightracer is a former sportsman and an Autobot. Yet, after his former best pal (Blurr) chose the Elite Guard over their friendship and career, Nightracer got sick of the Autobots hypocrisy and tore off the badge, finding joy in a new lifestyle of freedom and danger of the streets, no longer held by any rules. Then he met Ekō, a cadet, who was promised a good future in the Elite Guard. Yet despite everything, their views of the world didn’t stop them from forming a strong bond

Link for the song — https://youtu.be/wrGwbqg4z7I?si=fLNwkLVhxnjXsAO-

The background is not free to use

[afnews7]

Germania, la propaganda razzista dell’estrema destra corre libera sui social

http://www.afnews.info segnala: All’inizio di maggio, un tribunale in Germania ha stabilito che il partito nazionalista di estrema destra Alternative für Deutschland (Afd) è potenzialmente “estremista“ e in quanto tale può essere sorvegliato dall’apparato di intelligence tedesco.Ciononostante, un nuovo rapporto pubblicato dall’organizzazione no-profit Ekō – e condiviso in esclusiva con Wired…

[sailorzenin]

BDS update - Boycott AXA!

[earlicking]

Echo Night (エコー ナイト, Ekō Naito) PSX (1998)

[mariacallous]

A Brazilian court has announced that it will be opening an investigation into X owner Elon Musk for obstruction of justice, after Musk reactivated far-right accounts that the Brazilian government had flagged for removal. The announcement came after Musk called for Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who heads the country’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE), to “resign or be impeached,” and a statement from X alleged that the orders to remove the accounts violate the Brazilian constitution.

While the court has not released the list of accounts it requested for blocking or investigation, the São Paolo–based newspaper Estadão reported that it includes the fugitive far-right influencer Allan dos Santos, a supporter of president Jair Bolsonaro. (Dos Santos fled the country in 2020 to avoid investigation for disseminating disinformation.) The list also includes right-wing YouTuber Bruno Aiub, known as Monark, who has over 1 million followers on X and has argued that Brazil should recognize the Nazi party, and Brazilian billionaire and Bolsonaro-supporter Luciano Hang.

Separately, after taking over the company, Musk reactivated the accounts of Brazilian far-right politicians Carla Zambelli, Gustavo Gayer, and Nikolas Ferreira. Ferreira, a Bolsonaro supporter, openly questioned the security of Brazil’s electronic voting machines, even though he won his local legislative race.

“All of these names have been problematic for years on social media,” says Flora Rebello Arduini, campaign director at the nonprofit advocacy organization Ekō. “They've been pushing for the far-right and election misinformation for ages.”

When Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, later renaming it X, many activists in Brazil worried that he would abuse the platform to push his own agenda, Arduini says. “He has unprecedented broadcasting abilities. He is bullying a supreme court justice of a democratic country, and he is showing he will use all the resources he has available to push for whatever favors his personal opinions or his professional ambitions.”

Under Musk, X has become a haven for the far right and disinformation. After taking over, Musk offered amnesty to users who had been banned from the platform, including right-wing influencer and convicted human trafficker Andrew Tate. A 2023 study found that hate speech has increased on the platform under Musk’s leadership. The situation in Brazil is just the latest instance of Musk aligning himself with and platforming dangerous, far-right movements around the world, experts tell WIRED. "It's not about Twitter or Brazil. It's about a strategy from the global far right to overcome democracies and democratic institutions around the world," says Nina Santos, a digital democracy researcher at the Brazilian National Institute of Science & Technology who researches the Brazilian far right. “An opinion from an American billionaire should not count more than a democratic institution.”

This also comes as Brazil has continued working to understand and investigate the lead-up to January 8, 2023, when election-denying insurrectionists who refused to accept right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat stormed Brazil’s legislature. The TSE, the country’s election court, is a special judicial body that investigates electoral crimes and is part of the mechanism for overseeing the country’s electoral processes overall. The court has been investigating the dissemination of fake news and disinformation that cast doubt on the country’s elections in the months and years leading up to the storming of the legislature on January 8, 2023. Both Arduini and Santos believe that the accounts Musk is refusing to remove are likely connected to the court’s inquiry.

“A life-and-death struggle recently took place in Brazil for the democratic rule of law and against a coup d'état, which is under investigation by this court in compliance with due legal process,” Luís Roberto Barroso, the president of the federal supreme court, said in a statement about Musk’s comments. “Nonconformity against the prevalence of democracy continues to manifest itself in the criminal exploitation of social networks.”

Santos also worries that Musk is setting a precedent that the far right will be protected and promoted on his platform, regardless of local laws or public opinion. “They are trying to use Brazil as a laboratory on how to interfere in local politics and local businesses,” she says. “They are making the case that their decision is more important than the national decision from a state democratic institution.”

Though Musk has claimed to be a free-speech advocate, and X’s public statement on the takedowns asserts that Brazilians are entitled to free speech, the platform’s application of these principles has been uneven at best. In February, on order of the Indian government, X blocked the accounts Hindutva Watch and the India Hate Lab in India, two US-based nonprofits that track incidents of religiously motivated violence perpetrated by supporters of the country’s right-wing government. A 2023 study from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard found that X complied with more government takedown requests under Musk’s leadership than it had previously. In March, X blocked the accounts of several prominent researchers and journalists after they identified a well-known neo-Nazi cartoonist, later changing its own terms of service to justify the decision.

X did not respond to a request for comment about why the company made a public statement condemning the Brazilian court’s takedown orders but not those issued by other governments.

“We have a background that is different from the US. It’s more similar to the European concept of freedom of expression,” says João Brant, digital policy secretary for Brazil’s Secretariat of Social Communication. “You can discuss the elections, of course. The problem was, affirming categorically that there has been fraud and that the electoral court has not acted upon. It’s perfectly OK to discuss judicial orders, but it’s also important to comply with them.”