Online safety bill will criminalise ‘downblousing’ and ‘deepfake’ porn

Nonconsensual explicit images to be tackled in bill returning to parliament next month

Nonconsensual “deepfake” pornography and “downblousing” will be made illegal when the online safety bill returns to parliament in December, the government has announced.

Explicit images taken without someone’s consent, through hidden cameras or surreptitious photography, will be criminalised, including so-called downblousing pictures. A previous law banning “upskirt” voyeurism left a loophole that failed to tackle images that weren’t taken with the intent of photographing the victim’s genitals or buttocks.

Continue reading...

San Francisco police propose using robots capable of ‘deadly force’

City’s board of supervisors to consider proposal involving remote-controlled devices

The San Francisco police department has proposed that it be allowed to use robots with “deadly force” while responding to incidents, according to a policy draft.

The document outlines how the department proposes to use its collection of robots, which number 17 in total although 12 are not operational.

Continue reading...

Founder of failed crypto exchange FTX apologises to ex-employees

Sam Bankman-Fried continues to say firm’s downfall can be solely explained by misplaced $8bn

The founder of the failed crypto exchange FTX has written to its former employees apologising for his role in its collapse and continuing to insist its downfall can be solely explained by a misplaced $8bn (£6.7bn).

In the letter, first published by the industry news site CoinDesk, Sam Bankman-Fried wrote: “I deeply regret my oversight failure. In retrospect, I wish that we had done many many things differently … I’m going to do what I can to make it up to you guys – and to the customers – even if that takes the rest of my life.”

Continue reading...

Don’t like Musk? Work for us! Tech firms woo ex-Twitter staff

Tech companies aim to pick up experienced engineering talent by appealing to dislike of Tesla chief executive’s methods

Put off by Elon Musk’s muscular management style? Move to us! That’s the pitch being used by talent-starved technology firms trying to lure thousands of former Twitter employees laid off by the social media company under its new owner.

Twitter has fired top executives and enforced steep job cuts with little warning following Musk’s tumultuous takeover of the social media platform. About half of the workforce – around 3,700 employees – has been laid off.

Continue reading...

Elon Musk rules out conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s return to Twitter

Twitter boss says he has ‘no mercy’ for those who capitalise on deaths of children, citing loss of son in 2002

Elon Musk has said he will not reinstate the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Twitter, saying he has “no mercy” for people who capitalize on the deaths of children for personal fame.

Twitter permanently suspended the accounts of Jones and his Infowars website in September 2018 for violating the platform’s abusive behavior policy.

Continue reading...

Elon Musk reinstates Donald Trump’s Twitter account after taking poll

‘The people have spoken,’ says site’s owner, having acknowledged during online poll that automated bots were voting too

Elon Musk has reinstated Donald Trump’s Twitter account after users on the social media platform voted by a slim majority to lift a ban on the former US president.

Trump’s account was suspended in 2021 after the January 6 Capitol riot, for violating Twitter guidelines and because of the risk of “further incitement of violence”.

Continue reading...

‘More work to do’: Eli Lilly admits insulin pricing could be lower amid Twitter chaos

Furor over platform’s verified profiles may have done some good, but challenges still plague the site after a mass worker exodus

Against warnings that Twitter is on the verge of collapse, the social media platform hadn’t died Saturday – at least not yet. But things aren’t necessarily going well for new owner Elon Musk’s goal to re-engineer the company to his tastes and with it the larger, potentially quixotic, goal of re-setting standards of social discourse online.

But while reports of chaos at the company multiply, not all interactions have necessarily proved negative. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly said last week that a tweet by an imposter account over insulin pricing in the US that caused the company’s stock to plunge “probably highlights” a need to bring down the cost of the drug.

Continue reading...

Twitter has ‘50% chance’ of major crash during World Cup, says insider

Social media giant ill-equipped to deal with traffic spikes after cuts imposed by Elon Musk, according to former employee

Twitter stands a 50% chance of a major outage that could take the site offline during the World Cup, according to a recently departed employee with knowledge of how the company responds to large-scale events.

The former employee, who was granted anonymity because of the sensitivity of what was discussed, has knowledge of the workings of Twitter Command Centre, the platform’s team of troubleshooters who monitor the site for issues such as traffic spikes and data centre outages.

Continue reading...

Computer says there is a 80.58% probability painting is a real Renoir

Swiss company uses algorithm to judge whether contested Portrait de femme (Gabrielle) is genuinely by French artist


Staring enigmatically at an unseen object to her right, the black-haired woman bears a striking resemblance to the person depicted in Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s painting Gabrielle, which Sotheby’s recently valued at between £100,000-150,000.

However, art connoisseurs disagree over whether the work, which is owned by a private Swiss collector, is the real deal. Now, artificial intelligence has waded in to help settle the dispute, and the computer has deemed that it probably is a genuine Renoir.

Continue reading...

Elon Musk summons Twitter engineers amid mass resignations and puts up poll on Trump ban

Reports show nearly 1,200 workers left company after demand for ‘long hours at high intensity’, while Musk starts poll on whether to reinstate Donald Trump

Elon Musk emailed Twitter staff on Friday asking that any employees who write software code report to the 10th floor of the office in San Francisco in the early afternoon, according to multiple news reports.

The billionaire said in a follow-up email, “If possible, I would appreciate it if you could fly to SF to be present in person,” adding he would be at the company’s headquarters until midnight and would return Saturday morning, Reuters reported. The engineers should report at 2pm on Friday.

Continue reading...

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to more than 11 years for defrauding investors

The harsh ruling sends a message to Silicon Valley that the government will hold founders accountable for what’s promised

Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison over her role in the blood testing firm that collapsed after its technology was revealed to be largely fraudulent.

Holmes was convicted in January on four counts of defrauding investors. She appeared on Friday afternoon at the San Jose, California, courthouse where her nearly four-month-long trial began in August 2021, alongside relatives and supporters, including her partner, Billy Evans.

Continue reading...

New FTX boss, who worked on Enron bankruptcy, condemns ‘unprecedented failure’

US corporate restructuring expert John Ray says ‘never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls’

In a stinging court filing posted on Thursday John Ray III, the new boss of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, said the company had suffered an “unprecedented and complete failure of corporate controls”.

Ray has overseen some of the biggest bankruptcies ever, including the collapse of the energy giant Enron, and has 40 years of experience in restructuring companies. He said he had never seen anything as bad as FTX.

Continue reading...

British government blocks takeover of Welsh semiconductor producer

BEIS has ‘national security’ concerns over China-owned Nexperia which took control of Newport Wafer Fab

The British government has blocked the takeover of the UK’s largest producer of semiconductors by a Chinese-owned manufacturer, citing “a risk to national security”.

The business department’s decision on Wednesday comes more than a year after semiconductor company Nexperia first announced that it had taken control of Newport Wafer Fab in south Wales in July 2021, in a £63m deal.

Continue reading...

UK Treasury joins chat app Discord and is met with torrent of abuse

Users on gamer-focused platform manage to respond to posts despite government blocking all comments

The UK Treasury has opened an account on Discord to a torrent of abuse from users of the gamer-focused chat app – abuse they managed to send despite the government blocking all comments on the service.

As Twitter’s future looks increasingly uncertain, prominent users are preparing alternatives, directing followers to Facebook and Instagram accounts, handing out their Mastodon addresses, and setting up servers on chat apps such as Discord.

Continue reading...

Crypto exchange FTX expects to have more than 1m creditors

Bankruptcy filing says ‘questions arose’ about founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s leadership

The collapsed crypto exchange FTX expects to have more than 1 million individual creditors, the company has said in its first bankruptcy filing, scattered across more than 100 companies in the wider group.

According to the filing at the bankruptcy court in the US state of Delaware, where FTX US is based, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and chief executive, stepped down at 4.30am on Friday, “after consultation with his own legal counsel”.

Continue reading...

Google will pay $392m to 40 states in largest ever US privacy settlement

Case is a historic win for consumers after an investigation found the tech company tracked users’ location even after they opted out

Google has agreed to a $391.5m settlement with 40 states to resolve an investigation into how the company tracked users’ locations, state attorneys general announced on Monday.

The states’ investigation was sparked by a 2018 Associated Press story, which found that Google continued to track people’s location data even after they opted out of such tracking by disabling a feature the company called “location history”.

Continue reading...

Sam Bankman-Fried’s $40m Bahamas penthouse reportedly up for sale

Entrepreneur at center of FTX scandal put luxury residence up for sale the same day crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy

Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto trader entrepreneur at the center of the FTX scandal, reportedly put his luxury $40m Bahamas penthouse up for sale on Friday – the same day the cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy.

Bankman-Fried’s penthouse – “the Orchid”, located in Albany, an exclusive private community in Nassau – was listed by real estate agent Seaside Bahamas at $39,500,000. The offering was first reported on Twitter by Autism Capital.

Continue reading...

Canada charges electric vehicle battery researcher with espionage for China

Yuesheng Wang, a worker at Quebec’s power utility, is accused of sending trade secrets to China

Canada’s federal police have charged an electric vehicle battery researcher at Quebec’s power utility with espionage, alleging the worker was covertly sending trade secrets to China.

The arrest of Yuesheng Wang, 35, comes as Canada grapples with a barrage of accusations of Chinese interference, including allegations of meddling in its federal elections, as well as reports of secret “police stations” in the country’s largest city.

Continue reading...

Government considers making cyber ransom payments illegal after Medibank hack

Minister Clare O’Neil says health insurer was right not to pay ransom, even as hackers threatened to release more customer data to dark web

It could soon be illegal for companies that fall victim to data breaches to pay ransoms to the hackers.

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, confirmed the government was examining whether new laws were needed to stop ransom payments in the wake of the Medibank and Optus data breaches.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Elizabeth Holmes prosecutors seek 15-year sentence and $800m in restitution

Theranos founder faces maximum of 20 years in prison after she was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy

Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence Elizabeth Holmes to 15 years in prison and require the Theranos founder to pay $800m in restitution, according to court documents filed on Friday.

A jury found Holmes guilty in January of four counts of investor fraud and conspiracy. Her sentencing is scheduled for 18 November, and she faces a maximum 20 years in prison.

Continue reading...