Category Archives: Social media

Shadow energy minister says system in ‘dire trouble’ – as it happened

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Australia needs more gas supply on east coast, Albanese says

Anthony Albanese is speaking to the ABC from Devonport.

We’ll work those issues through with Aemo.

We need more gas supply. We announced our future gas strategy a short while ago because we understand that we need more supply. Gas has an important role to play in manufacturing in particular. But also in providing firming capacity for the renewables rollout.

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ByteDance alleges US’s ‘singling out of TikTok’ is unconstitutional

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Chinese firm recounts talks with US government that ended abruptly and says it spent $2bn to draft security agreement

New legal filings from the Chinese tech firm ByteDance have challenged the US government’s “unconstitutional singling out of TikTok”, revealing fresh details about failed negotiations over a potential ban of the platform.

Legislation signed in April by Joe Biden gives ByteDance until 19 January to either divest TikTok’s US assets or face a ban. ByteDance claims in its new filings that such divestiture is “not possible technologically, commercially, or legally” and accuses the US government of refusing to engage in any serious settlement talks after 2022.

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Hip-hop mimes and breast jokes win Farage a valuable gen Z following

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Reform leader’s strategy to engage with young voters online pays off as he hits 776,000 TikTok followers

While Nigel Farage has written off many in generation X for being hopelessly woke and leftwing, he is much more interested in gen Z.

“Support is exploding among young gen Z 18-25 voters,” he told an audience in Runcorn in Cheshire on Thursday. “Something remarkable is happening out there. There’s an awakening in a younger generation who have had enough of being dictated to, have had enough of being lectured to, and they’re seeing through the BS they’re getting in schools and universities.”

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‘You cannot do mass surveillance privately, full stop’: Signal boss hits out at government encryption-busting moves

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A ‘legitimate grievance’ with big tech firms is being used by police as a pretext to undermine privacy, Meredith Whittaker says

Police have used the “very legitimate grievance” the public has with large tech companies like Meta about data collection and surveillance as a pretext to undermine user privacy, the president of encrypted messaging app Signal has said.

Meredith Whittaker told Guardian Australia that it had become “an easy win with few political consequences” for politicians to beat up on Facebook in the past decade, and while there was legitimate public backlash against the “mass surveillance tech business model” the policy response had a “very unfortunate shape”.

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‘Let kids be kids’: LA becomes largest US school district to ban phones in class

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Measure passes 5-2 as Gavin Newsom calls for statewide ban on cellphones for students during the school day

The Los Angeles unified school board passed a resolution on Tuesday banning cell phones from district classrooms. As the second-largest school district in the US, the vote makes it the largest school district in the US to approve such a ban.

As more educators across the US explore similar policies, California governor Gavin Newsom called on Tuesday for a statewide ban on phones in class. The measure in Los Angeles was introduced by board member Nick Melvoin and will be implemented starting in January 2025 after passing in a 5-2 vote. Melvoin said in a statement the measure is meant to support “students’ academic success and wellbeing”, adding that studies have shown smartphones and social media distract kids from learning and stifle their in-person social connections.

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Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest can sue Meta over Facebook scam ads, US court rules

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The Australian mining magnate can try to prove that Meta was negligent in allowing scam ads on Facebook, judge says

A US judge has rejected Meta Platforms’ bid to dismiss a lawsuit by billionaire Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest over scam Facebook advertisements that use his likeness to promote fake cryptocurrency and other fraudulent investments.

In a decision on Monday, US district judge Casey Pitts in San Jose, California, said Forrest could try to prove that Meta’s negligence in allowing the ads breached its duty to operate in a commercially reasonable manner.

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Pornography and social media driving rise in labia surgery, Australian report finds

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More than half a million people have had or considered having the procedure due to lack of education and diverse representation, survey shows

Pornography and social media are driving a rise in people having or considering labia surgery, with images and videos distorting perceptions of what genitalia look like, a new report has found.

The surgery, known as labiaplasty, is one of the fastest growing cosmetic procedures among young people in Australia and worldwide.

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Peter Dutton wants a social media ban for children. But would ‘real life’ rules work?

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The opposition leader’s announcement that age-verification would be a Coalition government priority is a big promise that technology may not be able to fulfil

Both the federal government and opposition say they are on board with the idea to ban teens under 16 from using social media, but the prime minister set an important qualifier on Thursday when he said he would support such a ban “if it can be effective”.

Guardian Essential poll last week found two-thirds of voters were in favour of raising the age teens can access social media from the 13 that the companies have set themselves up to 16.

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‘Crank’ Tory candidates accused of sharing online conspiracy theories

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Labour has expressed concerns about the calibre of would-be Tory MPs after a some shared outlandish views online

The Conservative party has been accused of becoming a home for “cranks” after some of its candidates at the general election were revealed to have shared conspiracy theories on social media.

The posts seen by the Observer include the suggestion that positive tests for Covid-19 were “mass psychosis at work” and that the Black Lives Matter movement might be an attempt to “bring down British society”.

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New York passes laws protecting kids from addictive social media content

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Legislation will limit children’s exposure to computer algorithmic social media feeds and protect their privacy

New York state took novel legislative steps on Friday to limit children’s exposure to computer algorithmic social media feeds, passing two laws to protect children from addictive social media content and to protect their privacy.

The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (Safe) for Kids Act requires social media companies to restrict addictive feeds on their platforms for users under 18 unless parental consent is granted, and prohibits companies from sending notifications regarding addictive feeds to minors from 12.00am to 6.00am.

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Elon Musk does not grasp EU fears about disinformation on X, official says

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EU commissioner Vera Jourová says tech firms must hire staff versed in legal and historical context of free speech in Europe

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, lacks understanding of European concerns over the hatred and division that can result from the spread of disinformation, a senior EU commissioner has said.

Speaking just days before the European parliamentary elections, in which disinformation, particularly Russian-backed propaganda, has been a key issue, Věra Jourová criticised what she said was a clear deterioration in content moderation on X since Musk bought the platform in 2022.

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Labour is already dominating the online general election campaign | Matthew McGregor

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Starmer’s party was quicker out of the digital gate, with slicker, more engaging content than the Tory offering

The video opens with an old clip of Cilla Black singing her classic ‘Surprise, Surprise!’. The caption reads “POV: Rishi Sunak turns up at your 18th birthday to send you to war.”

This appeared on Labour’s TikTok account the day after the Conservatives launched their national service policy. It fitted perfectly with TikTok’s meme-heavy, wry and sarcastic culture and has been watched 4.5 million times. The video racked up almost 700,000 likes, more than double the likes on all the Tories’ TikToks put together.

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Hundreds of millions wiped from Trump fortune in wake of conviction

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Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock finishes day down 5.3% on Wall Street, as ex-president’s stake falls from $6bn to $5.6bn

Donald Trump’s paper fortune dropped by hundreds of millions of dollars on Friday as shares in his media firm came under pressure in the wake of his conviction in his New York hush-money trial.

Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock finished the day down 5.3% on Wall Street, denting the value of the former president’s vast stake in the business.

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Black Americans disproportionately encounter lies online, survey finds

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Most Americans concerned about online misinformation as election nears, according to poll by watchdog group Free Press

As US presidential elections approach, the vast majority of Americans are concerned about online misinformation and fear they do not have enough accurate information on candidates, especially local ones, a new poll has shown.

While people across the political and racial spectrum reported being “very concerned” about the deliberate spread of online misinformation, the study found Black Americans are disproportionately encountering misinformation when seeking accurate news.

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Google and Apple keeping Reddit and X in app stores despite pornography due to revenue, eSafety boss says

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Commissioner says companies have ‘huge disincentive’ to abide by their own policies on adult content amid discussions of age assurance technology

Australia’s online safety regulator has accused Apple and Google of financial motives in deciding not to remove Reddit and Elon Musk’s X from their app stores for hosting pornography in violation of their own policies.

Research cited in the eSafety commissioner’s online roadmap for age verification technology for adult sites last year reported that 41% of teens aged between 16 and 18 reported seeing pornography on X – more than the 37% who viewed pornography on dedicated adult sites.

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Hong Kong police arrest six people under new security law

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Chow Hang-tung, a prominent barrister, among those held over social media posts before Tiananmen Square anniversary

Hong Kong police have arrested six people, marking the first time that the city’s new national security law, known as Article 23, has been used against suspects since it was implemented in March.

The six people, aged between 37 and 65, are accused of publishing messages with seditious intent ahead of an “upcoming sensitive date”, according to a police statement.

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Albanese labels some rightwing media a ‘cheer squad’ for Dutton

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PM expresses frustration with unspecified newspapers and commentators, saying many articles ‘essentially about clickbait these days’

Anthony Albanese has accused some rightwing media of being “stenographers” and a “cheer squad” for his opponent, the Liberal leader Peter Dutton.

The prime minister expressed his frustration with unspecified newspapers and radio and TV commentators in an interview with an Australian National University podcast, complaining particularly about coverage of Labor’s revamped income tax cuts.

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Trump’s Truth Social media company posts $327m first-quarter loss

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Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, says focus is ‘long-term product development’ rather than revenue

Trump Media and Technology Group, the owner of Donald Trump’s social networking site Truth Social, lost more than $300m last quarter, according to its first earnings report as a publicly traded company.

For the three-month period that ended 31 March, the company posted a loss of $327.6m, which it said included $311m in non-cash expenses related to its merger with a company called Digital World, which was essentially a pile of cash looking for a target to merge with.

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Revealed: Meta approved political ads in India that incited violence

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Exclusive: Ads containing AI-manipulated images were submitted to Facebook by civil and corporate accountability groups

The Facebook and Instagram owner Meta approved a series of AI-manipulated political adverts during India’s election that spread disinformation and incited religious violence, according to a report shared exclusively with the Guardian.

Facebook approved adverts containing known slurs towards Muslims in India, such as “let’s burn this vermin” and “Hindu blood is spilling, these invaders must be burned”, as well as Hindu supremacist language and disinformation about political leaders.

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Young people buying large knives on Telegram and TikTok, police say

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Commander says authorities scrambling to keep up with supply trends as knife crimes rise

Young people are using sites such as Telegram and TikTok to buy large knives for use in attacks and intimidation, with some linked to Britain’s drug wars, police said.

Stephen Clayman, national lead for knife crime for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, made it clear on Tuesday that police want tougher action after a 7% year-on-year rise in knife offences, with a 20% rise in knife-point robberies.

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