Category Archives: Technology

Elon Musk’s Starlink backtracks to comply with Brazil’s ban on X

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After judge freezes assets of billionaire’s internet service provider, company flip-flops to block social media platform

Elon Musk’s satellite-based internet service provider Starlink backtracked late on Tuesday and said it would accept and enforce a Brazilian supreme court justice’s order to block the billionaire’s social media platform, X, formerly Twitter.

Previously, Starlink informally told the telecommunications regulator Anatel that it would not comply until Justice Alexandre de Moraes reversed course. Now, Starlink has said in a statement posted on X that it will heed de Moraes’s order despite him having frozen the company’s assets.

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Labor considers an Artificial Intelligence Act to impose ‘mandatory guardrails’ on use of AI

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‘We need more people to use AI and to do that we need to build trust’, says industry and science minister Ed Husic

The Australian government is considering a European Union style Artificial Intelligence Act to regulate minimum standards on high-risk AI across the whole economy.

On Wednesday the industry and science minister, Ed Husic, released a discussion paper proposing 10 “mandatory guardrails” for high-risk AI including human oversight and the ability to challenge the use of AI or outcomes of automated decision-making.

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Lula says Elon Musk’s wealth does not mean world must accept his ‘far-right free-for-all’

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Brazilian president makes comments after supreme court votes to uphold X ban over refusal to obey court orders

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said he hopes the crisis surrounding the social network X in Brazil might teach the world that “it isn’t obliged to put up with [Elon] Musk’s far-right free-for-all just because he is rich”.

Lula’s comments to the network CNN Brasil came after the supreme court voted unanimously on Monday to uphold the ban on X, which is now largely inaccessible in one of its biggest global markets.

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Publish data on ride-hailing apps ‘to cut exploitation and emissions’, say campaigners

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Campaign group says firms such as Uber should reveal data on driver miles to help boost wages

Uber and other ride-hailing apps should be forced to publish data on drivers’ workloads so that regulators can tackle exploitation and cut carbon emissions, campaigners argue.

Analysis by the pressure group Worker Info Exchange suggests drivers for Uber and its smaller rivals may have missed out on more than £1.2bn in wages and costs last year because of the way they are compensated.

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Brazilian court orders suspension of Elon Musk’s X after it missed deadline

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Social media platform to be blocked by ISPs because it did not appoint legal representative in allotted time

The Brazilian supreme court has ordered that X be suspended in the country after the social media platform failed to meet a deadline to appoint a legal representative in the country.

Late on Friday afternoon, Justice Alexandre de Moraes – who has been engaged in a dispute with X’s owner, Elon Musk, since April – ordered the “immediate, complete and total suspension of X’s operations” in the country, “until all court orders … are complied with, fines are duly paid, and a new legal representative for the company is appointed in the country”.

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Telegram CEO charged in France for ‘allowing criminal activity’ on messaging app

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Pavel Durov, who has French citizenship, faces prosecution over alleged failure to suppress spread of sexual images of children and calls for violence

The head of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has been charged by the French judiciary for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the messaging app but avoided jail with a €5m bail.

The Russian-born multi-billionaire, who has French citizenship, was granted release on condition that he report to a police station twice a week and remain in France, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.

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France to trial ban on mobile phones at school for children under 15

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‘Digital pause’ experiment at 200 secondary schools could be extended nationwide in January

France is to trial a ban on mobile phones at school for pupils up to the age of 15, seeking to give children a “digital pause” that, if judged successful, could be rolled out nationwide from January.

Just under 200 secondary schools will take place in the experiment that will require youngsters to hand over phones on arrival at reception. It takes the prohibition on the devices further than a 2018 law that banned pupils at primary and secondary schools from using their phones on the premises but allowed them to keep possession of them.

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Telegram founder arrest part of cybercrime inquiry, say prosecutors

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Investigation into Pavel Durov relates to app’s alleged failure to stop spread of child sexual abuse material

Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire co-founder of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested in France in connection with an investigation into criminal activity on the platform and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement, prosecutors announced on Monday.

Durov, who has French citizenship, was detained at Le Bourget airport, just outside Paris, on Saturday evening after arriving from Azerbaijan on his private jet. His surprise arrest has sparked debate over free speech worldwide and led to an outcry in Moscow.

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Canada to follow US lead in imposing 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles

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Trudeau also announces 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum and says ‘China is not playing by the same rules’

Canada, following the lead of the United States, on Monday said it would impose a 100% tariff on the import of Chinese electric vehicles and also announced a 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum from China.

The prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said Ottawa was acting to counter what he called China’s intentional, state-directed policy of over-capacity. But he did not specify whether tariffs would be softened or would be the same on Tesla, whose shares were down over 3% on Monday after the announcement.

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‘We don’t stop for red lights’: drone deliveries taking off as Australian regulators prepare for air traffic boom

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With everything from coffee to mining equipment now being delivered by drone, operators are exploring technology to stop connection black spots sending drones dropping from the sky

Jani Talikka was a commercial pilot flying Boeing 717s, but after ordering a drone delivery as a customer, he decided to shift gears.

“I didn’t leave fixed-wing aviation because I disliked it – but drones are cutting edge,” he told Guardian Australia. “It’s rare you get to be a part of something like this at the start.”

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Telegram app founder Pavel Durov to appear in court after arrest in Paris

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Russian-born billionaire said to have ‘miscalculated’ by visiting France during inquiry into crime on his platform

The Russian-born founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, is due to appear in a French court in the coming days after his arrest at a Paris airport over alleged offences related to the messaging app.

Sources told the AFP news agency that the Franco-Russian tech billionaire would appear in court after being detained by police at Le Bourget airport. French investigators had issued a warrant for Durov’s arrest as part of an inquiry into allegations of fraud, drug trafficking, organised crime, promotion of terrorism and cyberbullying.

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Warnings AI tools used by government on UK public are ‘racist and biased’

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Transparency campaigners welcome government move to publish details of system algorithms

Artificial intelligence and algorithmic tools used by central government are to be published on a public register after warnings they can contain “entrenched” racism and bias.

Officials confirmed this weekend that tools challenged by campaigners over alleged secrecy and a risk of bias will be named shortly. The technology has been used for a range of purposes, from trying to detect sham marriages to rooting out fraud and error in benefit claims.

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Telegram app founder Pavel Durov reportedly arrested at French airport

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Billionaire CEO, who was travelling aboard his private jet, was subject of arrest warrant, according to TV reports

Pavel Durov, billionaire co-founder and chief executive of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at the Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, TF1 TV said, citing an unnamed source.

Durov was travelling aboard his private jet, TF1 said on its website, adding he had been targeted by an arrest warrant in France.

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Scientists enable hydrogel to play and improve at Pong video game

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Researchers say their creation has memory, which it can use to perform better by gaining experience

Researchers have found a soft and squidgy water-rich gel is not only able to play the video game Pong, but gets better at it over time.

The findings come almost two years after brain cells in a dish were taught how to play the 1970s classic, a result the researchers involved said showed “something that resembles intelligence”.

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US mayoral candidate who pledged to govern by customized AI bot loses race

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Victor Miller proposed customized ChatGPT bot to govern Cheyenne, Wyoming – but fared badly at the ballot box

A mayoral candidate in Wyoming who proposed letting an artificial intelligence bot run the local government lost his race on Tuesday – by a lot.

The candidate, Victor Miller, announced his run for mayor of Cheyenne earlier this year, and quickly made headlines after he decided to run with his customized ChatGPT bot, named Vic (Virtual Integrated Citizen), and declared his intention to govern in a hybrid format, in what experts say was a first for US political campaigns.

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How west Africa’s online fraudsters moved into sextortion

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With ‘hustle kingdoms’ teaching young people the tricks of the trade, there has been a surge in blackmailing crimes

In the late 90s and early 2000s, as internet connectivity began penetrating west Africa, young people soon realised that individuals in North America and Europe with access to more money than them and potentially susceptible to blackmail were now reachable by the click of a button.

Along came the “Nigerian prince” letters, a famous scamming technique employed by online fraudsters – known as Yahoo boys in Nigeria, Sakwa boys of Ghana and the brouteurs of Ivory Coast – preying on unsuspecting targets across the web. The emails typically involved someone pretending to be Nigerian royalty and asking for money, a claim so outlandish that victims presumed it couldn’t be a lie.

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National Crime Agency threatens extraditions over rise in sextortion cases

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Exclusive: Agency says foreign gangs not safe from prosecution in UK and plans new recording label to track extent of the crime

The National Crime Agency has warned international cybercriminals that it could seek to extradite them as part of a crackdown to tackle an alarming rise in the numbers of young people being targeted for sextortion.

The agency said the gangs, often based in west Africa, were “not safe from prosecution in our country” and that it would seek justice for all victims of the crime.

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Pakistan businesses reeling from slow internet blame testing for firewall

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Government denies new cybersecurity measures responsible for up to 40% drop in internet speeds across the country

For the free online tech skill classes advertised, there were hundreds of Facebook “likes” and in the end 1,500 people signed up. But on the first day last week, only a handful of those registered managed to log in to the live session. The internet was working at a snail’s speed.

“We received hundreds of complaints,” says the course tutor, Wardah Noor, founder of the IT training firm XWave, based in Layyah, in the Pakistani province of Punjab.

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Ten states join lawsuit against Live Nation and seek triple damages

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Concert giant of monopolistically inflating ticket prices and hurting artists in suit now including 26 states and DC

Attorneys general from about two dozen US states are going after three times the monetary damages originally sought against Live Nation Entertainment and its ticket-selling unit, Ticketmaster. In an updated version of a lawsuit first filed in May, the states allege the concert giant monopolized markets across its industry.

The attorneys general had sought damages under state law in the initial version of the lawsuit. By adding claims under the federal anti-monopoly law, states can seek three times the monetary damages, a penalty for especially egregious conduct known as treble damages.

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Asic taking down average of 20 scam websites a day

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Crypto scams accounted for 615 takedowns, the regulator says, as total number exceeds 7,300 in 12 months

More than 7,300 websites have been taken down in the first year of operation of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission’s service targeting investment scams, the regulator has revealed.

Since the beginning of the program in July 2023, Asic said it had shut down thousands of scam websites that offer fake investment trading platforms and cryptocurrency investments that are often spread online through social media containing false celebrity endorsements.

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