The Guardian

PM accused of dragging heels on forcing tech firms to block transmission of nude photos on children’s phones Internet safety and children’s rights campaigners say they have been frustrated for months by Keir Starmer’s lack of leadership on blocking child abuse images on children’s phones, speaking out after Jess Phillips resigned from the government saying she was tired of seeing “opportunities f…

Demands to upload documents for the purpose of ‘age verification’ is coming to platforms near you Want to Google your symptoms, join an ICE watch group on Facebook or scroll Reddit? You might need to show ID. Age verification is coming to platforms near you. Worse, it’ll come at the expense of your rights. More than 25 states , and multiple countries, have enacted laws requiring mixed-audience we…

Allen, a media entrepreneur, to replace founder Jonah Peretti as chief executive with ‘significant’ cost cuts to come BuzzFeed , the digital media pioneer that was once valued as high as $1.7bn amid a private equity-funded wave of interest in websites that generated massive amounts of online traffic in the 2010s, has finally changed hands for $120m. On Monday, the company announced that a control…

Report suggests that popular initiatives such as NT Live and NT at Home are making UK audiences more adventurous Theatre streaming services and cinema screenings of stage performances are not a threat to “in-person” attendance and are making audiences more adventurous, according to new research commissioned by the National Theatre . Introducing the findings on Monday, the NT’s director, Indhu Rub…

African archipelago hopes startups, digital infrastructure and diaspora investment can transform its economy For much of its history since its discovery by the Portuguese in the mid-15th century, the Cape Verde archipelago off the coast of west Africa served as a hub of the international slave trade, with Africans forcibly transported to marketplaces before being distributed across the Americas a…

With Trump wavering on Nato and war in Ukraine, Europe is scrambling to spend billions on weapons such as drones In a small workshop in England’s East Midlands, engineers at the British startup Skycutter are designing weapons for Ukraine. A row of 3D printers make the fuselage for interceptor drones, while parts such as motors and navigation chips are slotted together by hand. The same process ha…

Fears over a natural disaster or cyber attack are pushing households into contingency planning, Link survey shows Millions of Britons are “prepping” for a potential “major disruptive event” by keeping a stash of cash at home, stockpiling tinned goods or ensuring they have a battery-powered torch close to hand, new data suggests. With war raging in the Middle East and Ukraine , extreme weather bec…

Nationwide Canvas outage left students and faculty ‘dead in the water’ and rushing to rearrange end of academic year A system that thousands of schools and universities in the US use was offline on Thursday during a cyber-attack , creating chaos as students tried to study for finals and underscoring education’s dependence on technology. Students quickly took to social media to ask if others were …

Their microtonal rock has been a huge viral hit – but are they really 333-year-old aliens inspired by Borneo monkeys? The Quebecois duo tell all Recently, Angine de Poitrine had to get new heads. The alien-looking rock duo were not in fact born with the monochrome polka-dotted complexions and extruded faces that millions of listeners have obsessed over since they went viral this spring. Guitarist…

Video shows ‘looksmaxxing’ influencer shooting an apparently already dead alligator in the Everglades A controversial social media influencer known as Clavicular is facing charges in connection with a live stream showing him shooting an apparently already dead alligator in the Everglades, local Florida media has reported. Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Eric Peters and is known for the prac…

Taking on its US rival in Britain is expected to lead to ‘collateral damage’ for UK retailers “We’re here to shake up the UK e-commerce market,” says Matthew Nobbs, the UK boss of Joybuy which is spearheading a European charge by China’s version of Amazon. “I see our competitors as everyone,” he adds, reflecting the scale of ambition of the online retailer that sells home appliances, groceries, m…

Ministers have committed to changing rules for children, but how this will take shape is still up for debate The UK government committed last week to either implementing a ban on under-16s accessing social media or imposing restrictions on children’s use of those platforms. A consultation is already under way on whether to impose limits and the announcement confirms that curbs will be introduced.…

The president’s contempt for the media is explosive and his ‘disappointment’ with Australia apparent. For Meta, Google and Oracle, it’s a powerful combination The fallout of the Albanese government’s proposed News Bargaining Incentive feels predictable. The tech oligarchs will likely urge Donald Trump to punish Australia for the government’s efforts to protect publishers from the financial harm c…

Jimmy Wales remembers a toxic internet even before social media and says AI is ‘not a disaster’ for the free – and freely edited - online encyclopaedia Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, has branded the Australian social media ban an “unmitigated disaster” and an “embarrassment” that…

The internet was supposed to make travel easier. But the more I research my destination, the more I worry about visiting the wrong bits of it In the 1980s, a friend of my father navigated through Europe in a camper van with his family using only the map in the back of a pocket diary. He crossed France believing “aujourd’hui” meant “please”; you can imagine the reception he got from Parisians aski…