Category Archives: Media

Facebook moderators call on firm to do more about posts praising Bucha atrocities

Posted on by

Company insists any content glorifying violence against Ukrainians not allowed, but moderators say lack of guidance means they feel forced to leave up some content

Facebook moderators have called on the company to let them take action against users who praise or support the Russian military’s atrocities in Bucha and across Ukraine.

Almost a month after evidence of widespread murder and mass graves was uncovered by Ukrainian forces taking the suburb of Kyiv, the social network still has not flagged the atrocity as an “internally designated” incident, the moderators say.

Continue reading...

Elon Musk sells $8.5bn-worth of Tesla shares after Twitter deal

Posted on by

Carmaker’s shares fell this week over concerns CEO would offload stock to help fund takeover of platform

Elon Musk has sold $8.5bn (£6.8bn) worth of shares in Tesla as the world’s richest man raises cash after reaching a deal to buy Twitter.

The Tesla chief executive has committed $21bn of his own money to the funding package for acquiring the social media platform, which he agreed to buy for $44bn on Monday. Since then Musk has sold 9.6m Tesla shares, or about 5.6% of his stake in the business, according to filings with the US financial regulator.

Continue reading...

Tories ‘bending the rules’ after missing deadline for publishing Lebedev advice

Posted on by

Not releasing MI5 advice on granting peerage makes government look like it has something to hide, Labour says

Ministers have been accused of “bending the rules to dodge scrutiny” after Downing Street missed the deadline for publishing the security advice it received about granting Evgeny Lebedev a peerage.

MPs voted last month for the material to be released after reports that MI5 raised security concerns when the Evening Standard owner and son of a KGB officer was nominated by Boris Johnson to join the House of Lords in March 2020.

Continue reading...

Sage Steele sues ESPN after remarks on vaccine mandate and Obama’s race

Posted on by
  • SportsCenter host was suspended for comment made on podcast
  • Anchor says network curtailed her right to free speech

ESPN anchor Sage Steele is suing the network after claiming it curtailed her right to free speech over remarks she made last year.

Steele attracted criticism after remarks she made on a podcast hosted by former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler last September. During her appearance, the SportsCenter host called ESPN’s vaccine mandate “sick”, said female reporters should change the way they dress to avoid inappropriate comments from male athletes and questioned whether Barack Obama is Black.

Continue reading...

Elon Musk engages with tweets criticising Twitter staff

Posted on by

Acquisition agreement allows Musk to tweet about deal but not to disparage firm or its representatives

Elon Musk has engaged with tweets criticising Twitter employees despite promising not to “disparage” the company or its representatives while he completes the deal to acquire the social media platform.

The world’s richest man agreed to restrictions on his tweets as part of a 95-page agreement covering his $44bn acquisition filed on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson ‘uncomfortable’ that Mail on Sunday editor was summoned by Speaker over Rayner article – as it happened

Posted on by

No 10 says PM feels reporters must be free to report what they are told, after widely-condemned Angela Rayner article.

This live blog is closed, please follow our dedicated liveblog for updates on Russia’s war on Ukraine

In an interview with Sky News this morning Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy PM, claimed that Labour’s proposed windfall tax on energy companies (its key proposal to address the cost of living crisis) would be “disastrous”. He said:

If you look at Labour’s policy, you asked about it - of a windfall tax - that would damage investment in energy supplies we need and hike bills. It’s disastrous. It’s not serious.

What this shows is they’re coming up with frankly ill-thought through policies, but we have got a plan, a concerted plan, and I think that’s what voters want to see.

Continue reading...

Twitter takeover: EU and UK warn Elon Musk must comply or face sanctions

Posted on by

EU commissioner raises hate speech concerns as UK draws attention to penalties in online safety bill

The UK and EU have warned that Twitter must comply with new content rules or face sanctions that range from fines to a total ban, as concerns were raised that hate speech will increase on the platform under the ownership of Elon Musk.

The world’s richest man has agreed a $44bn (£34bn) deal to buy the social media network, which will hand control of a platform with 217 million users to a self-confessed “free speech absolutist”.

Continue reading...

Mail on Sunday editor rejects meeting with Speaker over Angela Rayner story

Posted on by

David Dillon had been called to a meeting with Sir Lindsay Hoyle after running a story widely condemned as sexist

The Mail on Sunday’s editor has rejected a meeting with the House of Commons speaker after a story that accused Angela Rayner of “distracting” Boris Johnson with her legs.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle had called the newspaper’s editor, David Dillon, to a meeting after it ran the story, which has been widely condemned as sexist by MPs of all political parties and prompted discussion about misogyny in Westminster.

Continue reading...

Could Elon Musk’s Twitter plans prove a costly mistake?

Posted on by

Analysis: Experts warn against reinstating banned accounts and neglecting moderation

Welcome back Donald Trump, Katie Hopkins, David Icke and Alex Jones? These are just some of the Twitter accounts that could be reinstated if the platform’s new owner-in-waiting, “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk, practices what he preaches.

All of those accounts have been permanently suspended from the platform for infractions that include, most notoriously, the former US president’s alleged support for the Capitol riot on 6 January last year. Their reinstatement now appears to be back in play given that the world’s richest man has agreed a $44bn (£35bn) takeover of the platform that banned them and has stated that “free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy”.

Continue reading...

Seven paid legal fees for witness in Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial until arrangement was revealed in court

Posted on by

Request for reimbursement from Kerry Stokes’s private company not made until after court told of network’s legal financing

The Seven Network was paying the legal fees of several SAS witnesses for Ben Roberts-Smith in his defamation trial until one of them revealed the payments in the federal court, contradicting Seven’s claim last week that the former soldier’s evidence about the source of the payments was “not correct”.

When the former SAS soldier, known as Person 5, told the court last week that his solicitor and barrister are being paid for by Seven, the network said another arm of the empire owned by Seven West Media chair, Kerry Stokes, was footing the bill.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Jeff Bezos questions China’s influence over Elon Musk’s Twitter

Posted on by

Amazon founder raises concerns after Tesla boss strikes $44bn deal to buy social media platform

Jeff Bezos has questioned whether China will lean on Elon Musk’s Tesla business to quell criticism of Beijing on Twitter.

The world’s second richest man posted a tweet raising concerns over potential Beijing influence on Twitter several hours after the Tesla chief executive, and current holder of the No 1 wealth spot, reached a $44bn (£34bn) deal with the Twitter board to buy the influential social media platform.

Continue reading...

Elon Musk, world’s richest man, reaches deal to buy Twitter for $44bn

Posted on by

Tesla chief executive will gain control over social network he has criticized over its handling of ‘free speech’

Elon Musk has reached a $44bn deal to buy Twitter in a takeover that will give the world’s richest man control of a social network with more than 200 million users.

The sale will put the Tesla chief executive in charge of a company that he has frequently criticized, claiming it has not lived up to its potential as a platform for “free speech”.

Continue reading...

Tory whips ‘asking questions’ to find MP behind Angela Rayner claims

Posted on by

Speaker seeks meeting with Mail on Sunday editor as PM threatens to unleash ‘terrors of the earth’

Conservative whips have said they are trying to find out the identity of the Tory MP responsible for misogynistic attacks on Angela Rayner, with a view to taking disciplinary action after Boris Johnson threatened to unleash “the terrors of the earth” against the culprit.

The prime minister hit out at the “sexist, misogynistic tripe” in the Mail on Sunday, which ran allegations from an anonymous MP that Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, deliberately tried to distract Johnson by crossing and uncrossing her legs in the House of Commons.

Continue reading...

Hong Kong’s Human Rights Press Awards scrapped over security law fears

Posted on by

Foreign Correspondent’s Club’s decision sparks outrage from journalists and resignations from press freedom committee

Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club has scrapped its annual human rights press awards just days before it was due to announce winners, out of fear it would violate the city’s wide-ranging national security law.

The decision sparked a number of resignations from the club’s press freedom committee, and public criticism from journalists and former award winners, who described the move as sad, and evidence that it could no longer serve in its mission to defend the press.

Continue reading...

Biden: Republicans’ Disney law shows ‘far right has taken over party’

Posted on by

Florida strips company of self-governing power for opposing Governor Ron DeSantis’s ‘don’t say gay’ law

For Joe Biden, the vote by Florida Republicans on Thursday to strip Disney of its self-governing powers was a step too far.

“Christ, they’re going after Mickey Mouse,” the president exclaimed at a fundraiser in Oregon, in apparent disbelief that state governor Ron DeSantis’s culture wars had reached the gates of the Magic Kingdom.

Continue reading...

Singapore editor jailed for defamation over corruption claims

Posted on by

Terry Xu was convicted last year after publishing a letter alleging ‘corruption at the highest echelons’

The editor of a now-closed Singaporean news outlet has been jailed for three weeks for defamation over a letter published on the site that alleged corruption among government ministers.

Terry Xu, the former editor of the Online Citizen, was convicted last year for the publication of a letter that said there was “corruption at the highest echelons”.

Continue reading...

No 10 goes into battle with archbishops over Rwanda asylum plan

Posted on by

Downing Street refuses to deny PM told MPs archbishops were being unfairly critical as church figures defend Justin Welby

Downing Street has gone into open battle with the Church of England over its condemnation of the Rwanda deportation scheme, with No 10 officials doubling down on Boris Johnson’s claim that archbishops were being unfairly critical.

The prime minister reportedly told Conservative MPs on Tuesday evening that senior clergy had criticised plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda more than they had condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This was not denied by No 10.

Continue reading...

Far-right InfoWars website files for bankruptcy protection

Posted on by

Site’s founder, Alex Jones, was found liable for damages in lawsuits related to lies he spread about 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting

Facing multiple defamation lawsuits, the far-right website InfoWars on Sunday voluntarily filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal court in Texas.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures put a hold on all civil litigation faced by companies that file for the protection and allows them to prepare turnaround plans while remaining operational.

Continue reading...

If Netflix is stumbling will Wall Street renew or cancel?

Posted on by

It disrupted the market and has more than 200m subscribers. But with slower growth, some say Netflix must change its game

Twelve years ago Jeff Bewkes, then chief executive of Time Warner, compared Netflix to the Albanian army. “It’s a little bit like, is the Albanian army going to take over the world? I don’t think so,” Bewkes told the New York Times, disparaging the streaming service’s ability to take on the established media players.

Well, the Albanian army won. Time Warner followed Netflix into streaming, NBCUniversal and Disney came after and so it carried on. In Britain, BBC and ITV invested in their streaming portals. Media was now living in Netflix’s world.

Continue reading...

Hugh Grant brings phone-hacking claim against the Sun

Posted on by

Ten years after settling case against News of the World, actor now taking action against another Rupert Murdoch title

Hugh Grant is leading a renewed attempt to prove phone hacking took place at the Sun, even as Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper continues to maintain no illegality took place there.

The actor has followed Paul Gascoigne and Sienna Miller in bringing a so-called “Sun-only” phone-hacking claim, specifically alleging that illegality took place at the daily tabloid in the 2000s. Rebekah Brooks, the current chief executive of Murdoch’s News UK business, was editor of the Sun during the period in question.

Continue reading...