March 26, 2023

TechCrunch: Google removes hundreds of Kenya-focused loan apps from Play Store

TechCrunch: Google removes hundreds of Kenya-focused loan apps from Play Store. “Google has taken down hundreds of loan apps from the Play Store in Kenya since its new policy, which requires digital lenders in the East African country to submit proof of license, went into effect in January. The policy came in the wake of Kenya’s Digital Credit Providers (DCP) regulations last year, which required entities that provide loans digitally to acquire a license to operate from the Central Bank of Kenya.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
March 25, 2023

AFP: Kenya police misleadingly use old protest photos in online hunt for March 2023 rally participants

AFP: Kenya police misleadingly use old protest photos in online hunt for March 2023 rally participants. “After violent anti-government protests in Nairobi, Kenyan police took to social media to announce they were looking for suspects who partook in the rallies organised by the opposition on March 20, 2023. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) posted a series of images on Twitter purporting to show individuals suspected of causing mayhem during the demonstrations. But AFP Fact Check found that some of the photos were old and unrelated.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
February 7, 2023

Penn State: New AI tool helps provide better care to pregnant women in Kenya

Penn State: New AI tool helps provide better care to pregnant women in Kenya. “When compared to Jacaranda Health’s baseline AI model, TRIM-AI is roughly 17% more accurate at predicting high-risk medical conditions from text messages sent by new and expecting Kenyan mothers, which reduces the help-desk agents’ workload by approximately 12%. Their model also annotated messages more efficiently and accurately than human agents did.”

Research & Opinion 0
November 2, 2022

University of Washington: How low-cost earbuds can make newborn hearing screening accessible

University of Washington: How low-cost earbuds can make newborn hearing screening accessible. “Newborns across the United States are screened to check for hearing loss. This test is important because it helps families better understand their child’s health, but it’s often not accessible to children in other countries because the screening device is expensive. A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has created a new hearing screening system that uses a smartphone and low-cost earbuds instead.”

Other Things I Think Are Cool 0
October 21, 2022

CABI: New web app connects journalists and scientists

CABI: New web app connects journalists and scientists. “A new web app has been launched to make it super easy for journalists in Kenya and Uganda to find researchers for science stories. The Script Connect app is part of the Script science communication programme by SciDev.Net, funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation. It works like a ‘speed-dating’ app, linking journalists to scientists in East Africa.”

New Resources 0
August 12, 2022

Kenya election: Deep fakes, propaganda, libel inundate social media (The East African)

The East African: Kenya election: Deep fakes, propaganda, libel inundate social media . “The final stretch of the campaigns has witnessed outright propaganda and manipulated videos and audios online spaces, signalling a rebound of fake news. From fabricated videos made to misrepresent a candidate’s opinion to invented phone calls alleging plans to rig elections and fake statements claiming foreign support for a specific candidate, the ‘deep fakes’ have increased these final two weeks as they seemingly target the less informed.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
August 9, 2022

International Journalists’ Network: New tool helps media in Kenya combat spread of false information

International Journalists’ Network: New tool helps media in Kenya combat spread of false information. “To address the spread of disinformation during the 2022 election season and beyond, the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme launched the iVerify Network of Fact-checking Desks, a digital platform that newsrooms and journalists can use to fact-check information before they publish or broadcast. New to Kenya, iVerify has in the past been used successfully elsewhere in Africa.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
July 30, 2022

Engadget: Facebook faces suspension in Kenya over ethnic-based hate speech

Engadget: Facebook faces suspension in Kenya over ethnic-based hate speech. “Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), a government agency that aims to eradicate ethnic or racial discrimination among the country’s 45 tribes, has given Facebook seven days to tackle hate speech related to next month’s election on its platform. If the social media fails to do so, it faces suspension in the country.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
June 8, 2022

WIRED: Disinfo and Hate Speech Flood TikTok Ahead of Kenya’s Elections

WIRED: Disinfo and Hate Speech Flood TikTok Ahead of Kenya’s Elections. “LAST AUGUST THE TikTok account @aironixon shared a video intercutting scenes from Netflix’s docuseries How to Become a Tyrant with videos and screenshots of Kenyan deputy president and presidential candidate William Ruto…. The video is one of 130 identified by Mozilla Foundation fellow Odanga Madung, who has detailed his findings in a new report. Altogether, Madung found hate speech and disinformation in videos that accrued over 4 million views after being shared by 33 TikTok accounts.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
June 6, 2022

Techish Kenya: Google needs to properly remap the Nairobi Metropolitan Area

Techish Kenya: Google needs to properly remap the Nairobi Metropolitan Area. “For millions of people living in the Nairobi Metropolitan Area, moving between work and home, and between different parts of the city requires the daily use of Google Maps. This is both for directions and for traffic data. However, I’ve noticed that Google doesn’t really understand the city as it is now, and will at times fail you in three ways.”

Research & Opinion 0
March 10, 2022

The Conversation: Social media is being misused in Kenya’s political arena. Why it’s hard to stop it

The Conversation: Social media is being misused in Kenya’s political arena. Why it’s hard to stop it. “There is no evidence that disinformation and misinformation practices can on their own influence the outcome of elections. Nevertheless, they pose a danger to democratic processes. They also poison an important space in which deliberative politics should take place. In politically charged environments, such as Kenya’s, they have the capacity to exploit long-held divisions with the potential to trigger violence.”

Research & Opinion 0
March 2, 2022

TIME: Facebook Content Moderators in Kenya Are Receiving a Pay Rise Following TIME Investigation

TIME: Facebook Content Moderators in Kenya Are Receiving a Pay Rise Following TIME Investigation . “Facebook content moderators based in Kenya will receive a salary increase of between 30% and 50%, in a move announced two weeks after a TIME investigation drew attention to low pay, poor working conditions and alleged union-busting by Sama, the outsourcing company that is their direct employer.”

Tweaks & Updates 0

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