of people actually every day to receive a meal there in desperate need of help. if i were to buy learned of improv accumulating pretty ago, i was working. i had a job, i rented an apartment and i was able to pay the rent. i worked and under salary every month, then the panoramic game, i lost my job. i couldn't pay my rent anymore. volunteers and they salt kitchen say, most of those coming here face a similar situation. we have lost their jobs and cannot afford to pay a rent any more. 20 years ago, brazil became a success story when government programs pushed millions of people out of poverty. now it's an example of the government's inability to deal with the consequences of coven 19. but he said, well, i'll just cedar ah said 0. these are the top stories. and ty ones, defense minister says that tensions with bay ging, or at their worst and 40 years,

that's after a record number of chinese aircraft entered the islands air defense zone. he said that china could launch an invasion within 4 years. late as for you and western balkan countries. a gathering for discussions in slovenia talks will focus on you investment in the balkans in the cove with 19 recovery as well as afghanistan, china, and european energy prices. the british prime minister says his government will change the direction of the economy and move away from what he called uncontrolled immigration. or as johnson told his conservative party conference, he would end a broken model of low wages and growth. the answer to the present stresses and strains which are mainly a function of growth and economic revival is not to reach for that same old lever of uncontrolled immigration to keep wages low. the answer is to control immigration to allow people of talent to come to this country,

but not to use immigration as an excuse for failure to invest in people in skills and in the equipment. the facility theory, the nobel prize in chemistry has been jointly awarded to, to scientists for the development of a precise new tool for molecular construction. the royal swedish academy of sciences say that the work of benjamin left him david mcmillan had a great impact on pharmaceutical research and there's already benefiting human kind greatly. theories, coast guard says 10 hours passed before a damaged pipeline was investigated. after oil seeped into california in waters as trying to determine if a rupture that spilled 570000 liters of oil was caused by a ship's anchor. turkish, an azerbaijani forces have begun and joint military drill near the border with iran . the 2 countries expanded their defense ties after last year's war against armenia in the disputed new corner car back region. got stay with headlines. more news

coming up here after inside story. ah no facebook instagram or whatsapp for 6 hours. facebook blames a technical glitch for its worst global outage in years. are we too reliant on social media to communicate and do business and has facebook become too powerful? this is inside story. ah, ah. hello, welcome to the program. i'm adrian finnegan. facebook is the world's biggest social

media network by far. it connects 3000000000 people. that's 3040 percent of the global population. many use instagram and whatsapp as well, both owned by facebook. but the several hours on monday, no one could communicate or share content on the company's platforms. facebook apologized and blamed a technical glitch. the outage is the latest trouble for the us based tech giant, a former employee, as accused of putting profits. i had concerns about health safety, privacy, and misinformation. we'll bring in our guests in just a moment, but 1st a report from out there is, was one job in washington for billions of facebook's customers. no likes, no insta moment. no world wide phone calls are messaging. facebook's chief technology officer needed twitter to tell customers it was having massive technical difficulties. and then he apologized. facebook services coming back online now may take some time to get to 100 percent, to every small and large business family,

an individual who depends on us. i'm sorry, the outage also shut down operations at facebook's california headquarters. no phones, no computers. some workers reportedly using zoom to hold meetings. it's a good reminder, the internet is incredibly fragile and it actually can have problems like this arise and not work for long periods. typically, we don't really experience that much anymore. it used to be a lot more common, like a decade ago. some found the outage at facebook, instagram and what's app funny, but for whatsapp users, analysts say the disruption could have been catastrophic. what's app is tremendously important for communication in a lot of parts of the globe. and it does raise questions around, you know, how important it is for there to be redundancy, but also questions around, you know, should private companies be solely in control of infrastructure. so critical to

communications and the outage comes as facebook is under fire for how it does business. us regulator say facebook is a monopoly and should be broken apart. a move, the company opposes a spoke note last week. the senators grilled a facebook official about oak whistleblowers allegations. the company refuses to block hate speech bullying and other forms of harmful messaging from its sites that whistleblower just gave her 1st tv interview explaining why she thinks this is the case. thing i saw facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was gave for facebook. and facebook over and over again shows to optimized for its own interests, like making more money. facebook denies francis hawkins allegation saying, quote, to suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing. it's just not true. rosalyn jordan else's era washington. ah.

all right, let's bring it, i guess for today in brussels, estelle myself, who is europe, legislative manager, and global data protection lead at access now in london. joining us sir is alto, co founder and director of the internet monitoring organization net blocks. and from that up city of ma, strict, catalina, go on to who is assistant professor and private door and technology maastricht university. a. welcome to you all, al, pumpkin to start with you. it's, it's interesting. the facebook's statements on the outage on monday have said nothing about potential mal intent, was this just human error a technical failure or could it have been sabotaged? well, agent, the timing was very unfortunate say the least this outage was very serious, perhaps unprecedented. lasting some 6 hours and having global impact. and it came just as these hearings are being made. the select committee and in the u. s. got

congress and there's all there, these whistle, the complaints about practice at the company. so this exactly when the company needs to have it stuff together yet suddenly we see this a full impact outage affecting not only the company's main product, facebook, but also instagram whatsapp and its messenger service. so the timing is awful. it will have raised a lot of questions, is this a coincidence? but ultimately there is a technical explanation for what happened. so at the moment, that's what the company has gone with and, and that is consistent with what we've seen as well on the wire f. so whatever the cause, what does it tell us about facebook's critical infrastructure? the fact that most of it appears to be located at or near facebook's headquarters in the u. s. or their solid technical reasons for doing that, or with, with hindsight, is there a better way?

would it have made any difference in this case? it to this how much the incident shows that infrastructure means power and how much of this power is in the hand of facebook. and as it was mentioned, the outage was over different services that the company owns, but he was also affecting some of the hardware that the company offers. and people were not able to connect to their uncle to stem for instance, or to build a newly launch products ribbon glasses. it just show that facebook is not really helping building the internet in a decentralized manner that would help in case of incidents like that to have back up plans to maintain communication and maintain communication and help people get access to services. but it's created war garden around all of their services to keep users inside. and when there is an issue, it almost isn't equivalent as if the whole communication system full done a lot of people were saying like, oh my god, i'm here by using s m. and so having to nurture to different services of learning that there are indeed alternatives that exist. it just goes to show how much power

is single company have and the impact it has on, on the internet and on users are large. and i, i'm hoping this is also wake up call from many to show that no matter which company it is, they shouldn't hold that much for over the infrastructure, catalina, what are the potential legal ramifications for facebook over this 6 out? whose could it be sued? a if so by whom yeah, so as we have heard before, there are going to be around medications right now it is very early to say how deep and how wide these ramifications will be. but let me just take you through to very specific examples. and 1st of all, we have seen that in the past 5 years or so, there has been a blossoming content creator economy. imagine that you had to upload an episode of your show tonight and perhaps on, on facebook or, or on instagram you had to go and alive and do give away as a content creator, you have perhaps missed out on these possibilities and you haven't heard certain

losses the same goes for the example of all the many companies that are now really creating customer content and customer care on whatsapp and on facebook messenger. and all of these companies perhaps had to go through finding alternatives and that those alternatives might cost. so these are damages that would indeed, depending on the jurisdictions give these companies and individuals freelancer's a, give them the opportunity to suit facebook for sure. out. in hindsight, was facebook naive to have had all its platforms using the same critical infrastructure. do integrated digital businesses need to be structured in that way? why does facebook do it by about will to understand this, we need to look back little to our 2019 when facebook announced that it would merge . it's that form for product that forms. so this meant essentially taking together old technology that had a quiet when it bought whatsapp,

when it bought instagram and putting them all behind the unified technical infrastructure. now for the company, this has a huge benefits. this means maintenance overhead can be reduced because you now have one develops team operations team maintaining the services. it also has an advantage for advertising technology and understanding your customers. this means facebook can accumulate more data about users and unify that data or correlated between that forms if necessary, are to actually understand the behavior of the user. so those are business benefits for facebook. but they come with this great negative attached that to you. now have much more centralization and you have more single points of failure. so that means if one thing breaks in one place, you suddenly lose all your platforms, they all go offline. all your eggs in one basket. so depending on where you look at this from that, so a lose lose,

because that's both losing uses data privacy and having that over to companies. and it's reducing the residence of that infrastructure. but perhaps if you're at the company it's, it's more of an even battle way of trying to said, how could we bring together the services and, and collect more data without necessarily ruining that resilience. so overall, it's going to be difficult for facebook to fight this one, especially after what happened on monday, because it's really shown what the problem is with bringing together so many major platforms under one roof, estelle picking up a what you were saying, just a few moments ago about the company becoming too big, too powerful, too important to too many people and this is, this is got a fuel further the argument for breaking facebook up, isn't it potentially yes, but it the conversation we should be having and what regulator needs to be looking at is whether or not breaking up is the solution and what really is the solution

looking at the, the power that facebook olds and i think at the moment globally, so whether it's in europe, in other part of the world. when we look at those companies, we tend to look at the market where they operate or try to fix a specific issue. for instance, in europe, we have it up to the really strong data protection regulation that is largely being or by the company. and it's one of the problems that we have, and so we need to understand how all of the different pieces of that puzzle need to work together in order to address all of the socio calisha, basically that facebook having so much power is crating on it is creating on the infrastructure as we've seen yesterday is creating of privacy every same time and time and time again is creating on discrimination issue, et cetera, et cetera. and so there's probably maybe not a single solution to all of those different issue. and we need regulators to from who work on anti trust and competition to work with previously regulator to work with media regulators to work altogether and understand the, the breath and extent to which this platform has been. and so, because i do think some of the current tools that we have in terms of regulation

and regulatory response, are probably inadequate to address the, the market power or facebook and other actors like amazon and cool in the sense that they're all over the place. you know, there is no such thing as an internet market, there, superpower is in the ad market in social media and communication, etc, etc. see, you need to look at all of it holistically. and perhaps one of the conclusion might be to break them up or to break different services, or make sure that those different services are integrate or not integrated together . which by the way, it was one of the ask a party of the european commission when facebook. but what's that? one of the condition was that they would not be sharing of information between the 2 promise that facebook date and break. so there is a lot of looking back that needs to happen on the company's practices and what happened. but there is also larger consideration on the different tools that we have. and if none of those tools are sufficient altogether, then perhaps we should be having the conversation of whether or not it should be broken up yet. i'm not sure rear were even there yet. then there is so many stuff

that needs to happen there, but we shouldn't be afraid of putting that option on the table. in fact, catalina, do you agree with that? should private companies like facebook be solely in charge of infrastructure that is so critical to global communications? of the so many people i completely uncle, what s t l has mentioned. so in legal literature, especially from north america that an author, frank pasquale has been calling these platforms as functional sovereigns. so there is this debate of is facebook as powerful as a country. on the one hand, it is a company, just like many others, we have seen in the history of capitalism. but at the same time what we see where this entire facebook downtime is that it has been the equivalent of electricity outage because it has been providing facebook as a platform, critical infrastructure that a lot of the public depends on. so in the words of linda, taylor dodge, scholar has got it from the netherlands. basically,

these are public actors without public values. and this is the emphasis that we need to take what exact public values do we want to enforce on these platforms. what we also see is that to complement what was mentioned before, what do we see that one solution could be more harmonization? so far we have, we don't have the cyber space, but we have cyber spaces. the rules that are applicable to facebook in the european union are one aside. the rules that are applicable in india and china in the united states are different sides of the story. so the question is, do we want to have just one set of rules that are going to be applicable to such a giant company that really operates trans national? and that's, that's also food for thought. it's been sort of the platform as a public act does without public values. what does the, the outage that we suffered on monday to tell us about the public's reliance upon them? is there any way in which social media could exist without a social media company facilitating it?

what we see is that users use accesses like what's up, as though they're part of the platform as though they are built into the phone. so you don't necessarily see this distinction between the device that they hold and the services that run on the platform. and that then it becomes a huge problem because you've got this blurred lines. who controls the infrastructure. now is this inherent to the technology itself, or is it, is it just due to the structure of the business? that is a good question and it seems that it is possible to decentralize these platforms more. it's not necessary to have such a centralized design such a centralized model to our communications networks. now, what is possible is sometimes limited by the device. so apple for example, may limit what an application can do in terms of communicating peer to peer

connecting to other devices to other phones. and that would then prevent you from creating perhaps a global mesh network application. and that's really the barrier removed is not the technology is not the physical hardware, it's on the one hand. so these limitations are in these devices imposed by the vendors. but also the companies themselves, which do want to hold on to power for, for example, there been efforts to federated networks to link them in past. and those will fail because companies essentially want to hold on to their users. they don't want to let go. so yes, the internet is a network of interconnected computers, but those interconnections are still governed by the company's assault. picking up on something you were saying a few minutes ago, we've heard that facebook uses its platforms to harvest data from its for its users, which it then uses to sell advertising. and one of its applications though at whatsapp at least has end to end encryption, something which has long bogged governments or intelligence and security agencies

who wanna move are good for back door access to these encrypted chats. if facebook is broken up and there is some sort of state involvement in the infrastructure of its platforms, doesn't that have implications for privacy? and that's a very important question. so 1st it facebook is broken out of the state, doesn't have to become the owner necessarily of the, of the company. you know what's up and facebook used to be 2 different companies. it happens differently, but it does really matter in did what condition, for instance, what's up encryption model would remain if it was to be separated from the facebook ecosystem. now there is a lot of other services communication services that exist current, you know, don't belong to facebook. that are other private company or decentralized company that offers enter and compete in 10 encryption as well on communication. so it can happen and it can be done in this way. we need to have the larger conversation on

what or so facebook is doing still with some what, some data and on the content of the messages that are there. are there data around communication? because, and i think facebook themselves has made a lot of commitment toward staying on encryption, but it's not because it stays on facebook that those commitment will continue to be there. but the value that encryption brings to safe communications from many of us around the world and for, for many, for many sectors to be honest like encryption is not just about communication. it's also the foundation of banking sectors to avoid fraud, etc, etc. so you don't, you don't break encryption into a system without breaking a whole infrastructure as well. so it's again, often a larger conversation that needs to happen. but to your point, you can separate system and make sure that privacy safeguards apply strongly and to be completely honest. and it's not that facebook is the poster shy for privacy. and so potentially is the crating with up from facebook. could also bring more privacy or previous you get your more christie by design, future,

and stronger development around that in the products. that later on monday, facebook asked a judge to dismiss the federal trade commission's anti trust lawsuit against it, which seeks to force it to sell instagram on whatsapp. the f t c says that facebook has monopoly power in social networking. facebook though, says the f t. c is ignoring reality of that. it competes vigorously with some of the companies that sell was talking about the tick tock i message twitter snapshot, linkedin signal youtube, who's right the f to see a facebook that's a very tough call. adriane, so i think we're going to have to wait and see. but the problem is that this entire outage that facebook has been going through has actually not made its own case stronger. because indeed, if we look at instagram and if we look at all the products that have been developed, including reels as a way to mimic tick tock. and the different types of products that are available on instagram are really testament to what you were mentioning earlier. that indeed,

there is a competition on a market. and at the end of the day, a lot of social media companies will end up going and developing the same product. however, this is exactly what a cell was mentioning the inter relation of all of these companies that the f t c has also taken a lot of concern with. so we have seen that not just facebook was down. we've seen that instagram was effected, whatsapp was effected and even oculus b r. so one of the other companies that facebook holds, and that is the main concern there. and i just wanna get some comments from, from all of you own, the facebook whistleblower francis huggins testimony that facebook executives chose profits over safety and that it needs to be regulated like big tobacco allegations . of course, the facebook strenuously denies up. what do you make a bit but with facebook we desperately trying to avoid being regulated because it operates an environment where it wants to make decisions. this is the 1st time

the company has faced with the allegations, and we know that they're going to oppose these allegations. rigorously. in the sense the outage could make a difference because it raises the initial set of questions over the centralization company and add up with the new claims that have come out. you have this very toxic set of claims of allegations about the company that all come together that really call for some form of regulation. as to what are your thoughts thing the conversation will be very important because it's not the 1st candle that facebook and he's facing, not even just this year. and to be honest, we kind of know by now that facebook is misleading its users because their commitment doesn't match their practices. if kind of knew also that some of the statement or vague statement that were made to go run and run a complete 9 and go and facebook was trying to just ease some,

some regulators to not be more regulated. but now it would also seem that facebook has misled their own investors. i think there is a lot of question i need to be asking, not just to facebook, but to be ecosystem. the grants facebook twigs is the way it does right now, is this, should we really help facebook maintaining this current business model that is harmful for users that is potentially harmful for even for their investors, for advertiser, and really only working for them. and so really need to dig into this question because at the moment we only get how through or misleading statement from facebook that is there to reinforce their current state power. but there is a lot more that could be done if we just cross reference the impact that he has on all of us collectively, catalina to compliment what has been said before, i think, or what is very important is to acknowledge also the novel business models that facebook has been coming up with also just as social media platforms in general. and here i would like to stress, very importantly,

content monetization. so in addition to the platform ads that we have been already talking about, these are the ads that facebook is going to get money from different platforms and from different brands to, to simply use their targeted advertising parameters. and therefore build on the kind of data that they gather from their users. in addition to this, we also see this rise of content monetization on social media. and this creates and brings with new incentives to participate commercially in this echo system. so not just the advertisers and all of the intermediaries that have been involved in the platform and aqua system, but now also the advertising and any kind of monetization, including through social commerce that social media is going towards. so i think that this should be on our agenda because this can also help us understand better the kind of issues that have been getting more and more more light in the press the chest for instance, the teenager issue on the on help and instagram out very briefly because we're,

we're almost out of time here. but as, as all 3 of you have said, as far as the francis huggins testimony we've, we've been here before that been about facebook whistleblowers. but given yesterday's outrage, outage and the severity of it. could this be the beginning of the end for facebook or at least facebook, as we know it being such a job conglomerate? well, it may not be the beginning of the end for facebook itself, but it does appear to signal something new when that's realization that it's time for change. the world needs alternatives as well, needs studying are in t into alternatives, decentralized options. but also this is ways to perhaps make the company work more effectively in the public interest in the long run. so yes, it is a turning point. all right, we'll see. and there we've got to leave it. betty, thanks indeed. as tom asa out, taca and catalina go into as always,

thank you for watching. don't forget, you can see the program again any time just by going to the website out 0 dot com for further discussion join us. ironically, at our facebook page, you'll find that at facebook dot com forward slash ha inside story. and you can join the conversation on twitter. we are at a j inside story from me, adrian, for again, on the whole team here at o. how, thanks for being with us. i'll see you again. bye for that. ah! ah. when i scan filmmaker, hassan for silly catches the taliban. attention. a bounty on his head forces him to

flee with his family, desperately seeking sanctuary. they journey across continents chronicling their multi year saga on their phones, midnight travellers, an odyssey of hope resilience and ultimately one family's love for each other. witness on al jazeera, france once had a vast empire spending several continents. but by the 1940s, the french were forced to confront reality and demands for independence. in the 1st part of a documentary series, al jazeera looks at how the colonial unrest grew. conflict and algeria and full scale war and indo china, blood and tears, french, the colonization on al jazeera, examining the headlines. we can have a political defenses. political difference would not be the reason for kill other

human investigative journalism. it's a secret location. we've gained access to a training camp run by aetna, surgeon, voices from different corner. i never see no american dream in america. you just feel like you're caged animal. things like that that my child would have a guy for programs that open your eyes to an alternative view of her well to day on al jazeera. ah hello there i'm is darcy tate and her was an update for you. here on out was aaron towns defense minister says tensions with beijing are at their worst and 40 years. that's after a record number of chinese aircraft entered the islands air defense zone. he said china could launch an invasion within 4 years. but mcbride has moved from hong kong . the defense minister went on to say that the, in fact, the relations now the tensions with china are the worst they have been. he says,

for a 40 years. so i think taiwan has been genuinely rattled by the scale of this incursion . china, as we know.