Category Archives: Internet

Cyberattack hobbles car dealers across US and Canada for third day in a row

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CDK said in a letter to its 15,000 customers that it ‘did not have a an estimated time frame for resolution’

A cyber outage at a major retail software provider for automobile dealers entered its third consecutive day on Friday, delaying car sales throughout North America, the affected companies said. The software provider, CDK, said there was no end in sight.

“The CDK outage is impacting automotive dealerships across the US and Canada, including a portion of BMW Group dealers,” a spokesperson for BMW North America told Reuters.

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Peter Dutton wants a social media ban for children. But would ‘real life’ rules work?

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The opposition leader’s announcement that age-verification would be a Coalition government priority is a big promise that technology may not be able to fulfil

Both the federal government and opposition say they are on board with the idea to ban teens under 16 from using social media, but the prime minister set an important qualifier on Thursday when he said he would support such a ban “if it can be effective”.

Guardian Essential poll last week found two-thirds of voters were in favour of raising the age teens can access social media from the 13 that the companies have set themselves up to 16.

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Elon Musk does not grasp EU fears about disinformation on X, official says

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EU commissioner Vera Jourová says tech firms must hire staff versed in legal and historical context of free speech in Europe

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, lacks understanding of European concerns over the hatred and division that can result from the spread of disinformation, a senior EU commissioner has said.

Speaking just days before the European parliamentary elections, in which disinformation, particularly Russian-backed propaganda, has been a key issue, Věra Jourová criticised what she said was a clear deterioration in content moderation on X since Musk bought the platform in 2022.

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Black Americans disproportionately encounter lies online, survey finds

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Most Americans concerned about online misinformation as election nears, according to poll by watchdog group Free Press

As US presidential elections approach, the vast majority of Americans are concerned about online misinformation and fear they do not have enough accurate information on candidates, especially local ones, a new poll has shown.

While people across the political and racial spectrum reported being “very concerned” about the deliberate spread of online misinformation, the study found Black Americans are disproportionately encountering misinformation when seeking accurate news.

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Google and Apple keeping Reddit and X in app stores despite pornography due to revenue, eSafety boss says

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Commissioner says companies have ‘huge disincentive’ to abide by their own policies on adult content amid discussions of age assurance technology

Australia’s online safety regulator has accused Apple and Google of financial motives in deciding not to remove Reddit and Elon Musk’s X from their app stores for hosting pornography in violation of their own policies.

Research cited in the eSafety commissioner’s online roadmap for age verification technology for adult sites last year reported that 41% of teens aged between 16 and 18 reported seeing pornography on X – more than the 37% who viewed pornography on dedicated adult sites.

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Kabosu, dog that inspired ‘Doge’ meme and became face of Dogecoin, dies

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Atsuko Sato announces death of her shiba inu, whose 2010 photo led her to be described as the ‘Mona Lisa of the internet’

The Japanese dog whose photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the £18bn Dogecoin cryptocurrency beloved by Elon Musk has died, her owner said.

“She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her,” Atsuko Sato wrote on her blog on Friday, thanking the fans of her shiba inu called Kabosu – the face of the ‘Doge’ meme.

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Google remains focused on its long quest for your eyeballs

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AI Overviews, announced this week, are the culmination of a long line of products dedicated to keeping you on Google.com

Google announced this week that it would begin the international rollout of its new artificial intelligence-powered search feature, called AI Overviews. When billions of people search a range of topics from news to recipes to general knowledge questions, what they see first will now be an AI-generated summary.

Google touted AI Overviews at its annual I/O developer conference as a way of delivering customers quick answers and simplifying the online search experience, but it also has another effect on the way that people engage with the internet: keeping users, and advertisers, on Google.com. It’s a new era in Google’s years-long quest for your attention.

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Starlink internet shutdown in Sudan will punish millions, Elon Musk warned

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With a widespread telecoms blackout already in place, emergency help and humanitarian aid at risk if satellite service withdrawn, say NGOs

Nearly 100 humanitarian groups in Sudan have warned Elon Musk he risks “collectively punishing” millions of Sudanese by shutting down his vital Starlink satellite internet service in the war-ravaged country.

Sudan has been grappling with a widespread telecommunications blackout for several months, with many aid groups using Starlink to operate during the humanitarian crisis which the UN has warned is the largest in decades.

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No internet, no phone: Canada wildfires expose fragility of rural infrastructure

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Remote communities suffer total loss of communications after fires damage critical fibre optic cables

Shortly before sunset on Friday, residents of Canada’s Yukon territory discovered their connection to the outside world had vanished. Internet access had gone. Mobile phones showed no signal. Landlines had failed.

Chaos quickly set in. Electronic payments couldn’t be processed. In Whitehorse, the capital, most ATMs couldn’t function and the few that did were quickly drained of cash from panicked residents. City officials warned that the ability to call police, ambulance or fire services was non-existent.

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Price, speed and Elon Musk: why some Australians are ditching the NBN

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While politicians argue over who to blame for a decline in Australia’s broadband uptake, customers are seeking more affordable ways to get online

Tens of thousands of Australians are abandoning the National Broadband Network for 5G mobile and other ways of accessing the internet with experts saying three main factors are driving people away: price, speed and Elon Musk.

Despite the NBN being only a few years past completion, between the end of June 2022 and the end of April 2024 the number of customers in the most common category of services declined by more than 65,000.

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Ofcom accused of ‘excluding’ bereaved parents from online safety consultation

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The UK regulator has been criticised by grieving families and internet abuse survivors for failing to engage with them

Bereaved parents and abuse survivors who have endured years of “preventable, life-changing harm” linked to social media say they have been denied a voice in official discussions about holding tech firms to account.

Mariano Janin, whose ­daughter Mia, 14, killed herself after online bullying, and the parents of Oliver Stephens, 13, who was murdered after a dispute on social media, are among those who have accused Ofcom of excluding them from a ­consultation process for tackling online harms.

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Stop children using smartphones until they are 13, says French report

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Children should be banned from most social media until 18 amid attempts to ‘monetise’ them, says Macron-commissioned study

Children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 13 and should be banned from accessing conventional social media such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat until they are 18, according to a report by experts commissioned by Emmanuel Macron.

The French president had asked scientists and experts to suggest screen use guidelines for children with a view to France taking unprecedented steps on limiting their exposure. It was unclear how the government might now proceed after the report’s publication. Macron said in January: “There might be bans, there might be restrictions.”

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Australian prime minister labels Elon Musk ‘an arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law’

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Anthony Albanese responds to X owner who criticised Australian authorities demanding videos of a Sydney church stabbing be removed

Australia’s prime minister has labelled X’s owner, Elon Musk, an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law” as the rift deepens between Australia and the tech platform over the removal of videos of a violent stabbing in a Sydney church.

On Monday evening in an urgent last-minute federal court hearing, the court ordered a two-day injunction against X to hide posts globally containing the footage of the alleged stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel on 15 April. The eSafety commissioner had previously directed X to remove the posts, but X had only blocked them from access in Australia pending a legal challenge.

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Paedophiles create nude AI images of children to extort them, says charity

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Internet Watch Foundation has found a manual on dark web encouraging criminals to use software tools that remove clothing

Paedophiles are being urged to use artificial intelligence to create nude images of children to extort more extreme material from them, according to a child abuse charity.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said a manual found on the dark web contained a section encouraging criminals to use “nudifying” tools to remove clothing from underwear shots sent by a child. The manipulated image could then be used against the child to blackmail them into sending more graphic content, the IWF said.

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Lawsuit in London to allege Grindr shared users’ HIV status with ad firms

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High court action will claim US owner allowed access to app users’ private information in breach of UK law

Grindr faces the prospect of legal action by hundreds of users who will allege that the dating app shared highly sensitive personal information, including in some cases their HIV status, with advertising companies.

The law firm Austen Hays is to file a claim on Monday in London’s high court alleging that the US owner of the app breached British data protection laws.

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eSafety commissioner orders X and Meta to remove violent videos following Sydney church stabbing

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Julie Inman Grant issues notices compelling companies to remove offending material within 24 hours

Facebook’s parent company Meta and X/Twitter have been told to remove violent and distressing videos and imagery of the stabbing of a prominent Orthodox Christian leader in Sydney’s west on Monday evening.

The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, told reporters on Tuesday that X and Meta had been issued with notices to remove material within 24 hours that depicted “gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail”, with the companies facing potential fines if they fail to comply.

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Use TikTok to combat misinformation, MPs tell government

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Cross-party committee urges creation of strategy engage with new platforms that appeal to young

The government needs a TikTok strategy to help combat misinformation directed at young people, MPs have said.

Members of the cross-party culture, media and sport committee said the government needed to adapt to new apps and platforms that appeal to young people who are increasingly turning away from traditional sources of news.

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Dismay as X’s most-followed accounts given blue ticks for free

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Elon Musk’s firm reverses policy of insisting on payment for ‘verified status’ – embarrassing some beneficiaries

Elon Musk has reversed one of his most notorious decisions since taking over X, the social network better known as Twitter, and started bestowing blue ticks on the site’s most-followed users – whether they want them or not.

The entrepreneur and one-time “Chief Twit” had tweeted last week that the service would grant free “premium” status to any user with more than 2,500 “verified subscriber follows” and accounts with more than 5,000 would get “premium+”. That policy is now being enacted.

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Foreign Office summons senior Chinese diplomat over ‘malicious cyber activity’

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Beijing’s chargé d’affaires told that UK government will not tolerate ‘threatening’ cyber-attacks

Ministers summoned a senior Chinese diplomat to the Foreign Office on Tuesday after accusing Beijing-backed hackers of a cyber-attack on the British elections watchdog and a surveillance operation on politicians.

The department called in China’s chargé d’affaires and told him the UK would not tolerate “threatening” cyber-attacks.

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Cyber-attacks linked to Chinese spy agencies are increasing, say analysts

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Warning comes after UK and US announce sanctions against Chinese companies following mass hacking of UK data

Cyber-attacks linked to Chinese intelligence agencies are increasing in capability and frequency as they seek to test foreign government responses, analysts have warned in the wake of revelations about a mass hacking of UK data.

On Tuesday, the UK and US governments accused hacking group Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT 31), backed by China’s government spy agency, of conducting a years-long cyber-attack campaign, targeting politicians, national security officials, journalists and businesses. The UK said the hackers had potentially gained access to information on tens of millions of UK voters held by the Electoral Commission, as well as for cyber-espionage targeting lawmakers who have been outspoken about threats from China.

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