Online safety bill to criminalise encouraging self-harm November 27, 2022 The long-awaited online safety bill is set to criminalise content that encourages self-harm as it attempts to beef up protections. While encouraging suicide is already illegal, there is widespread concern about material on the internet that encourages people to harm themselves. The recent inquest into the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell found that unsafe online [...]
Meta’s independent board overturns police requested music video ban November 22, 2022 Meta’s oversight board has overturned the decision to remove a UK drill music video clip from Instagram following a request from the Metropolitan Police. The board, which is designed to issue independent judgments on the Facebook owner, said the video ‘Secrets Not Safe’ by Chinx, which referenced gang shooting, was wrongly banned, stating that it [...]
Facebook owner Meta sued for selling personal data for ads November 21, 2022 Facebook owner Meta has been sued in the high court after claims that it disregarded the right to object against the collection of personal data to sell to advertisers. Human rights advocate Tanya O’Carroll alleges that the Silicon Valley giant has breached UK data laws by failing to respect her right to demand that it [...]
Facebook and WhatsApp owner Meta cuts 11,000 jobs November 9, 2022 Over 600 UK Meta employees could lose their jobs as the owner of Facebook launches its biggest job cull in history, cutting 11,000 jobs worldwide. In a note published this morning, chief exec Mark Zuckerberg said he would be reducing the global headcount by 13 per cent, regarding it as “some of the most difficult [...]
Facebook owner Meta gears up for mass job cuts November 7, 2022 Things seem to go from bad to worse for Meta, with the Facebook owner gearing up to announce mass layoffs this week. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that thousands of jobs are set to be culled, as the firm fends off the wider tech sell-off and slowing advertising spend. Meta declined to comment on [...]
Meta struggles: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp owner’s profits halved October 27, 2022 Owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Meta, reported a fall in its revenue for the third quarter driven by plummeting ad revenue. The social media giant’s intake was four per cent down on last year’s third quarter, from £29bn to £27bn, while its costs and expenses were up almost 20 per cent. Income was down [...]
Tech stocks get ready for a rocky road ahead October 24, 2022 BIG TECH braces itself for another testing earnings season, as the biggest names in Silicon Valley post their quarterly figures this week. Kicking off the tumble last Friday, Snapchat posted a rocky quarter, citing squeezed ad spend and ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty as the main driver. Not only has Snapchat’s parent firm lost a quarter of [...]
Pressure mounts to save end-to-end encryption cull in online safety laws October 21, 2022 The rallying cry to block new laws that could undermine end-to-end encryption have grown louder today, as free speech groups urge the government to rethink its strategy to online safety. In a fresh call this morning, the Global Encryption Coalition, which includes anonymity network Tor and Open Rights Group, said the online safety bill should [...]
Microsoft cuts more staff as Big Tech slowdown continues October 18, 2022 Microsoft continued to cull its workforce this week as the software giant feels the sting of stagnating growth, with sources telling the Business Insider that 1,000 people lost their jobs in a fresh wave of cuts. Impacted teams within the software giant included the Xbox division, the Strategic Missions team, and the office of the Chief [...]
Competition watchdog orders Facebook owner Meta to sell Giphy October 18, 2022 The competition watchdog told Facebook’s parent firm Meta this afternoon that it would need to dump Giphy, marking the first time the regulator has blocked a deal struck by a Big Tech firm. In its “final decision”, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ruled that the combination of the two companies would allow Meta to [...]