Category Archives: Internet

AI images of child sexual abuse getting ‘significantly more realistic’, says watchdog

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Internet Watch Foundation report shows 380% increase in illegal AI-generated imagery in 2024, most of it ‘category A’

Images of child sexual abuse created by artificial intelligence are becoming “significantly more realistic”, according to an online safety watchdog.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said advances in AI are being reflected in illegal content created and consumed by paedophiles, saying: “In 2024, the quality of AI-generated videos improved exponentially, and all types of AI imagery assessed appeared significantly more realistic as the technology developed.”

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Temu and Shein drop US ad spending as they face tariffs on even small sales

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E-tailers also hiking prices after Donald Trump ends ‘de minimis’ exemption for cheap shipments from China and Hong Kong

Temu and Shein are cutting back their spending on US social media advertising as they lose an exemption on tariffs for many of their shipments from China and Hong Kong.

The online e-tailers, both of which ship low-priced China-made goods direct to US shoppers, had been on an ad spree until recently. But under an executive order from Donald Trump, as of 2 May their sales valued at under $800 will no longer be exempt from US tariffs.

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Toby Jones’s next campaign? Misinformation, and a huge immersive theatre show

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Meera Syal also to star in London production reflecting producer’s experience of censorship in Georgia

Hidden from view inside a south London warehouse, a new underground movement will be fighting the international blight of misinformation this summer.

The huge immersive event – half theatrical show, half social campaign – is to involve some of Britain’s leading acting talent, including Toby Jones and Meera Syal, and has been put together by a theatre company led by a woman who learned about misinformation the hard way, at the Georgian television station Imedi.

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Madrid plans to limit computer and tablet use in primary schools to two hours a week

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Teachers will be banned from setting homework involving screens in effort to tackle ‘risks’ of intensive use of IT at young age

The regional government of Madrid has unveiled plans to limit the use of computers and tablets in primary schools to a maximum of two hours a week in an effort to tackle “the risks associated with the early, intensive and inappropriate use of information technology”.

Under the proposals, to be enacted in September, teachers will also be banned from setting homework involving screen use.

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Women in business held back by mobile data’s cost in developing world – report

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Nearly half of female entrepreneurs surveyed by Cherie Blair Foundation for Women do not have regular internet access

The cost of a mobile data package is all that is holding back many female entrepreneurs in developing countries, according to recent research.

While social media marketing is reported to be crucial by female business owners who have access to it, 45% of women in business in low- and middle-income countries said they did not have regular internet access because of the expense and connection issues.

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More than 110 child sextortion attempts reported each month to UK police forces

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National Crime Agency launches awareness campaign, saying criminals are adapting methods and using AI

UK police forces are receiving more than 110 reports of child sextortion attempts every month, according to the National Crime Agency, as a new awareness campaign is launched about the online scourge.

The NCA said the use of artificial intelligence in sextortion attacks had also increased “substantially” over the past three years as criminals adapted their methods.

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Crypto reaps political rewards after spending big to boost Trump

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America’s biggest crypto companies are riding high. Plus, can the left reclaim techno-optimism?

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. In this week’s edition, the crypto industry’s political investments pay off in spades, the left attempts to reclaim an optimistic view of our shiny technological future, and your memories of Skype.

SpaceX’s Starship explodes in second failure for Elon Musk’s Mars program

Musk tells Republicans he isn’t to blame for mass firings of federal workers

Musk survives as fellow of Royal Society despite anger among scientists

White House to overhaul $42.5bn Biden-era internet plan – probably to Musk’s advantage

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Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access ‘weaponised’

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More governments seeking to keep millions of people offline amid conflicts, protests and political instability

Digital blackouts reached a record high in 2024 in Africa as more governments sought to keep millions of citizens off the internet than in any other period over the last decade.

A report released by the internet rights group Access Now and #KeepItOn, a coalition of hundreds of civil society organisations worldwide, found there were 21 shutdowns in 15 African countries, surpassing the existing record of 19 shutdowns in 2020 and 2021.

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US rise of cryptocurrency and fall of regulation pose ‘profound risks’ – report

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Center for Political Accountability, which advocates for corporate disclosure, warns of fallout from Trump’s efforts

A new report warns of “profound risks” in American politics as cryptocurrency companies increase their political spending and Donald Trump oversees regulatory retreat while promising to create a “crypto strategic reserve”.

The situation “illustrate[s] the profound risks that unchecked corporate political spending presents, particularly within the volatile and often unpredictable cryptocurrency industry”, reads the report, from the Center for Political Accountability (CPA), a non-profit that advocates for corporate political disclosure.

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Extreme online violence may be linked to rise of ‘0 to 100’ killers, experts say

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Criminal justice specialists call for new approach to identify emerging type of murderer with no prior convictions

The rise of “0 to 100” killers who go from watching torture, mutilation and beheading videos in their bedrooms to committing murder suggests there could be a link between extreme violence online and in real life, experts have said.

Criminal justice experts advocated a new approach, inspired by counter-terrorism, to identify an emerging type of murderer with no prior convictions, after cases such as Nicholas Prosper, who killed his mother and siblings and planned a primary school massacre.

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‘Revenge porn’ abusers allowed to keep devices with explicit images

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Prosecutors in England and Wales are failing to obtain orders requiring the deletion of intimate content shared without consent, analysis reveals

Perpetrators of “revenge porn” offences are being allowed to keep explicit images of their victims on their devices, after a failure by prosecutors to obtain orders requiring their deletion.

An Observer analysis of court records in intimate image abuse cases has found that orders for the offenders to give up their devices and delete photos and videos are rarely being made. Of 98 cases concluded in the magistrates courts in England and Wales in the past six months, just three resulted in a deprivation order.

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Meta plans to link US and India with world’s longest undersea cable project

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Project Waterworth, which involves cable longer than Earth’s circumference, to also reach South Africa and Brazil

Meta has announced plans to build the world’s longest underwater cable project, which aims to connect the US, India, South Africa, Brazil and other regions.

The tech company said Project Waterworth involved a 50,000km (31,000-mile) subsea cable, which is longer than the Earth’s circumference.

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X to pay Donald Trump $10m to settle lawsuit over Capitol attack – report

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President brought suit under X’s previous leadership after he was banned from platform following January 6 events

Elon Musk’s social media platform X will pay Donald Trump $10m to settle a lawsuit the president filed after he was banned from the platform following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, according to a report.

The lawsuit was filed against X under the leadership of its previous CEO, Jack Dorsey. After Musk purchased X, reinstated Trump’s account, began developing a relationship with the president and spent $250m on his re-election campaign, Trump’s legal team considered abandoning the lawsuit, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the case.

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Far-right populists much more likely than the left to spread fake news – study

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Amplifying misinformation is now part of radical right strategy, says Dutch study of tweets by MPs in 26 countries

Far-right populists are significantly more likely to spread fake news on social media than politicians from mainstream or far-left parties, according to a study which argues that amplifying misinformation is now part and parcel of radical right strategy.

“Radical right populists are using misinformation as a tool to destabilise democracies and gain political advantage,” said Petter Törnberg of the University of Amsterdam, a co-author of the study with Juliana Chueri of the Dutch capital’s Free University.

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Second Labour MP suspended by Labour amid offensive messages on WhatsApp group – UK politics live

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Burnley’s Oliver Ryan suspended as details emerge about Trigger Me Timbers group

Downing Street has announced a mini-reshuffle following the sacking of Andrew Gwynne as a health minister over the weekend.

Ashley Dalton is replacing Gwynne as a health minister. Dalton was a backbencher.

Forcing those whose asylum applications have been rejected or who have overstayed their visas on to planes has never been the most effective way to return people and never will be. Being punitive just scares people into hiding. They lose contact with the authorities, living a life on the margins.

Voluntary returns are far more effective, and the government should know this because it was the last Labour administration that commissioned independent agencies to run a voluntary programme that saw numbers increase. Building trust with refugee and migrant communities and treating people with dignity and humanity was far more successful than an enforcement approach.

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Parents of two murdered Southport girls speak of hearing news of attack

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Parents of Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe also criticise televising of Axel Rudakubana’s sentencing

The parents of two of the girls murdered in Southport have spoken of the moment they were told “something awful has happened” to their children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

The families of Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe also called for more protection for children from the internet and criticised the decision to televise the sentencing of Axel Rudakubana, who was jailed last month for a minimum term of 52 years.

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New CMA chair will have to assess curbs on his former employer Amazon

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Doug Gurr will lead board as watchdog rules on Microsoft and Amazon’s dominance of cloud computing market

The new chair of the UK competition watchdog will have to assess whether to curb the position of his former employer, Amazon, after an independent inquiry found that a lack of competition in the £9bn cloud computing market could mean British businesses are overpaying for services.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which last week announced the surprise appointment of former Amazon UK boss Doug Gurr as its interim chair, said that Microsoft and Amazon’s dominance of the cloud computing market could mean that British businesses are paying as much as £430m more annually for services than in a “well-functioning market”.

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Recent school shooters appear to have crossed paths in online extremist groups

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Report reveals that teen who killed one student in Nashville area interacted with Wisconsin shooter who killed two

Two teenagers who carried out deadly shootings before killing themselves at their respective high schools in attacks roughly a month apart from each other appear to have crossed paths online, according to a new joint report from ProPublica and Wisconsin Watch.

The first shooting took place on 16 December at the Abundant Life Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin. Two people – a teacher and a 14-year-old student – were killed by the shooter, 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, before she killed herself.

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Sadiq Khan warns western democracy at risk from ‘resurgent fascism’ ahead of Trump inauguration

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London mayor calls for stricter laws on harmful online content and takes aim at Elon Musk

The west must face up to a century-defining battle against a resurgent far right that is on the march across the developed world, Sadiq Khan warns today, as he calls on ministers to take on extremism ahead of Donald Trump’s second inauguration as US president.

In the most strident rallying call of any senior British politician against the march of the right in the US, France and Germany, the London mayor warns of a “resurgent fascism” online and says that stricter laws on harmful content will be needed to stem the tide.

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EU asks X for internal documents about algorithms as it steps up investigation

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Musk’s company has been accused of manipulating systems to give far-right posts and politicians greater visibility

The European Commission has asked X to hand over internal documents about its algorithms, as it steps up its investigation into whether Elon Musk’s social media platform has breached EU rules on content moderation.

The EU’s executive branch told the company it wanted to see internal documentation about its “recommender system”, which makes content suggestions to users, and any recent changes made to it, by 15 February.

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