WhatsApp could end UK services over upcoming Online Safety Bill
The UK’s Online Safety Bill is due to come into effect by the end of this year, but its rules conflict with WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption feature. The messaging app’s leaders are refusing to weaken their privacy standards when 98 percent of its users are located elsewhere. For most users of...
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Opinion – Twitter and Meta push to make social media worse
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported another round of Twitter layoffs, including Twitter Blue creator Esther Crawford. The news comes a week after Meta announced a similar paid verification service. Why is Meta copying this seemingly terrible idea? Along with another 200 employees, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has...
TikTok imposes sixty minutes screen time limit for teens
Teenagers under the age of 18 in the US must now type a password into TikTok after sixty minutes of daily use if they want to continue. It comes as the platform faces a possible ban and mounting privacy concerns. Young people in the US will have to input a...
New online tool allows teens to remove explicit images
‘Take it Down’ aims to give back agency to teens and victims of revenge porn. Young people are often vilified for sharing explicit images of themselves online. ‘Everything on the internet lasts forever’ is often the warning cry of older generations. The reality is that many teens are coerced into uploading...
Snapchat announces its own integrated chatbot ‘My AI’
Snap has announced its own ChatGPT-style chatbot called ‘My AI,’ rolling out to paying subscribers and eventually everyone. This is billed as more a virtual friend, than all-powerful writing machine. Being ahead of the curve isn’t necessarily always best. In the realm of tech, sitting back and learning from rival...
Opinion – Netflix’s anti-password sharing plan will surely backfire
Netflix has finally done it. Months of speculation re incoming anti-password sharing plans have manifested angering subscribers the world over. Are streaming platforms now completely out of touch? Once the undisputed king of the streaming farmyard, Netflix now seems hellbent on alienating its subscribers with a continuous slew of dodgy...
Gen Z rejects consumer culture with ‘de-influencing’
Instead of waxing lyrical about the latest launches, social media content creators are increasingly advising followers against purchases and calling criticism to cult-favourite products. Social media has always been synonymous with influencing. From the earliest stages of Instagram to our current, obsessive product pushing culture, nearly everyone who has ever used the internet has been swayed into buying something through influencer recommendations. Open the comment section of a...
Opinion – sexual assault victims need more digital protection
Reality star Stephen Bear was convicted for acts of revenge porn against ex-girlfriend Georgia Harrison. His case sets a precedent for protecting women in the digital world. On 2nd August 2020, reality TV star Stephen Bear and then-girlfriend Georgia Harrison were captured having sex on CCTV cameras in his garden. Harrison was unaware they were being filmed, and had asked Bear not to share the footage when they discovered it existed. But...
2022 is officially the worst year for climate scepticism on Twitter
Climate misinformation on Twitter has been more rife in 2022 than any previous year, according to recent reports. But why? People talking garbage on Twitter isn’t a new phenomenon, but we’ve lowered the bar in 2022. An exasperating rise in climate denier content ignited in 2022 on Twitter, making the year far and away the worst for this type of misinformation since the platform’s inception. Analysis conducted by The Times revealed...
Controversial influencer Andrew Tate has been arrested
The problematic Internet guru has been detained on charges of human trafficking, rape, and forming an organised crime group. Rumours are swirling on social media that his recent Twitter row with Greta Thunberg is what tipped off police to his presence in Romania. Earlier this year, Andrew Tate made headlines when he was permanently removed from social media for posting flagrantly hateful content. Domestic abuse charities have characterised...
