Telecom
Call Masking: NCC Lifts Suspension on Medallion
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has lifted the license suspension placed on Medallion Communications for allegedly engaging in call masking.
Medallion Communications described the allegation of engaging in call masking as shocking.
Call masking is a practice in which callers hide their true numbers when making calls, especially international calls, in order to evade the international call rates.
Ikechukwu Nnamani, chief executive officer, Medallion Communications Limited, said the regulator has rescinded the suspension, describing the suspension as unfortunate.
“I am glad to report that following our appeal of the suspension the Regulator has lifted the suspension against Medallion and we are now able to run our interconnect business. I am also glad this was resolved without Medallion needing to take the Regulator to court which was to be our next line of action if our request for review of the decision was not positive in line with the provisions of the Communication Act 2003,” he enthused.
It would be recalled that NCC in February this year suspended the operating licenses of some telecommunications operators for engaging in call masking.
The commission also issued warning letters to others it said were caught engaging in the practice.
A statement issued by Tony Ojobo, director of Public Affairs, NCC, said the telecommunications regulatory agency had also begun the second phase of investigation on the involvement of digital mobile operators in masking activities.
“The NCC has recently been inundated with complaints from service providers and consumers regarding the high incidence of call masking, call refiling and SIM boxing,” the statement said.
“Generally, the practice complained of involves disguising international calls as local calls in order to profit from price differentials between international and local calls.
“Apart from the resultant loss of revenue by service providers, the practice also has some negative security implications. Following a painstaking investigation process, which included collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser and the Department of State Services, the commission has imposed a range of sanctions on licensees involved in the fraudulent practice.”
The GSMA has launched the first industry-wide Responsible AI (RAI) Maturity Roadmap to provide telecoms operators with the tools and guidance to test and assess their responsible use of the technology.
Recognising that the overall opportunity derived from the expanded use of AI within the telecoms sector is estimated by McKinsey to be as high as $680 billion over the next 15-20 years, the GSMA is uniting the industry in using the technology ethically and responsibly – the first time a whole sector has committed to a common approach to AI.
The roadmap, developed based on insights by McKinsey and a group of operators, will allow telecoms organisations to assess where they currently stand in terms of their existing maturity in using AI responsibly against where they want to go, i.e. their ambitions and needs. It then provides clear guidance and measurement tools to help fulfil those ambitions, while ensuring industry-wide best practice in the responsible use of the technology.
Its development follows the well-established commitments of many mobile network operators (MNOs) to ensure the exploration and integration of AI within their work has been and is done in ethical and responsible ways.
Following extensive industry consultation, the GSMA has taken these approaches and combined them with existing global regulations, recommendations and standards from international organisations including the OECD, and the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI to create a roadmap for the whole industry to align on the use of RAI.
This initiative has been championed by Axiata, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Telstra. Nineteen MNOs have already committed to using the roadmap as a way of tracking, maintaining and improving their responsible use of AI. Full details of all the MNOs already using it are available in the notes to editors.
Best-practice principles
The RAI Maturity Roadmap is underpinned by five core underlying dimensions: the vision, values and strategic goals of an organisation; its operating model and how to maintain AI governance across all operations; technical controls aligned with regulatory requirements; collaboration with third-party ecosystems; as well as corporate change management and communication strategies.
For each of these dimensions, the roadmap will guide organisations to take the appropriate steps to use AI responsibly relative to their level of maturity.
It also builds on well-established best-practice principles, including: fairness; human agency and oversight; privacy and security; safety and robustness; transparency; accountability; and environmental impact.
By providing greater clarity and a common approach to the responsible use of AI, the GSMA’s industry roadmap will give MNOs the confidence to commit to its adoption in the knowledge they are doing so in established, agreed and ethical ways, and therefore unlock the technology’s full value more quickly.
Mats Granryd, Director General of the GSMA, said: “The transformative potential of AI has long been apparent but its integration in our work and our lives must be done in a responsible and transparent way for it to be truly effective and sustainable. This roadmap will now empower more MNOs to embrace AI in the knowledge they, in line with the whole sector, are doing so responsibly and ethically.
“Responsible AI is the right way to explore and unlock the many opportunities the technology presents, and the telecoms industry is proud to lead the way as the first sector to commit to this approach – we hope others will follow our example.”
José María Álvarez-Pallete López, GSMA Board Chair and Chairman & CEO of Telefónica, said: “The speed with which AI has now become a central part of tech and telecoms operations demonstrates its power and undoubted value, but also the risks we must consider as an industry and the need to include ethics at the heart of AI to prevent its uncontrolled development.
“It is crucial for us all to ensure responsible guidelines for the use of AI are implemented now, and it is great to see the telecoms industry leading the way on this with the GSMA’s new roadmap.”
Instagram is overhauling the way it works for teenagers, promising more “built-in protections” for young people and added controls and reassurance for parents.
The new “teen accounts” are being introduced from Tuesday in the UK, US, Canada and Australia.
They will turn many privacy settings on by default for all under 18s, including making their content unviewable to people who don’t follow them, and making them actively approve all new followers.
But children aged 13 to 15 will only be able to adjust the settings by adding a parent or guardian to their account.
Social media companies are under pressure worldwide to make their platforms safer, with concerns that not enough is being done to shield young people from harmful content.
UK children’s charity the NSPCC said Instagram’s announcement was a “step in the right direction”.
But it added that account settings can “put the emphasis on children and parents needing to keep themselves safe.”
Rani Govender, the NSPCC’s online child safety policy manager, said they “must be backed up by proactive measures that prevent harmful content and sexual abuse from proliferating Instagram in the first place”.
Meta describes the changes as a “new experience for teens, guided by parents”.
It says they will “better support parents and give them peace of mind that their teens are safe with the right protections in place.”
Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly viewed content about self-harm and suicide on Instagram before taking her life aged 14, told the BBC it was important to wait and see how the new policy was implemented.
“Whether it works or not we’ll only find out when the measures come into place,” he said.
“Meta is very good at drumming up PR and making these big announcements, but what they also have to be good at is being transparent and sharing how well their measures are working.”
Teen accounts will mostly change the way Instagram works for users between the ages of 13 and 15, with a number of settings turned on by default.
These include strict controls on sensitive content to prevent recommendations of potentially harmful material, and muted notifications overnight.
Accounts will also be set to private rather than public – meaning teenagers will have to actively accept new followers and their content cannot be viewed by people who don’t follow them.
InstagramParents who choose to supervise their child’s account will be able to see who they message and the topics they have said they are interested in – though they will not be able to view the content of messages.
However, media regulator Ofcom raised concerns in April over parents’ willingness to intervene to keep their children safe online.
In a talk last week, senior Meta executive Sir Nick Clegg said: “One of the things we do find… is that even when we build these controls, parents don’t use them.”
Age identification
The system will primarily rely on users being honest about their ages, but Instagram already uses tools to verify a user’s age if they are suspected to be lying about their age.
From January, in the US, it will use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to proactively detect teens using adult accounts, to put them back into a teen account.
The UK’s Online Safety Act, passed earlier this year, requires online platforms to take action to keep children safe, or face huge fines.
Ofcom warned social media sites in May they could be named, shamed or banned for under-18s if they fail to comply with its new rules.
Social media industry analyst Matt Navarra said Instagram’s changes were significant but hinged on enforcement.
“As we’ve seen with teens throughout history, in these sorts of scenarios, they will find a way around the blocks, if they can.”
Questions for Meta
Instagram is not the first platform to introduce such tools for parents – and already claims to have more than 50 tools aimed at keeping teens safe.
In 2022 it introduced a family centre and supervision tools for parents, letting them see accounts their child follows and who follows them, among other features.
Snapchat also introduced its own family centre allowing parents over the age of 25 see who their child is messaging and limit their ability to view certain content.
YouTube said in September it would limit recommendations of certain health and fitness videos to teenagers, such as those which “idealise” certain body types.
Instagram’s new measures raises the question of why, despite the large number of protections on the platform, young people are still exposed to harmful content.
An Ofcom study earlier this year found that every single child it spoke to had seen violent material online, with Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat being the most frequently named services they found it on.
Under the Online Safety Act, platforms will have to show they are committed to removing illegal content, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or content that promotes suicide or self-harm.
But the rules are not expected to fully take effect until 2025.
In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently announced plans to ban social media for children by bringing in a new age limit for kids to use platforms.
Instagram’s latest tools put more control in the hands of parents, who will now take even more direct responsibility for deciding whether to allow their child greater freedom on Instagram and supervising their activity and interactions.
They will also need to have their own Instagram account.
But parents cannot control the algorithms which push content towards their children, or what is shared by its billions of users around the world.
Social media expert Paolo Pescatore said it was an “important step in safeguarding children’s access to the world of social media and fake news.”
“The smartphone has opened up to a world of disinformation, inappropriate content fuelling a change in behaviour among children,” he said.
“More needs to be done to improve children’s digital wellbeing and it starts by giving control back to parents.”
Telecom
Federal Ministry of Youth Development, NDPC Sign MOU to train 5,000 Youths on Data Protection
In line with the 8 Presidential Priorities and the Renewed Hope Agenda of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Federal Ministry of Youth Development and Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to train youths on Data Privacy and Protection.
In his remarks during the signing ceremony, the Hon. Minister of State for Youth Development, Engr. Ayodele Olawande, expressed optimism about the opportunities being created for jobs and wealth creation by NDPC under the leadership of the National Commissioner/CEO, Dr Vincent Olatunji.
“No less than 80% of human capital development under the administration of the President are targeted at youths and this initiative is aimed at equipping 5,000 youths with the requisite technical skills for new jobs in the data protection ecosystem,” the Hon Minister remarked.
Read Also: Privacy Protection is Now Right of Citizens —Olatunji, NDPC Boss
While explaining the importance of the training, Dr Olatunji emphasized the importance of building trust and confidence as Nigeria repositions her economy to attract foreign direct investment.
“Investors will be eager to do business in Nigeria if we are able to demonstrate accountability in relation to their data assets.
“There are at least 500,000 data controllers in Nigeria who are required to have at least one data protection officer each.
“Nigerian youths now have a great opportunity to become professionals to take up the estimated 500,000 new jobs in the ecosystem.
“In addition, we are also making sure that the subsequent certification will not be a burden on our foreign exchange.
Read Also: NDPC Boss Inaugurates Local Organising Committee for 2025 NADPA-RADPA Conference
“We have already licensed an in-country certification body who will issue globally recognized certificates to eligible trainees.” Dr. Olatunji stated.
On his part, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Youth Development, Mr. Olubunmi Olusanya, lauded NDPC for its quest on data privacy and protection and expressed the preparedness of the Ministry to set the necessary machinery in motion in order to make the collaboration a success.
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