Category Archives: Social media

‘Manosphere’ podcasts and moon-landing conspiracy theories to remain online under new laws, Wells says

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Communications minister rebuts claims that Labor’s digital duty of care laws would lead to government control of speech

Australians could still “listen to manosphere podcasts” or “say the moon landing was fake” under proposed new online safety laws, Anika Wells has stressed as she rubbished claims they would lead to government censorship

The communications minister also said she was considering updates to the digital duty of care laws to allow individual Australians to directly sue big tech companies flouting the new rules. This has been a key demand from the Greens for their support for the laws, while the Coalition accuses Labor of plans to “secretly control Australian speech”.

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Iranian woman handed death sentence for ‘blasphemy’ in social media post

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Rights groups warn of Tehran regime’s increasing use of executions to suppress dissent, with at least 600 this year

Human rights groups have raised the alarm over the growing number of death sentences and executions in Iran, after reports that a 23-year-old woman, Najmeh Amini, has been sentenced to death for blasphemy over a social-media post.

Amini, an accounting student, is being held in Vakilabad prison in the north-east city of Mashhad. She has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison and death in separate cases heard by a revolutionary and a criminal court.

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Julie Inman Grant may be able to limit Australians seeing a livestreamed US execution – but it could start a diplomatic incident

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A history of tech giant legal challenges and US political criticism shows there’s no easy solution for the eSafety commissioner

Australia’s online safety regulator has a few levers to limit the public seeing the US’s planned livestream of an execution, but history suggests it will lead to a very public fight.

The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced last week the planned execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan would be livestreamed when the military execution is carried out in early December.

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Recruitment boss accused of being behind ‘doxxing’ campaign against RNLI and anti-racism activists

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Tom Watson, of Worcester, alleged to be behind Big Time Charlie X account that created so-called Traitorbase

The owner of a recruitment firm has been accused of being at the centre of a so-called “doxxing” campaign against the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), anti-racism activists and business executives who recruit black, Asian and minority ethnic workers.

Tom Watson, from Worcester, is alleged to be behind an X account calling itself “Big Time Charlie”, which was deactivated shortly after he was named by the campaign group Hope Not Hate.

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Money stolen by scammers hijacking UK social media accounts rises 400%

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Many cases involve criminals using other people’s identities to sell fake event tickets to friends and family

The total amount stolen by criminals who hack into people’s emails and social media accounts and then pretend to be them has risen by more than 400% in a year, official UK data shows.

In many cases, the scammers are hijacking people’s accounts in order to use their identity to sell fake event tickets – such as to sold-out gigs – to unsuspecting friends and family.

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TikTok to pay Alabama $100m and limit teenage use in first state settlement

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Trial had been set for Monday over claims by Alabama that TikTok misled parents about tools meant to shield children from harmful content

TikTok has agreed to pay Alabama at least $100m and enact time limits and other restrictions for teenage users, avoiding a trial with a settlement that was modelled on Instagram-owner Meta’s recent agreement with US states.

Alabama described it as a “first-in-the-nation settlement” with a state in the sweeping litigation over social media’s affect on teen wellbeing.

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Alleged underworld supporters and unfounded health claims: One Nation rolls out more Victorian election candidates

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Party has unveiled a steady stream of contenders for state election, including a former councillor who lost his licence for drink-driving

Candidates contesting the Victorian state election for One Nation include a former Liberal who has won support from alleged underworld figures, a naturopath who has endorsed Donald Trump’s unfounded claim that paracetamol is linked to autism and a former shire councillor who lost his licence for drink-driving.

Pauline Hanson announced who would be her party’s upper house candidates and Victorian leader, Warren Pickering, at a press conference last month. Since then One Nation has used social media to unveil a steady stream of candidates, with 51 of the 88 lower house spots now filled.

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Meta ordered to remove UK deepfakes as oversight board criticises ‘inadequate’ safeguards

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Facebook told it was wrong in leaving up AI-generated videos of a Labour councillor and Muslim campaigner, amid calls to curb fakes

Meta’s “supreme court” has ordered the tech company to take down deepfake videos of a UK politician and a young Muslim woman from Facebook and do more to tackle AI-generated fake imagery.

A fake video showing a Labour party councillor in Scotland making inflammatory comments about refugees should not have been left up by Facebook, the board said. It also ruled that an AI-generated video of a Muslim campaign volunteer should have been removed after it falsely depicted her offering health advice while carrying out absurd exercises or eating junk food.

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English far-right extremist who discussed killing Jews, Muslims and migrants is jailed

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Ivan Jennings, 46, sentenced to five years after pleading guilty to encouraging terrorism on social media

A rightwing extremist who discussed poisoning Jews and Muslims and called for the killing of migrants and minority communities has been jailed.

Ivan Jennings, 46, called for the murder of hundreds of people he labelled “subhumans”, saying it was “justified and actually needed”, in extreme far-right groups over a period of three months in 2024.

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John Lewis to launch YouTube chatshow to improve AI search results

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

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.

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New Zealand to consider banning children under 16 from social media

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Prime minister Christopher Luxon’s party to introduce bill seeking the ban, citing harm to a generation of children

New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon has said his party will introduce a bill in parliament that ⁠seeks to ban children ⁠under ​16 from using social media, proposing fines of up to 10% of a platform’s global revenue for non-compliance.

The bill would ⁠require social media platforms to take reasonable steps to verify users’ ages, including by utilising existing account information, facial technology and ⁠digital identity documents.

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Abusers coercing or duping women to post explicit OnlyFans content, UK court cases reveal

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Separate criminal convictions come as domestic violence charities warn of tech-facilitated abuse and coercion

Two men have been convicted this week in separate criminal cases that revealed they had posted explicit content on OnlyFans without the full consent of the women whose images were uploaded.

In the first case, Alexander Tang, 37, took and uploaded 47 intimate images and four videos of a woman to OnlyFans without her consent, and was paid money for the material he posted to the website.

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Abusers coercing or duping women to post explicit OnlyFans content, UK court cases reveal

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Separate criminal convictions come as domestic violence charities warn of tech-facilitated abuse and coercion

Two men have been convicted this week in separate criminal cases that revealed they had posted explicit content on OnlyFans without the full consent of the women whose images were uploaded.

In the first case, Alexander Tang, 37, took and uploaded 47 intimate images and four videos of a woman to OnlyFans without her consent, and was paid money for the material he posted to the website.

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TikTok agrees to $400m settlement to resolve US children’s privacy litigation

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The DoJ sued TikTok and its former parent company in August 2024 for allegedly failing to protect children’s privacy and collecting their information

⁠TikTok and its Chinese former parent company ByteDance on Friday agreed to a $400m settlement to resolve the US Department of Justice’s allegations that the short-form video app ⁠violated children’s online ⁠privacy.

The justice ​department sued TikTok and ByteDance in 2024 for allegedly failing to protect children’s privacy and illegally collecting their information. The defendants were accused ⁠of violating a law requiring online services aimed at children to obtain parental consent to collect personal information from users under age 13.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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France becomes first EU country to ban social media access for under-15s

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Parliament votes to stop children using apps such as TikTok in policy championed by Emmanuel Macron

France’s parliament has approved a bill banning social media access for children under 15, making it the first EU country to bar children from apps such as TikTok.

The president, Emmanuel Macron, has championed the ban as a key reform of his final term in office and pledged to enforce it by September.

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Tate brothers fight extradition to UK over rape and sex-trafficking charges

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Polarizing social media influencers are being held in federal detention in Miami as district judge considers extradition

Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate will fight extradition to the United Kingdom, their lawyer told a US magistrate in Miami on Monday after the brothers were arrested to face rape and sex-trafficking charges.

The Tates appeared in federal court for the first time since their arrest on Saturday and are being held in federal detention. In the coming weeks, a US district judge will consider whether they meet the conditions for extradition.

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Victoria announces new social media ‘demasking’ powers for accounts accused of vilification

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New laws would give Vcat power to force social and AI platforms to identify anonymous users in move premier says will protect children

Social media companies could be forced to identify anonymous accounts accused of online vilification, under new laws being proposed in Victoria.

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, announced a suite of social media reforms on Sunday, saying families needed new ways to protect their children online.

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‘Brazen corruption’: critics denounce Trump Media plan to sell priority access to Truth Social posts

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Move would allow Wall Street trading firms and other institutions to potentially profit from seeing president’s posts first

Donald Trump’s media company is planning to charge for special high-speed access to Truth Social posts, including possibly his own, affecting national security and financial markets.

The move announced on Thursday would allow Wall Street trading firms and other institutions to get news first from top Truth Social contributors so they could profit off subsequent moves in stocks, bonds and interest rates.

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