In a place denied access to basic forensic technology—and where people disappear into Israeli detention—the fate of thousands remains unknown. One of them is an autistic teenager.
Ofcom says decision is ‘real win for children and families’ but some users raise concerns over privacy
Millions of Apple iPhone customers in the UK will now have to confirm they are 18 or older to use all available services, including by showing a credit card or by scanning an ID.
The move, believed to be a first for a European market, comes amid pressure on tech companies from the government to do more to protect children online.
Continue reading...Six-week trial including whistleblowers and top executives at Meta and YouTube was first of its kind to go to trial
Meta and YouTube have been found liable for negligence for deliberately designing addictive products that hooked a young user and led to her being harmed, a jury ruled on Wednesday. The tech companies have also been found liable for failure to warn. The jury awarded the plaintiffs in the case compensatory damages of $3m.
It took nearly nine days of deliberations for the Los Angeles jury to reach its verdict. Jurors also awarded punitive damages, which will be decided during the next phase of the trial.
Continue reading...A jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in a landmark social media addiction case, ruling that addictive design features such as infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations harmed a young user and contributed to her mental health distress. The verdict awards $3 million in compensatory damages so far and could pave the way for more lawsuits seeking financial penalties and product changes across the social media industry. "Meta is responsible for 70 percent of that cost and YouTube for the remainder," notes The New York Times. "TikTok and Snap both settled with the plaintiff for undisclosed terms before the trial started." From the report: The bellwether case, which was brought by a now 20-year-old woman identified as K.G.M., had accused social media companies of creating products as addictive as cigarettes or digital casinos. K.G.M. sued Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, and Google's YouTube over features like infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations that she claimed led to anxiety and depression. The jury of seven women and five men will deliberate further to decide what further punitive damages the companies should pay for malice or fraud. The verdict in K.G.M.'s case -- one of thousands of lawsuits filed by teenagers, school districts and state attorneys general against Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap, which owns Snapchat -- was a major win for the plaintiffs. The finding validates a novel legal theory that social media sites or apps can cause personal injury. It is likely to factor into similar cases expected to go to trial this year, which could expose the internet giants to further financial damages and force changes to their products. The verdict also comes on the heels of a New Mexico jury ruling that found Meta liable for violating state law by failing to protect users of its apps from child predators.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Party intends to craft bill using reconciliation procedure, which will allow it to circumvent Senate filibuster
Senate Republicans on Wednesday announced plans to begin a unilateral push for legislation that may include funding for Donald Trump’s war with Iran and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while also including elements of a voter ID bill that is a priority of the party’s right wing.
The legislative effort – which could take weeks to play out and has no guarantee of success – comes amid a protracted standoff with Democrats over the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has led to lengthy lines at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints at some airports.
Continue reading...Party intends to craft bill using reconciliation procedure, which will allow it to circumvent Senate filibuster
Senate Republicans on Wednesday announced plans to begin a unilateral push for legislation that may include funding for Donald Trump’s war with Iran and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while also including elements of a voter ID bill that is a priority of the party’s right wing.
The legislative effort – which could take weeks to play out and has no guarantee of success – comes amid a protracted standoff with Democrats over the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has led to lengthy lines at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints at some airports.
Continue reading...Some airports advise travelers to arrive four hours before their scheduled flights as TSA staff, who have been working without pay for over a month, are not reporting for duty
Top officials at agencies affected by the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown are testifying on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. The lapse in funding for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has lasted 40 days with little end in sight.
During opening remarks, the Republican chair of the House homeland security committee, Andrew Garbarino, said that the shutdown has caused “massive disruptions” across airports, “weakened our nation’s cybersecurity posture” and “left states unsupported with less than 100 days until the start of major events across the United States, such as FIFA World Cup”.
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Meta lost a child safety trial in New Mexico after the court found its platforms failed to adequately protect kids from exploitation and misled parents about app safety. According to Ars Technica, the jury on Tuesday "deliberated for only one day before agreeing that Meta should pay $375 million in civil damages..." It's From the report: The trial followed a 2023 lawsuit filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez after The Guardian published a two-year investigation exposing child sex trafficking markets on Facebook and Instagram. Torrez's office then conducted an undercover investigation codenamed "Operation MetaPhile," in which officers posed as children on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The jury heard that these fake profiles were "simply inundated with images and targeted solicitations" from child abusers, Torrez told CNBC in 2024. Ultimately, three men were arrested amid the sting for attempting to use Meta's social networks to prey on children. At trial, Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testified that "harms to children, such as sexual exploitation and detriments to mental health, were inevitable on the company's platforms due to their vast user bases," The Guardian reported. Internal messages and documents, as well as testimony from child safety experts within and outside the company, showed that Meta repeatedly ignored warnings and failed to fix platforms to protect kids, New Mexico's AG successfully argued. Perhaps most troubling to the jury, law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also testified that Meta's reporting of crimes to children on its apps -- including child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) -- was "deficient," The Guardian reported. Rather than make it easy to trace harms on its platforms, the jury learned from frustrated cops that Meta "generated high volumes of 'junk' reports by overly relying on AI to moderate its platforms." This made its reporting "useless" and "meant crimes could not be investigated," The Guardian reported. Celebrating the win as a "historic victory," Torrez told CNBC that families had previously paid the price for "Meta's choice to put profits over kids' safety." "Meta executives knew their products harmed children, disregarded warnings from their own employees, and lied to the public about what they knew," Torrez said. "Today the jury joined families, educators, and child safety experts in saying enough is enough."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
UK’s advantageous position in the field is down to sustained long-term public investment from UK Research and Innovation and its partners, says Prof Charlotte Deane
Dr Simon Williams (Letters, 19 March) writes that ambition in quantum computing cannot succeed without sustained investment in people and fundamental science. He is correct on that point, but wrong to say that UK’s investment plans risk losing quantum computing talent.
The UK’s advantageous position in quantum has only emerged through sustained long-term public investment from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and partners into fundamental physics research projects, and the best people, infrastructure and partnerships. It is through this that the UK is poised to reap the benefits of the quantum revolution.
Continue reading...Julius Pursaill, Andy Roberts and Jane Oberman respond to Polly Hudson’s article that decried Josh Wardle for creating a new game
Josh Wardle, the inventor of Wordle, a game that gave huge pleasure to so many people during lockdown, reportedly sold it for a seven-figure sum. According to Polly Hudson (The Wordle guy’s latest move tells us a lot about modern-day ambition, 22 March), he now has the temerity to create another word game, Parseword, rather than kicking back on his yacht. Imagine if everyone who has a creative impulse kicked back after their first recognised achievement – if Michelangelo had kicked back after creating the Pietà, or Picasso had kicked back after Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Well done to Wardle, keep creating.
Julius Pursaill
London
• It seems a little unfair to characterise Josh Wardle’s new game as trying his luck again, equating it with naked ambition. It certainly seems out of kilter to be drawing parallels with that and the rampant egotism displayed recently by Timothée Chalamet. Wardle just strikes me as a bit of a word nerd and coder who likes making games. His new one seems to be a love letter to cryptic crosswords – it certainly isn’t a tilt at creating another viral sensation.
Andy Roberts
Witney, Oxfordshire