The top firms in California's Silicon Valley carry more weight on the global stage than many countries, which makes building diplomatic relations with them increasingly important, the world's first national technology ambassador said. Chosen to fill what his country's foreign ministry has dubbed the first "techplomacy" posting on the U.S. West Coast, Denmark's Casper Klynge will be tasked with building direct ties between his country and the likes of Facebook, Apple and Alphabet's Google.

Google has unveiled four measures it will use to tackle the spread of terror-related material online. Among the measures it is deploying will be smarter software that can spot extremist material and greater use of human experts to vet content. [...] In addition, it said, it would work with Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter to establish an industry body that would produce technology other smaller companies could use to police problematic content.

Forget that fancy word ‘smart city’. A country or community must have uninterrupted electricity 24 hours a day, clean water, knowledge of agricultural pattern to grow crops through the year and no wastage of water. Securing these few resources (water and energy in the form of food and electricity) are essential for sustainable living.It’s when a community does not have these resources that migration to regions occur triggering a domino effect of over population, and a high pressured race to grab resource now under supplied. 

The successful launch of the South Asian Satellite from Sriharikota onboard the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) on Friday not only reiterated the technological prowess of India’s space agency, but was also a landmark in science diplomacy in the region. This is the first time a communication satellite built and launched by India will be put to the common use of South Asian countries. 

Facebook’s management has been reluctant to accept responsibility for a flow of fake news via FB that seems to have played a significant role — just like the Kremlin’s cover campaign of bots, hacking and leaks — in last year’s election. If we are determined to go after Russian “bots” and trolls, shouldn’t we also demand more accountability from those who influence greatly the news we are “fed” via social media?