Elizabeth Warren is right – we must break up Facebook, Google and Amazon | Robert Reich

The titans of the new Gilded Age must be busted and the idea has bipartisan support. It’s time big tech was brought to heel

The presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren announced on Friday she wants to bust up giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon.

America’s first Gilded Age began in the late 19th century with a raft of innovations – railroads, steel production, oil extraction – but culminated in mammoth trusts run by “robber barons” like JP Morgan, John D Rockefeller, and William H “the public be damned” Vanderbilt.

Continue reading...

‘A real source of hope’: social media opens Thailand’s junta to criticism

Social platforms wield increasing power in Thai politics, where traditional media remain under the iron grip of the military

Just over a week ago, Thailand’s army chief began trending on Twitter.

It started with an order, made by General Apirat Kongsompong that 160 radio stations across the country must play the 1970s anti-communist propaganda song, Nuk Paen Din (Scum of the Earth) which glorifies the might of the armed forces, on a daily basis.

Continue reading...

Democrats bar Fox News from 2020 debates over ‘inappropriate’ Trump ties

DNC chairman says New Yorker exposé on Trump ties to Fox News cast doubt on network’s ability to hold ‘fair and neutral’ debates

The Democratic party’s governing body has announced it will not ask Fox News to host any of its televised primary debates during the 2020 US presidential race, citing a recent report detailing the conservative network’s close rapport with Donald Trump.

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said a New Yorker exposé on the depth of the Trump administration’s ties to Fox News cast doubt on the network’s capacity to hold a “fair and neutral” debate on the Democratic primaries. The decision was first reported by the Washington Post.

Continue reading...

Netflix to adapt One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Streaming giant buys rights to create first ever screen adaptation of Colombian author’s seminal 1967 magical realist novel

Netflix has acquired the rights to Gabriel García Márquez’s seminal One Hundred Years of Solitude to create the first screen adaptation of the author’s 1967 masterpiece.

The streaming company announced on Wednesday that the book will be adapted into a Spanish-language series and filmed largely in the Nobel prize-winning author’s home country of Colombia, with García Márquez’s sons, Rodrigo García and Gonzalo García Barcha, serving as executive producers.

Continue reading...

Kylie Jenner’s makeup makes her the world’s youngest billionaire

Youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner reality TV family tops Mark Zuckerberg by two years

Kylie Jenner, the youngest member of the Kardashian-Jenner American reality TV family, has become the world’s youngest billionaire at the age of just 21.

Jenner, who grew up under the watch of TV cameras filming Keeping Up with the Kardashians, was on Tuesday admitted to the “nine-zero” fortune club by Forbes. The business magazine ranked Jenner as the world’s 2,057th richest person. She became a billionaire two years younger than the Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who took the title at the age of 23 in 2008.

Continue reading...

Facebook criticised after women complain of inaction over abuse

Amnesty says social media firm must do more to support users who report harassment

Human rights campaigners have called for action after a survey revealed that more than half of the reports that women lodge about harassment on Facebook are met with no action from the social media company.

The Survation poll, commissioned by the feminist campaign group Level Up, found that 29% of the 1,000 women who took part had been harassed on Facebook.

Continue reading...

Fox News reportedly killed Stormy Daniels story to help Trump win

Diana Falzone ‘had obtained proof’ of alleged affair but was told: ‘Rupert wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go’

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News channel knew about Donald Trump’s illegal hush money payment to a pornographic film actor ahead of the 2016 election but killed the story because the media mogul wanted him to win, it was reported on Monday.

Related: Mueller report to be 'instantly' printed as a book, if made public

Continue reading...

Screen queens: the funny, fearless women who revolutionised TV

Phoebe Waller-Bridge exploded into our living rooms with Fleabag, her vicious comedy about an angry, awkward woman. As it returns, Guardian writers pick their TV heroines

Who gets to be the bitch?

Continue reading...

Revealed: Facebook’s global lobbying against data privacy laws

Social network targeted legislators around the world, promising or threatening to withhold investment

Facebook has targeted politicians around the world – including the former UK chancellor, George Osborne – promising investments and incentives while seeking to pressure them into lobbying on Facebook’s behalf against data privacy legislation, an explosive new leak of internal Facebook documents has revealed.

The documents, which have been seen by the Observer and Computer Weekly, reveal a secretive global lobbying operation targeting hundreds of legislators and regulators in an attempt to procure influence across the world, including in the UK, US, Canada, India, Vietnam, Argentina, Brazil, Malaysia and all 28 states of the EU. The documents include details of how Facebook:

Continue reading...

Facebook withholding data on its anti-disinformation efforts, EU says

Commissioners demand hard numbers from firm ahead of European parliament elections

Facebook has repeatedly withheld key data on its alleged efforts to clamp down on disinformation ahead of the European elections, the EU’s executive has said.

Related: Anti-vaxx propaganda has gone viral on Facebook. Pinterest has a cure

Continue reading...

Facebook moderators tell of strict scrutiny and PTSD symptoms

Facebook says it has hotline for whistleblowers after report paints picture of contractors’ working conditions

Facebook has said it remains committed to ensuring that the contractors who moderate its sites are treated fairly and with respect by their employers, after a report revealed the traumatic experiences of many of the low-paid workers who keep violence, hate speech and sexual imagery off its platforms.

The vast majority of the more than 15,000 people who work as Facebook moderators are employed by third-party contractors, and their working conditions are often far from the stereotype of a perk-filled Silicon Valley job.

Continue reading...

‘Centuries of entitlement’: Emma Thompson on why she quit Lasseter film

In her resignation letter from the film Luck, the actor questions whether any company should work with disgraced film executive John Lasseter

When the actor Emma Thompson left the forthcoming animated film Luck last month while it was still in production, it was done without public fanfare, and was only confirmed when film-industry publications such as Variety magazine picked up on it. Now Thompson has put herself firmly above the MeToo parapet with the publication publishing her incendiary letter of resignation addressed to the film’s backers, Skydance Media, one of Hollywood’s most prestigious studios.

It was known that Thompson was unhappy with the arrival in January of former head of Pixar John Lasseter as the new head of Skydance Animation. But the letter goes into extraordinary detail about her disquiet over the appointment of a studio executive whose downfall had been one of the key landmarks of the Me Too and Times Up campaigns.

Continue reading...

Univision’s Jorge Ramos detained in Venezuela after Maduro interview, network says

Anchor, who has reportedly been released, asked question embattled leader did not approve of, according to Univision executive

The Univision anchor Jorge Ramos has been detained in the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, the network announced on Monday evening.

The Mexican-born journalist was interviewing Venezuela’s embattled president Nicolás Maduro when he and his crew were detained after asking a question the combative Maduro did not approve of, according to a tweet by the network’s US president, Daniel Coronell. The team’s equipment had also been confiscated, Coronell said.

Continue reading...

‘Unbelievable’: Alan Sugar irate over not owning a Bafta award

The Apprentice host says his wife is upset he has never been allowed to keep a statuette

Awards season is in full swing but one man feels particularly hard done by: Alan Sugar.

The host of The Apprentice has called for himself to be given his own special award in recognition of the reality show’s success, after revealing that his wife is upset that he has never been allowed to keep a Bafta statuette.

Continue reading...

Censorship and silence: south-east Asia suffers under press crackdown

Regional trend sees criminal law repeatedly weaponised to target journalists and muzzle free and fair reporting

Standing on the court steps earlier this month after spending a night in detention, Philippine journalist Maria Ressa spoke defiantly to the dozens of gathered cameras. This was, she pointed out, the sixth time she had posted bail in the space of 18 months. “I will pay more bail than convicted criminals,” said Ressa. “I will pay more bail than Imelda Marcos.”

Ressa, the editor and founder of Rappler, a Philippine online news outlet which has been highly critical of president Rodrigo Duterte, has borne the brunt of a targeted crackdown on opposition media in the Philippines, a country which just two years ago was considered something of a beacon of free press in south-east Asia.

Continue reading...

Serena Williams cartoon not racist, Australian media watchdog rules

Herald Sun newspaper’s depiction of player ‘spitting the dummy’ at US Open had been widely condemned

A Herald Sun cartoon that depicted Serena Williams jumping in the air and “spitting the dummy” after losing a match to Naomi Osaka was not racist, the Press Council has found.

The News Corp cartoon came under global condemnation in September last year for publishing what some saw as a racist, sexist cartoon.

Continue reading...

Alabama newspaper at centre of KKK outcry appoints black female editor

Elecia R. Dexter takes reins of Democrat-Reporter from Goodloe Sutton, who called for return of Ku Klux Klan

A small-town Alabama newspaper that drew condemnation for an editorial this month calling for the Ku Klux Klan to “ride again” has named an African American woman as its new editor and publisher, the paper has said.

On Friday, Elecia R. Dexter took the reins of the weekly Democrat-Reporter in Linden, Alabama, from Goodloe Sutton, 79, the longtime owner of the paper who wrote the incendiary editorial that brought sharp rebukes from elected officials in the state and the public.

Continue reading...

Fortnite maker pulls ads over YouTube ‘paedophile ring’ claims

Epic Games joins Nestlé in abandoning video site over comments section scandal

The maker of Fortnite has pulled adverts from YouTube amid concerns that promotions for the video game, which is popular with children, were appearing alongside comments posted by paedophiles.

Epic Games confirmed it had withdrawn its adverts from the Google-owned site, joining Nestlé in temporarily abandoning it due to the latest scandal over inappropriate content.

Continue reading...

Historian who confronted Davos billionaires leaks Tucker Carlson rant

  • Rutger Bergman clashes with Fox News host in unseen clip
  • Visibly annoyed Carlson tells Bergman: ‘Go fuck yourself’

Rutger Bregman is the Dutch historian who became a global sensation after an appearance at this year’s Davos summit, where he accused attending billionaires of ignoring taxation. Now he has created another viral moment in an extremely uncomfortable interview with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson.

Bregman so riled Carson with his accusations of hypocrisy, critiques of Fox’s conservative agenda, and attacks on Donald Trump that the TV host called him a “moron” and angrily told him: “Go fuck yourself.”

Continue reading...

Facebook needs regulation to combat fake news, say MPs

Damian Collins warns of ‘deepfake films’ showing doctored footage of politicians

Online disinformation is only going to get more sophisticated, the chair of the committee investigating disinformation and fake news, Damian Collins, has warned.

Related: Facebook labelled 'digital gangsters' by report on fake news

Continue reading...