Tech giants should be held to compulsory ‘code of ethics’, MPs say February 18, 2019 Facebook and other tech giants should face stricter regulation to tackle the spread of fake news and misuse of personal data, MPs said today. Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was harshly criticised in the final report on disinformation by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee, having declined several invitations to attend [...]
Jeremy Wright says social media firms could face criminal sanctions over harmful online content February 17, 2019 Culture secretary Jeremy Wright has said social media firms face criminal sanctions if they fail to protect users from harmful content, ahead of a visit to the US on the issue of internet safety. Next week Wright will head to the US with digital minister Margot James, where he expects to meet "senior people" at the [...]
It’s time to take back control – of our data February 14, 2019 Cambridge Analytica. Mark Zuckerberg in front of the US Congress. The first data breach of 2019 occurring less than 24 hours into New Year’s Day. The use and abuse of data is no longer something that we can afford to ignore. Consumers are coming to understand that their data is an economic asset for media companies, [...]
Sir Nick Clegg summoned in front of MPs over social media abuse February 5, 2019 Sir Nick Clegg has been asked to appear in front of a parliamentary committee to answer questions about the harassment of MPs on social media. The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) has written to Clegg, who is head of global affairs and communications at Facebook, asking him to give evidence as part of its inquiry [...]
Every day, we vote with our clicks that we value Facebook February 5, 2019 With front-page headlines including “Facebook paid kids and spied on them”, “Generation of web addicts”, “Wild West Web firms facing ban”, and “Stop online giants who help kill our kids”, it’s fair to say that it has not been the best UK press week for social media firms. Poor old Nick Clegg must have thought that [...]
Facebook shares soar as it beats estimates on revenue and user numbers January 30, 2019 Shares in Facebook jumped more than eight per cent in after-hours trading tonight, boosted by a welcome set of positive fourth quarter results for the beleaguered social media firm. Revenue at Facebook rose to $16.9bn (£12.9bn) in the three months to 31 December, up 30 per cent compared to the same period last year and [...]
Facebook is set to merge messaging services across Instagram, Whatsapp and Messenger January 25, 2019 Facebook is planning to streamline its messaging services by integrating Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook messenger. All three will remain separate apps, but underneath the surface they will all be inter-linked, allowing messages to travel between services, according to a report in the New York Times. The paper claims it is the personal project of the [...]
Here are all the predictions I got wrong in 2018 December 21, 2018 I should have given up making predictions in June 2017. Three months earlier, I had spoken at a conference on Brexit and suggested that the best way forward for Theresa May would be to call a snap election and strengthen her negotiating hand. I don’t know how the Prime Minister got word of my advice, [...]
Facebook documents: Four things we learned from 250 pages of confidential emails December 5, 2018 Parliament today published a tranche of confidential Facebook documents it seized as part of an inquiry into fake news. The release of nearly 250 pages of internal documents, seized from a tech firm suing the tech giant, includes emails sent between chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. Damian Collins, chair of the Digital, [...]
US judge seizes laptop of app boss who leaked Facebook info to British MPs December 2, 2018 The software company co-founder who released a trove of sensitive documents about Facebook to a parliamentary committee has been ordered by a US judge to turn in his electronic devices for inspection. San Mateo County judge V. Raymond Swope ordered Ted Kramer, the founder of Six4three – a now-defunct bikini-related app company – to pass [...]