New app developed by Facebook and WhatsApp owner is due to launch in the UK and US on Thursday
Mark Zuckerberg’s rival to Twitter will not launch in the EU on Thursday amid regulatory uncertainty about the service’s use of personal data.
Sources at Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said regulations were behind the postponement of an EU launch, amid a series of clashes between the social media group and the bloc.
Continue reading...Study by Greater London authority finds mayor has received over 300,000 pieces of racist abuse since being elected
Sadiq Khan has received more than 300,000 pieces of openly racist or racially-oriented abuse on social media since he was elected London mayor, with a recent surge in such messages connected to his plan to expand the city’s clean air zone, research has found.
The study, carried out by the Greater London authority, found that racist abuse against the Labour mayor, which peaked when he was targeted on Twitter by Donald Trump, has started to rise again this year.
Continue reading...At-risk children between 12 and 17 reported seeing promotions from a wide range of sources including their homes, school and social media
Young people are being “inundated” with gambling ads in their everyday lives, particularly sports betting ads and social casino games, amid unprecedented levels of exposure for at-risk adolescents.
Children between 12 and 17 who are at risk of becoming problem gamblers reported a wide range of sources that promote gambling, including in their home, school, social, digital and media environments.
Continue reading...Trans social media star says company largely abandoned her amid bullying responses to beer promotion
Dylan Mulvaney has spoken out against Bud Light, criticizing the brand for not supporting her amid transphobic backlash to an advertisement featuring the influencer.
In a TikTok video captioned “Trans people like beer, too”, Mulvaney, who is trans, called out Bud Light for largely abandoning her after she was bullied for posting a sponsored video to Instagram with the beer brand.
Continue reading...Campaigners say bill in ‘serious peril’ of passing without powers to make platforms more transparent
Online safety experts will struggle to sound the alarm about harmful content if landmark legislation does not allow independent researchers to access data from social media platforms, campaigners have warned.
The government is being urged to adopt amendments to the online safety bill enabling researchers to access platform data in order to monitor harmful material. Access would be overseen by Ofcom, the communications watchdog, and would protect user privacy.
Continue reading...Data released in both states suggest online posts may have contributed to a rise in certain types of crime
Social media platforms allowing teenagers to brag about crimes might be contributing to an increase in youth offending in Australia’s most populous states, Victorian police and New South Wales’ crime statistics agency say.
In Victoria, data from the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) released on Thursday reported that home burglaries committed by 10-to-14-year-olds increased by almost 87% in the 12 months to 31 March, compared with the prior year. This is despite youth offending being down by almost half, compared with a decade ago.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Sultan Al Jaber – Cop28 president and CEO of state oil firm – is ‘ally the climate movement needs’, posts say
An army of fake social media accounts on Twitter and the blogging site Medium have been promoting and defending the controversial hosting of a UN climate summit by the United Arab Emirates.
The president of the Cop28 climate talks is Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the chief executive of the state oil giant Adnoc, which has major net zero-busting expansion plans.
Continue reading...Oxfam International apologised and re-edited cartoon alleged to include racial stereotyping and JK Rowling attack
The UK charities watchdog is assessing whether it will take action against Oxfam after receiving complaints about a cartoon published by the charity that ignited a row about transgender issues.
Oxfam International put the cartoon out on Twitter last week to mark pride month, but took it down on Tuesday after a backlash against its use of the term Terf (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) in an image depicting anti-trans “hate groups”.
Continue reading...Call comes amid moves to combat disinformation from Russia, while Twitter is warned to comply with new digital content laws
Social media companies including Google and Facebook have been urged by the EU to “immediately” start labelling content and images generated by artificial intelligence as part of a package of moves to combat fake news and disinformation from Russia.
At the same time, the EU has warned Twitter that it faces “swift” sanctions if it does not comply with new digital content laws that come into effect across the bloc on 25 August.
Continue reading...Users of the social media app have faced legal consequences for posts – some private – that are critical of Saudi authorities
Saudi state media issued an explicit warning that it is a criminal offense to “insult” authorities using social media apps such as Snapchat, the California-based messaging app whose chief executive recently forged a new “cooperation” deal with the kingdom’s culture ministry.
The threat – which was originally televised in April and then deleted – has gained new resonance as more cases emerge in which Snapchat users and influencers in the kingdom have been arrested by authorities and, in some cases, sentenced to decades-long prison sentences.
Continue reading...Amid usual scrubbing for Tiananmen Square anniversary, searches for bridge where protest was held in 2022 return no results
Chinese censors scrubbing the internet of any words or symbols that could be used to reference the Tiananmen Square massacre in the run-up to Sunday’s anniversary have a new target in their sights: a bridge in Beijing where a rare protest was staged last year.
As the 34th anniversary of the 1989 massacre approaches, anyone searching in Chinese for Sitong Bridge on Baidu maps will draw a blank.
Continue reading...Torin O’Brien led a far-right group that was deregistered as an incorporated association in 2015
The ringleader of a Rockhampton mob that surrounded the home of an Indigenous teenager on Sunday was previously the national leader of a far-right “patriots” group, which regularly published anti-Islam content online.
Torin O’Brien, a former One Nation candidate, posted the names and photographs of the two Aboriginal young people, believed to be teenagers, on Facebook last week and called for locals to attend their address on Sunday.
Continue reading...Under proposed ‘chat controls’ regulation, any encrypted service provider could be forced to screen for ‘identifiers’
An EU plan under which all WhatsApp, iMessage and Snapchat accounts could be screened for child abuse content has hit a significant obstacle after internal legal advice said it would probably be annulled by the courts for breaching users’ rights.
Under the proposed “chat controls” regulation, any encrypted service provider could be forced to survey billions of messages, videos and photos for “identifiers” of certain types of content where it was suspected a service was being used to disseminate harmful material.
Continue reading...ASA reports rise in complaints about ads that mislead customers about benefits of treatments like Botox
The advertising watchdog is banning growing numbers of advertisements that exaggerate the benefits of health and beauty treatments such as Botox, lip fillers and diet aids.
The Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) action is part of a crackdown against beauty clinics and manufacturers of aesthetic products over how they promote themselves.
Continue reading...Advice comes despite charity’s warning that social media figure is fuelling shocking growth of misogyny in schools
Teachers are being advised by the government not to discuss social media influencer Andrew Tate, the “king of toxic masculinity”, with pupils – despite schools reporting a rising tide of misogyny and sexual harassment from boys as young as nine.
One small charity, Diversify, based in Rotherham, which runs school workshops about inclusion, receives about 25 calls a week from primary and secondary schools across England who want help dealing with sexual harassment and “shocking misogynistic incidents”. Many cite the influence of Tate, who is under house arrest in Romania for suspected human trafficking and organised crime. Tate’s TikTok videos tell boys that a woman belongs to her boyfriend; girls who don’t stay at home are “hoes”; and rape victims must “bear responsibility” for their attacks.
Continue reading...Several federal departments already banning Chinese communications app after decision on TikTok in early April
The Australian government is resisting issuing a ban on WeChat on government devices despite many government departments instituting their own bans after the TikTok edict earlier this month.
TikTok was banned from government devices in early April over data collection and security concerns connected to the Chinese government.
Continue reading...Growing number of social media users find using Korean American actor Ma Dong-seok’s image as avatar gets better response
Chinese social media users are turning to a Korean American action star for help in their daily lives, with a growing trend of swapping out their online avatar for Ma Dong-seok’s photo to get better responses from landlords and customer service agents.
In recent weeks a growing number of Chinese people have changed their profile photos to shots of Ma, who also goes by the name Don Lee and has starred in horror-action film Train to Busan and Marvel’s The Eternals, saying “it makes life easier”.
Continue reading...Australian-US company Internet 2.0 says social media app now seeks users’ altitude information, according to source code
The Australian-US cybersecurity company that last year revealed the extent of TikTok’s data collection says the social media company has increased what location information it collects to include altitude, which could tell it what floor of a building a user is on.
Last year Internet 2.0 released a study on the data TikTok attempts to collect on user devices, which includes contact lists and calendars, and its scanning of hard drives and geolocating devices on an hourly basis.
Continue reading...Global alliance including NCA and FBI says Meta’s decision to encrypt direct messages could harm children
An alliance of the world’s most powerful law enforcement agencies including the FBI, Interpol and Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) have condemned Meta’s plans to encrypt direct messages on Facebook Messenger and Instagram, saying that doing so will weaken the ability to keep child users safe.
The Virtual Global Taskforce, made up of 15 agencies, is chaired by the NCA and also includes Europol and the Australian federal police among its membership. The VGT has spoken out, it says, owing to the “impending design choices” by Meta, which it says could cause serious harm.
Continue reading...Company accused of ‘gaslighting’ public on surveillance concerns during Senate inquiry into foreign influence through social media
TikTok will either need to divest itself from Chinese ownership or face a ban in the United States, according to the commissioner of the US federal communications commission, Brendan Carr, who accused the company of “gaslighting” the public on surveillance concerns.
Appearing before the Australian Senate inquiry into foreign influence through social media, the Trump appointee said concern about TikTok in the US was “broad and deep”, and crossed party lines.
Continue reading...