Constance Wu says she attempted suicide after Twitter backlash in 2019

In her first post in nearly three years, the Hustlers actor said she tried to kill herself after a negative response to tweets she had sent

Constance Wu has said that she attempted suicide after backlash to a series of “careless” tweets in 2019.

In a statement marking her first return to Twitter in nearly three years, the Hustlers actor announced her upcoming book, Making a Scene, and explained that she was “afraid of coming back on social media because I almost lost my life from it: 3 years ago, when I made careless tweets about the renewal of my TV show, it ignited outrage and internet shaming that got pretty severe.”

In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org.

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Flawed online safety bill is disaster for free speech, claim Tories

David Davis describes flagship legislation as ‘biggest accidental curtailment in modern history’

The free-speech wing of the Conservative party is lining up against the “fundamentally misdesigned” online safety bill as the government rushes to pass the legislation before the House of Commons breaks up for the summer.

The backbencher David Davis said of the flagship bill: “We all want the internet to be safe. Right now, there are too many dangers online, from videos propagating terror to posts promoting self-harm and suicide.

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Musk muses about Mars and Earth – but stays quiet on Twitter deal

Billionaire avoids talking of collapse of $44bn deal but talks about colonizing Mars and boosting Earth’s birthrates at conference

Elon Musk reportedly talked about the colonization of Mars and boosting Earth’s birthrates during his keynote address at Allen & Co’s Sun Valley conference on Saturday, but he avoided discussing his attempt to withdraw from his $44bn bid to buy Twitter.

Musk’s talk to close out this year’s edition of the Idaho conference which annually draws tech, media and finance gurus became one of the hottest tickets after lawyers for the Tesla boss filed notice Friday that he was terminating his bid to acquire Twitter. The billionaire accused the social media firm of failing to provide information on bot accounts, among other things, making observers wonder whether he would address such complaints at his speech scheduled for the next day.

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Executive bonuses will need to be justified in a review of NBN Co, new communications minister says

In opposition, Michelle Rowland said publicly-owned firm ‘might have an incentive to set and surpass artificially low targets’

NBN Co will need to demonstrate that the targets it sets for bonus payments to executives represent actual performance, under a review brought on by the new Labor government.

Communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said NBN Co targets would be considered as part of the review of government-owned business bonuses initiated under the Albanese government, which also includes Australia Post.

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Nottingham named worst UK city for broadband outages

Internet downtime for the city averages 70 hours a year, with 11m Britons losing almost two days a year

Almost 11 million consumers have suffered a broadband blackout lasting more than three hours over the last year, with Nottingham named Britain’s “outage capital”.

The average UK household lost a total of almost two days of internet time as a result of loss of service, power cuts and maintenance, figures show.

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PRGuy unmasks himself in video with Friendlyjordies after legal threat by Avi Yemini

Jeremy Maluta reveals he is behind pro-Labor Twitter account PRGuy17 but says he has no media experience or connection to Daniel Andrews

The man behind the formerly anonymous pro-Labor Twitter account PRGuy17 has unmasked himself, after far-right figure Avi Yemini attempted to use the courts to reveal whether the account had ties to the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews.

Jeremy Maluta told YouTuber Friendlyjordies in a video released on Friday that he has no PR or social media experience, works in an industry completely unrelated to politics or the media, and has no connections to Andrews.

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Trillion-dollar crypto collapse sparks flurry of US lawsuits – who’s to blame?

Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather among those being sued, but prosecuting fraud in the crypto arena is notoriously difficult

With investors worldwide looking at a collective $1.5tn in recent cryptocurrency losses, a blizzard of class-action lawsuits are being prepared. One big question is: who, if anyone, is to blame – and who could be held to account?

With inflation and interest rates rising, the best-known cryptocurrencies have been hit with heavy and continuing losses: Bitcoin has lost more than 50% of its value this year; Ethereum, its largest rival, is down 65%; and the total value of crypto assets has dropped to less than $1tn from its November 2021 peak of $3tn. US federal regulators say 46,000 people have reported losing $1bn in crypto to scams since January 2021.

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‘This is another pandemic’: a female survivor of domestic abuse in China speaks out

Chinese cyberspace is filled with videos showing violence against women and activists say only real social change will stop the abuse

Tang Ping, 31, a mother-of-two in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, says in 2014 when her first child was six months old, her husband – an academic – began routinely beating her. She felt hurt but also ashamed, blaming herself for not being a good enough wife. She did not know what to do.

Five years ago, after another round of violence, she finally summoned the courage to report her husband to the police. “I was told my injuries were not serious, therefore they could not intervene,” she says, as she prepares to legally dissolve the marriage this week.

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Bitcoin withdrawals temporarily suspended in volatile day for crypto market

Value of assets dips below $1tn after Celsius Network halts withdrawals over ‘extreme’ conditions

The cryptocurrency market has endured another day of volatility as the Binance exchange temporarily suspended bitcoin withdrawals and the total value of the digital asset market dipped below $1tn (£820bn), after a cryptocurrency lender stopped customers from taking back their funds.

The cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network halted withdrawals because of “extreme market conditions”, prompting a sell-off.

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Australian eSafety office tells websites to remove Buffalo attack video but does not block access

Commissioner issues notices to eight sites, four of which have removed material associated with the attack

The Australian office of the eSafety Commissioner has issued eight notices to websites hosting the Buffalo terrorist attack video or manifesto, but has not blocked any from being accessed in Australia.

On Saturday, an 18-year-old white man allegedly opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at the Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly Black neighbourhood of Buffalo, New York. According to US authorities, as he struck 13 people with gunfire, killing 10, he used a camera to livestream the rampage, and posted a 180-page manifesto online.

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Elon Musk: Twitter deal cannot progress without proof on bot numbers

Tesla CEO and world’s richest person expressed concerns about presence of fake accounts on platform

Elon Musk has cast further doubt over his $44bn (£35bn) takeover of Twitter after stating the deal “cannot move forward” until the social media company proves that less than 5% of its users are fake or spam accounts.

The Tesla chief executive used his Twitter account to say the agreed deal would not progress until the firm showed proof that only a small proportion of its users were fake.

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Twitter announces hiring freeze as two top executives leave

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”.

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China’s pro-Russia propaganda exposed by online activists

Mistranslations falsely blame Ukrainians for atrocities perpetrated by Russian forces against civilians

A number of Chinese government-linked media outlets and pro-Russia social media accounts are spreading pro-Kremlin sentiment on the Chinese internet by mistranslating or manipulating international news about the war in Ukraine.

In response, online, anonymous volunteers – such as those under the Twitter account Great Translation Movement – have exposed China’s pro-Russia propaganda by highlighting mistranslations that falsely blame Ukrainian troops for bombings and atrocities perpetrated by Russian forces against civilians.

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UK cybersecurity unit tackles record number of online scams in 2021

More than 2.7m attempted frauds interrupted, including fake celebrity endorsements and extortion emails

Britain’s cybersecurity unit has reported a record crackdown on internet scams after tackling more than 2.7m attempted frauds last year, a near-fourfold increase on the figure for 2020.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), an arm of the GCHQ spy agency, said the interrupted scams included fake celebrity endorsements and bogus extortion emails. It stressed, however, that the increase in detection reflected aggressive targeting by the unit rather than an increase in scams.

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Christchurch attack inquiry to examine if Australian terrorist was radicalised online

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.

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Russia’s trolling on Ukraine gets ‘incredible traction’ on TikTok

US social media researcher says authentic-seeming accounts have hundreds of thousands of followers

Russia’s online trolling operation is becoming increasingly decentralised and is gaining “incredible traction” on TikTok with misinformation aimed at sowing doubt over events in Ukraine, a US social media researcher has warned.

Darren Linvill, professor at Clemson University, South Carolina, who has been studying the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency (IRA) troll farm operation since 2017, said it was succeeding in creating more authentic-seeming posts.

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Elon Musk engages with tweets criticising Twitter staff

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.

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

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”.

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

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”.

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

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”.

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