New Harry Potter game lets players pay to kill, torture characters December 15, 2022 Hogwarts Legacy, an upcoming video game unveiled features that allow users to buy in-game access to murder and torture spells. Avalanche Studios, the game’s developers, released promotional material earlier today, introducing a pay-to-play feature of the Harry Potter spin-off. In the “battle arena” segment of the game, players will be able to try out “spells” [...]
TikTok algorithm drives teens to dangerous content says new study December 15, 2022 TikTok’s algorithms drive young people towards self-harm and eating disorder content within minutes, new research suggests. According to a study from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), the video-sharing app is rife with dangerous content, including restrictive diets, suicide and self harm. The campaign group found one youth account was shown suicide content within [...]
Elon Musk offloads another £2.9bn of Tesla shares sparking investors’ fury December 15, 2022 Elon Musk has offloaded a further $3.6bn (£2.9bn) worth of Tesla shares, sparking the fury of several investors. The serial entrepreneur announced late last night he relinquished 22 million of the EV giant’s shares between Monday and Wednesday. The $3.6bn sale is the second time Musk has sold part of his stake in the company [...]
Tech start-ups tell No10 they will lose £1b if rebate cuts go ahead December 15, 2022 A number of UK based start-ups have written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, requesting that he rethink the slashed rebates for small and medium businesses. The government’s Autumn statement has limited the tax credits available to mid level companies in a bid to increase rebates available to larger businesses. According to tech start-ups this will [...]
70 per cent of Brits have better internet than last year according to Ofcom December 15, 2022 Ofcom’s latest report shows that nearly 70 per cent of the UK is covered by gigabit-capable broadband. This is an improvement from 2021 when only 47 per cent of the UK was covered by fast internet, with at least 12m homes now connected to full fibre broadband. The report on the UK’s digital infrastructure showed [...]
Spotify asks Apple to play nice, tiff between tech giants gets heated December 15, 2022 A podcast featuring Spotify’s CEO called Apple out for making the tech market unfair. Spotify has been campaigning for years to have free and fair market competition in the tech sector and have levelled accusations that Apple is harming developers and other streaming services. Over the years Apple has refused to allow competing app stores [...]
UK must bridge ‘valley of death’ for homegrown science and innovation December 15, 2022 The UK must bridge the ‘valley of death’ in which prize-winning British innovation falls and fails to be commercialised. The Global Britain Commission said in a report today that the UK government should match Germany’s Fraunhofer programme, which helps businesses turn their research into marketable intellectual property. Britain’s fiscal support of research and development (R&D) [...]
Advertising regulator tells mobile game firms to behave December 14, 2022 The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has cracked down on mobile game advertising and has asked them to follow regulations. ASA has issued new guidance to make sure mobile game advertisers don’t breach UK laws. Mobile game companies have come under fire for using sexual imagery and using targetted advertising towards minors. The new guidance warns [...]
London tech revises internal tax valuation to $11b December 14, 2022 Checkout.com, a London tech start up, has revised its internal tax valuation to $11bn. Its investor valuation earlier this year was a staggering $40bn. Checkout.com is a digital payment platform for businesses that was valued at $40b after a series D round in January. According to company filings, the firm generated a revenue of $204m [...]
UK sets aside £80m for state-of-the-art tech hub December 14, 2022 The UK government has put aside £80m to build a state of the art telecommunications lab. The lab in Solihull, West Midlands, is part of a £110m investment by the government to work with industry and improve British telecommunications. Along with working on network resilience, the lab will also focus on improving cyber security. The [...]