World

Palestinian rights group calls for investigation into Meta's data leaks to Israeli military

May 19, 2024

Gaza [Palestine], May 19: The Sada Social online rights group says US tech giant Meta must be investigated for helping the so-called Lavender AI-assisted targeting system of the Israeli military used to kill Palestinians in Gaza through leaking users' Whatsapp data.
"Since the onset of the genocidal war on October 7, the enforcement of surveillance and violation of users' privacy through WhatsApp has escalated, with more than 670 numbers of Palestinian users being banned, over 78 percent of whom are journalists and users in the Gaza Strip, directly impacting their lives," said the group, which is based in the occupied West Bank.
"Sada Social calls upon Meta management to adhere to responsibility and transparency across its various platforms, and to release transparency reports that have been withheld since the onset of the genocidal war."
The "Lavender" is an artificial intelligence platform employed by the Israeli military for the purpose of conducting airstrikes upon individuals situated within the Gaza Strip, notably characterized by its diminished reliance on human intervention. Operating with a lenient methodology in the determination and execution of targeting individuals, it predicts who will be killed within Gaza confines subsequently orchestrating airstrikes when said individuals are at home with their families.
The reports monitored by the Sada Social Center indicate that one of the inputs to the "Lavender" system relies on data collected from WhatsApp groups containing names of Palestinians or activists who are wanted by 'Israel'.
Source: Qatar Tribune

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