John Lewis to launch YouTube chatshow to improve AI search results

Posted on September 3, 2026 by Admin

Department store chain’s Gift List ‘vodcast’ will be hosted by TV presenter Angela Scanlon

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John Lewis is launching an online chatshow and social media studio to help make itself and its products more visible to chatbots and more prominent in AI search results.

The department store chain’s Gift List “vodcast” hosted by the TV presenter Angela Scanlon will air on YouTube with clips disseminated via other social media channels and comes after the success of its sister chain Waitrose’s Dish podcast.

French court blocks Macron’s social media ban for under-15s

Posted on August 14, 2026 by Admin

Constitutional council says curbs infringe freedom of expression and privacy as president vows to rework legislation

France’s top court has blocked a ban on social media access for under-15s, ruling that it infringed freedom of expression and privacy.

The decision is a blow to President Emmanuel Macron as momentum builds around the world for Australian-style restrictions on children’s use of social media.

AI labels to be compulsory on authentic-looking content under EU rules

Posted on July 31, 2026 by Admin

Companies must ensure people know when they are interacting with artificially generated images, audio and text designed to look real

From apparently conspiring to steal elections to abusing staff or performing embarrassing dance moves, the last few years have seen plenty of fake content made about politicians intended to malign its targets and mislead the public.

Now EU rules aim to stem the flood of this deceptive content: starting from Sunday, artificially generated images, audio and text designed to look authentic must be labelled.

Starmer faces final PMQs before stepping down – PMQs live

Posted on July 15, 2026 by Admin

Andy Burnham nears Labour leadership finish line

Tell us: what do you want from the next Labour leader and UK prime minister?

Labour should ditch the triple-lock pensions promise to help tackle the UK’s straitened public finances, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has urged. Heather Stewart has the story.

I’m afraid we are not going to be able to open comments today for staffing reasons. If you want to contact me directly, it is probably best to get me on on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social.

UK parents warned over posting images of children amid AI sexual abuse fears

Posted on July 3, 2026 by Admin

Exclusive: National Crime Agency and safety watchdog issue guidance amid rise in explicit material online

AI prey: why watchdogs are telling parents to protect children from nudification apps

Parents should not put photos of their children on public display online, according to landmark guidance issued to tackle the rise of AI-generated sexual abuse material.

The recommendation has come from the National Crime Agency and the Internet Watch Foundation, which fear that most people are unaware of the dangers posed by paedophiles and criminal networks.

They suggest that parents and guardians make their social media accounts private or share pictures of their children through a “close friends” group. The NCA and the IWF stressed they were not telling parents how to behave online, but said they should be aware of the problem and how to tackle it.

Lisa Nandy quits X over fears Musk-owned site pushes ‘abuse and misinformation’

Posted on July 2, 2026 by Admin

Culture secretary says her department will stop using platform, citing concerns over far-right content fuelling violence and division

The UK’s culture and media department will stop using X because the site “now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate”, Lisa Nandy has announced.

The culture secretary’s department is the UK’s second to quit the Elon Musk-owned platform over increasing concerns about the way it highlights and prioritises often inaccurate far-right and racist content and is used to incite violence and division.

‘Tech firms are losing the public’: social media age bans near tipping point

Posted on June 28, 2026 by Admin

UK is latest country to set minimum age for social media access but big tech is fighting back globally against curbs

Social media bans go global: big tech faces a reckoning after Australia’s crackdown

Arturo Béjar, a former employee turned whistleblower at Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, has talked to parents around the world. He says they share the same perspective: they dread the day their children are old enough to go online.

Governments appear to be listening too. This month the UK became the latest country to state that it would set a minimum age of 16 for accessing major social media platforms. Social media bans are becoming a legislative trend after the precedent set by Australia last year, when it imposed an age limit on platforms including Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Elon Musk’s X, TikTok and Snapchat.

Social media bans go global: big tech faces a reckoning after Australia’s crackdown

Posted on June 27, 2026 by Admin

As a host of countries move to rein in social media use by children, could this be technology’s big tobacco moment?

Outrage as woman jailed for three years after criticising Somali government online

Posted on June 26, 2026 by Admin

Sentencing of 27-year-old Sadia Moalim Ali condemned by former president and prime ministers as well as rights groups

A rickshaw driver in Somalia has been sentenced to three years in prison for comments she made on social media, in a case that has caught the public’s attention and provoked outrage in the country.

Sadia Moalim Ali, a 27-year-old nursing graduate, was originally charged with insulting government institutions and incitement to commit a crime, but convicted only of the former. Her sentence, immediately condemned as “fundamentally unjust”, was handed down on 25 June.