The Guardian

Whether it’s buying and selling clothes online or some freelance work on the side, plan ahead for potential tax issues Since the start of 2024, online platforms such as Vinted, eBay and Airbnb have been required to share data with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for any users who sell more than 30 items a year or earn more than about £1,700 (the threshold is set at €2,000) a year. However, this doe…

Absurdist video urges policymakers and users to resist deliberate deterioration of platforms and devices The video’s opening shot shows a man hiding under a bed snipping in a hole in someone’s sock. Seconds later, the same man uses a saw to shorten a table leg so that it wobbles during breakfast. “My job is to make things shitty,” the man explains. “The official title is enshittificator. What I d…

Universal phone coverage is yet to arrive in Britain, making a mockery of the government’s planned scheme, writes Teresa Rodrigues . Plus a letter from Sarah Davidson What needs to be spelled out to the politicians looking to consult people about digital ID is that you cannot have a universal digital anything until you have universal phone coverage ( UK digital ID scheme to have limited use befor…

As users turn to VPNs to access pornography, experts warn collection of information creates a ‘honeytrap’ for bad actors Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast When porn sites began blocking Australians from access , it also meant X began age-checking users before they could look at adult content on the social media site. But it asked some users to send a video selfie every …

Sprawling compound, including mock-up banks and police offices, uncovered by Thai military during border clashes It is as if you have walked into a branch of one of Vietnam’s banks. A row of customer service desks, divided by plastic screens, with landline phones, promotional leaflets and staff business cards. A seated waiting area and a private meeting room. All of it features the OCB bank’s log…

Kremlin appearing to ramp up control over internet, as it tests new ‘whitelist’ restrictions and pushes people to state-owned app Muscovites have been turning to walkie-talkies and pagers amid unexplained disruptions to internet services in the capital, as the Kremlin appears to ramp up control over online activity in Russia. Users in central Moscow, as well as in St Petersburg, first reported di…

Exclusive: Technology secretary urges tech companies to do more to tackle online misogyny Ministers need to act more quickly to combat fast-changing threats from technology such as deepfakes, the technology secretary has said, as she warned about the risks women and girls face online. Liz Kendall said on Monday that technology was developing at such a pace that it was outstripping the government’…

Social media company tells MPs of continual fight against state-backed attempts, with Russia being most prolific Elon Musk’s X said it has suspended 800m accounts over a 12-month period as it fights the “massive” scale of attempts to manipulate the platform. The social media company told MPs it was continually fighting state-backed attempts to hijack the agenda on its network, with Russia being t…

AI feature generated offensive posts about Diogo Jota and the Hillsborough and Munich disasters Liverpool and Manchester United have complained to Elon Musk’s X after the Grok AI feature made offensive posts about Diogo Jota and the Hillsborough and Munich disasters. The posts were generated when users asked the AI tool to make hateful posts about the two football teams. Continue reading...

Measures could include photo ID, facial age estimation, credit card checks and confirmation of age by a parent Australia social media ban explained: everything you need to know Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australians will need to verify their age in order to access adult content on a range of places across the internet, with pornography sites and other sites hosti…

Experts say government’s shutdown means civilians are not seeing evacuation warnings before bombs hit Middle East crisis – live updates As US and Israeli bombs continue to rain down on Iran, civilians are enduring the bombardment in the dark – cut off from comprehensive information about where strikes have happened, which medical facilities are affected and where new rounds of bombings are about …

Conspiracy claims have erupted over the star’s appearance. These days, I can’t blame people for endless skepticism Last week, my ex-wife texted me. She usually does that when my son falls off his skateboard or learns a new expletive to say on the playground. This time was different. “Have you seen Jim Carrey?” she asked, apropos of nothing we had discussed previously. It was as if she was asking …

Fredrik Gertten travels the world meeting activists who have had enough of corruption, kleptocracy and structural inequality – while Bregman’s nuggets of wisdom are a joy Bicycling Dutch historian Rutger Bregman does not identify as an optimist. He says that optimism makes people lazy, complacent that history is going in the right direction. Instead he describes himself as a “possibilist”, a beli…

Social media feeds have been flooded with fake battle scenes since start of Iran conflict Elon Musk’s X will ban users from making money on the platform if they repeatedly post unlabelled AI-generated war videos, after social media feeds were flooded with fake battle scenes from the Iran conflict. The social media platform, which has about half a billion monthly active users, will suspend people …

Getting platforms to comply with the restrictions was no small feat. But it’s too early to measure the real-world mental health outcomes As the UK becomes the latest country to consider following Australia’s lead on a social media ban for teenagers, a question Australians are repeatedly being asked is: how is it going? “Our data is still minimal,” says Caroline Thain, national clinical adviser wi…