The arrest of Telegram’s founder and CEO in Paris last month has thrown the spotlight on the messaging app and its approach to content moderation. Madeleine Finlay hears from Russian affairs reporter Pjotr Sauer and technology journalist Alex Hern about how the case could influence how social media companies approach problematic content on their platforms

Clips: Global News, NBC News

‘Internet prophet’: arrest of Telegram CEO could strengthen heroic image

Continue reading...

Refusal to comply with local laws suggests social media company ‘considered itself above the rule of law’, says judge

Members of Brazil’s supreme court have unanimously voted to uphold the ban on X, after Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with local laws led to the social network being blocked in one of its biggest markets.

On Monday, five of the court’s justices were asked to consider Friday’s decision to temporarily banish X from Brazil, where the platform has more than 21 million users. By lunchtime all five had voted in favour of the ban.

Continue reading...

All the camera, AI and performance of Google’s top Android squeezed into a tighter body

The Pixel 9 Pro is a rare beast: a smaller phone that keeps the same bold design, specs and camera as Google’s biggest and most expensive model. It makes it an instant contender for the best small phone going.

At £999 (€1,099/$999/A$1,699), it is cheaper than its larger Pixel 9 Pro XL sibling but still firmly in the high-end bracket. What sets it apart is the 6.3in screen is significantly tighter than the monster 6.7in-plus sizes you usually need to get the very best hardware.

Screen: 6.3in 120Hz QHD+ OLED (495ppi)

Processor: Google Tensor G4

RAM: 16GB of RAM

Storage: 128, 256, 512GB or 1TB

Operating system: Android 14

Camera: 50MP + 48MP ultrawide + 48MP 5x telephoto, 42MP selfie

Connectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 7, UWB, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3 and GNSS

Water resistance: IP68 (1.5m for 30 minutes)

Dimensions: 152.8 x 72.0 x 8.5mm

Weight: 199g

Continue reading...

In recent months, followers of influential liberal bloggers have been interviewed by police as China widens its net of online surveillance

Late last year, Duan*, a university student in China, used a virtual private network to jump over China’s great firewall of internet censorship and download social media platform Discord.

Overnight he entered a community in which thousands of members with diverse views debated political ideas and staged mock elections. People could join the chat to discuss ideas such as democracy, anarchism and communism. “After all, it’s hard for us to do politics in reality, so we have to do it in a group chat,” Yang Minghao, a popular vlogger, said in a video on YouTube.

Continue reading...

Campaign group says firms such as Uber should reveal data on driver miles to help boost wages

Uber and other ride-hailing apps should be forced to publish data on drivers’ workloads so that regulators can tackle exploitation and cut carbon emissions, campaigners argue.

Analysis by the pressure group Worker Info Exchange suggests drivers for Uber and its smaller rivals may have missed out on more than £1.2bn in wages and costs last year because of the way they are compensated.

Continue reading...

The nature of work is evolving rapidly, and many of us can benefit from more flexible and secure employment

In a digital age, getting away from the office is a necessary but not sufficient condition of being on holiday. Work encroaches on leisure time by multiple channels. The potential to be available by email can mutate into an obligation. Even when there is no direct pressure from bosses or colleagues, the psychological habit of logging on, spurred by fear of exclusion, can be hard to overcome .

This trend was established before the pandemic, but patterns of remote and hybrid working established in lockdown have further dissolved boundaries between work and home. That fluidity is mostly a benefit for employers and employees alike. It can widen labour market participation for people with disabilities or caring duties. There are good reasons why offices didn’t all revert to pre-pandemic practice.

Continue reading...

Two men flew between New York and London at three times the speed of sound. No other aircraft has since been as fast as the Blackbird SR-71, explains crew member Noel Widdifield

On 1 September 1974 two men made the fastest ever journey between New York and London. The astonishing trip – at three times the speed of sound – took less than two hours and set a record that still stands 50 years later.

Even the mighty Concorde , which set the record for the fastest commercial transatlantic flight in 1996, straggled in almost an hour behind.

Continue reading...

Ahead of the publication of his book about leadership – definitely not aimed at Keir Starmer – the former prime minister talks about relinquishing power, why he’s not fazed about a second Trump term and being an AI evangelist

Were you to board an aeroplane piloted by a man who has never previously sat in a cockpit, you’d be alarmed. Were you to face surgery by a woman with no medical qualifications, you’d be frightened. Politics is the one profession that can put someone in a position of great power and responsibility without any prior experience or demonstration of ability. “It’s bizarre,” Tony Blair says. “In any other walk of life, that doesn’t happen.” When he became prime minister in 1997 he was in his early forties and an absolute neophyte at governing. He was much better at it, he believes, towards the end of his decade at No 10 than at the outset. So he’s written a book about the dos and the don’ts of leadership “because government is a science as well as an art”.

In the first flush of taking power, leaders “listen eagerly” because they grasp that they know little or nothing about governing. In the second stage, they know enough to think they know everything and become impatient with listening. Hubris becomes a danger, inviting nemesis. “You’ve got some experience, but your experience makes you believe that you know more than you actually do. And that’s the risk. That’s why I say stage two is the most difficult and many people never get to stage three.” Maturity comes with the realisation that what they know is not the sum total of political knowledge. Once again, “with more humility”, they listen and learn.

Continue reading...

The banning of X in Brazil and the arrest of Telegram boss Pavel Durov won’t stop their lies

It was a breaking news alert to lift the spirits and make the heart sing. A tech billionaire arrested as he stepped off his private jet and detained by the French authorities. Happy days!

Because while the UK police have been charging individuals who incited violence online during this summer’s riots, the man who helped to fuel its flames – Elon Musk – has simply tweeted his way through it.

Continue reading...