Irish data regulator says platform put 13- to 17-year-old users’ accounts on default public setting, among other breaches
TikTok has been fined €345m (£296m) for breaking EU data law in its handling of children’s accounts, including failing to shield underage users’ content from public view.
The Irish data watchdog, which regulates TikTok across the EU, said the Chinese-owned video app had committed multiple breaches of GDPR rules.
Continue reading...New York pension funds and Oregon are long-term shareholders of Fox and accuse network of inviting defamation claims
New York City pension funds and the state of Oregon sued Fox Corporation on Tuesday, alleging the company harmed investors by allowing Fox News to broadcast falsehoods about the 2020 election that exposed the network to defamation lawsuits.
The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, accuses Fox of inviting defamation claims by amplifying conspiracy theories about the election, including a suit Fox News agreed to settle for nearly $800m with Dominion Voting Systems, a maker of voting machines.
Continue reading...Penny Wong to announce the Albanese government’s new sanctions against those linked to the oppression of women and girls
Australia will impose sanctions on Iranian state media for broadcasting forced confessions, with the foreign minister, Penny Wong, vowing to take tougher action before the anniversary of Mahsa Jina Amini’s death in custody.
Brushing off claims from the Coalition that the government has been slow to act, Wong will announce on Wednesday that she is introducing new sanctions against those linked to the oppression of women and girls.
Continue reading...Singer Kuba Szmajkowski and actor Pola Gonciarz heavily darkened their skin on Your Face Sounds Familiar, with Szmajkowski also wearing cornrows and using the N-word
A leading Polish TV talent show has been widely criticised for featuring celebrity contestants in blackface, impersonating Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé.
Singer Kuba Szmajkowski, a star in Poland who has 163,000 Instagram followers, won the second episode of the 19th series of Twoja Twarz Brzmi Znajomo – the Polish iteration of long-running franchise Your Face Sounds Familiar – on Saturday after performing Lamar’s track Humble in blackface, fake cornrows and a fake beard. He also used the N-word, which went uncensored on the broadcast.
Continue reading...The dropping of charges against Ressa and Rappler, the news website she founded, is the latest legal victory for the Nobel laureate
Philippine Nobel laureate Maria Ressa has been acquitted of her final tax evasion charge in the latest legal victory for the veteran journalist as she battles to stay out of prison over cases that she has previously described as part of a pattern of harassment.
The 59-year-old, who won a Nobel peace prize in 2021, has spent a number of years fighting multiple charges that were filed during then president Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.
Continue reading...Style featuring pastel makeup and modest clothing has taken off, but many are objecting to the ethos behind it
A social media debate has erupted in China over a trend among some women to dress and behave in a way that’s “good for marriage”, with detractors saying it discourages independence.
China, like much of east Asia, is battling with a demographic crisis and young people increasingly choose to forgo marriage and children. Last year China officially recorded its first decline in population for more than 60 years.
Continue reading...The company, formerly known as Twitter, argued an assembly bill violates its free speech rights under the first amendment
Elon Musk’s X sued California on Friday, challenging the constitutionality of a state law establishing new transparency requirements for social media companies, including how they police disinformation, hate speech and extremism.
X, the social media platform once called Twitter, said the law, known as Assembly Bill 587, violates its free speech rights under the US constitution’s first amendment and California’s state constitution.
Continue reading...Sentencing of Sai Zaw Thaike at one-day trial for treason and defamation shows press freedom has been ‘completely quashed’ under junta, editor says
A Myanmar court has sentenced a photojournalist to 20 years in prison with hard labour over his coverage of the aftermath of a deadly cyclone, according to Myanmar Now, the media organisation he worked for.
The sentence given to Sai Zaw Thaike, a photographer for the independent online news service, appeared to be the most severe for any journalist detained since the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
Continue reading...‘Revolutionary’ Digital Markets Act aims to allow more competition and let consumers delete preloaded phone apps
The EU has unveiled a set of “revolutionary” laws to curb the power of six big tech companies, including allowing consumers to decide what apps they want on their phone and to delete pre-loaded software such as Google or Apple’s maps apps.
The package of laws will also pave the way for more competition in some of the areas most guarded by the tech firms, including Apple Wallet and Google Pay.
Continue reading...The former BBC and New York Times chief has been tasked with revitalizing a news network that seems to have lost its way
In late summer, CNN found itself in crisis. Under the disastrous tenure of chief executive Chris Licht, the news channel had seen top anchors leave and ratings plunge.
Behind the scenes, CNN staff were grumbling about an apparent attempt to move the network’s political coverage to a rapidly disappearing center – an effort typified by the widely criticized decision to host a town hall with Donald Trump in May.
Continue reading...Editor of Novaya Gazeta accused of using foreign platforms to spread ‘opinions aimed at forming a negative attitude towards Russia’
Russia has added respected journalist and Nobel prize co-recipient Dmitry Muratov to its list of foreign agents, a label authorities commonly use to stifle critics.
The move targeting the editor of Russia’s top independent publication, Novaya Gazeta, is part of a wider crackdown on respected civil society institutions that has accelerated with Moscow’s assault on Ukraine.
Continue reading...Rightwing broadcaster attacks Charles Haywood after Guardian exposed his sponsorship of secret society
The rightwing broadcaster Glenn Beck has attacked Charles Haywood, a shampoo magnate and would-be “warlord”, as a “false prophet” on his radio broadcast after the Guardian exposed Haywood’s sponsorship of a secretive, far-right men-only fraternal society.
Last week Beck devoted five minutes of airtime on the Blaze – in which he read the Guardian’s article aloud and interspersed his own commentary – to criticising Haywood and Haywood’s Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR).
Continue reading...Guy Goma tells Accidental Celebrities podcast he was not paid for confused appearance on News 24
A man who became a viral sensation after being interviewed on the BBC in a case of mistaken identity 17 years ago has said he plans to sue the broadcaster for a share of the royalties.
Guy Goma went to the BBC for a job interview in 2006 and ended up on air when he was mistaken for an IT expert, Guy Kewney.
Continue reading...Journalists and civil liberty groups also concerned about proposed bill that creates new offences around accessing violent extremist material
Australia’s peak body for lawyers has joined civil liberty groups, journalists and advocacy groups to sound the alarm on proposed laws to criminalise the accessing of violent extremist material, saying the new powers are unnecessary and may inadvertently interfere with “legitimate matters of political dissent or struggle”.
The federal government is seeking to expand counter-terror powers by introducing new offences for possessing or controlling violent extremist material using a carriage service.
Continue reading...Retailer apologises for error, with such advertising banned in case it discourages breastfeeding
Online adverts for Boots for four infant formula products broke advertising rules designed to protect breastfeeding, the advertising watchdog has found.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) made the ruling in response to a complaint that the health and beauty retailer’s infant formula products had been advertised on Google.
Continue reading...Move by the billionaire owner of the social media site may be an attempt to drive up subscription of the app’s premium service
Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, is poised to rework how news links appear on the platform, the latest change spearheaded by owner Elon Musk to impact news publishers on the site.
The news was first reported by Fortune on Monday and confirmed in a post from Musk later in the day: “This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics [sic],” he wrote. The platform will no longer display headlines and other text from news links and show only the main image, limiting a user’s ability to see the contents before clicking.
Continue reading...The Fall will be published next month and promises to chronicle the rightwing network and the Murdoch family’s downfall
The author Michael Wolff, whose bestselling books have chronicled the rise and fall of Donald Trump, promised on Tuesday to tell readers how Fox News will end.
“I have been telling the story of the great power of Rupert Murdoch and Fox News for many years,” Wolff said, announcing his new book, The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty. “This power is now reaching a natural end and The Fall brings the story to its closing act.”
Continue reading...Maritime horror, after Dutch sailing ship Batavia wrecked off western Australia, set TV show in motion
The hit TV reality show The Traitors was originally going to involve a recreation of a real-life murderous mutiny onboard a 17th-century Dutch ship, with programme contestants pushed into the sea when voted out.
Jasper Hoogendoorn, who oversaw the programme’s development, said the show was inspired by the voyage of the Batavia, a Dutch ship which was shipwrecked off Australia in 1629.
Continue reading...‘Twitter killer’ social media platform experienced initial boom in sign-ups when it launched in July
Meta has launched a web version of its “Twitter killer” social media platform Threads that can be used without an app, as it attempts to revive itself after a recent drop in usage.
The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp launched the microblogging site in July, widely understood as an alternative for users disillusioned with Elon Musk-owned Twitter, which has since rebranded as X.
Continue reading...Yashica Dutt accuses makers of Made in Heaven of failing to acknowledge her contribution to story of bride from low caste
An Amazon Prime series on Indian wedding planners has been accused of failing to acknowledge the contribution of a Dalit journalist who says that the main character appears to be based on her own life, as recounted in a book she wrote.
Yashica Dutt, 37, has been based in New York for a few years but grew up in India amid the daily contempt to which people who belong to her caste are subjected.
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