Good morning! Today: we delve inside the terrifying world of online "gangstalking" forums, and how AI tools are being used to sniff out criminal cash. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day.
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Inside the disturbing online world of gangstalking 
What is gangstalking? Right now, on Facebook pages, forums, blogs, YouTube channels, and subreddits across the internet, thousands of people are sharing their belief that they are being “gangstalked.” These self-described “targeted individuals” say they are being monitored, harassed, and stalked 24/7 by governments and other organizations. Targeted individuals claim that seemingly ordinary people are in fact trained operatives tasked with watching or harassing them—delivery men, neighbors, colleagues, roommates, teachers, even dogs. Gangstalking communities are growing quickly; one estimate from 2016 suggested that there might be 10,000 people in such groups across the internet.
An obvious fact: People who are convinced they are being gangstalked are mostly, if not exclusively, mentally ill. Their beliefs are delusional. Yet every day, the internet legitimizes these beliefs, discouraging people who hold them from getting professional help or taking medication, and pushing them further down the road of psychosis, with sometimes deadly results. Read the full story.
—Amelia Tait
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The pandemic has changed how criminals hide their cash—and AI tools are trying to sniff it out
Pity the poor criminals: When economies across the world shut down earlier this year, it wasn’t only businesses and consumers who had to adapt. Criminals suddenly had a problem on their hands. How to move their money? Profits from organized crime are typically passed through legitimate businesses until there is no clear trail back to its source—a process known as money laundering. But with many businesses closed, or seeing smaller revenue streams than usual, hiding money in plain sight by mimicking everyday financial activity became harder.
Mother of invention: The pandemic has forced criminal gangs to come up with new ways to move money around. And they are nothing if not opportunistic. As the normal channels closed, new ones opened up, for example the ability to hide transactions in the vast sums of money have started flowing into small businesses again thanks to government bailouts.
Playing catch: This has upped the stakes for anti-money laundering teams tasked with detecting suspicious financial transactions and following them back to their source. Key to their strategies are new AI tools, which can adjust themselves over time to learn from shifts in behavior, and catch money-laundering as it happens. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
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We can still have nice things
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The top ten must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The US is banning WeChat as well as TikTok
This is a significant escalation in the US/China tech war. ( The Guardian)
+ It really doesn’t matter who owns TikTok. ( Gizmodo)
+ Microsoft now wants to take over TikTok’s entire global business. ( FT $)
+ This latest executive order could be a real pain for the US gaming industry. ( Quartz)
+ Essentially, the US is trying to purge all Chinese apps. But is it just bluster? ( The Verge)
+ Ironically, the US’s increasingly authoritarian approach to what’s allowed online apes that of China. (BBC)
2 Scientists may be using the wrong cells to study coronavirus
And the repercussions are potentially huge. ( Wired $)
+ It looks like an outbreak is growing in the Midwest. ( Axios)
+ The US is badly behind on testing. Again. ( Wired $)
3 Software that monitors students during tests perpetuates inequality
It’s also a full-on privacy nightmare. ( TR)
4 Is that gathering safe?
Here’s how you can calculate the risk of catching covid-19 from different activities for yourself. ( Quanta)
+ Orchestras are safer than you might think. ( Wired UK)
+ Could your symptoms be coronavirus? Here’s how to judge. ( NYT $)
5 Facebook seems to helping right-wing pages dodge its own misinformation policies
And then fired an employee who collected evidence of it happening. ( Buzzfeed)
+ Mark Zuckerberg is now a “centibillionaire” for the first time. ( The Guardian)
6 How falling solar costs have renewed clean hydrogen hopes
The rapidly changing economics make it an increasingly attractive and affordable option. ( TR)
7 Telemedicine has resurrected the house call 👩⚕️
But this time, of course, it’s conducted through a screen. ( The Atlantic)
8 Scientists have renamed human genes to stop Excel misreading them as dates
This is the biggest testament to the spreadsheet software’s power I’ve ever seen. ( The Verge)
9 Influencers just can’t stop partying 🥳
Or—here’s a thought—they could. ( NYT $)
+ LA authorities have threatened to shut off power and water to party houses. ( Slate)
10 Chemists have created new formula that makes objects glow fluorescent
Totally disco. ( Gizmodo)
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“I don’t think any human endeavor has ever saved so many lives in such a short period of time.”
—Solomon Hsiang, who directs the Global Policy Laboratory at Berkeley, on the global impact of social distancing, the New Yorker reports.
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