Millions of German Facebook users whose data was illegally obtained and leaked in a major security breach are eligible for compensation, Germany's Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled on Monday.

The court in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe, Germany's highest court for civil cases, said that the basic loss of control over data online was grounds for damages — without plaintiffs having to prove any specific financial losses, misuse of the data or even that they have been particularly concerned.

The BGH declared its ruling to be a guideline decision, meaning it can serve as a precedent for thousands of cases currently going through German courts.

Facebook 'scraping' scandal

The case revolved around a so-called "scraping" operation in 2018 and 2019 when unknown perpetrators accessed the data of millions of Facebook users via a loophole in the social network's search function.

At the time, users could be identified by entering their phone numbers into the search bar. Using automated searches for millions of randomly generated telephone numbers, hackers were able to access the data of around 533 million users, which they then leaked in April 2021.

In the specific BGH case in Karlsruhe, the complainant had demanded at least €1,000 ($1,056) in compensation from Facebook parent company Meta.

The higher regional court in the western city of Cologne originally rejected his claim, but will now be obliged to revisit the case and take into account the ruling of the BGH.

While the plaintiff is unlikely to be awarded €1,000 in damages, the BGH did suggest that it would consider a sum nearer €100 to be appropriate.

Meta: 'Facebook's systems were not hacked'

Meta, which has previously refused to pay compensation on the grounds that those affected had not been able to prove any concrete damages, is remaining bullish.

A spokeswoman claimed the BGH's ruling was "inconsistent with the recent case law of the European Court of Justice," the European Union's highest court.

"Similar claims have already been dismissed 6,000 times by German courts, with a large number of judges ruling that no claims for liability or damages exist," she said. "Facebook's systems were not hacked in this incident and there was no data breach."

mf/msh (Reuters, dpa)

What goes in, must come out: It's true for every human being in the world. Sooner or later, we all have to use the toilet.

And, while most people in Germany take their own toilet for granted, the situation is strikingly different around the world. According to the United Nations, 3.5 billion people live without safe sanitation: This is a full-blown global sanitation crisis, according to the UN. Without proper facilities, diseases spread more easily and drinking water can become polluted, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths each year.

To highlight the problem, the United Nations has declared November 19 World Toilet Day.

Do as the Romans do

The history of the toilet is far from dull. People were already aware thousands of years ago that feces should be disposed of properly.

Between 3,500 and 3,000 B.C, Sumerians in Mesopotamia built the oldest toilets known to date. They consisted of deep pits lined with stacked ceramic tubes, on which users would sit. The solid excreta remained in the container and liquid seeped out through holes in it. There was no flushing system.

The ancient Babylonians and Assyrians also built toilets out of two small walls with a narrow gap for the feces. These were washed into canals along with water used for bathing.

However, it was not until the ancient Greeks and Romans that such toilets were used by the masses. At home, poorer households used a barrel as a toilet to dump the contents of their chamber pots, while wealthier Romans had private toilets.

Many people used public latrines open for 50 to 60 people at a time while the toilets flushed continuously. Business matters were often discussed while on the toilet. It's the source of the expression "to do one's business."

A mess in the Middle Ages

With the collapse of the Roman Empire, sophisticated toilet culture also disappeared. The common people of the Middle Ages "did their business" in chamber pots, which were emptied into the street.

Both private and public toilets were scarce in the Middle Ages. The inhabitants of castles used small niches in the walls as toilets, but such methods were also unhygienic: Excrement and urine landed in moats, and plague, cholera and typhoid epidemics resulted from such practices.

Noble appearance and bad smells

As the years went on, the bathroom situation did not improve dramatically. Common people typically relieved themselves in stables or fields.

Even the nobility at the court of Louis XIV did not seem to attach much importance to privacy and hygiene. Although there were 2,000 rooms in the Palace of Versailles, there was only one toilet in the building. Chamber pots were often overflowing and dumped directly out of the palace's finely crafted windows. When the Sun King hosted one of his famous lavish festivals, noble guests relieved themselves in the park.

Delayed success for the flushing toilet

It was not until the second half of the 19th century that the flushing toilet began to establish itself in Europe.

Although British poet Sir John Harington invented it as early as 1596, his countrypeople were apparently unable to appreciate its advantages and his designs fell into oblivion.

Almost 200 years later, British inventor Alexander Cummings applied for a patent and added a double-curved drain pipe, to fight against stench, paving the way for the production of flushing toilets at the end of the 19th century.

These began to appear throughout major European cities. The development of sewage treatment plants about 100 years ago ensured that rivers and streams were spared from human excrement in Europe.  

Safe sanitation still far from a global reality

And today? Too many people still do not have basic sanitation facilities, such as toilets or latrines.

In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the burden of inadequate sanitation is especially high. Diseases spread rampantly when proper sanitation is not in place. Nearly half a million children under five are estimated to die each year from diarrhea as a result of poor sanitation.

In 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the construction of toilets a campaign topic, while philanthropists such as Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates have used their Microsoft wealth to improve sanitation infrastructure in South Asia.

The striking differences in sanitation around the world can be seen in the diversity of the debates: In wealthier nations such as Germany or the US, people debate the use of gender-neutral toilets, for example. In India, two children were beaten to death for defecating outdoors. 

World Toilet Day may sound like a gimmick, but it underlines a very serious issue.

This article was originally written in German.

Satellite internet in India is posed for substantial growth, with alliances emerging between satellite operators and local telecom companies.

Satellite internet access is set to improve the lives of Indians living in remote and underdeveloped areas where traditional internet infrastructure like DSL or cable is unavailable, which reduces access to education, healthcare, and e-commerce.

Although mobile internet penetration is high, with around 876 million mobile broadband users, many of these users still experience issues with connectivity and speed.

An estimated 665 million people in India, around 45% of the population, do not access the internet, according to joint study released in February 2024 by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar, an analytics firm.

Although more and more Indian are accessing the internet, there is also a substantial digital divide, with connectivity in rural areas limited or non-existent when compared with urban areas.

India has the second-highest number of internet users worldwide.

"Satellite internet will provide quick relief to the unserved and underserved especially in rural pockets of India," said Sunil Parekh, co-founder of TechXchange, an organization supporting Indian innovation and startups.

"While satellite internet costs could be higher and speeds varying depending on the provider, video calls, education, health, and payment services can work well," he told DW.

According to Deloitte, a UK based professional services network, India's satellite broadband service market is expected to increase by 36% annually, reaching $1.9 billion (€1.75 billion) in 2030.

The introduction of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites significantly enhances service quality by providing lower latency and higher speeds compared to traditional geostationary satellites.

Competition for the spectrum

Competition is heating up for India's satellite broadband spectrum with around half a dozen key players. 

Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio is partnering with Luxembourg-based SES Astra, a top satellite operator. Other global giants such as Amazon's Kuiper and Elon Musk's Starlink are also vying for a spot.

Starlink has received an in-principle approval from the Indian government, however, it is awaiting final vetting although it has over 6,400 satellites in orbit and millions of subscribers.

The Indian government is considering an administrative approach for spectrum allocation rather than auctions, which could facilitate quicker entry for satellite providers like Starlink.

The exact start date for satellite internet services hinges on obtaining final approvals from regulatory authorities.

"The issue of sharing spectrum based on administrative allocation versus auction remains an issue between US players and Indian telecom giants," said Parekh.

"The government is taking a view to follow international guidelines based on administrative allocation. Overall, satellite internet is a good development in digitizing India in remote areas of the country," he added.

Satellite internet suited for rural India

Satellite networks are less susceptible to damage from natural disasters compared to terrestrial systems and services can be restored quickly even when local infrastructure is compromised.

Shrijay Sheth, founder of LegalWiz.in, a consultancy firm, said that while India already has high internet penetration, both in terms of data consumption and digital commerce, satellite internet advances will result in more adoption and reductions in costs through economies of scale.

"It will widen the reach where currently internet access is limited due to physical infrastructure requirements," Sheth told DW.

"Low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations like Starlink and OneWeb are already getting early success, and India's commitment to space tech will be a direct incentive to home-grown innovation within this space," Sheth added.

India's government recently approved over 10 billion rupees ($135 million, €124 million) to support space tech startups.

The recent approval of 10,000 million rupees for a venture capital fund for Space tech startups has been an impetus.

India government has also opened the door to 100% foreign direct investment in satellite manufacturing components without prior clearance, which has sparked significant investor interest.

"This is a ripe opportunity for the rural populace which will enable them access to vital services like telemedicine and digital education while creating opportunities for new connected industries," added Sheth.

How to keep high costs down

High costs remains a hurdle for satellite internet services as a consumer product. Setting up satcom technology is expensive, and competing with the low pricing of terrestrial DSL and mobile broadband services is difficult.

However, experts believe that given the advantages offered by satellite broadband in bridging the digital divide and unlocking the potential of India's underserved regions, operators will keep the costs down.

"What Jio accomplished with broadband in reasonably populated areas of India, satellite broadband promises to do to under-populated and disconnected parts of India," said Yash Shah, of Momentum91, a custom software development company.

"This technology promises to bring along a completely new wave of population to the connected world," Shah added.

"Every business wants to be a part of this revolution. It remains to be seen whether this will be achieved by a global player or a local one," said Shah.

Edited by: Wesley Rahn 

Why have Russia and Turkey blocked Discord?

The telecoms regulator in Russia banned Discord on Tuesday, citing the failure of the app to "prevent the use of messaging for terrorist and extremist purposes, recruiting citizens to commit them, sale of drugs, and ... the posting of illegal information."

Russian regulator Roskomnadzor said Discord was "actively used by criminals" and that the platform had failed to comply with an order issued on October 1 demanding the removal of nearly a thousand items of content.

Roskomnadzor had previously fined the San Francisco-based app for failing to remove banned content.

The Kremlin has regularly targeted Western social media platforms, particularly since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Among the technology platforms now banned in Russia are X, formerly Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

The ban has drawn criticism from pro-military bloggers who said Russian forces had been using Discord to coordinate units on the battlefield in Ukraine. According to the bloggers, Russian soldiers have been left without an effective alternative.

Moscow's move was followed a day later by Turkey, whose BTK communications authority blocked the app nationwide after a ruling by a court in Ankara.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said the decision was made to "protect" children from online abuse when using Discord.

"We are determined to protect our young people and our children... from harmful and criminal publications on social media and the internet," Tunc wrote on X.

Turkish prosecutors began an investigation into Discord on October 5 over allegations that some Discord users were blackmailing young children to take nude images of themselves and post them in groups, news agency Anadolu reported.

The platform also raised eyebrows among Turkish regulators after some users, in private groups hosted on Discord, posted messages praising a recent double murder of two 19-year-old women in Istanbul, local media reported.

What other regulatory scrutiny is Discord under?

In the United States, Discord has been investigated by the FBI in criminal cases where the platform was allegedly used for grooming minors and spreading images of child sexual abuse.

In one famous case, the leader of the neo-Nazi gang Order of the Nine Angles was arrested after targeting young people for abuse on the app.

In June 2023, NBC News said it had identified 35 prosecutions of adults on charges of kidnapping, grooming or sexual assault through the alleged use of Discord over the previous six years.

NBC News said there were an additional 165 cases where Discord had been allegedly used for so-called sextortion — where children are pressured into sending sexually graphic images of themselves — or sending or receiving child sexual abuse images.

Discord was also denounced in 2017 for allowing its platform to be used to promote a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which erupted in violence and left one person dead. 

The gunman behind the 2022 Buffalo supermarket shooting, which targeted Black Americans, had shared his manifesto and violent plans in a private Discord server, months before the attack, local media reported at the time.

Last year, a serious leak of classified US military documents, detailing the state of Russia's war in Ukraine, was published on Discord.

Germany and France have raised concerns about Discord's data collection practices and how it handles user information, especially for younger users. French regulators fined the platform €800,000 ($875,000) in November 2022 over its failures to abide by the European Union's data protection rules.

Discord, and other large social media networks, now face increased scrutiny over content moderation practices under the EU's Digital Services Act, which requires platforms to quickly remove harmful content.

Several US states have passed legislation to boost the protection of children online, which has also affected Discord. The measures include tougher age verification measures and the protection of personal data​.

What exactly is Discord and why is it so popular?

Discord was first released in May 2015, initially to allow online gamers to communicate while playing. More than half a billion people have downloaded the app and, according to the platform, it has 150 million regular users.

During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, Discord's management widened the platform's focus to include virtually all online communities. 

Discord allows voice and video calls along with text messaging, and users can share content and chat in private or public virtual communities.

Its most popular "server," with 20 million followers, is about the artificial intelligence platform Midjourney.

The platform's voice and text options are integrated in a way that allows users to drop into conversations without direct calling (like through Skype) and switch easily between texting and voice chatting. 

While platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram allow the creation of single-threaded groups, Discord goes one stage further, allowing groups to segment into multiple channels.

The platform has become a meeting place for those who follow counterculture narratives, including the incel (involuntary celibate) movement, hacking groups and cryptocurrency investors. 

Groups espousing controversial political views or spreading hatred and extremist propaganda have been able to flourish on the platform because of Discord's privacy rules and lax content moderation standards, compared to rivals Facebook, Instagram and X.

The platform insists it has strengthened its practices against online harms in recent years, especially those faced by young users.

Edited by: Uwe Hessler

As of August 31, X, formerly Twitter, is down some 21.5 million users — at least on paper. In an escalation of a long dispute with X owner Elon Musk, Brazil's Supreme Court ordered the nationwide suspension of the social media platform.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes argued this was because Musk had failed to take sufficient action against the spread of hate speech and disinformation on the platform. Previously, the court had ordered Musk to block the accounts of particular users who were singled out for spreading false and misleading information, and to name a company representative for Brazil.

But Musk refused to comply, calling out efforts to "censor" political opponents. "The current Brazilian administration likes to wear the cloak of a free democracy, while crushing the people under its boot," he wrote on X after the Brazilian ban on his platform went into effect.

Before the shutdown, Brazil was the sixth-largest market for X, which according to Musk has around 600 million users per month. Now, individuals or companies in Brazil who circumvent the ban with virtual private networks, or VPNs, could face a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900/ €8,007).

Many Brazilian users have already migrated to competing platforms — the decentralized platform Bluesky has seen a massive spike in popularity in Brazil since X was shut down.

Here are some of the most popular microblogging services currently online.

Bluesky

At first glance, Bluesky looks like a trimmed-down version of X — hardly surprising, considering it was launched by Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter. The social media platform has been publicly available since early 2024, after being invite-only for about a year.

Unlike X, Bluesky has a decentralized, federated design, meaning a network is able to run on many different sites instead of relying on a single one. This allows users to move their accounts from one provider to another, for example.

That includes exporting conversations and contacts, another major novelty Bluesky boasts compared to X. "Wherever you go, your friends and relationships will be there too," a Bluesky blog post explained.

Posts on Bluesky are limited to 300 characters, allowing them to be slightly longer than posts on X. The network also allows users to customize their own feeds and thereby select the algorithms that steer this content. This contrasts with standard black-box algorithms that automatically curate a users' feed without providing details on selection criteria.

Within days of X's ban in Brazil, Bluesky reported 2 million new users. That's a massive surge in popularity, especially considering it had 8.4 million users prior to this weekend's ruling.

Mastodon

Another popular decentralized network is Mastodon, created by German-Russian software developer Eugen Rochko. The platform consists of numerous independently run servers, or instances. Most servers target specific regions or topics of interest.

Anyone can set up their own server and lay out its rules of engagement. However, in order to be promoted by the Mastadon team, servers must agree to a basic set of rules, which include prohibiting hate speech, sexism, racism, homophobia and transphobia.

Otherwise, Mastadon basically works like any other microblogging platform. Users can post toots, like X's posts, and other people can like, comment or share.

Mastadon is an open-source network, meaning that its source code is publicly available. The platform is almost exclusively financed by donations and is still fairly small, with just about a million active users per month.

Threads

Mark Zuckerberg is a household name in all things social media. The founder, chairman and CEO of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, introduced his own response to X in 2023. Threads is also text-based and decentralized, and has functions that roughly mirror those of X.

But critics have said the service is overly reliant on Instagram. Users can keep the same username on both platforms, but can neither create nor delete a Threads account without first creating or deleting an account on Instagram. To make up for this, Threads users have hundreds of millions of connections between users at their disposal as soon as they sign up.

True to its parent company's legacy, Threads is also under fire for collecting sensitive personal data. In Europe, the service's launch was delayed by about half a year as regulators were unsure whether it complied with the EU's new digital market and digital service acts.

But that doesn't appear to have affected its popularity: As of August 2024, Threads boasts around 200 million active users worldwide.

Confusing market, countless providers

There are many other microblogging services not listed here, including Tumblr, Plurk and Identi.ca. And many social media services have also integrated microblogging functions on their platforms — just think of Google+, TikTok, LinkedIn or Telegram, whose founder and CEO Pavel Durov was recently charged with a wide range of alleged criminal activity on the app.

China has blocked many of these services and replaced them with similar microblogging platforms of its own. Weibo, akin to X, is one such global heavyweight with around 580 million active users — most of them Chinese — each month.

The Chinese government keeps a close eye on Weibo and in the past has blocked and deleted accounts because of what it deems as "harmful" content.

Even former US President Donald Trump has his own microblogging platform, which he announced after being banned from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter following his role in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol building. But Truth Social has not nearly enjoyed the success Trump promised: in 2023, the network cost Trump millions of dollars, and this year, it still only has about a million active users.

This article was originally written in German.

You might have heard speculation that electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones and wireless technologies is dangerous.

The radio waves wireless technologies transmit are very weak. They do not have enough energy to damage DNA and are very unlikely to cause cancer. Nevertheless, researchers are continuing to monitor whether there are any potential long-term health risks of phone use.

A new study provides comprehensive evidence that mobile phone use is not linked to cancer. The study is the largest review on the topic to date and is one in a long line of research showing that wireless technologies do not harm the human body.

"For the main issue, mobile phones and brain cancers, we found no increased risk, even with 10+ years exposure and the maximum categories of call time or number of calls," said Mark Elwood at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, who was a co-author in the study.

The review was commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) and published in Environment International.

No increased risk of brain cancer from mobile phone use

The review, which stemmed from concerns that phones held against the head emit radio waves into the brain, analyzed more than 5,000 studies, focusing on 63 studies from 22 countries most relevant for their analysis. 

"For this report, cancers of the brain (three types, and in children), pituitary gland, salivary glands, and leukemias were included," said Elwood.

None of the studies assessed in the review showed an increased risk of brain cancer with mobile phone use.

"The evidence did not support an increased risk of cancers from the use of mobile phones. Furthermore, there was no evidence to support any risk from broadcasting transmitters or base stations," said Keith Petrie of the Department of Psychological Medicine, at the University of Auckland, in a press statement.

How do mobile phones work?

Mobile phones and wireless tech exchange signals using radiofrequency (RF) waves. This is a form of energy in the electromagnetic spectrum, which is why mobile phones are sometimes said to give off electromagnetic radiation.

Electromagnetic radiation sounds dangerous, right? Well, not necessarily. It depends on how much energy the radiation contains. 

Radiofrequency waves used by mobile phone networks are a form of non-ionizing radiation. Non-ionizing radiation uses tiny amounts of energy to transmit data, nowhere near enough energy to damage the human body or DNA (genes).

And it's true for all types of mobile phone networks. WiFi, 4G, 5Gand Bluetooth all rely on radio waves to transmit data, as do FM radios. Each type uses a different frequency of radio waves, but none have enough energy to heat body tissues or damage cells or DNA.

Radiofrequency waves are different from ionizing types of radiation, such as X-rays, gamma rays and ultraviolet (UV) rays. Ionizing radiation contains much more energy and can damage DNA, which is why high levels of sun exposure can cause skin cancers.

There are also concerns that keeping a phone in your pocket or leaving the WiFi router on might be dangerous, but these myths have been debunked for the same reason: radio waves don't cause cancer.

When we stand outside on a cloudy day, we are actually exposed to more DNA-damaging rays than we get from having a mobile phone in our pocket or leaving the WiFi router on at night.

Mobile phones don't cause causer, but can we prove it?

Worries about the health effects of new technologies are common, especially when online conspiracy theories are involved.

"This was seen during the COVID-19 pandemic when people attacked cell towers believing a baseless theory that 5G towers spread the coronavirus," said Petrie.

The evidence is clear that the radio waves emitted by mobile phones and wireless technology don't have enough energy to damage the body directly.

The scientific consensus has remained strong. So far, no studies have found links between mobile phone use and cancer, so we can be very confident that wireless technologies do not cause cancer.

Nevertheless, many health care and scientific organizations don't have official positions on whether or not radiofrequency waves from phones cause cancer.

The problem is the philosophical conundrum of finding evidence of the absence of something. It's like when people argue that there is no God because there is no evidence of God. But what if we just haven't found evidence of God yet?

This issue of showing evidence that wireless technology doesn't cause cancer works the same way. Wireless technology is a significant part of our daily lives, so health care and government agencies are still addressing their safety.

Overall, the data overwhelmingly shows that using mobile phones and wireless tech is completely safe for our bodies. 

Edited by: Davis VanOpdorp

Primary source:

Lagorio, S et al. "The effect of exposure to radiofrequency fields on cancer risk in the general and working population: A protocol for a systematic review of human observational studies." Environment international vol. 157 (2021): 106828. doi:10.1016/j.envint.2021.106828

Cybercrime costs governments and businesses trillions of dollars every year. But it costs some more than others.

In 2023, cybercrime in the Middle East cost just over $8 million (€7.2 million) per incident, according to research funded by IBM that looked into data breaches in 16 countries. That puts Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — where the IBM study focussed — second in the world when it comes to this kind of financial damage.

Additionally the costs of cybercrime in the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been going up for years now. In 2018, the same annual study reported that the average cost of a cyberattack there was only $5.31 million.

Why is this happening?

It's important to see the increase in the context of the countries' growing e-commerce sector and ever-increasing internet penetration, which means more locals are online than ever.  But according to the relevant ministries in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, they should be well protected.

The International Telecommunications Union, or ITU, a specialized United Nations agency, regularly publishes a ranking of global cybersecurity capacity and in the most recent rankings from 2020, Saudi Arabia and UAE are right at the top.

However, experts point out, the rankings are based on information the ITU gets from the countries themselves and although cybersecurity is increasingly seen as important in the region, there could well be gaps between what the Gulf states' policies say and how they actually work.

"The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are doing extremely well in terms of digitalizing their public services and they also have thriving sector of small and medium enterprises," says Joyce Hakmeh, deputy director of the International Security program at UK-based think tank, Chatham House, and an expert on cyber policy. "But as is often the case — and this is not just in the Gulf, but pretty much everywhere in the world — this digital transformation is happening so fast, that it can be at the expense of having the right cybersecurity measures in place."

"The Middle East is a hotbed for data breaches, primarily due to rapid digitization outpacing cybersecurity infrastructure," confirmed Mohammed Soliman, director of the Strategic Technologies and Cyber Security Program at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

There's also the issue of centralized government control that's been focused on influence operations rather than, for example, infrastructure, Bassant Hassib, a professor of political science at the European University in Egypt, wrote in a 2022 paper for the journal, Middle East Policy. "Bureaucratic obstacles impede national cybersecurity organizations," Hassib noted, listing factors like unclear or overlapping responsibilities, uneven implementation of rules and a lack of detail and guidance as equally problematic.

Cybercrime: Mostly about the money

State-sponsored hackers who practice espionage and steal national secrets regularly make international headlines. And in the Middle East, politically motivated cyberattacks tend to follow the course of traditional regional rivalries, the MEI's Soliman told DW.

As such, they have become a favored weapon in proxy conflicts and when countries don't want any direct military engagement, he noted.

"Iranian cyber groups, for example, have been involved in politically motivated cyberattacks such as aggressive espionage operations against a diverse array of public and private sector victims in the Gulf states."

However while Israel, Iran and Turkey all have offensive cyber capabilities connected to their own militaries, the wealthy Gulf states tend not to — at least, not anything they talk about too openly. For this, they still rely mostly on connections with Israel and the US. In fact, analysts see this need as driving diplomacy between the Gulf states and Israel.

However the vast majority of cyberattacks around the world are still financially motived, US company Verizon says in its 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report. And this is also true for the Middle East. According to Verizon, in the Middle East, Europe and North Africa, 94% of cyberattacks are financially motived, with only 6% apparently political. 

Blackmailing the world's wealthiest

One of the most popular methods for financially extorting organizations is with ransomware, a type of damaging software, or malware, that encrypts or locks data until a ransom is paid.

What is known as ransomware-as-a-service is also increasingly available, Hakmeh adds. This is ransomware that would-be cybercriminals can buy "off the shelf" on the dark web, she explains, which makes it easier to deploy. 

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are home to some of the richest organizations in the world. That includes their sovereign wealth funds and oil and gas companies. As a report by British cybersecurity firm, Sophos, confirms, companies most likely to be targeted by ransomware are those with the highest revenues. 

Following a 2024 survey of 5,000 professionals in the sector, mostly in Europe, Sophos found that just under half of organizations with revenues below $10 million were targeted by ransomware attacks. But that went up to 67% when they made more than $5 billion a year. 

Richer companies were also more likely to pay the full ransom, Sophos' anonymized survey found. Slightly more than half the companies targeted by ransomware paid. But organizations with more than $5 billion in revenues usually paid the full amount demanded, while others were able to negotiate a lower price.

Other research suggests that the percentage of UAE companies that decide to pay up might be even higher, with one cybersecurity company's survey concluding around 84% of them agreed to pay their blackmailers. 

Cybercrime happens everywhere, Hakmeh says. But what puts the Gulf states right at the top of the list of expensive incidents can be explained by, "a combination of high value targets, a rapid increase in digitalization and not enough cybersecurity measures, plus the increased sophistication of the threat actors," she concluded.

Edited by: Andreas Illmer

What to do about a social media platform that appears unwilling to comply with authorities in fighting harmful content? That question is at the heart of a debate sparked by the arrest and investigation of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France. 

"It's about what European Union member states and the EU — or other democratic countries — do with platforms that don't play by the rules and refuse to provide information to the authorities," Julian Jaursch, an expert on platform regulation at the Berlin-based think tank interface, told DW.  

Durov was detained on August 24 at Paris's Le Bourget airport after arriving on his private jet from Azerbaijan.

After more than 80 hours in police custody, he was released and formally placed under investigation for allowing harmful content to spread on his network. 

Since his arrest, Durov's supporters, including multi-billionaire Elon Musk, have come forward to condemn the French authorities' actions as censorship. French authorities have denied these accusations, with French President Emmanuel Macron writing on X that the arrest was "in no way a political decision."

But digital rights advocates told DW they find the French authorities' actions troubling, warning that the case could set a precedent for countries to force social networks to comply with overly broad or even unlawful requests. 

"It could also lead other social media and communication platforms to adopt stricter content moderation measures that could lead to censorship," Natalia Krapiva, senior tech-legal counsel at digital rights group Access Now, told DW.  

"This would hurt all users, but especially civil society like activists and independent media who are operating in already repressive environments." 

Pro-democracy tool — and criminal haven 

Telegram, more than any other major social network, is known for its hands-off approach to content moderation. This has made it a key tool for pro-democracy activists from Iran to Hong Kong to organize their efforts. 

Telegram has also become a safe haven for extremists and conspiracy theorists, as well as a tool for cybercriminals. 

French authorities began investigating Telegram after the company ignored the vast majority of requests from its national law enforcement to cooperate in prosecuting crimes committed using Telegram, the Paris prosecutor's office explained in a press statement. 

When French authorities released Durov from custody, they announced that he was being investigated for a litany of crimes. These include alleged complicity in running an online platform that facilitates illegal transactions, spreading material depicting sexual violence against children, enhancing drug trafficking, fraud, and providing an encrypted messaging service without a license.  

In response, one of Durov's lawyers told journalists that it was "totally absurd to think that the head of a social network could be involved in criminal acts that do not concern him, either directly or indirectly." 

Next steps in France and the EU

In the French judicial system, a formal investigation is a prerequisite for a case to go to court, but it does not guarantee that a trial will take place. If the authorities determine that there is insufficient evidence, the case can be dismissed before trial. 

For the time being, Durov is not allowed to leave the country. He must report to the police twice a week, according to the prosecutor's statement.  

As the investigation in France gathers momentum, attention is also turning to the EU, which is leading efforts to regulate online platforms across the 27-country bloc. 

In late 2022, the EU passed the Digital Services Act (DSA), a sweeping regulatory framework designed to hold social media companies accountable for what happens on their platforms. 

Jan Penfrat, a senior policy advisor at the Brussels-based digital rights organization EDRi, stressed the need for the EU to enforce the DSA and address Telegram's role. 

"With all eyes on Telegram and the situation in France, EU authorities need to act now," Penfrat told DW. "Otherwise, people will start to see the DSA as a paper tiger."  

A key question revolves around the number of people using Telegram in the EU. Under the DSA, platforms with more than 45 million active users are considered "very large platforms" and must comply with stricter regulations. In February, Telegram reported that it had 41 million users in the EU. 

The EU is now investigating whether Telegram provided inaccurate user numbers. If authorities find that the company has understated its presence, Telegram could face a range of measures and penalties. 

"The DSA is new and many of its tools have not yet been tested, but it includes several measures to force Telegram to better cooperate with the authorities," Penfrat told DW. "Telegram would put the DSA to one of its first major tests."  

In an email, a spokesperson for Telegram said that the company "has recently provided the EU Commission with the number of EU users accessing its online platform."

Telegram, he added, does "not meet the threshold of 45 million ‘online platform’ users in the EU."

This article has been updated to include a comment from Telegram. 

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg

 

  

The unexpected arrest of Pavel Durov in France has sent out shockwaves through his digital empire, the Telegram messaging app, which boasts over 900 million active users.

The Russian-born billionaire created the app together with his older brother, gifted mathematician and programmer Nikolai Durov.

The brothers have built up the platform's reputation for privacy by setting up layers of data protection and repeatedly defying state actors who requested access. At the same time, Telegram's critics describe it as a "Wild West" app where disinformation and propaganda spread with little to no oversight.

It is only one of the projects launched by Pavel Durov, who is often described as "Russia's Mark Zuckerberg."

VKontakte — Facebook's Russian rival

Pavel Durov was born in St. Petersburg in the former Soviet Union in 1984. Both of his parents were lecturers at the St. Petersburg State University. When Durov was four, his family moved to Italy and spent the next four years there. Durov started attending elementary school in Turin.

In 1992, his family returned to Durov's home city and his father took over as the head of the classical languages department at the State University's philology college. Durov continued his education in Russia, and started his first forays into programing during high school. He subsequently started college pursuing a degree in English, where he set up a digital library named Durov.com and an online student forum. Durov later admitted creating different online accounts and arguing with himself on his forum to boost discussion.

While completing his studies and obtaining a degree in English translation in 2006, the future tech billionaire also focused on creating a social network inspired by Mark Zuckerberg, who launched "The Facebook" in 2004. Durov's own platform VKontakte (In Contact) was up and running by late 2006. It was partly backed by funds obtained through Durov's classmate and business partner Vyacheslav Mirilashvili, son of a controversial entrepreneur Mikhael Mirilashvili.

The network reached 3 million users in 2007 and continued to spread, soon cementing its position as the dominant social media platform in Eastern Europe.

Streaming as secret weapon

To a Western user eager to join VKontakte during its early years, the platform would appear to be little more than a Russian-made Facebook knockoff, complete with friends lists, photo albums, user "walls" — down to the dark blue and white color scheme.

Under the hood, however, VKontakte had a feature that Facebook could not match. Due to lax enforcement of copyright laws in Russia, VKontakte users were uploading and streaming all kinds of video content, including Russian and Hollywood movies.

Durov later said that he used Facebook as an example of "what not to do."

"I started a company that became what they call the Facebook of Russia," Durov told US-based journalist Tucker Carlson in April 2024. "We don't like to name it that way because we actually managed to do a lot of things before Facebook and that defined how the social media industry developed during the years."

Flying cash on paper planes

The company's growing popularity soon put Durov in conflict with the Russian state. In 2011 and 2012, Russian opposition used social media to coordinate a wave of anti-government protests, and the authorities pressured VKontakte to cut this avenue of communication.

Durov refused. A similar situation unfolded in late 2013 and 2014, when Ukrainians started their Euromaidan protests which would lead to the eventual ouster of pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych. Durov claims Russian officials pressured him to reveal private data about the protest organizers in Ukraine, and that he once again refused their request.

Meanwhile, Durov became a millionaire and started developing a reputation as an eccentric. In 2012, he was criticized for putting cash into paper planes and flying them into the street from his St. Petersburg office. Passers-by soon started fighting over bills, with Durov commenting online that they had gone "feral."

In 2013, Durov and his older brother launched the Telegram messaging app. Durov claims he came up with the idea of an encrypted messaging platform when armed police officers came to his Russian home. He allegedly wanted to inform his brother about what was happening and coordinate their next steps, but realized none of the available communication channels were secure from surveillance.

Telegram joins Apple and Google in banning Navalny's app

Facing increased pressure from the government, Durov sold off his VKontakte stake and left Russia in 2014. He soon obtained the citizenship of the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, then secured a French passport and a citizenship of the United Arab Emirates some years later.

His team tried to set up in various countries, including UK, Germany, and the US, before eventually settling in Dubai.

Talking to Carlson, Durov said American intelligence tried to recruit one of his engineers to create software tools that would allow them "backdoor" access to the app. He also said he was repeatedly questioned by FBI agents while visiting the US.

In 2018, Russian authorities tried to block Telegram after its management refused to grant Russia's FSB intelligence agency access to user conversations. The blockade failed. The messenger is now functioning in Russia and used by many senior state officials.

But Telegram's record in the fight against state censorship is not completely unblemished — in 2021, his platform joined Apple and Google in blocking the "Smart Voting" software championed by late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, that would allow Russian voters to vote strategically against pro-regime parties.

Russian billionaire without a yacht

Durov has described himself as a "libertarian" and a "citizen of the world," whose main priority is personal freedom. His seven rules of healthy, youthful living include giving up alcohol and meat products, and staying single.

Durov's photos on Instagram, arranged to show off his physique against stunning, cinematic backgrounds have also inspired many jokes and memes among Russian-speaking internet users.

While not being married, Durov has at least five children with two different women. In online post in July 2024, Durov said he was "just told that I have over 100 biological kids" due to his efforts as a sperm donor.

"Now I plan to open-source my DNA so that my biological children can find each other more easily," he said in a Telegram post.

The net value of Durov, who will turn 40 this year, is valued by Forbes at $15.5 billion (€13.9 billion). The billionaire claims not to own any luxury real estate, jets or yachts, and has publicly decried the dangers of "overconsumption."

Commenting on Russia's full-scale attack on Ukraine in 2022, Durov described it as "tragic"  and pointed out his mother's Ukrainian origin.

"To this day, we have many relatives who live in Ukraine. Therefore, this tragic conflict is personal for me as well as for Telegram," he wrote.

Edited by: Helen Whittle

 

2024 is already a historic year. For the first time in the history of international beauty pageants, the world has a computer-generated beauty queen.

Virtual influencer Kenza Layli was named the first-ever Miss AI is after beating 1,500 other participants.

The fictional character with a golden hijab was created by Myriam Bessa, the founder and head of the Moroccan AI agency Atelier Digital, and won the World Creator Awards on July 8.

Mango leads the way in AI-generated advertising campaign

Could real-life models soon be history? Even if this question cannot be answered, what is certain is that artificial intelligence (AI) is also revolutionizing the fashion industry.

A look at the Spanish fashion company Mango gives an indication of the future. No real human beings were photographed for the advertising campaign for its Sunset Dream collection. The clothes are real but the models are AI-generated.

This is not the first time the fashion industry has used AI. In early 2023, the jeans icon Levi's hit the headlines with its partnership with Dutch start-up Lalaland.ai, which creates customized AI-generated models for e-commerce. 

"The integration of AI in the fashion industry is proving to be a game-changer,” wrote Max Dewod for the US digital marketing agency ReVerb in May 2024. "The integration of AI in the fashion industry is proving to be a game-changer. Brands like Zara, H&M, Stitch Fix, Nike, Levi's, ASOS, and Burberry are just a few examples of how AI can enhance trend forecasting, personalize shopping experiences, improve customer service, and support sustainable practices."

Dove: 'Real women'

One brand refuses to go with the trend: Dove. In a statement issued in May, the beauty brand, which is owned by British consumer goods company Unilever, promised it would "never use AI imagery in place of real women,” and "never use digital distortion and present the unachievable, manipulated, flawless images of ‘perfect' beauty which the use of retouching tools can promote.”

In a report published by Dove in April entitled "The Real State of Beauty: A Global Report” the findings showed that because of the "perfect" looks of AI models and influencers, real-life girls and young women in particular felt pressured to alter their appearance.

"Globally, half of all women and girls 14 to 17 believe plastic surgery is a way to feel better in their own bodies," the report stated. This was particularly the case in Brazil (69%) and China (56%).

Researchers spoke to around 33,000 people in 20 countries for their report. These included around 14,000 women and 4,000 men aged between 18 and 64, and around 9,500 girls and 4,700 boys aged between 10 and 17.

Men find themselves 'not muscular enough'

Men and boys also feel pressure to change their appearance. The researchers found that "79% of men and 74% of boys feel they aren't muscular enough." 

"Globally, 68% of men and 59% of boys feel pressure to be physically attractive."

The Brazilian activist Beta Boechat, who co-authored the report, told DW that generally people were becoming more dissatisfied with their appearance.

"The more tools are available to change our appearance, the more the pressure grows to physically achieve the digital ideal of beauty in real life," she said.

One of the proofs of this was the global rise in cosmetic surgery that has become easier and more affordable, she explained. "This increases the pressure on people to optimize [their bodies], not only men but women."

Disparity between digital ideals and reality

Helmut Leder, Professor of Empirical Aesthetics in Psychology at the University of Vienna, is also concerned about the pressure arising from the disparity between digital ideals of beauty and real-life appearance.

"This is a very dramatic problem," he told DW. "Artificially generated faces have no skin blemishes, they have perfect proportions and almost all correspond to a general ideal of beauty.

"In a world in which we are not confronted with real people, but with many artificially embellished faces, the individual desire to be attractive and beautiful is enormous."

For the developers of Finnish AI model Milla Sofia, virtual models and influencers are not dramatic, but merely examples of the social transformation triggered by AI. They have attempted to dispel concerns by having their model express herself on her own website.

"For years, social media has been beautified by 'artificial intelligence,' i.e. filters, which are very popular. So the ideal of beauty has been distorted for a long time," her statement reads. "Artificial intelligence only makes it easier to make changes and is, in a way, just one additional step to previous development."

British beauty expert Sally-Ann Fawcett sees the AI revolution in the fashion industry as an opportunity for more female presence. She was on the jury for the Miss AI 2024 beauty pageant.

"In the 70s, the majority of pageants were run and judged by men," she told US Time magazine. "These days, I would say 95% in [the UK] are run by women and judged by women." 

Boechat, on the other hand, fears a setback for the body positivity movement, which has campaigned for decades for the elimination of unrealistic and discriminatory beauty ideals for decades. She told DW that the setback was already noticeable.

"AI has reached society at a sensitive moment,” observed Boechat. ”Aesthetic demands are increasing, and movements against the cult of the body and its power have become weaker.”

Additional reporting by Jakov Leon.

This article was originally written in German.