Technology | The Guardian

Eugen Rochko has ‘offers of hundreds of thousands of dollars’ from Silicon Valley private equity firmsThe founder of Mastodon has said he has rejected approaches from more than five US-based investors, as the Twitter rival grows in popularity after Elon Musk’s chaotic debut as a social media owner.Eugen Rochko, who launched the open-source social network in 2016, told the Financial Times he had received the offers from Silicon Valley private equity firms to put “hundreds of thousands of dollars” into the product. Continue reading...

The seven-year-old’s deep love of sweetcorn made him a viral sensation. But how do you top meeting Michelle Obama and starring on The Drew Barrymore Show?It was the height of summer when seven-year-old Tariq declared: “For me … I really like corn” – and promptly became an internet sensation. His video interview with Julian Shapiro-Barnum, host of web series Recess Therapy, went viral, as his description of corn as “a big lump with knobs” and general enthusiasm for the vegetable racked up views around the world.“What do you like about corn?” asks Shapiro-Barnum in the video, which was shot at Smorgasburg, a weekly food festival in Prospect Park, New York. “Ever since I was told that corn was real, it tasted good,” says a gap-toothed Tariq, seemingly bemused by the sheer existence of corn. “But when I tried it with butter, everything changed! … I can’t imagine a more beautiful thing! It’s corn!” Continue reading...

Former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison among politicians and celebrities whose details were in sample of allegedly hacked data published onlineThe former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison appears to have been caught up in a leak of partial data on 400 million Twitter users, along with celebrities including the model Cara Delevingne, US politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and pop singer Shawn Mendes.Morrison’s Twitter account was included in a sample of data released by an alleged cybercriminal last week.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...

Experts blame Elon Musk’s management style at Twitter for the electric carmaker’s financial problemsTesla shares fell on Tuesday to their lowest in more than two years, marking the company’s worst day in eight months, as Elon Musk’s electric carmaker confronts a rocky financial period.The company’s stock has lost more than half its value since the start of October. Investors worry that Twitter is taking much of Musk’s time, now that he is the social network’s owner and CEO. Continue reading...

Our 20 favourite pieces of the yearGary Hersham has been selling houses to the very rich for decades. At first, £1m was a big deal. Now he sells for £50m, £100m, even £200m. What does it take to stay on top in this cut-throat business? Continue reading...

Rapporteur Tendayi Achiume says projects are at expense of marginalised groups and Indigenous peoplesThe world’s reliance on hi-tech capitalist solutions to the climate and ecological crises is perpetuating racism, the outgoing UN racism rapporteur has warned.Green solutions including electric cars, renewable energy and the rewilding of vast tracts of land are being implemented at the expense of racially and ethnically marginalised groups and Indigenous peoples, Tendayi Achiume told the Guardian in an interview. Continue reading...

Education secretary Gillian Keegan’s account was completely altered, with profile picture showing Elon MuskThe Twitter account of the British education secretary appears to have been hacked. The profile picture was changed to one showing Elon Musk and several tweets were posted promoting a cryptocurrency event.On Christmas Day the account of Gillian Keegan, the MP for Chichester, replied to a number of tweets with links to a website advertising cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and dogecoin. Continue reading...

Top official confirms feature was removed but only temporarily, following Reuters report that prompted criticism of Elon MuskTwitter has restored a feature that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, after coming under pressure from users and consumer safety groups.The feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, placed a banner at the top of search results for certain topics, listing contacts for support organizations in many countries related to mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual exploitation, Covid-19, gender-based violence, natural disasters and freedom of expression.In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 and online chat is also available. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org Continue reading...

Chief executive’s comments come amid concerns over softening demand for electric carsThe Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, has said he will not sell any more of the electric car company’s stock for about two years.While speaking in a Twitter Spaces audio chat on Thursday, Musk said he foresaw the economy would be in a “serious recession” in 2023 and demand for big-ticket items would be lower. Continue reading...

San Francisco crash is the latest in a series of accidents blamed on Tesla technology, which is facing regulatory scrutinyThe driver of a 2021 Tesla Model S told California authorities the vehicle was in “full self-driving mode” when the technology malfunctioned, causing an eight-vehicle crash on the San Francisco Bay bridge last month.The crash on Thanksgiving Day resulted in two juveniles being transported to hospital and led to lengthy delays on the bridge. The incident was made public in a police report on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Sources tell Reuters law enforcement authorities are concerned about USDA’s record on animal welfare violationsLaw enforcement officials investigating Elon Musk’s Neuralink over its animal trial program are also scrutinizing the US Department of Agriculture’s oversight of the company’s operations, after the agency failed to act on violations at other research organizations, according to several people familiar with the matter.Reuters reported on 5 December that the USDA’s watchdog, the Office of the Inspector General, is investigating Neuralink, a medical device company that is developing brain implants, over potential animal-welfare violations. A federal prosecutor in the civil division at the US attorney’s office for the northern district of California requested the investigation, people familiar with the matter said. Continue reading...

Police say a member of Elon Musk’s security team is currently a suspect in their investigation, not a victimThe Twitter CEO, Elon Musk, tweeted last week that a “crazy stalker” followed a car carrying one of his children in Los Angeles last Tuesday night, “thinking it was me”, and that the stalker blocked the car from moving and climbed on to its hood.A new statement from local police provides the first official account of what happened during the incident. The South Pasadena police department has confirmed that an incident involving two vehicles was reported to the police on Tuesday night, but said that a member of Elon Musk’s security team is currently a suspect in the investigation, not a victim. Continue reading...

Collapsed cryptocurrency exchange had reputation for corporate philanthropy to tune of hundreds of millions of dollarsFTX, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, has started trying to claw back payments made by its former management to politicians, celebrities and charities, as it continues to progress through bankruptcy proceedings in the US.FTX “intends to commence actions before the bankruptcy court to require the return of such payments, with interest accruing from the date any action is commenced”, the company said, sharing an email address – FTXrepay@ftx.us – that recipients could use to voluntarily return money. Continue reading...

Our guide to the data collected by popular smart devices, from sleep and fitness trackers to DNA kitsThe season of holiday gift buying is upon us, and it can be hard to resist the coolest new tech gadgets. But not all items are created equal when it comes to privacy, experts say.In the US, there are few limits on what companies can do with your data, putting the onus on us to do our homework, says Hayley Tsukayama, a senior legislative activist at the digital advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She urges people to think through the privacy implications of gifts they’re giving to friends and family. Continue reading...

GMB union hails major victory as staff back stoppages over their demand for a pay rise to £15 an hourAmazon workers at a vast depot in Coventry are poised to go on strike in the new year, demanding pay of £15 an hour, after securing a historic yes vote in a ballot for industrial action.Members of the GMB union opted to hold a second ballot after narrowly missing the 50% turnout threshold earlier this year. Continue reading...

Revolutionaries who claim to bring down corrupt systems have proved that orthodoxy exists for a reasonFor a man on a moral crusade, Sam Bankman-Fried lived a life of surprising luxury. The $40m penthouse in the Bahamas, the supermodels and celebrities roped in to back his business ventures, and the fawning glossy magazine profiles would all be perfectly standard trappings for a Wall Street tycoon or hedge fund playboy. But they seem strangely reminiscent of the tired old capitalism Bankman-Fried got rich rejecting, not the one he was supposedly building in its place.Once one of the world’s youngest billionaires, Bankman-Fried made his fortune in cryptocurrencies – forms of digital money originally invented to circumvent the supposedly corrupt financial elite and empower the little guy – and had grand plans for giving it all away to life-changing progressive causes. But instead of bringing the rotten old order crashing down, he was this week arrested on fraud charges (which he has denied) relating to the implosion of his currency exchange FTX in what bankruptcy lawyers describe as “one of the most abrupt and difficult collapses in the history of corporate America”. Continue reading...

In the final episode of Australian Politics for 2022, political editor Katharine Murphy speaks to the minister for home affairs and cyber security Clare O’Neil about the strategic challenges for Australia and the region. These include the increased likelihood of cyber-attacks, decreasing trust in democracy and growing risks of foreign interferenceRead more:

Former Superman star Henry Cavill linked to project, and agreement includes film and merchandise plansAmazon has struck a deal with the high street games chain Games Workshop to create a series based on its hit franchise Warhammer, the science-fiction fantasy miniature war game, potentially featuring the former Superman star Henry Cavill.The London-listed Games Workshop, which has a £2.7bn market value and runs about 530 stores, has struck a deal with Amazon to develop the company’s intellectual property into film and TV productions as well as sell merchandise. Continue reading...

Many at CNN, Washington Post and the New York Times who had written critically of the new owner found their handles suspendedA number of prominent journalists who have reported on Twitter and its new chief executive, Elon Musk, appear to have been suspended or banned from the platform.In a series of evening tweets, Musk wrote that sharing his real-time location on Twitter was forbidden, and accused journalists who he alleged had been sharing information about his location of posting “assassination coordinates”. Continue reading...

The collapse of the feted company should provide a wake-up call to Rishi Sunak, who has been singing the praises of cryptocurrenciesOn 11 November 2022 FTX declared bankruptcy. The firm was once heralded as the Goldman Sachs of crypto, and its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was deemed by some the next Warren Buffett. And now, just after proclaiming in an interview that he would not be arrested, he is in custody in the Bahamas awaiting extradition to the US. He is charged with a litany of fraud and campaign finance law violations, in what US prosecutors are calling “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history”.Casual investors, along with funders ranging from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan to BlackRock, who invested millions into FTX, are now uncertain where their money went and if they will ever get it back. Amid a long series of scandals and collapses, this seems to be the one that has undermined trust of and within the cryptocurrency sector. This is far from over and if you want to keep up on it, researcher Molly White has made an excellent chart where you can watch the contagion spread.David A Banks is the director of globalisation studies at the University at Albany, SUNY and is the author of The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America Continue reading...

Facebook owner says companies are adapting and changing tactics in face of efforts to shut down activitiesMeta has warned that the use of spyware to indiscriminately target people – including journalists and activists – is a persistent threat because surveillance-for-hire companies continue to adapt and change tactics in the face of efforts to shut down their capabilities.A report by Facebook’s parent company described efforts by the social media group to remove a number of firms, including two linked to Russia, one based in Israel, and an entity in China, all of which were alleged by Meta to have been used to “scrape” Facebook and Instagram for users’ private information in an attempt to compromise users’ accounts. Continue reading...

Thirteen years in the making, James Cameron’s insipid, overlong followup to his sci-fi record-breaker is a very expensive beached whaleDrenching us with a disappointment that can hardly be admitted out loud, James Cameron’s soggy new digitised film has beached like a massive, pointless whale. The story, which might fill a 30-minute cartoon, is stretched as if by some AI program into a three-hour movie of epic tweeness.The first Avatar was a pioneering 3D sci-fi spectacular which Cameron delivered in 2009. Now, after 13 years of unimaginably expensive pixel-crunching, the aquatic followup has arrived, with a third and a fourth on the way. This one is available in 3D and 2D, and so at any rate keeping loyal to that three-dimensional vision that Cameron almost single-handedly revived but which the rest of the industry has quietly forgotten about. Yet the whole idea of the “avatar” from the first movie – the artificially created body that can be remotely piloted into an unknown world and which crucially formed a dramatic part of the audience’s 3D experience – has been left behind. Continue reading...

Latest selloff takes total sale this year to $23bn and follows loss of world’s richest man titleElon Musk has sold a further $3.6bn(£2.9bn) worth of shares in Tesla, in the same week that he lost the title of world’s richest man to France’s Bernard Arnault.The disposal, revealed in a regulatory filing, takes the total amount raised by Musk from sales of his stock in the electric carmaker this year to more than $20bn. Continue reading...

Research suggests algorithm promotes self-harm and eating disorder content within minutes of interest being shownTikTok’s recommendation algorithm pushes self-harm and eating disorder content to teenagers within minutes of them expressing interest in the topics, research suggests.The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found that the video-sharing site will promote content including dangerously restrictive diets, pro-self-harm content and content romanticising suicide to users who show a preference for the material, even if they are registered as under-18s. Continue reading...

Musk had vowed to allow @ElonJet to post but then declared accounts that listed real-time location data would be suspendedTwitter on Wednesday suspended an account that monitors the flight paths of a private jet owned by the social media giant’s new boss, Elon Musk.Later that evening, the account, @ElonJet, confirmed via tweet it was back online after being suspended for “violat[ing ] Twitter rules”. An hour later, Musk again suspended the jet-tracking account after imposing new conditions on all of Twitter’s users that the sharing of anyone’s current location was not allowed. Continue reading...

Legal action backed by Amnesty alleges hateful posts inflaming war in northern Ethiopia were allowed to flourish on platformMeta has been accused in a lawsuit of letting posts that inflamed the war in Tigray flourish on Facebook, after an Observer investigation in February revealed repeated inaction on posts that incited violence.The lawsuit, filed in the high court of Kenya, where Meta’s sub-Saharan African operations are based, alleges that Facebook’s recommendations systems amplified hateful and violent posts in the context of the war in northern Ethiopia, which raged for two years until a ceasefire was agreed in early November. The lawsuit seeks the creation of a $1.6bn (£1.3bn) fund for victims of hate speech. Continue reading...

Changpeng Zhao calls withdrawals a ‘stress test’ as investors continue to react to FTX collapseMore than a billion dollars were pulled out of Binance in a single day, according to the largest cryptocurrency exchange’s founder Changpeng Zhao, as investors across the sector continue to react to the collapse of its rival FTX.Zhao, better known as CZ, insisted that the withdrawals were simply proof of the firm footing that Binance has, calling them a “stress test” and reassuring depositors that the exchange’s reserves were sound. Continue reading...

Loss of top spot to LVMH chief executive comes after Tesla shares more than halve in valueElon Musk has lost his crown as the world’s richest person, after further falls in the value of shares in his electric car company Tesla.Forbes and Bloomberg, which track the wealth of billionaires, reported that Musk had lost the top spot to France’s Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of the luxury group LVMH. Continue reading...

Smaller, lighter and more comfortable – these earbuds pack good sound and solid battery lifeBose is back with its most-effective noise cancelling earbuds yet – a massive upgrade that are smaller, sound better and could knock Sony off the top spot.The QuietComfort Earbuds II cost £280 ($279/A$430) and are at the top end of the market, competing directly with the likes of Apple’s AirPods Pro and Sony’s WF-1000XM4.Water resistance: sweat resistant (IPX4)Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, SBC, AACBattery life: 6 hours (up to 24 hours with case)Earbud dimensions: 17.2 x 30.5 x 22.4mmEarbud weight: 6.24g eachCharging case dimensions: 59.4 x 66.3 x 26.7mmCharging case weight: 59.8gCase charging: USB-C Continue reading...

Telecommunications company says hacker searched for customers’ cryptocurrency and financial information

Research by Ofcom also found the devices give disabled people a stronger sense of independenceSmart speakers help people who live on their own feel less lonely and give some disabled people a stronger sense of independence, according to new Ofcom research.During an in-depth survey of 100 owners and 15 non-owners who tested a smart speaker, some described their device as being like a companion and said they liked being able to talk to it. Continue reading...

For one weird year, I was the human who stepped in to make sure a property chatbot didn’t blow its cover – I was a person pretending to be a computer pretending to be a personThe recruiter was a chipper woman with a master’s degree in English. Previously she had worked as an independent bookseller. “Your experience as an English grad student is ideal for this role,” she told me. The position was at a company that made artificial intelligence for real estate. They had developed a product called Brenda, a conversational AI that could answer questions about apartment listings. Brenda had been acquired by a larger company that made software for property managers, and now thousands of properties across the country had put her to work.Brenda, the recruiter told me, was a sophisticated conversationalist, so fluent that most people who encountered her took her to be human.> Hi! This is Brenda with Parc Mosaic. What unit are you interested in?> We have 1BR starting at $1,484. Do you want to come in for an appointment at 1PM on Tuesday, Jun 11?> I’m sorry to hear that! Will you be able to visit the property ahead of your move? If not, I will check with our agents to see if they can accommodate video tours.> We have 1BR and 2BR starting at $1,484.> Hi! This is Brenda with Springwoods at Lake Ridge. Which unit were you interested in?> I’m interested in the one-bed with the turret> My name is Candy> Is that OK for you?> Heavens no. My fiance has a murder charge and I’ve been evicted once … Sorry!> Well I am a police officer yet I do have a misdemeanour on my record for something stupid yet I still am a police officer is that OK?> Is that OK for you?> Yes, but I want to disclose that I’m involved in a case against another apartment complex in the area. There is a bogus $5,000 judgment that I’m seeking to have nullified on the basis of filthy, uninhabitable living conditions. I have close to 100 pictures to submit as evidence. I’d be happy to show them to you tomorrow. That’s the only thing you will find for a negative rental history. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not the complaining type; very passive. I just don’t like to be lied to, tricked, and bullied.> PS My car was also lit on fire.> How old are the appliances?> Why don’t you visit the property to see if it meets your needs?> Is this unit on the ground floor? I’m disabled and can’t use stairs.> Why don’t you visit the property to see if it meets your needs?> Hi, My Name is Charmaine Banks. . . I’m Not Looking For An Apartment, I’m Actually Looking For My Biological Father Named Ernest Lockhart Shaw & I Think He May Be Living In One Of Your Residences Possibly Apartment #1421 ?? I Was Wondering Maybe You Could Help ?> My name is Brenda, I’m a leasing agent at Springs at Kenosha. I’m responding to a call you made to this number. What unit were you interested in?> are you available to meet> we can meet at my beach house> I’m interested in you Brenda I’m married so we have to be discreet Continue reading...

Ontario was once at the center of the dairy industry. Now it’s home to Amazon’s largest warehouse and hundreds of others – with dangerous consequencesEdgar Jaime didn’t realize that the largest Amazon warehouse in the world was being constructed across the street from his vegetable farm in Ontario, California, until the walls went up.Then again, Jaime can’t say he was too surprised. Continue reading...

At a stage appearance Sunday with comedian Dave Chappelle, the audience made their disapproval of the new Twitter owner knownThe polite version is that it didn’t go quite according to plan when Elon Musk made his most recent stage appearance.“Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for the richest man in the world,” the comedian Dave Chappelle roared on stage at the Chase Center in San Francisco as he invited the Twitter owner out to join him on Sunday night. Continue reading...

It has been hailed as the AI program that could spell the end of search engines, but we should beware putting our trust in a machineAs the capabilities of natural language processing technology continue to advance, there is a growing hype around the potential of chatbots and conversational AI systems. One such system, ChatGPT, claims to be able to engage in natural, human-like conversation and even provide useful information and advice. However, there are valid concerns about the limitations of ChatGPT and other conversational AI systems, and their ability to truly replicate human intelligence and interaction.No, I didn’t write that. It was actually written by ChatGPT itself, a conversational AI software program, after I asked it to create “an opening paragraph to an article sceptical about the abilities of ChatGPT in the style of Kenan Malik”. I might quibble about the stolid prose but it’s an impressive attempt. And it is not difficult to see why there has been such excitement, indeed hype, about the latest version of the chatbot since it was released a week ago. Continue reading...

Scientists are hoping ‘historical biomolecules’ on a 15th-century missive written by Vlad Dracula, the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s vampire count, will reveal more about himOn a dark and stormy night in May this year, exactly 125 years to the day that Bram Stoker published the definitive vampire novel, two people pored over a document more than 500 years old in a room in Transylvania – signed by Dracula himself.Gleb and Svetlana Zilberstein’s mission? To extract genetic material from the letters written by Vlad Dracula – the historical inspiration for Stoker’s vampiric count – left there by his sweat, fingerprints and saliva. Continue reading...

Experts question economic case and point to environmental costs such as packaging, risks to birds and the noise factor

The Scottish photographer was looking for puffins when he spotted ‘a strange ritual by the sea’

Founder and former CEO says he could talk about what he thinks led to crash and ‘my own failings’Sam Bankman-Fried is set to testify before Congress next week about the collapse of FTX, as regulators investigate the cryptocurrency exchange he led until its recent demise.The US House committee on financial services said in a statement on Friday that the panel would hear from FTX’s newly appointed CEO, John Ray, and from Bankman-Fried on 13 December. Continue reading...

The hugely popular Lensa AI app creates portraits based on image prompts, but users say it sexualizes them unnecessarilyOfficially, the Lensa AI app creates “magic avatars” that turn a user’s selfies into lushly stylized works of art. It’s been touted by celebrities such as Chance the Rapper, Tommy Dorfman, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Britney Spears’ husband, Sam Asghari. But for many women the app does more than just spit out a pretty picture: the final results are highly sexualized, padding women’s breasts and turning their bodies into hourglass physiques.“Is it just me or are these AI selfie generator apps perpetuating misogyny?” tweeted Brandee Barker, a feminist and advocate who has worked in the tech industry. “Here are a few I got just based off of photos of my face.” One of Barker’s results showed her wearing supermodel-length hair extensions and a low-cut catsuit. Another featured her in a white bra with cleavage spilling out from the top. Continue reading...

The proposed class-action lawsuit alleges that after the takeover, 57% of women were laid off compared with 47% of menTwo women who lost their jobs at Twitter during mass layoffs after Elon Musk took over the company are suing, claiming that the company disproportionately targeted female employees for cuts.The discrimination lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal challenges to hit the company after Musk, the world’s richest person, bought the company for $44bn and set about making swift, drastic changes including laying off around half its workforce, or roughly 3,700 employees. Hundreds more subsequently resigned. Continue reading...

Encryption of iCloud storage means the information will be safeguarded from hackers as well as government agenciesApple announced a suite of security and privacy improvements on Wednesday that the company is pitching as a way to help people protect their data from hackers, including one that civil liberty and privacy advocates have long pushed for.The tech giant will soon allow users to choose to secure more of the data backed up to their iCloud using end-to-end encryption, which means no one but the user will be able to access that information. Continue reading...

San Francisco investigating Twitter after complaint says it converted rooms in its HQ into sleeping quartersTwitter is under investigation by city officials in San Francisco following a complaint that the company allegedly converted rooms in its headquarters to sleeping quarters, an inquiry that has drawn scorn from Elon Musk.As of Monday, the office has “modest bedrooms featuring unmade mattresses, drab curtains and giant conference-room telepresence monitors” with four to eight beds a floor, employees told Forbes. The changes appear to be part of Musk’s plan for “hardcore Twitter” in which he’s demanded workers dedicate “long hours at high intensity” after he fired nearly half the company’s workforce. Continue reading...

South Dakota, Maryland and Wisconsin have also issued similar directives citing security concernsGovernor Greg Abbott of Texas on Wednesday ordered state agencies to ban TikTok on government-issued devices, citing security concerns of the app’s data-sharing practices with the Chinese government.“TikTok harvests vast amounts of data from its users’ devices – including when, where and how they conduct Internet activity – and offers this trove of potentially sensitive information to the Chinese government,” according to one of the letters the governor sent to state agency leaders. Continue reading...

Online service will offer tools and sell screens, batteries and camera parts for some models released since 2020Those brave enough to attempt to fix their own iPhone or Mac with Apple’s tools can now do so in the UK and parts of Europe.The tech company is expanding its self-repair programme to Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK, allowing the public to buy genuine parts and repair kits for certain iPhones and Macs launched from 2020 onwards. Continue reading...

I pulled out before giving any bank or card numbers, but how can I protect myself now?Today I was subjected to an attempted fraud. The fraudsters made contact using Facebook Messenger and the identity of one of my friends, a former colleague.They persuaded me to believe that I had been a winner in a Facebook lottery. I pulled out before giving any bank or card details, but did reveal more information than I would have liked – my name, home address, date of birth, email, mobile and occupation.

Cryptocurrency exchange founder pledges to testify ‘once I have finished learning and reviewing what happened’The disgraced billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried has said he wants to testify before Congress about what caused the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange he founded – but first he wants to fully understand the chain of events and isn’t sure how long that might take.Bankman-Fried’s pledge, made Sunday on Twitter, came after the US House financial services committee scheduled a 13 December hearing about the failure of FTX and invited him to participate. Continue reading...

Relatives of Molly Russell and other children support changes proposed as part of online safety billBereaved families are calling for easier access to the social media histories of deceased children, supporting amendments to the online safety bill.The changes have been proposed by Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer, as the bill returns to parliament on Monday. It is being supported by the family of Molly Russell, a 14-year-old who took her own life in 2017 after months of viewing harmful online content related to suicide, depression, self-harm and anxiety.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org. Continue reading...

Watchdog must stop misleading ads locking consumers into deals up to £240 more than thought, says opposition partyLabour has called on the advertising watchdog to fast-track new rules to protect consumers from misleading marketing that could encourage them sign up to mobile and broadband deals this Christmas that will cost them hundreds of pounds more than they expected.The call follows the closure of a consultation by the Committees of Advertising Practice (Cap) – which writes the codes that all UK advertisers have to follow when running ads in any media – investigating whether telecoms companies are clearly telling consumers about looming price rises in their campaigns. Continue reading...

The French president had flagged concerns over the platform’s content moderation just a day beforeEmmanuel Macron said he had a “clear and honest” discussion with Elon Musk about Twitter’s content moderation policies, just a day after the French president had flagged his concerns on the issue.“Transparent user policies, significant reinforcement of content moderation and protection of freedom of speech: efforts have to be made by Twitter to comply with European regulations,” Macron said in a tweet after his meeting with Musk on Friday afternoon. Continue reading...