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Tech Firms Remove Social Media Accounts of a Russian Drone Factory after an AP Investigation

Parts of downed Shahed drones launched by Russia are piled in a storage room of a research laboratory in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Parts of downed Shahed drones launched by Russia are piled in a storage room of a research laboratory in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
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Tech Firms Remove Social Media Accounts of a Russian Drone Factory after an AP Investigation

Parts of downed Shahed drones launched by Russia are piled in a storage room of a research laboratory in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Parts of downed Shahed drones launched by Russia are piled in a storage room of a research laboratory in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Google, Meta and TikTok have removed social media accounts belonging to an industrial plant in Russia's Tatarstan region aimed at recruiting young foreign women to make drones for Moscow's war in Ukraine.
Posts on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok were taken down following an investigation by The Associated Press published Oct. 10 that detailed working conditions in the drone factory in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which is under US and British sanctions.
Videos and other posts on the social media platforms promised the young women, who are largely from Africa, a free plane ticket to Russia and a salary of more than $500 a month following their recruitment via the program called “Alabuga Start.”
But instead of a work-study program in areas like hospitality and catering, some of them said they learned only arriving in the Tatarstan region that they would be toiling in a factory to make weapons of war, assembling thousands of Iranian-designed attack drones to be launched into Ukraine.
In interviews with AP, some of the women who worked in the complex complained of long hours under constant surveillance, of broken promises about wages and areas of study, and of working with caustic chemicals that left their skin pockmarked and itching. AP did not identify them by name or nationality out of concern for their safety.
The tech companies also removed accounts for Alabuga Polytechnic, a vocational boarding school for Russians aged 16-18 and Central Asians aged 18-22 that bills its graduates as experts in drone production.
The accounts collectively had at least 158,344 followers while one page on TikTok had more than a million likes.
In a statement, YouTube said its parent company Google is committed to sanctions and trade compliance and "after review and consistent with our policies, we terminated channels associated with Alabuga Special Economic Zone.”
Meta said it removed accounts on Facebook and Instagram that “violate our policies.” The company said it was committed to complying with sanctions laws and said it recognized that human exploitation is a serious problem which required a multifaceted approach, including at Meta.
It said it had teams dedicated to anti-trafficking efforts and aimed to remove those seeking to abuse its platforms.
TikTok said it removed videos and accounts which violated its community guidelines, which state it does not allow content that is used for the recruitment of victims, coordination of their transport, and their exploitation using force, fraud, coercion, or deception.
The women aged 18-22 were recruited to fill an urgent labor shortage in wartime Russia. They are from places like Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, as well as the South Asian country of Sri Lanka. The drive also is expanding to elsewhere in Asia as well as Latin America.
Accounts affiliated to Alabuga with tens of thousands of followers are still accessible on Telegram, which did not reply to a request for comment. The plant's management also did not respond to AP.
The Alabuga Start recruiting drive used a robust social media campaign of slickly edited videos with upbeat music that show African women smiling while cleaning floors, wearing hard hats while directing cranes, and donning protective equipment to apply paint or chemicals.
Videos also showed them enjoying Tatarstan's cultural sites or playing sports. None of the videos made it clear the women would be working in a drone manufacturing complex.
Online, Alabuga promoted visits to the industrial area by foreign dignitaries, including some from Brazil, Sri Lanka and Burkina Faso.
According to Russian investigative outlets Protokol and Razvorot, some pupils at Alabuga Polytechnic are as young as 15 and have complained of poor working conditions.
Videos previously on the platforms showed the vocational school students in team-building exercises such as “military-patriotic” paintball matches and recreating historic Soviet battles while wearing camouflage.
Last month, Alabuga Start said on Telegram its "audience has grown significantly!”
That could be due to its hiring of influencers, who promoted the site on TikTok and Instagram as an easy way for young women to make money after leaving school.
TikTok removed two videos promoting Alabuga after publication of the AP investigation.
Experts told AP that about 90% of the women recruited via the Alabuga Start program work in drone manufacturing.

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AI Enhances Flood Warnings but Cannot Erase Risk of Disaster

A view shows a flooded schoolyard in Bamako, Mali, September 23, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows a flooded schoolyard in Bamako, Mali, September 23, 2024. (Reuters)
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AI Enhances Flood Warnings but Cannot Erase Risk of Disaster

A view shows a flooded schoolyard in Bamako, Mali, September 23, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows a flooded schoolyard in Bamako, Mali, September 23, 2024. (Reuters)

When floods ripped through parts of Europe in September, the scale of the destruction took people by surprise. The intense rains should not have, because those had been predicted by sophisticated forecasting systems enhanced with artificial intelligence.

But forewarned did not mean forearmed. Though the rains were accurately predicted, the effects in the deluged areas were not - a fact that highlights the difficulties of dealing with ever more common extreme weather.

AI has supercharged weather forecasting, using a range of statistical tools to analyze years of historical data and predict patterns, and at a lower cost than traditional numerical weather predictions.

AI technology can create more specific predictions ahead of events such as urban flooding or in complex terrain such as mountainous areas.

For example, Google-funded GraphCast, a machine learning–based method trained directly from reanalysis data, was found to outperform traditional models. Reanalysis data relies on past forecasts rerun with modern forecasting models to provide the most complete picture of past weather and climate.

But there are still gaps in knowledge, in how the information is used and in investment to strengthen data gathering models, experts say.

"In some cases and for some variables, AI models can beat physics-based models, but in other cases vice versa," said Andrew Charlton-Perez, professor of meteorology at the University of Reading in the UK.

One issue is that the effectiveness of an AI model is only as good as the information it is fed. If there is little input data, or extreme events happen more frequently at different times of the year or in different regions, weather disasters become more challenging to predict.

"A good use of the AI-based weather forecasts would be to complement and enhance our forecasting toolbox, perhaps by allowing us to produce larger ensembles of forecasts that enable accurate assessment and interpretation of the likelihood of extreme events," Charlton-Perez added.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

Since January, the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), an independent organization that provides predictions four times per day to European countries, has been using the Artificial Intelligence/Integrated Forecasting System (AIFS).

This data-driven forecasting model makes multiple predictions rapidly and delivers long-term forecasts of weather events like cyclones and heatwaves.

The ECMWF readings ahead of the September floods were accurate, experts say.

Thomas Wostal, press officer for meteorological observatory GeoSphere Austria, told Context/the Thomson Reuters Foundation that their numerical models - including the ECMWF's predictions - foresaw 300-400 millimeters (11.8-15.7 inches) of rain locally, which came to pass.

But even with accurate forecasts, scientists say communication is key, especially in an era when climate change means extreme weather is becoming more frequent.

"I think what happened with (the recent floods) ... is that it's so rare - a one in 150- to 200-year event - that even if the weather models capture it, there's a reasonable degree of uncertainty," said Shruti Nath, a postdoctoral research assistant in predicting weather and climate at Oxford University.

"You have to produce the warning in a way that is communicative, in the degree of severity it could possibly have on people, then people could see the cost of inaction versus the cost of action is actually much greater. So then they would actually put (in) more resources," she said.

EUROPE BEHIND THE CURVE?

Europe faces urgent climate risks that are outpacing policies and adaptation actions, a report from the European Environment Agency has warned.

Extreme heat, drought, wildfires and flooding will worsen in Europe even under optimistic global warming scenarios and affect living conditions throughout the continent, the EEA says.

After the floods, the European commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarčič, said the disaster was not an anomaly.

"These extreme weather events that used to be once in a lifetime are now an almost annual occurrence. The global reality of climate breakdown has moved into the everyday lives of Europeans," he said.

Some tech entrepreneurs say Europe is not ready.

Jonas Torland, co-founder of Norway-based 7Analytics, which develops models for predicting floods and landslides, said governments and businesses in the United States had risk managers who were more accustomed to assessing environmental hazards, while in Europe, authorities lacked readiness.

"We often see substantial expenditures with minimal data support for informed decision-making", Torland, whose models are used in the cities of Oslo, Bergen and Kristiansand, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"While AI is a crucial component of these models, unfortunately, governments are not investing in or purchasing these advanced AI solutions," he said adding that he believed governments "stick to their old data providers and consultants.”

Data processing is also a challenge because these complex AI models need to run updates every hour as forecasts change.

That requires both a lot of computing power, and a lot of time - especially at more minute scales.

A 1-by-1 meter grid, which 7Analytics uses for its predictions, is 100 times more detailed than a 10-by-10 meter grid, but requires more than 100 times as long to process.

High computing power also means huge amounts of energy and water are needed, which makes AI models part of the problem because they are adding to the planet-heating emissions driving the climate emergency.

Some big technology companies, like Microsoft and Google, are exploring the use of nuclear power to run their huge data storage centers.

Other scientists stress that beyond refining their forecasting abilities, authorities need to invest in physical solutions, like developing areas where floodwater can safely be stored, and early warning systems.

They also need to minimize development in flood-prone areas, given the likelihood of more intense climate change-driven floods, and meet their commitments to limit emissions.

"It's not a question of data or technology or knowledge. It's a question of implementation, political will," Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer at Imperial College in London, said in an email response to questions.

"As long as the world burns fossil fuels, the root cause of climate change, extreme weather events will continue to intensify, killing people and destroying homes. To curb this trend, we need to replace oil, gas and coal with renewable energy."