Change comes after high court ruling that Uber should be regarded as a contractor, not an agent
Uber fares across the UK are to rise sharply from Monday night when VAT of 20% will be applied to rides booked via the app.
The change comes after a high court ruling last December that Uber could not be viewed as simply an agent but should be regarded as the contractor.
Continue reading...Problems of cost and ‘unmanageable’ volume of abuse cited as eSafety commissioner says proposed bill should be renamed
High-profile victims of online trolling, including Erin Molan and Nyadol Nyuon, have said an “anti-trolling” bill that overhauls defamation law for online comments will be “almost impossible” to uptake and not “useful” to most people in Australia due to the cost and effort involved.
The bill will make the owners of social media pages and groups not liable for user comments on those groups or pages, and would shift the liability burden to social media platforms if they do not attempt to facilitate the unmasking of anonymous commenters for someone seeking to bring defamation proceedings.
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Continue reading...The Tor-friendly site follows moves by Facebook and BBC who also had their platforms restricted on state-owned media
Twitter has launched a privacy-protected version of its site to bypass surveillance and censorship after Russia restricted access to its service in the country.
Russia has blocked access to Facebook and has limited Twitter in an attempt to try to restrict the flow of information about its war in Ukraine. Both companies have said they are working on restoring access to people inside Russia even as they restrict the country’s state media from their services.
Continue reading...Platforms to be required to protect users from pre-paid fraudulent adverts as well as user-generated scams
Measures to protect people from internet scams will now be included in proposed online safety laws, the government has said.
Under a previous draft of the online safety bill, platforms which host user-generated content would have a “duty of care” to protect users from fraud by other users.
Continue reading...John Barksdale faces up to 65 in prison in connection with Ormeus Coin as well as facing civil charges alongside JonAtina Barksdale
US authorities on Tuesday filed criminal charges against a cryptocurrency executive and civil charges against him and his sister, accusing them of defrauding retail investors out of millions of dollars with a digital token known as Ormeus Coin.
In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, the justice department said John Barksdale lied about the value and profitability of Ormeus Coin’s mining assets, including that the coin was backed by a $250m mining operation generating more than $5m of monthly revenue.
Continue reading...Experts say Palau should be wary of entering into a programme that could leave it open to exploitation and harm its image
Palau’s new digital residency programme could leave it open to cryptoscammers and corruption, critics have warned, arguing that not enough due diligence has been done on the scheme.
The programme allows foreigners to buy an e-residency card which in turn allows them to start companies and sign documents, among other things. Most importantly, when the relevant legislation is passed, it will allow them to trade in cryptocurrencies, useful for residents whose countries, like China, do not allow it.
Continue reading...People are paying but not staying, as rental platform offers free housing to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
Members of the public are paying for Airbnb rentals in Ukraine to help get money to residents who are facing extreme financial hardship because of the Russian invasion.
The home rental platform has already moved to offer free housing to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, but members of the public have come up with a novel way to financially help those who either intend to remain or are trapped in the country owing to the conflict.
Continue reading...I despise chores – so I jumped at the chance to test the latest hi-tech solutions (and simple hacks) that promise to keep domestic drudgery to a minimum
A prime candidate for secular canonisation – and a personal hero of mine – is Frances Gabe. She was a visionary, a terrible neighbour (she antagonised hers with a succession of snarling great danes and a penchant for nude DIY) and the inventor of the self-cleaning home. Gabe, who died in 2016 at 101, transformed her Oregon bungalow into a “giant dishwasher”, with a system of sprinklers, air dryers and drains, plus self-cleaning sinks, bath and toilet. “Housework is a thankless, unending job,” Gabe said. “Who wants it? Nobody!”
I agree with Gabe – and with Lenin, who condemned housework as “barbarously unproductive, petty, nerve-racking, stultifying and crushing drudgery”. My own objections are mainly founded in sloth and a vague desire to stick it to the man, but for others housework can be difficult, or even impossible.
Continue reading...Reports of fitness watch’s lithium-ion battery overheating leads to warning from US safety commission
The fitness-tracking device maker Fitbit is recalling 1.7m of its Ionic smartwatches after reports of the battery overheating and burning some users.
The company, which was acquired by Google in 2021, had sold about 1m of the model in the US and nearly 700,000 internationally.
Continue reading...Analysis: On a national level, web access has so far been largely unaffected by the invasion, and supports daily life
Ukraine’s continued access to the internet not only supports day-to-day life and the country’s financial system but it is also enabling the coordination of Ukrainian civil resistance – plus the ability of everyone, from the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to ordinary citizens, to communicate with the outside world.
How much of Ukraine still has access to the internet?
Ukraine remains largely connected to the internet, especially in major population centres. Mobile networks have struggled under the weight of connections and there have been broadband outages in areas with heavy fighting.
Darknet survey finds 42% sought contact after watching sexual abuse online, with escalating porn habits driving users to illegal material
The largest ever survey on the thoughts and behaviours of people who watch child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online has found significant evidence that those who watch illegal material are at high risk of going on to contact or abuse a child directly.
Nearly half (42%) of respondents to the survey, the first of its kind, said they had sought direct contact with children through online platforms after viewing CSAM, and 58% reported feeling afraid that viewing CSAM might lead to them committing abuse in person.
Continue reading...Technical snags, criticisms of its terms of service and questions about copyright infringement plague the app’s kickoff
Donald Trump last week launched his long-awaited social media app, Truth Social, luring users with the promises of a platform free from “discrimination against political ideology”.
But with tech glitches plaguing the platform and early criticisms of its content policies the rollout is already raising questions about its future.
Continue reading...For some generations, voice notes have replaced text messages and even phone calls. But are they the future of communication – or just plain annoying?
I lay on my bedroom carpet looking at the blue of the ceiling, feeling like I was in a teen movie. My phone buzzed and I picked it up to respond to my crush’s last text – except this time it wasn’t a text, but a voice note, a short audio file you send via Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp. It was the first time I’d heard his voice – it was flat, low and attractive. He asked me how my day had gone. My stomach fluttered because I knew this meant he wanted to get closer to me, yet I also freaked out because there was so much pressure to get my response right.
At first, I ignored the switch in communication and started typing out a message, because I hate my voice – the way I can hear my nerves prickle through my speech, the high pitch of my intonation and the number of times I say “like”. But don’t voice notes feel so much more intimate? Hearing the subtleties of the other person’s speech, as if they were whispering in your ear – and I wanted to get closer to him. So I focused on getting comfy, and pushed the record button. In response to his “How was your day?” I started telling him about the bike I had just got. “It hurts so much on your vulva. I only lasted about 10 minutes before I limped off.”
Continue reading...The news agency has since deleted the tweet promoting the sale and called it ‘poor choice of imagery’
The Associated Press has withdrawn plans to sell a video “of migrants drifting in an overcrowded boat in the Mediterranean” as an NFT after facing a backlash online.
The news outlet’s Thursday tweet advertising the clip, which came as Russia’s invasion raised fears of widespread displacement of Ukrainians, provoked accusations that the AP was seeking to profit off of suffering.
Continue reading...Row breaks out over Google Maps definition as UK insists it still maintains sovereignty
When you are searching online for some of the remotest islands on the planet, it helps to get the name right. But a row has broken out over the labelling of the Chagos Islands on Google maps.
The UK maintains that it still holds sovereignty over what it terms British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) – one of the smallest of red dots on the traditional cartographic globe.
Continue reading...Some accounts claiming to support the Canada trucker protests are run by con artists abroad
When Facebook removed dozens of groups dedicated to Canada’s anti-government “Freedom Convoy” protests earlier this month, it didn’t do so because of extremism or conspiracies rife within the protests. It was because the groups were being run by scam artists.
Networks of spammers and profiteers, some based as far afield as Vietnam or Romania, had set up the groups using fake or hacked Facebook accounts in an attempt to make money off of the political turmoil.
Continue reading...Gallery at site of uprising against colonial rule accuses US museum of stonewalling request for artefact
A statue depicting the angry spirit of a Belgian officer beheaded during an uprising in Congo in 1931 is at the centre of a tug of war between a US museum and a Congolese gallery at the site of the rebellion.
The statue of Maximilien Balot, a colonial administrator, has travelled to Europe but the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is accused of stonewalling requests for a loan to the White Cube gallery in Lusanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Continue reading...Exclusive: Investigation uncovers evidence of contaminated air and water from one of Indonesia’s largest nickel mines
A Guardian investigation into nickel mining and the electric vehicle industry has found evidence that a source of drinking water close to one of Indonesia’s largest nickel mines is contaminated with unsafe levels of hexavalent chromium (Cr6), the cancer-causing chemical more widely known for its role in the Erin Brockovich story and film.
The investigation also found evidence suggesting elevated levels of lung infections among people living close to the mine.
Continue reading...Auschwitz museum says using photo of dictator is exploitative and ‘disrespects memory of all victims’
Elon Musk has been criticised by the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum for comparing the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to Adolf Hitler.
The chief executive of Tesla tweeted a meme that showed a photo of Hitler with the words “Stop comparing me to Justin Trudeau” above the image and “I had a budget” below. The tweet was later deleted.
Continue reading...Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel are pouring huge sums into startups aiming to keep us all young – or even cheat death. And the science isn’t as far-fetched as you might think
In the summer of 2019, months before the word “coronavirus” entered the daily discourse, Diljeet Gill was double-checking data from his latest experiment. He was investigating what happens when old human skin cells are “reprogrammed” – a process used in labs around the world to turn adult cells (heart, brain, muscle and the like) – into stem cells, the body’s equivalent of a blank slate.
Gill, a PhD student at the Babraham Institute near Cambridge, had stopped the reprogramming process midway to see how the cells responded. Sure of his findings, he took them to his supervisor, Wolf Reik, a leading authority in epigenetics. What Gill’s work showed was remarkable: the aged skin had become more youthful – and by no small margin. Tests found that the cells behaved as if they were 25 years younger. “That was the real wow moment for me,” says Reik. “I fell off my chair three times.”
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