~theguardian-world | Bookmarks (31)

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

App feature could be suspended unless child safety concerns addressed, in first use of sweeping new digital powersThe EU has said it will ban a new service launched by TikTok in Europe that it believes could be “as addictive as cigarettes” unless the company offers “compelling” fresh evidence that children are safeguarded.If the ban goes ahead, it would be the first time the EU...

Government vows to fight legal challenges over content removal orders as assistant treasurer calls platform a ‘factory for trolls and misinformation’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastAnthony Albanese has said he finds it “extraordinary” Elon Musk’s X is planning to fight content removal orders related to the video of a...

Owner of X has used social media platform to bash judge in charge of investigations into former presidentThousands of diehard supporters of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro have hit the streets of Rio to champion their embattled leader and celebrate the new hero of their far-right movement: Elon Musk.The tech billionaire has spent recent weeks using his social network X to bash Bolsonaro’s arch-enemy,...

Coalition was previously fiercely critical of Labor’s misinformation legislation, having campaigned to ‘bin the bill’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has expressed support for a crackdown on the spread of dangerous lies on social media platforms, renewing focus on the government’s misinformation legislation which was...

Bill – with updated language that extends deadline to a year for ByteDance to divest of TikTok – to go before Senate next weekThe House of Representatives voted 360 to 58 on the updated divest-or-ban bill that could lead to the first time ever that the US government has passed a law to shut down an entire social media platform.The Senate is expected to...

Bridget Thorne, a Republican elected in Fulton county in 2022, has spread election fraud lies and accused county employees of crimesA Fulton county commissioner in Georgia has been operating a private Telegram channel for years, propagating debunked claims about the 2020 election, and spreading accusations of crimes by county employees, including Ruby Freeman, an election worker defamed by Rudy Giuliani in the wake of...

Premier Chris Minns is alarmed at the ‘wildfire’ of rumour and graphic content online after Wakeley and Bondi stabbingsFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastSocial media pages “infamous” for spreading misinformation have been taken down after the Wakeley church stabbing attack, the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, said on...

Julie Inman Grant issues notices compelling companies to remove offending material within 24 hoursFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastFacebook’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...

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

Multibillionaire called for resignation of judge who ordered platform to block far-right usersElon Musk faces a legal investigation in Brazil after becoming embroiled in a public row with a supreme court judge over an order requiring the social network X to take down some far-right accounts.Justice Alexandre de Moraes had issued a court order forcing the site formerly known as Twitter to block several...

District education authorities launch multibillion-dollar lawsuit against Meta, Snap Inc and ByteDanceFour of Canada’s largest school boards have launched a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the social media companies Meta, Snap Inc and ByteDance, accusing them of acting in a “high-handed, reckless, malicious, and reprehensible manner” with products the boards claim harm student learning and “rewire” how children think.The four district boards – Ottawa-Carleton, Toronto, Peel...

Parliamentary elections thought vulnerable to fake news will test social media firms and bloc’s new DSA lawsSocial media firms including TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram will be required to put an army of factcheckers and moderators in place with a collective knowledge of 24 EU languages amid fears that the European parliamentary elections will be a prime target for disinformation campaigns run by Russia...

The change to Instagram and Threads comes as the parent company also prepares to retire the news tab from Facebook in Australia and the USInstagram users will see less of what Meta deems to be “political” content in their recommendations and feed suggestions unless they opt into it, in a change the company implemented in the past week.The change requires users to delve into...

Plan approved by vote of shareholders in Digital World Acquisition, with which Trump’s business sought to combineExplainer – How does Trump stand to make $3bn from Truth Social on the market?Investors approved plans to take Donald Trump’s social media platform public on Friday, netting the former president a paper fortune of $3bn.Trump Media & Technology, the firm behind his minnow social network Truth Social,...

A bill passed Wednesday by the House requiring TikTok owner ByteDance to sell or face a US ban is most existential threat yetThe House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would require TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media platform or face a total ban in the United States.The legislation now moves to the Senate, where its likelihood of passing is uncertain....

Some of the Tories’ ‘anti-woke warriors’ seem unaware that protection of speech in parliament does not extend to social mediaOn 28 October, Michelle Donelan, the secretary of state for science, published a letter expressing her “disgust and outrage” that two academics who had been appointed to an advisory group had been “sharing some extremist views on social media”.It was an extremely serious accusation levelled...

The National Anti-Scam Centre has warned people to beware after it had more than 400 reports of these investment scams in 2023Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe federal government has warned consumers to beware of fake news articles and deepfake videos that endorse online investment trading platform scams, saying they cost Australians more than $8m last year.The...

Publishers informed on Friday Meta would not enter new deals when current contracts expire and Facebook news tab would shut down in AprilFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastFacebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, has set itself on a collision course with the Albanese government after announcing it will stop...

World’s biggest social media firms challenge state laws blocking them from moderating certain content or banning usersMembers of the United States supreme court expressed skepticism regarding two laws being debated in oral arguments Monday, both of which deal with how social media platforms moderate content and could have broad implications for freedom of speech online.Filed by NetChoice, an association representing the world’s largest social...

Local WhatsApp group started by two mothers concerned about online safety attracts more than 4,000 membersMore than 4,000 parents have joined a group committed to barring young children from having smartphones, as concerns grow about online safety and the impact of social media on mental health.The WhatsApp group Smartphone Free Childhood was created by the former school friends Clare Fernyhough and Daisy Greenwell in...

PM flags amendments to privacy laws and strengthening of hate speech laws after publication of details of a WhatsApp group of Jewish AustraliansGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says his government will propose legislation to crack down on doxing after the publication of details of a WhatsApp group of Jewish Australians.Albanese said on...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei supported Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, which Meta said violated its policiesMeta has removed Instagram and Facebook accounts run on behalf of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, following criticism over his support for Hamas after the group’s 7 October attack on Israel that sparked the months-long war still raging in the Gaza Strip, the company confirmed on Friday.Meta, based...

Social media users get around government crackdown on negativity via US embassy conservation updateA social media post about giraffe conservation has become the latest place for people in China who are unhappy about the economy to vent their frustration, as the Chinese government increasingly cracks down on negative commentary.On 2 February, the US embassy in China posted an update on its Weibo account about...