Tang Lu was found guilty of killing social media star Lhamo by setting fire to her online in September 2020
A Chinese man has been executed after a court found him guilty of setting his former wife on fire while she was livestreaming on social media.
The Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture intermediate people’s court said in a short online statement on Saturday morning that it had carried out the execution of Tang Lu.
Continue reading...Parent company Snap talks of ‘incredibly challenging’ conditions as it seeks new sources of revenue
Shares in Snapchat’s parent company have fallen 25% after it confirmed investors’ fears of a slowdown in advertising revenue for social media firms.
Snap painted a grim picture of the effects of a weakening economy on social media in quarterly results on Thursday and declined to make a revenue forecast in “incredibly challenging” conditions, hitting its share price in after hours trading and setting off a chain reaction among listed rivals.
Continue reading...Black Widow actor rails at ‘how easy it is for men to totally destroy a woman’s body, publicly, proudly, for everyone to see’
Florence Pugh has hit back at “vulgar” social media users who criticised her body, after she posted photographs of herself wearing a sheer dress at a fashion show.
“What happened to you to be so content on being so loudly upset by the size of my boobs and body?” said Pugh in an Instagram post on Sunday to her 7.4 million followers.
Continue reading...Analysis: billionaire could be fined $1bn for walking away – and he risks new lawsuits and even his job, experts say
Elon Musk withdrew his $44bn bid to buy Twitter on Friday after a months-long saga that rankled investors and shook the market, kicking off what may be a long legal battle with the company.
The Twitter chair, Bret Taylor, said on Friday that the social media firm would sue in a Delaware court to enforce the deal. The deal included a “specific performance” clause, a provision that may force Musk to buy the company as long as he has financing in place. Musk in May said he had secured financing to complete the deal.
Continue reading...Investigation under way after pictures of Elon Musk uploaded to video channel and posts about NFTs seen on Twitter
The British army has confirmed a breach of its Twitter and YouTube accounts and an investigation is under way after both official sites appeared to have been hacked.
The army’s YouTube channel features videos on cryptocurrency and images of billionaire businessman Elon Musk. The official Twitter account has retweeted a number of posts appearing to relate to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). These are crypto assets – such as an image, video or text – of which people can be certified as owners.
Continue reading...Liberal leader says refugee advocate’s May win in full federal court was a ‘miscarriage of justice’ and applies for special leave to appeal
Peter Dutton has sought leave to appeal in the high court against his loss in the defamation case he brought against Shane Bazzi, questioning whether there had been a “miscarriage of justice”.
The Liberal party leader has filed an application for special leave to appeal against his loss in the full federal court, arguing that the appeal court erred by finding Bazzi’s tweet “Peter Dutton is a rape apologist” did not convey the defamatory meaning that he “excused rape”.
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Continue reading...Friends of Nigel Stonehouse, 58, who has kidney and lung cancer, seek help with costs of transporting him to his final festival
The friends of a terminally ill man have launched a fundraising campaign to help him attend the Glastonbury festival next week.
Nigel Stonehouse, 58, from Hartlepool, was recently diagnosed with kidney cancer, which has now spread to his lungs. After receiving the terminal diagnosis, his friends wanted to fulfil his “dying wish” of attending the festival for a final time.
Continue reading...Campaign disseminating disinformation sent thousands of tweets, often targeting the White Helmets
A network of more than two dozen conspiracy theorists, frequently backed by a coordinated Russian campaign, sent thousands of disinformation tweets to distort the reality of the Syrian conflict and deter intervention by the international community, new analysis reveals.
Data gathered by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) identified a network of social media accounts, individuals, outlets and organisations who disseminated disinformation about the conflict, with 1.8 million people following their every word. The three principal false narratives promoted by the network of conspiracy theorists involved misrepresenting the White Helmets, the volunteer organisation working to evacuate people in Syria. They also focused on the denial or distortion of facts about the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons and on attacking the findings of the world’s foremost chemical weapons watchdog.
Continue reading...Matt Black says his claim the reality TV star and her boyfriend Pete Davidson had dined at restaurant had gotten twisted
It was a story that sparked chaos and excitement for a small cafe in far north Queensland.
On Thursday, in an interview with the ABC, the manager of a Cairns cafe claimed Kim Kardashian had joined her comedian boyfriend Pete Davidson for a meal the day before – in what appears to have been a hoax.
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Continue reading...Experts say spread of misinformation and use of encrypted services drives far-right extremists and racism
The federal government needs to take action against encrypted messaging apps like Telegram to curb the rise of far-right extremism, a Victorian inquiry has been told.
Dr Belinda Barnet, a media lecturer at Swinburne University, told a hearing that far-right extremists had initially been sharing hateful content on mainstream sites such as Facebook and Twitter but were increasingly being deplatformed.
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Continue reading...Kamal Gandhi, 70, and his Coventry chip shop became a sensation after its name was turned into a catchy song
It has been two weeks since his Coventry chip shop became a TikTok sensation drawing in crowds from around the country, and 70-year-old Kamal Gandhi is exhausted.
He has had to take on and train four new staff members, ensure a continuous supply of stock to deal with hundreds of new customers and help manage the long queues snaking down the road outside the now world famous Binley Mega Chippy.
Continue reading...It’s been a long and winding saga for the social media company and the Tesla CEO, filled with threats, breaches and ‘poison pills’
Elon Musk on Monday made his most viable threat yet to walk away from a $44bn deal to buy Twitter, accusing the company of committing a “material breach” by failing to disclose the number of bots on the platform.
The letter was published on the website of the US financial watchdog on Monday. He had previously tweeted that the deal “cannot move forward” until the spam and fake account issue had been resolved.
Continue reading...Sandberg joined the company in 2008 and will leave the company this fall, although she will continue to be on Meta’s board
Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook and its parent company Meta, has announced she will step down from her role, ending 14 years in the job that made her one of the most powerful figures in the tech world and saw the company weather a meteoric rise and multiple controversies.
Sandberg announced the move in a post on her own Facebook page on Wednesday, adding that she was not sure of what the future holds for her but plans to focus on her foundation and philanthropic work going forward.
Continue reading...Measure passed by Republican-led legislature seeks to bar platforms from removing user posts based on ‘viewpoint’
The US supreme court temporarily blocked a Texas law that would bar social media companies from removing user posts based on their “viewpoint”, as lower courts battle over whether it would violate first amendment rights.
In a 5-4 decision, the justices granted a request from two technology industry groups that have argued the Republican-backed measure would turn platforms into “havens of the vilest expression imaginable”.
Continue reading...Driver’s details shared on social media after allegedly running over ducklings near Stoke-on-Trent as other drivers waited for them to cross
Police have urged the public against any vigilante actions after the registration of a driver who allegedly ran over a brood of ducklings was published online.
Staffordshire police confirmed it is investigating a Facebook post which claimed that at least three ducklings were killed on Friday at a roundabout in Trentham near Stoke-on-Trent. The post claimed they were killed by the driver of a white transit van who allegedly ignored other drivers who were waiting for the ducks to cross the road.
Continue reading...News comes as Elon Musk, world’s richest man, is working to close a $44bn deal to acquire social media company
Twitter announced the departure of two top leaders in a major shakeup that comes as billionaire Elon Musk is working to close a $44bn deal to acquire the company.
In an email to employees on Thursday, chief executive Parag Agrawal said Twitter’s leaders for consumer product and revenue will leave the company. Agrawal said the company was temporarily pausing hiring, and would review all existing job offers to determine whether any “should be pulled back”.
Continue reading...The former president was banned from from the social media platform after the deadly US Capitol attack
A US judge on Friday dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Twitter that challenged his suspension from the platform.
In a written ruling, US district judge James Donato in San Francisco rejected Trump’s argument that Twitter violated his right to freedom of speech guaranteed by the first amendment of the US constitution.
Continue reading...Fashion company targets social media audience with playful details and slick Coppola video trailer
The jet-set catwalk show is back, with its sunny backdrops and international front row. But the new world order is complicating the seating plan.
At Chanel’s first fashion show outside France since the pandemic, the Monte Carlo beachfront played catwalk to a pageant of supermodels dressed in light-hearted tribute to grand prix glitz. The 67 models wore racing-driver jumpsuits tailored in pastel tweeds and gold lamé, and helmets emblazoned with No 5.
Continue reading...Muslim group say coroner’s decision to include gunman’s social media activity in investigation a ‘landmark moment for the accountability of digital platforms’
The online activities of the Australian white supremacist who opened fire on two New Zealand mosques – and how much of a role social media and internet platforms played in his radicalisation – will form part of a coroner’s inquiry into the deaths of 51 Muslim worshipers in the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack.
But the presiding coroner, Brigitte Windley, who announced the scope of her inquiry in a decision released on Thursday, has warned of “monumental hurdles” to exploring the terrorist’s online activities – including Brenton Tarrant’s attempts to wipe parts of his digital footprint before committing the attacks.
Continue reading...Government users may also be charged, says billionaire, who has agreed to buy platform for $44bn
Elon Musk has said Twitter may charge a “slight” fee for commercial and government users, in the latest hint of the changes the world’s richest person could introduce after he completes his takeover of the social media platform.
“Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users,” Musk said in a tweet. In another tweet, he added: “Some revenue is better than none!”
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