Irish regulator fines Facebook owner €390m after EU rejects argument for use of data to drive personalised ads
The business model of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta empire has been dealt a blow following a ruling that its legal justification for targeting users with personalised ads broke EU data laws.
Campaigners said the move could force the Facebook and Instagram owner to ask users to “opt in” to having their data used for targeted ads.
Continue reading...The rapper has also drawn heavy criticism for donning a ‘white lives matter’ T-shirt during Paris fashion week
Kanye West has now had both his Instagram and Twitter accounts locked after antisemitic posts over the weekend.
Twitter locked his account Sunday after it removed one of West’s tweets saying he was going “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” because it violated the service’s policies against hate speech.
Continue reading...Coroner finds harmful online content likely to have contributed to Molly’s death ‘in a more than minimal way’
Molly Russell’s father has accused the world’s biggest social media firms of “monetising misery” after an inquest ruled that harmful online content contributed to the 14-year-old’s death.
Ian Russell accused Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, of guiding his daughter on a “demented trail of life-sucking content”, after the landmark ruling raised the regulatory pressure on social media companies.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.
Continue reading...Meta’s president of global affairs said it would be a decision ‘I oversee’ after the ex-president’s accounts were suspended in 2021
Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, is charged with deciding whether Donald Trump will be allowed to return to Facebook and Instagram in 2023, Clegg said on Thursday.
Speaking at an event held in Washington by news organization Semafor, Clegg said the company was seriously debating whether Trump’s accounts should be reinstated and said it was a decision that “I oversee and I drive”.
Continue reading...Penalty follows investigation into Instagram setting that allowed teenagers to set up accounts that displayed contact details
Instagram owner Meta has been fined €405m (£349m) by the Irish data watchdog for letting teenagers set up accounts that publicly displayed their phone numbers and email addresses.
The Data Protection Commission confirmed the penalty after a two-year investigation into potential breaches of the European Union’s general data protection regulation (GDPR).
Continue reading...UK home secretary hits out at Facebook’s owner over move that could hinder child abuse investigations
Priti Patel has hit out at Facebook’s plans to encrypt direct messages, even as the company is facing criticism in the US for failing to protect the privacy of women seeking abortions.
The UK home secretary has urged Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, as well as WhatsApp, to give up on its intentions to apply “end-to-end encryption” to direct messages sent from Messenger and Instagram.
Continue reading...The self-described sexist was removed for violating Meta’s policies on ‘dangerous organizations and individuals’
Controversial online influencer and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate has been banned from Meta platforms Instagram and Facebook.
The former kickboxer and reality TV star was removed for violating Meta policies “on dangerous organizations and individuals”, the company confirmed by email.
Continue reading...Critics calls move ‘too late too little’ after group repeatedly violated policies on Covid-19 misinformation
Instagram and Facebook have suspended a prominent anti-vaccine group led by Robert Kennedy Jr for repeatedly violating rules prohibiting misinformation about Covid-19.
The non-profit, Children’s Health Defense (CHD), is one of the most influential anti-vaccine organizations active on social media, where it has spread misleading claims about vaccines and other pandemic-related public health measures.
Continue reading...Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds University student, was charged with following and retweeting dissidents and activists
A Saudi student at Leeds University who had returned home to the kingdom for a holiday has been sentenced to 34 years in prison for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissidents and activists.
The sentencing by Saudi’s special terrorist court was handed down weeks after the US president Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia, which human rights activists had warned could embolden the kingdom to escalate its crackdown on dissidents and other pro-democracy activists.
Continue reading...Poldark creator among writers and film-makers lining up to reconstruct spat between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney
A big-budget drama featuring major characters in the Wagatha Christie case is to join the slew of documentaries already in production, as the race to bring to the small screen the rancorous details of the high court battle that ended on Friday hots up.
The row between two high-profile footballers’ wives, which ended last week when the judge ruled in favour of Coleen Rooney, is to be turned into television serial by one of Britain’s leading screenwriters. Debbie Horsfield, who adapted Poldark for the 2015-19 BBC series, is to write a drama chronicling the notorious public row between Rebekah Vardy, wife of leading Leicester goal scorer Jamie Vardy, and Coleen Rooney, wife of Wayne, the renowned former England player and, until last month, manager of Derby County.
Continue reading...Rebekah Vardy probably isn’t buzzing at the ruling, a character assassination that has left her well and truly stung by libel
Oscar Wilde, Barbra Streisand, and now – Rebekah Vardy. When news broke that Vardy had lost her libel case against Coleen Rooney, she joined this heady roster of celebrities who have launched brain-bogglingly misguided and self-wounding legal cases. Like Wilde – who sued the Marquess of Queensberry for revealing his homosexuality – Vardy went to court to deny something that a rock could see was true: she’d passed on private stories about Rooney to the press. And like Streisand – who sued a website for featuring an image of her house, thereby drawing the world’s attention to it – she believed going to court was the best way to control her image. She was wrong.
Vardy traded private details of her husband’s colleagues and their wives in the hope of currying positive coverage in the media. And because of that, Mrs Justice Steyn delivered a verdict that was even more of a character assassination than Vardy’s own memorable description of Rooney to a Daily Mail journalist: “Arguing with Coleen Rooney would be as pointless as arguing with a pigeon: you can tell it that you are right and it is wrong, but it’s still going to shit in your hair.” Well, Rebekah, you’re covered in shit now.
Continue reading...In light of the supreme court’s verdict, memes and status updates on social media on how to access the medicines have exploded
Facebook and Instagram have begun removing posts related to abortion pills, as posts about such medication spiked following the supreme court’s ruling stripping away constitutional protections for abortions.
Memes and status updates explaining how people can obtain abortion pills in the mail have exploded across social platforms in recent days.
Continue reading...The actor has announced he will speak live online to the director on 28 June
Alec Baldwin has announced he is to interview Woody Allen on Instagram Live on 28 June.
The actor made the announcement on his own Instagram account, with a note which sought to pre-empt criticism of the move.
Continue reading...Lawyer for Coleen Rooney suggests Vardy is trying to shift blame for leaking of information to Sun newspaper
Rebekah Vardy has been accused of throwing her former agent and friend “under a bus” in a last-ditch attempt to save her reputation in the “Wagatha Christie” libel trial.
The footballer’s wife was accused – during the third day of a libel trial at the high court on Thursday – of deliberately destroying evidence, habitually leaking stories to the Sun newspaper, and trying to shift the blame on to her adviser Caroline Watt.
Continue reading...Popularity of ‘finfluencers’ providing stock tips and flaunting lavish lifestyles is rising as younger demographic looks to invest
The corporate watchdog has warned Instagram and other social media influencers that they need a licence to give financial advice and face up to five years in jail if they break the law.
In a new information sheet aimed at so-called “finfluencers”, issued on Monday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) took aim at social media stock-tippers who promise big returns or promise the investments they recommend are as good as putting money in the bank.
Continue reading...There is a wealth of exciting growers, collectives and designers whose posts aim to broaden know-how and help the would-be green-fingered to cultivate their passions
Alessandro Vitale has become an Instagram and TikTok guru for urban gardeners growing their own food. The Italian tattoo studio manager films his experiments in vertical farming and organic gardening for fun- and information-packed posts. If you’re wondering about the username, it’s a reference to his chilli obsession – he has seeds for more than 600 varieties.
Social media lit up with messages and videos decrying the war, ignoring the risk that comes with speaking against a Russian dictator
Social media influencers are often maligned for their vapidity, but as the Russian army moves across Ukraine some of Russia’s biggest digital influencers have become beacons of resistance. Many are speaking out about their unease at the speed and brutality with which the Russian president is leading his country to war. Ukrainian influencers, meanwhile, are also braving the risks of attack from the advancing army to make sure to document the horror of war in mainland Europe.
Some of Russia’s biggest names in the digital sphere have spoken out against war. The daughter of Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, posted a message reading “No to war” on her Instagram story, before quickly deleting it. Max Galkin, the husband of Alla Pugacheva, and one of Russia’s biggest stars, posted a black square on Instagram and the message “Нет войне!” (“no to war!”) to his 9.4m followers. Fashion designer Svetlana Taccori took time out of Milan fashion week to post a photo holding a Ukrainian flag and the same message. Influencer Lova Olala painted the Russian and Ukrainian flag on each cheek and the caption “I have nothing to say”. The independent Russian journalist Ilya Varlamov has posted regular photos and videos highlighting Russian brutality, calling for a cessation of violence in Ukraine.
Continue reading...More and more young people are enticed by the glittering promises of a career as an influencer – but it’s usually someone else getting rich
I was a 14-year-old schoolboy when the rapper 50 Cent released Get Rich or Die Tryin’. The most precocious kids in class declared the debut hip-hop album an instant classic and hailed the rapper’s legend: “He’s been shot nine times, you know?” The failed attempt on 50 Cent’s life was at the centre of his sales pitch as the bulletproof king of gangsta rap. My friends and I were easily sold. His debut was the bestselling album of 2003, selling 12m copies worldwide. Curtis Jackson may have been born black and poor in New York, but as 50 Cent, he was now worth $30m.
There are few things we find more compelling than a fable of overcoming the odds and achieving self-made success. Everyone loves an outsider, because deep down most of us believe we are one, and each generation has its own version for inspiration. For me, it was the constant reinvention of the hustler made good in hip-hop that stuck.
Continue reading...A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Mexico
Continue reading...Oversight Board of Meta recommends exception to privacy rules should be removed
Facebook and Instagram should tighten privacy rules to protect against the revealing of private residential addresses and images online, known as doxxing, according to the independent body that decides if content should be on the social media platforms.
The Oversight Board of Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has recommended that an exception to the company’s privacy rules that allows the sharing of private residential information when it is considered “publicly available” should be removed.
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