Category Archives: Social media

Andrew Tate arrest: Romanian authorities seize four more luxury cars

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Fresh haul follows 11 cars already taken in investigation into social media influencer, who is due in court next week

Romanian authorities have seized four more luxury cars as part of an investigation into the controversial online influencer and misogynist Andrew Tate before a court appearance next week.

The 36-year-old former professional kickboxer, who has been banned from a number of social media platforms for misogynistic comments and hate speech, was detained along with his brother Tristan in the country last week as part of a human trafficking and rape investigation.

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Voice to parliament: no campaign targets older Australians as yes group goes after young

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Facebook defends decision to delete a small number of advertisements from the no side that independent fact-checkers deemed ‘false’

A stark schism is already emerging in the voice to parliament referendum in how the respective sides are campaigning for support, with the leading yes group overwhelmingly appealing to younger voters while the main no organisation is strongly targeting older Australians.

It comes as Facebook defends its decision to delete a small number of advertisements from the no side that independent fact-checkers deemed “false”. The social media giant maintains it will reject other referendum ads that breach policies – except those from politicians.

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Meta dealt blow by EU ruling that could result in data use ‘opt-in’

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Irish regulator fines Facebook owner €390m after EU rejects argument for use of data to drive personalised ads

The business model of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta empire has been dealt a blow following a ruling that its legal justification for targeting users with personalised ads broke EU data laws.

Campaigners said the move could force the Facebook and Instagram owner to ask users to “opt in” to having their data used for targeted ads.

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Transgender woman sues female-only app Giggle for Girls for alleged discrimination

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Roxanne Tickle claims she was unlawfully barred from using the app after the firm and its CEO said she was a man

An Australian transgender woman who says she was barred from using the female-only platform Giggle for Girls has sued the social media site for alleged discrimination.

In a federal court lawsuit filed on 22 December, Roxanne Tickle claims she was unlawfully barred from using Giggle in September 2021 after the firm and its CEO, Sally “Sall” Grover, said she was a man.

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Complaints about gambling ads almost double, Australian media regulator says

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Acma calls for more power to restrict advertisements on Facebook, YouTube and Google

The number of complaints about gambling advertisements almost doubled last financial year, prompting Australia’s media regulator to warn current restrictions are failing to meet community expectations.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority called for more power to restrict unlicensed gambling advertisements on Facebook, YouTube and Google to better protect children and vulnerable Australians.

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Ethics row rages after South Sudan leader wets himself on live TV

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Critics say President Salva Kiir is unfit to lead long-suffering nation while others decry mocking of ‘an elder’

Footage of the South Sudanese president Salva Kiir apparently urinating on himself at an official event has sparked an online debate across Africa about his ability to lead the country, and the ethics of sharing the incident on social media.

Standing for the national anthem while opening a new road last week, Kiir, 71, seemed at first unaware of what was happening. After a pool formed at his feet, some of his entourage noticed and the film crew that was broadcasting the event live abruptly pointed the camera away from the ceremony.

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Digital Services Act: inside the EU’s ambitious bid to clean up social media

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The legislation aims to tackle problems as wide-ranging as misogyny, disinformation and consumer fraud

Nearly two decades after the birth of Facebook ushered in the social media era, the EU is introducing ambitious legislation designed to clean up the world’s biggest online forums.

Intended to tackle misogyny, protect children, stop consumer fraud, curb disinformation and protect democratic elections, the Digital Services Act (DSA) is wide-ranging. The UK is introducing its own statute, the online safety bill, but the EU’s rules are likely to have a bigger impact because they cover a bigger market, and the EU is more influential as a regulatory power.

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Flood warnings issued for Murray River in South Australia – as it happened

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The SA SES has told residents in low-lying areas along the river to prepare to evacuate. This blog is now closed

Woolworths salads recalled in NSW, ACT, Queensland and Victoria

A food recall notice has been issued for two salads sold at Woolworth stores across New South Wales, the ACT, Queensland and Victoria.

Food products containing unsafe plant material may cause illness if consumed. ​

Consumers should not eat this product and should return the products to the place of purchase for a full refund. Any consumers concerned about their health should seek medical advice.​

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Defamation reforms: Australian media may not be liable for Facebook comments in future

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Attorneys general give in-principle support to changes including new innocent dissemination defence for intermediaries

Australian media companies may avoid liability for defamatory third-party comments on their social media posts if reforms supported by the nation’s attorneys general become law.

The Standing Council of Attorneys General has given in-principle support to reforms to modernise the nation’s defamation laws relating to search engines and social media platforms.

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Leo Varadkar nightclub footage triggers privacy debate in Ireland

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Leaked clip of deputy leader also fuels moves to tighten social media regulation

A video of Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s tánaiste, socialising in a nightclub has triggered a debate about the right to privacy and regulation of social media.

The brief clip of the deputy prime minister was clandestinely recorded in a Dublin nightclub earlier this month and has racked up millions of views on multiple platforms.

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Twitter sued for disproportionately firing female workers after Musk buyout

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The proposed class-action lawsuit alleges that after the takeover, 57% of women were laid off compared with 47% of men

Twitter has been hit with another lawsuit in the wake of Elon Musk’s mass layoffs, with the latest legal action accusing the company of disproportionately targeting female employees for cuts.

The proposed class action, which was was filed late on Wednesday in San Francisco federal court, said that after Twitter was taken over by Musk, the world’s richest person, it laid off 57% of its female workers compared with 47% of men.

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Elon Musk accused of turning Twitter offices into bedrooms

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San Francisco investigating Twitter after complaint says it converted rooms in its HQ into sleeping quarters

Twitter is under investigation by city officials in San Francisco following a complaint that the company allegedly converted rooms in its headquarters to sleeping quarters, an inquiry that has drawn scorn from Elon Musk.

As of Monday, the office has “modest bedrooms featuring unmade mattresses, drab curtains and giant conference-room telepresence monitors” with four to eight beds a floor, employees told Forbes. The changes appear to be part of Musk’s plan for “hardcore Twitter” in which he’s demanded workers dedicate “long hours at high intensity” after he fired nearly half the company’s workforce.

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Nigeria frees student arrested after tweet about first lady Aisha Buhari

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Aminu Adamu’s detention had sparked widespread outrage before Aisha Buhari withdrew complaint

Nigeria has freed a student charged with “criminal defamation” over a tweet he posted about the physical appearance of the country’s first lady.

Aminu Adamu was arrested at his university in northern Jigawa state on 18 November after Aisha Buhari filed a complaint and then remanded into custody until January.

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China accused of flooding social media with spam to cover up Covid protests

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US firm says network of bot accounts also hijacking hashtags in large-scale attempt to obscure coverage

An attempt to flood social media platforms with spam in order to drown out coverage of the lockdown protests in China was probably backed by the Chinese government, according to analysis by a US cybersecurity firm.

Recorded Future found that networks of coordinated bot accounts were targeting non-Chinese social media platforms to crowd out genuine posts about the demonstrations with spam content and by hijacking hashtags of names of Chinese cities. It said China’s government was most likely to be behind the tactic.

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Social media firms face big UK fines if they fail to stop sexist and racist content

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Revised online safety bill proposes fines of 10% of revenue but drops harmful communications offence

Social media platforms that breach pledges to block sexist and racist content face the threat of substantial fines under government changes to the online safety bill announced on Monday.

Under the new approach, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter must also give users the option of avoiding content that is harmful but does not constitute a criminal offence. This could include racism, misogyny or the glorification of eating disorders.

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Chinese bots flood Twitter in attempt to obscure Covid protests

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Activity indicates ‘first major failure’ to stop government interference under ownership of Elon Musk

Twitter has been flooded with nuisance posts designed to obscure news of the coronavirus lockdown protests in China, in an apparent state-directed attempt to suppress footage of the demonstrations.

Chinese bot accounts – not operated by humans – are being used to flood the social networking service with adverts for sex workers, pornography and gambling when users search for a major city in the country, such as Shanghai or Beijing, using Chinese script.

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Elon Musk rules out conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s return to Twitter

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Twitter boss says he has ‘no mercy’ for those who capitalise on deaths of children, citing loss of son in 2002

Elon Musk has said he will not reinstate the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Twitter, saying he has “no mercy” for people who capitalize on the deaths of children for personal fame.

Twitter permanently suspended the accounts of Jones and his Infowars website in September 2018 for violating the platform’s abusive behavior policy.

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Elon Musk reinstates Donald Trump’s Twitter account after taking poll

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‘The people have spoken,’ says site’s owner, having acknowledged during online poll that automated bots were voting too

Elon Musk has reinstated Donald Trump’s Twitter account after users on the social media platform voted by a slim majority to lift a ban on the former US president.

Trump’s account was suspended in 2021 after the January 6 Capitol riot, for violating Twitter guidelines and because of the risk of “further incitement of violence”.

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Twitter has ‘50% chance’ of major crash during World Cup, says insider

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Social media giant ill-equipped to deal with traffic spikes after cuts imposed by Elon Musk, according to former employee

Twitter stands a 50% chance of a major outage that could take the site offline during the World Cup, according to a recently departed employee with knowledge of how the company responds to large-scale events.

The former employee, who was granted anonymity because of the sensitivity of what was discussed, has knowledge of the workings of Twitter Command Centre, the platform’s team of troubleshooters who monitor the site for issues such as traffic spikes and data centre outages.

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Elon Musk summons Twitter engineers amid mass resignations and puts up poll on Trump ban

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Reports show nearly 1,200 workers left company after demand for ‘long hours at high intensity’, while Musk starts poll on whether to reinstate Donald Trump

Elon Musk emailed Twitter staff on Friday asking that any employees who write software code report to the 10th floor of the office in San Francisco in the early afternoon, according to multiple news reports.

The billionaire said in a follow-up email, “If possible, I would appreciate it if you could fly to SF to be present in person,” adding he would be at the company’s headquarters until midnight and would return Saturday morning, Reuters reported. The engineers should report at 2pm on Friday.

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