Weekly Roundup 8/22/2016

This weekend, a child suicide bomber killed 54 and injured about 70 people at a wedding in Turkey near the Syrian border. The attack occurred less than 24 hours before another child bomber was arrested in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. This assault marks the deadliest of a string of terror attacks, many of which have been connected to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). President Erdogen blamed this most recent attack on ISIL, although the group has yet to claim responsibility.

In the wake of ISIL attacks in Wuerzburg and Ansbach, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere announced that he is in favor of using video camera technology at train stations and airports to identify possible suspects of terrorism. This announcement takes aim at face veils worn in public spaces. “I would like to use this kind of facial recognition technology in video cameras at airports and train stations. Then, if a suspect appears and is recognized, it will show up in the system.” This statement is not made lightly, since surveillance techniques were abused by both the Stasi secret police in East Germany and the Gestapo under the Nazis. Other countries are investigating such technologies to minimize threats against citizens and increase the chances of identifying terrorists. These technologies may indeed end terror-related crises but are accompanied by significant civil liberty concerns.

Tech News:

• How This Woman Is Fighting for Gender Equality in Tech

• China Launches Quantum Satellite in Bid to Pioneer Secure Communications

• How Technology Can Restore Our Trust in Democracy

• North Korea 'Netflix' device unveiled

• Mine Kafon Drone: The Best ICT4D Kickstarter Ever

• ​Scalable Cloud Infrastructure Transforms the Data Center

• FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific unveils the 8 new fintech startups in its third batch

• To Protect Enterprise Data, Secure the Code

• The Surprisingly Simple Chemistry In DuoSkin, Temporary Tattoos That Control Your Phone

Civic Tech:

• Consulting with Lawmakers on the Media Environment in Latin America

• Democracy, forests and finance: the tech making Africa a better place

• Disaster Tech Lab brings emergency internet to refugee camps

• No, visiting a torrent website in India won't land you in jail

• Media censorship? Oman shuts down newspaper critical of government

• Thailand's new constitution: a blow to rights?

• #PowerShift docu-series explores the importance of social media in countries where censorship is rife

• News apps are dying off. But in a way, they'll live on

• Twitter announces it has suspended 235,000 terror-linked accounts

• Social Movements and Political Agency in the Digital Age: A Communication Approach

• Moscow is grabbing Russia's country code top-level domains