By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Ava DuVernay's "The 13th," a documentary about racial inequality and mass incarceration in the United States, will open the 54th New York Film Festival.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the selection Tuesday. It's the first time Lincoln Center's prestigious film festival has opened with a nonfiction film.
DuVernay, the director of "Selma," said "The 13th" is about "why we have become the most incarcerated nation in the world." The film traces the country's racial divide through much of the 20th century and up to the Black Lives Matter movement. Its title refers to the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery.
Festival director Kent Jones called the film "an act of true patriotism."
"The 13th" will kick off the 17-day festival, which runs Sept. 30 through Oct. 16.
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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