What next for social media regulation in the post-Trump world? January 19, 2021 Two weeks on from the storming of the US Capitol the social media excision of the 45th US President is so extensive, the holder of the most powerful office in the world is presently unable to log in to Pinterest to create a mood board for his impending house move. His exclusion has drawn condemnation from [...]
UK to regulate social media firms such as Facebook and Twitter over content removal December 11, 2020 The UK government will announce plans for a new law next week under which social media companies will have a duty to be impartial and be barred from “arbitrarily” removing comments because they are controversial, according to a report in The Times today. UK ministers will announce plans on Tuesday for a statutory duty of [...]
Exclusive: Government’s widely-mocked careers quiz cost UK taxpayer £1.7m November 12, 2020 The government’s much-mocked jobs quiz that suggested people retrain as boxers, cinema projectionists and lock keepers cost the UK taxpayer almost £1.7m, City A.M. can reveal. The Discover Your Skills and Careers tool launched last year, but saw renewed interest last month after chancellor Rishi Sunak warned that Britain’s jobs market needed to “adapt and [...]
Andrew Neil’s GB News will test whether there is appetite for a Fox News-style news channel in the UK October 2, 2020 The announcement this week that Andrew Neil, the doyen of political broadcasters since David Dimbleby quit the stage, was to be chairman of GB News and anchor its flagship evening show four times a week breathed new life into a story that had become a little stale. It was momentous for a number of reasons: [...]
The clock is ticking for Oracle to make sense of the TikTok deal September 29, 2020 What does the world’s largest enterprise software firm see in a Chinese video-sharing social networking app? Putting the intense political pressure by the US government to make this deal work to one side, the two businesses seem like chalk and cheese to hard-nosed City investors. One company is a behemoth known for serving the corporate [...]
Facebook, Youtube and Twitter strike deal with advertisers over harmful content September 23, 2020 Facebook, Youtube and Twitter have struck a deal with advertising giants over harmful content, as the Silicon Valley firms attempt to restore relations hammered by this year’s advertising boycott of social media sites. The tech giants will next year launch a new system for overseeing advertising on their sites, based on common definitions of hate [...]
Facebook shares dip after Kim Kardashian West announces boycott September 15, 2020 Shares in Facebook dipped this afternoon after Kim Kardashian West announced that she was freezing her account in protest against the sharing of misinformation on the social media platform. In a post on the site, she wrote: “I can’t sit by and stay silent while these platforms continue to allow the spreading of hate, propaganda [...]
Social media abuse to be made illegal under new online harms proposals September 11, 2020 Sending abusive messages over social media, messaging services or email could be made illegal under new proposals tabled today. The Law Commission has outlined a number of reforms designed to protect people from harmful behaviour online. The reforms, set out in a consultation paper, would criminalise any communications likely to cause harm. This includes personal [...]
Donald Trump signs executive order to regulate social media firms May 28, 2020 US president Donald Trump has this evening signed an executive order designed to weaken the legal protections around social media companies. The move comes after the president became embroiled in a dispute with Twitter, which marked one of his tweets with a fact check warning over its inaccurate claims. The president said that the order [...]
How technology is helping to maintain positive workplace culture during self-isolation March 31, 2020 Covid-19 has been disruptive to many aspects of our lives – including our work. For most organisations, remote working is quickly becoming the new normal, yet it’s a muscle many are just starting to develop. And while this transition is vital to keep employees safe, it brings with it a wealth of new challenges. Without [...]