Music rights firm One Media IP sees profits soar as it cashes in on streaming April 9, 2019 Shares in music rights company One Media IP jumped as much as 15 per cent this morning after it reported a huge rise in profits for the full year. One Media posted a 16 per cent rise in revenue to £2.7m in the year to the end of October, while pre-tax profit soared 63 per [...]
Social Media: Who watches the watchers? April 8, 2019 Social media, and especially its archetype, Facebook, has had a difficult run of publicity over the past few years. The 2016 US presidential election and the rise of “fake news” certainly did it no favours, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal which came in its wake made things worse still. Facebook’s origins as a benign thread [...]
Europe must lead the way with digital tax, says EU competition commissioner April 8, 2019 Europe must agree on plans for a new digital tax and should be the trailblazer if there is no global consensus, the EU’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager has said. The EU last month scrapped initial plans to roll out a digital tax on tech giants after opposition from several member states. Read more: EU drops [...]
The government must pause for thought before pushing ahead with “online harms” regulations April 8, 2019 A common view of the world goes thus – individuals and businesses do whatever they can to pursue their own self-interest, and must be kept in check by governments. As certain companies get bigger and bigger, greater regulations are required. While not entirely without merit, this dichotomous standpoint is excessively blunt and can result in [...]
Anti-social media: Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark on social media harm after the Christchurch terror attacks April 8, 2019 I Interrupt the former leader of my native New Zealand, Helen Clark, in the middle of a Twitter and Facebook purge. “Social media management” she says, dictating a response to one of the provocateurs or well-wishers. It’s all part of overseeing a social media following of more than 200,000, I’m sure, but especially fitting since [...]
US blocks Amazon’s attempts to ban shareholder vote on facial recognition software April 5, 2019 US authorities have blocked an effort by Amazon to prevent its investors from voting on two proposals about the sale of the company’s facial recognition service. Investors had put forward proposals for a potential audit of its facial recognition software, known as Rekognition, over concerns about breaches of privacy and civil rights. Read more: Millions [...]
Google scraps AI ethics board after just a week amid controversy over board member April 5, 2019 Google has scrapped its AI ethics board only a week after forming it following a controversy over its choice of board members. The tech giant last week unveiled its newly-formed Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC) to oversee the ethical development and use of its AI research and products. Read more: Here's how much Google [...]
Government set to hold social media firms responsible for harmful content April 5, 2019 Bosses of social media giants such as Facebook could be held responsible for rampant harmful content on their platforms, the government is set to warn next week. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will legislate for a new statutory duty of care which will be funded through a levy on media companies, according to a [...]
Snapchat set to shed users to Instagram after controversial 2017 redesign April 4, 2019 Snapchat will see a decline in users from this year as an ill-fated redesign pushes people to rival social media platforms, a new report has stated. This year 14.5m people in the UK will use Snapchat, down 2.3 per cent on last year, according to a forecast published by Emarketer. Read more: Fraudsters use Facebook [...]
Advertising watchdog used ‘child avatars’ to catch irresponsible gambling ads April 4, 2019 The advertising watchdog has revealed it used so-called child avatars to catch gambling firms targeting children with their adverts. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it rolled out the technology, which creates profiles that simulate children’s browsing activity, over a two-week period last year. Read more: New standards rolled out to protect children from gambling [...]