Russia to roll out censorship bot
Russian officials announced on Monday last week that their new "Oculus" system will be able to scan the internet for illegal content, such as unsanctioned protests, dissent, and "LGBT propaganda," analyzing more than 200,000 images per day to do so.

Oculus "automatically detects offenses such as extremist content, calls for illegal mass gatherings or suicide, pro-drug content, LGBTQ propaganda, and so on," the Interfax news agency reported.

It went on to say that "'fakes' have proliferated and spread at an unprecedented rate, aiming to replace real facts with a specially constructed reality" since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

It should be noted that over three billion images are shared on the internet each day, to say nothing of videos and text. According to the Russian business and technology magazine Kommersant, experts in the field of machine learning say that Oculus may have only had four months to train its algorithm.

Critics say this will mean a lot of false flags early on. They have also pointed to the massive spike in VPN demand in Russia, an increase of 2,692% between February and March last year, according to Top10VPN.

Top Hong Kong court favors self-ID laws
Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal, its top court, ruled unanimously on Monday that the region's policy of barring Trans people from changing the gender on their ID cards without a full sex reassignment surgery is unconstitutional.

"The policy's consequence is to place persons like the appellants in the dilemma of having to choose whether to suffer regular violations of their privacy rights or to undergo highly invasive and medically unnecessary surgery, infringing their right to bodily integrity," the judges wrote.

"Clearly this does not reflect a reasonable balance. The Policy imposes an unacceptably harsh burden on the individuals concerned."

Trans activists Henry Tse and an unnamed person who went by "Q" were the appellants in question. They both underwent extensive medical and surgical treatments to meet the policy's requirements, but the Commissioner of Registration only asked for more before refusing their applications.

"Today's result is delayed justice, a Pyrrhic victory," Tse said in a statement. "This very case should never have happened."

"I will continue to work hard to plant the seeds for the Transgender rights movement with my partners at Transgender Equality Hong Kong," Tse added. "I believe that one day, we shall succeed and welcome the rainbow with open arms."