Best of theguardian.com on Kiwi News
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136 stories from theguardian.com have been shared on Kiwi News since 20 April 2023, with 206 upvotes and 65 comments in total. The latest was shared on 11 October 2025. The 50 most upvoted are listed below.
Text under a title is an AI summary of the linked article.
- Goodbye Tinder, hello Strava: have hobby apps become the new social networks?
Hobby apps such as Strava, Goodreads and Letterboxd are drawing users away from social media and dating apps, according to this feature, which presents their gentler, interest-based communities as an alternative. Strava user numbers grew 20% in a year, per Sensor Tower, and Letterboxd grew from 1.8 million users in March 2020 to more than 14 million this summer. Goodreads has more than 150 million members. Match Group, which operates Tinder and Hinge, has seen its share price fall from above $175 in October 2021 to about $36, and it announced 6% job cuts in July. Dr Carolina Are of Northumbria University attributes the shift partly to disillusionment with algorithm-driven dating.
- Guardian will no longer post on Elon Musk’s X from its official accounts
The Guardian has announced it will no longer post content from its official editorial accounts on Elon Musk's platform X, saying the platform's benefits are now outweighed by its negatives. The news organisation cited "often disturbing content," including far-right conspiracy theories and racism, and said X's coverage of the US presidential election had crystallised the decision. The Guardian, which has more than 80 accounts on X with about 27 million followers, said X users can still share its articles and that individual reporters may keep using the platform for newsgathering. Musk responded by calling the Guardian "irrelevant" and a "laboriously vile propaganda machine."
- Tech titans bicker over $500bn AI investment announced by Trump
Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Satya Nadella publicly sparred on Wednesday over the Stargate AI infrastructure project, which Donald Trump announced on Tuesday as a $500bn investment by OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank. Musk wrote that OpenAI "doesn't actually have the money" and that SoftBank had "well under $10B secured", then posted an image of a crack pipe claiming it was the research tool OpenAI used to reach the $500bn figure. Altman responded that Musk was wrong and invited him to visit the first site under way, while Nadella told CNBC he would spend $80bn building out Azure.
- ‘It’s a pure form of gambling’: memecoins boom after Trump election
Memecoins have boomed since Donald Trump's election win, but experts quoted in the article say they have no fundamental value. Carol Alexander, a finance professor at the University of Sussex, says "There is no value whatsoever," and trader Sam Baker calls them "a pure form of gambling." The Hawk memecoin, linked to Haliey Welch, was worth $490m hours after its 4 December launch but had fallen to a market capitalisation of $17m, with Coffeezilla describing the launch as a "rug pull." According to CoinMarketCap, memecoins were valued at about $20bn at the start of the year and are now worth $118bn.
- ‘Threads is just deathly dull’
Threads has grown quickly as an alternative to X, but the article's reporters and interviewees describe it as dull and largely driven by its link to Instagram rather than by its own appeal. Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, calls Threads "deathly dull" and says it feels like a platform built to compete with Twitter by a company that hates Twitter. The article reports that Threads hit 200 million active users earlier this month, a year after launch, while Bluesky has 6 million registered accounts and 1.1 million active users. Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, says she has more than 20,000 Threads followers but has never written a post there, only cross-posting from Instagram.
- Canadian judge rules thumbs-up emoji can represent contract agreement
A Canadian judge ruled that a thumbs-up emoji can count as a valid signature for a contract, ordering farmer Chris Achter to pay C$82,000 ($61,442) for an unfulfilled flax sale. Justice Timothy Keene of the Court of King's Bench in Saskatchewan wrote that the court "readily acknowledges that a 👍 emoji is a non-traditional means to 'sign' a document" but that it was a valid way to convey the two purposes of a signature in these circumstances. Grain buyer Kent Mickleborough, of South West Terminal, had texted Achter a contract to deliver 86 tonnes of flax in November, and Achter replied with the emoji. Achter says it only confirmed receipt, while Mickleborough argued it meant acceptance.
- Maga v Musk: Trump camp divided in bitter fight over immigration policy
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have clashed with hardline Maga supporters over immigration after Donald Trump, as president-elect, chose Sriram Krishnan, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, as his AI policy adviser. Laura Loomer criticised Krishnan for supporting extensions of visas and green cards for skilled workers, calling it in "direct opposition" to Trump's agenda. Musk responded on X that "there is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent," and Ramaswamy argued that American culture's preference for "mediocrity" limits engineering hiring, drawing fierce backlash from Loomer, the podcaster Brenden Dilley and Nikki Haley.
- About 500,000 trees cut down at site of Tesla gigafactory near Berlin
Satellite analysis by the environmental intelligence company Kayrros estimates that about 500,000 trees were felled at the site of Tesla's gigafactory near Berlin. Satellite images show 329 hectares (813 acres) of forest were cut down there between March 2020 and May 2023, equivalent to roughly 13,000 tonnes of CO2 according to Kayrros chief analyst Antoine Halff, who said this is a fraction of the emissions saved by the electric cars Tesla produces each quarter. Karolina Drzewo of the campaign alliance Turn Off Tesla's Tap said the destruction was too much in one of Germany's driest regions. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
- ‘We do the job just as well as men’: Ukrainian women take on coal mining
Women are taking up traditionally male jobs in Ukrainian coal mining as the war depletes the male workforce, with women such as Ludmyla Vashkatova and Violetta Loevska now working underground at the Pokrovsk mine. Since the war began, 915 of 6,578 male workers at Metinvest's Pokrovsk mine have joined the armed forces, and about 30 women have taken underground jobs, according to Serhiy Stepanenko, the mine's head of human resources. The government lifted a law that had barred women from "harmful or dangerous" conditions, and Stepanenko said many physically demanding positions will stay closed to women and that "female employment won't fix" the worker deficit.
- How can Donald Trump’s loss-making Truth Social be worth $9bn?
Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social and trades under the ticker DJT, went public and reached a valuation near $8bn on its first day, then rose to about $9.6bn in volatile trading the next day. The article says the valuation is out of step with the company's fundamentals, citing $3.3m in advertising revenue and a $49m loss over the first nine months of last year. It attributes the share rise to "meme stock" dynamics, with investors buying in as a way to support Trump rather than to earn a profit. Under the IPO agreement, insiders must hold their stake for six months, though the board can overrule this.
- I spent a week in virtual reality. I’m shocked to say it finally works
Virtual reality has become genuinely useful for solo activities, the writer argues, even though it still feels unfinished. After a week using Meta's Quest 3 headset for work, exercise and film watching, the writer concludes that VR "now works" and may have reached a tipping point. Working in VR is described as easier to focus in, with passthrough allowing a keyboard to be seen and multiple screens placed anywhere. Problems include a headset that is about 10% too heavy, a battery that does not last a full day, and controllers that disconnect. Social VR apps, by contrast, felt empty, and Apple's Vision Pro, priced at £3,500, is described as not yet having enough compelling apps.
- Reddit shares soar after company turns first-ever profit
Reddit reported its first quarterly profit as a publicly traded company, $29.9 million on revenue of $348.4 million, up 68%, and its shares rose more than 35% the next day. CEO Steve Huffman said a new AI feature translating English posts into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German drove user growth to nearly 100 million monthly users, up 47% from the year before, according to his shareholder letter. The company forecast current-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates, helped by content licensing deals with Google and OpenAI. Jeremy Goldman of eMarketer said those AI deals are good for stability but will not fuel long-term growth.
- Photographs reveal first glimpse of uncontacted Amazon community
Automatic cameras in the Brazilian Amazon have captured the first images of the Massaco, an uncontacted community that appears to be growing despite pressure from ranchers, loggers and illegal encroachment. The Brazilian National Indigenous Peoples Foundation (Funai) estimates the Massaco now number 200 to 250 people, at least double their early 1990s population. Funai placed the cameras where it periodically leaves metal tools as gifts to discourage the group from entering farms or logging camps. Antenor Vaz, who implemented no-contact policy in Massaco in 1988, said Brazil has no law specifically protecting isolated peoples.
- Inside Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist
Peter Thiel argues in a series of four off-the-record lectures in San Francisco, held between 15 September and 6 October 2025, that the antichrist could be a figure who gains global power by constantly warning about existential threats such as Armageddon, technology and science. In his fourth lecture, Thiel says the modern katechon, the force that restrains the antichrist, is likely America, with San Francisco a possible location. The Guardian published recordings of the talks provided by an attendee, and Thiel's spokesperson, Jeremiah Hall, did not dispute the material's veracity.
- ‘His Facebook was a shrine to my face’: the day I caught my catfish
A woman discovers that a man named Paweł Sibilski has been impersonating her online with her photos. His Facebook features her pictures, uploaded since 2020 and spanning almost a decade of her life, and he has 4,600 Facebook friends. After she creates a fake account and messages him, Paweł says he started the account to make money by luring customers with a "handsome" face, then began enjoying posing as her. He also admits to starting romantic relationships with women who believed they were talking to her, and says he is 42, lives in Warsaw, and has a wife and two children.
- EU threatens TikTok Lite with ban over reward-to-watch feature
The European Commission has threatened to ban TikTok Lite's reward-for-watching feature in the EU unless TikTok provides compelling evidence that children are protected. Digital commissioner Thierry Breton said the service "could be as toxic and addictive as cigarettes" and that TikTok had "failed to prove" it complied with the Digital Services Act. The commission gave TikTok until Wednesday to present its defence before taking a final decision on enforcement. TikTok spokesperson said the company was "disappointed," noting that the rewards hub is not available to under-18s and that there is a daily limit on video watch tasks.
- How did X become so full of hatred? And is it ethical to keep using it?
X has grown more toxic since Elon Musk's 2022 takeover, and the piece asks whether it is ethical to keep using it. Joe Mulhall of Hope Not Hate says the platform has been flooded by previously de-platformed figures such as Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate, and was a central hub for the August riots after the Southport attack. Mulhall calls X an order of magnitude worse than other platforms, while Ed Saperia says controversial content drives engagement. Brazil's supreme court upheld a ban on the platform after X refused to comply with orders to suspend accounts.
- Microscopic plastics could raise risk of stroke and heart attack, study says
Researchers in Naples reported that people whose arterial plaques contained microplastics or nanoplastics were nearly five times more likely to suffer a stroke, heart attack or death from any cause over the following 34 months. Dr Raffaele Marfella, first author at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, said the study examined plaques from 304 patients with carotid artery atherosclerosis, and that polyethylene was found in 150 patients and polyvinyl chloride in 31. The article notes that the findings do not prove plastic particles cause strokes and heart attacks, and that further work is needed to confirm a role.
- Musk ‘lying like hell’ over AfD interview, says ex-EU tech leader
Former EU commissioner Thierry Breton has accused Elon Musk of "lying like hell" by claiming the EU tried to stop his interview with Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany's far-right Alternative für Deutschland. Musk posted on X that the EU was trying to prevent people from hearing the conversation, which took place on Thursday evening, after Breton sent Weidel a warning similar to a letter he had sent Musk before Musk's August interview with Donald Trump. Breton said nobody had tried to stop Musk's conversations with Trump or in Germany, and that the Digital Services Act does not silence critics. X, which is under a European Commission investigation under that law, did not respond to a request for comment.
- Meta terminates its DEI programs days before Trump inauguration
Meta is ending its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, effective immediately, days before Donald Trump's inauguration. An internal memo from vice-president of human resources Janelle Gale cited changing legal and policy landscape around DEI, including recent supreme court decisions, and said the company is ending programs such as the Diverse Slate Approach and representation goals. The memo also ends supplier diversity efforts, and the company is disbanding a team focused on DEI.
- The god illusion: why the pope is so popular as a deepfake image
Madonna posted AI-generated deepfake images showing Pope Francis embracing her, made by Italian digital artist RickDick, renewing debate over AI art that uses the pope. The pope is a frequent deepfake subject, which Sam Stockwell, a research associate at the UK's Alan Turing Institute, attributes to the large volume of photos, videos and audio of Francis on the open web. RickDick said the Francis pictures were made with a model trained on images of the pope and the singer using the paid platform Krea.ai, and that his goal is to make people think and, if possible, smile.
- Spam, junk … slop? The latest wave of AI behind the ‘zombie internet’
Slop, the term for low-quality AI-generated material published on the web, is spreading across search, social media and book retail, and the article argues its economics are hard to stop. Simon Willison, a developer and early proponent of the term, says naming the problem helps people recognise that publishing unreviewed AI content is bad behaviour. The article cites an AI-generated Microsoft Travel piece that listed the "Ottawa food bank" as a must-see attraction, and Amazon foraging books that contained dangerous mushroom advice. It also reports that Google announced AI-made answers at the top of some search results, with US users first to get the full rollout.
- Sheriffs seek to identify man found dead ‘in pool of blood’ at Burning Man
Nevada sheriffs are asking the public for help identifying a man found dead in an apparent homicide at the Burning Man festival on Saturday. Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said the man is a white male aged 35 to 40, about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, with short brown hair and facial hair. A murder investigation was launched on Sunday, and anyone who heard or saw anything between 8 and 9:30pm is asked to contact the sheriff's office. Burning Man said it is cooperating with law enforcement and asked people on the playa not to interfere.
- Bluesky adds 700,000 new members as users flee X after the US election
Bluesky has gained more than 1 million new users since the US election as people leave X, according to the company, which said it now has nearly 15 million users worldwide, up from 9 million in September. The influx comes largely from North America and the UK. Social media researcher Axel Bruns said Bluesky offers a more effective system for blocking or suspending problematic accounts, calling it a refuge for users who want the Twitter experience without far-right activism, misinformation and hate speech. Bluesky spokesperson Emily Liu said the company welcomed new users ranging from Swifties to wrestlers to city planners.
- I have a way to grab Elon Musk’s attention. Get an arrest warrant. Bruce Daisley
Former Twitter executive Bruce Daisley argues that the UK should hold social media executives personally accountable, including through arrest warrants, rather than relying on boycotts by advertisers or users. He writes that Elon Musk's posting on X, which he says has caused unrest, shows why this is needed, and he says Musk's own tweets are prioritised by the app. Daisley proposes that the government strengthen the Online Safety Act 2023 and that Ofcom be able to demand deplatforming of certain voices, citing Germany, where illegal Nazi content is routinely removed within minutes of being reported.
- Don’t trust the inevitability myth touted by the tech determinists
Zenz and Powles argue in a paper on Google Wing's delivery drones that the claim of technological inevitability helped the company win official backing, and that organised citizens can challenge it. The paper, to be published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, describes how Wing sought to operate in Australia, which hosts Google's biggest drone operation by deliveries and customers. Residents of Canberra's Bonython suburb, where a trial began in July 2018, campaigned through a Facebook page, newsletters, lobbying and freedom of information requests. In August 2023, Wing announced it would cease operations in the Canberra area, and the campaign led to a parliamentary inquiry into drone delivery.
- OpenAI tests new search engine called SearchGPT amid AI arms race
OpenAI is testing SearchGPT, a generative AI search engine that could challenge Google's dominance of online search, and plans to eventually integrate its search features into ChatGPT rather than offer a standalone product. The prototype will first launch with a small group of users and publishers before a possible wider rollout, and OpenAI says it will respond conversationally with up-to-date information and clear links to sources. The launch comes amid legal action from publishers, including the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, who allege OpenAI illegally trained its models on their work, a claim OpenAI rejects, citing "fair use."
- Elon Musk promises ‘battle in court’ over EU’s crackdown on X’s blue checks
The European Commission has issued preliminary findings that X's paid blue-tick system is deceptive and breaches the Digital Services Act, and X could face fines of up to 6% of its global turnover if confirmed. The commission said X breached the act by deceiving users with blue ticks given to untrustworthy accounts, by failing to give researchers access to public data such as posts, and by running an inadequate advertising library. Elon Musk responded that he looks forward to "a very public battle in court," claiming the commission offered an illegal secret deal to avoid a fine, which Thierry Breton denied.
- Majority of Americans wrongly believe US is in recession – and most blame Biden
Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and most of those polled blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though GDP has been growing, and 72% think inflation is increasing, even though it has fallen sharply from its 9.1% post-Covid peak. The article notes that views largely track party lines, with 70% of Republicans and 39% of Democrats saying Biden is making the economy worse. John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll, said leaders must understand that "unwinding four years of uncertainty takes time."
- Not trying to destroy art, says man planning to do that if Assange dies in jail
Russian dissident artist Andrei Molodkin is locking 16 artworks, which he estimates are worth more than $45m, in a 29-tonne Swiss safe as a protest tied to Julian Assange's imprisonment. The works, including pieces by Picasso, Rembrandt and Andy Warhol, will be destroyed by a corrosive chemical reaction within two hours only if Assange dies in prison, with a 24-hour countdown reset whenever someone close to Assange confirms his wellbeing. Molodkin says he does not expect the works to be destroyed and describes the project, called Dead Man's Switch, as a way to start a discussion about freedom of speech. Assange, held in Belmarsh prison and facing extradition to the US, is due at a court hearing on 20 and 21 February.
- ‘They’re addicting kids and they know it’: the attorney challenging social media
Matthew P Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, argues that social media platforms are harming children much as asbestos did, and that the companies knowingly designed addictive products. The firm, founded in fall 2021, represents families in cases against Meta, Snap, TikTok and Discord, and it targets product design rather than content, since section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act has shielded platforms in past content-based suits. Bergman says the approach adapts 1950s product liability concepts to modern products, and he compares the upcoming Senate hearing to the 1990s tobacco hearing on nicotine.
- Will MySpace ever lose its monopoly? (2007)
Vic Keegan argues that MySpace, Rupert Murdoch's networking site, may already be too entrenched for rivals to displace outside niche markets. He cites John Barrett of TechNewsWorld, who says MySpace is becoming a "natural monopoly" because users have invested so much personal data and every new user adds to its network value. Keegan also reports that Google's $900m (£450m) three-year advertising deal with MySpace is reportedly being renegotiated upwards. He notes that MySpace users, numbering over 150m, are not paid for the user-generated content that drives the site's advertising income.
- X goes offline in Brazil after Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with local laws
X has been blocked in Brazil, the country with the fifth largest digital population, after the supreme court ordered the ban because Elon Musk refused to comply with local laws. Millions of Brazilian users lost access on Saturday as internet providers and mobile phone companies enforced the ban, which affects more than 22 million users in the country. Justice Alexandre de Moraes accused X of operating like a "no man's land" that allowed the "massive propagation" of misinformation, hate speech and anti-democratic attacks. Bluesky reported gaining 500,000 users in the past two days, and Musk called Moraes "a dictator and a fraud."
- Meta launches its AI chatbot in the UK on Facebook and Instagram
Meta has launched its AI assistant on Facebook and Instagram in the UK and Brazil, following earlier launches in the US and Australia, while it remains unavailable in the EU. UK users can access Meta AI through an icon in their app, or through a £299 pair of Ray-Ban Meta frames that include its voice assistant. The celebrity voice feature announced last month, which uses voices including Judi Dench and John Cena, will not be available in the UK. UK users who want to stop Meta using their posts for AI training must fill out an objection form found in their app privacy settings.
- Coffee drinkers reap health boost – but only if they do it in the morning
Morning coffee drinkers in a large US study had lower mortality than people who avoided coffee, while the benefit did not appear among those who drank coffee throughout the day. Analysis of 40,725 adults in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999 to 2018) found morning drinkers were 16% less likely to die of any cause and 31% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease over a 10-year follow-up than non-drinkers. The findings, published in the European Heart Journal, do not explain the reason, though the researchers suggest later coffee may disrupt circadian rhythms and melatonin, affecting sleep, inflammation and blood pressure.
- She didn’t get an apartment because of an AI-generated score
SafeRent, an AI-powered tenant screening company, has settled a lawsuit brought by Mary Louis and Monica Douglas, who alleged its scoring system discriminated against Black and Hispanic renters using housing vouchers. Under the settlement, approved on 20 November, SafeRent will pay $2.3 million and, for five years, stop using a scoring system or making recommendations about prospective tenants who use housing vouchers. Louis, who was given a score of 324 and rejected for an apartment, said the AI did not know she always paid her rent. SafeRent admitted no wrongdoing, and spokesperson Yazmin Lopez said defending the score would divert resources from its core mission.
- ‘Elon Musk’s investment in Twitter seemed insane, but it gave him this power’
Jeff Jarvis argues that media coverage of the internet and big tech has been driven by a conflict of interest, since new technology competes with news outlets for audience and advertising dollars. In his new book, The Web We Weave, Jarvis says he fears regulation driven by moral panic over the internet will erode freedoms for everyone. He says Rupert Murdoch turned against the internet after failing at it and wasting billions of dollars, and that The Wall Street Journal fired the first shot with a series demonising the cookie and ad targeting. Jarvis also says Elon Musk's Twitter investment gave him power that led to Tesla stock rising.
- China cracks down on ‘uncivilised’ online puns used to discuss sensitive topics
China's internet regulators have launched a "clear and bright" campaign targeting puns, homophones, memes and wordplay that officials describe as "irregular and uncivilised" language online. The Cyberspace Administration of China and the ministry of education announced the campaign this month, and the People's Daily, the Communist party mouthpiece, argued in an editorial that such internet jargon confuses people and erodes the communication and ideological values of minors. The article notes that users have long used homophones and in-jokes to discuss sensitive subjects, and that state media suggests even benign-sounding puns may now be targeted.
- Google ordered to open Play store to rivals after antitrust loss to Epic Games
US district judge James Donato on Monday ordered Alphabet's Google to overhaul its Android app business, giving users more ways to download apps and pay for in-app transactions, following a jury verdict for Epic Games. For three years, Google cannot prohibit the use of in-app payment methods or block users from downloading rival third-party app stores, and it may not pay device makers to preinstall the Play store or share Play revenue with other app distributors. The injunction takes effect on 1 November, and Google plans to appeal the verdict.
- Tesla Cybertruck ‘too big and sharp’ for European roads
Transport campaigners, including James Nix of Transport & Environment, have warned that Tesla's Cybertruck is too big and sharp for European roads and have asked for EU-registered Cybertrucks to be removed from public roads. The concern centres on a Cybertruck registered in the Czech Republic in July, which had an unladen weight of 3.025 tonnes and would exceed the 3.5-tonne speed-limiter threshold with four passengers or cargo, according to the Czech transport ministry's own data. The Czech ministry says the registration is an individual approval valid only within the Czech Republic, though the truck has already been driven in Slovakia. The European Commission said it needs more information before assessing the registration.
- ‘It’s the robot we were all expecting – like C3PO’
Humanoid robots are advancing in labs and companies, but practical use outside controlled settings is still a long way off, according to the article's roboticists. Jenny Read of the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency says robotic bodies have not developed substantially since the 1950s, and that robot dexterity is a key barrier. DeepMind's DemoStart method trained a simulated hand before transferring skills to the real DEX-EE hand, which inserted a plug 64% of the time compared with 99.6% in simulation. Boston Dynamics says a general-purpose humanoid is many years away.
- Data center emissions likely 662% higher than big tech claims.
Big tech's official data center emissions appear far lower than actual emissions, according to a Guardian analysis. The analysis estimates that from 2020 to 2022, the real emissions from company-owned data centers of Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple are probably about 662% (7.62 times) higher than officially reported. The gap stems largely from renewable energy certificates (Recs), which let companies claim renewable power produced anywhere, while location-based figures reflect the electricity actually consumed. Meta reported 273 metric tons of official 2022 scope 2 emissions, while its location-based figure exceeded 3.8m metric tons.
- What Telegram founder’s arrest means for the regulation of social media firms
Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested at a Paris airport and remains in detention, which the article presents as a sharp break from the norm for social media executives. French authorities extended his detention on Sunday, and on Monday the Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, said the investigation concerned illicit transactions, child sexual abuse, fraud and refusal to communicate information to authorities. The article contrasts Telegram with end-to-end encrypted services such as WhatsApp and Signal, noting that Telegram encrypts only opt-in "secret chats" by default. Cryptography expert Matthew Green is quoted criticizing Telegram's marketing as a "secure messenger" despite this.
- Elon Musk reportedly plans to give $45m a month to pro-Trump Super Pac
Elon Musk reportedly plans to give $45m a month to America Pac, a Super Pac focused on electing Donald Trump, starting in July, according to the Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg reported that Musk has already donated "a sizable amount" to the group, though the exact figure will not be public in election filings until 15 July. Both reports relied on unnamed people familiar with Musk's plans. As of 30 June, the New York Times found that Musk had not made any donations to the Super Pac, and the group has already been backed by tech allies including Joe Lonsdale and the Winklevoss twins.
- Cool heads needed political fringe dwellers spread disinformation Trump shooting
Disinformation researcher Amanda Rogers describes social media responses to the shooting of Donald Trump as a self-sustaining spiral of misinformation from across the political spectrum, which she says creates an environment favorable to accelerationists who want civil war. Rogers, a fellow at the Century Foundation, says the scale of the problem is new and troubling. Jonathan Corpus Ong, a University of Massachusetts Amherst professor and disinformation researcher, urges readers to verify images and claims against multiple sources, noting that AI-generated fakes could be quickly produced. Early claims that the shooter used a BB gun or a 3D-printed ghost gun could not be substantiated, and police later said they recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene.
- Meta accused of breaking EU digital law by charging for ad-free social networks
The European Commission has preliminarily found that Meta's "pay or consent" model breaches the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), because it forces users to consent to combined use of their personal data unless they pay for ad-free Facebook or Instagram. The commission said Meta must launch "equivalent" versions of both services that use less personal data. Meta said the model was designed to comply with the DMA and other regulatory demands and that it will continue to engage constructively with the commission. The commission must finish its investigation by the end of March next year, and Meta faces a fine of up to 10% of global turnover, equivalent to $13.5bn (£10.5bn), if it is found to have breached the act.
- Leftwing group claim responsibility for Tesla factory arson attack in Berlin
The Vulkan activist group has claimed responsibility for a dawn arson attack on an electricity pylon at Tesla's factory in Berlin, which Tesla bosses said would halt production until the end of the week. In a 2,500-word letter released on Tuesday, the group said the factory consumed natural resources and labour and was neither ecological nor sustainable. Tesla bosses said the damage ran into hundreds of millions of euros, and Brandenburg's interior minister, Michael Stübgen, called it a perfidious attack on the electricity infrastructure. Police have opened a criminal investigation and are checking the letter's authenticity.
- As cyberwarfare threat looms, cashless Nordic nations go back to banknotes | Mir
Sweden and Norway, two of the world's most cashless societies, are now encouraging citizens to hold and use cash as a civil defence measure. Sweden's central bank reports that only one in 10 purchases are made with cash, and that Sweden and Norway have the lowest cash in circulation as a percentage of GDP in the world. In November, Sweden's defence ministry sent every home a brochure advising people to keep a minimum of a week's supply of cash. In December, a government inquiry proposed that some public and private agents be required to accept cash, a recommendation the central bank says should be implemented. Norway passed legislation allowing retailers to be fined or sanctioned for refusing cash, and former minister Emilie Mehl warned that cash will not work in a crisis unless people keep using it.
- Never have stale crisps again… nine invaluable things I’ve learned from TikTok
The US Supreme Court unanimously upheld a law requiring TikTok to be banned over national security concerns unless it finds an approved American buyer by Sunday. TikTok's China-based parent, ByteDance, had challenged the law, arguing that it violates free speech protections for more than 170 million users. Outgoing president Joe Biden has said he will not enforce the ban and will leave it to President-elect Donald Trump's administration, while many users have moved to the Chinese app Red Note. Nine household tips drawn from popular "Things I learned on TikTok" videos are also shared, such as rolling limes before squeezing them.
- Meta to fire thousands of staff as Zuckerberg warns of ‘intense year’
Meta, owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, is cutting about 5% of its global workforce, with its lowest-performing employees most likely to leave. In a memo to staff, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said he had decided to "move out low-performers faster" ahead of what he called an "intense year". Meta employed 72,000 people at the end of September, so about 3,600 workers could be affected, and US employees are expected to be notified by 10 February.
Most discussed
- Guardian will no longer post on Elon Musk’s X from its official accounts
- X goes offline in Brazil after Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with local laws
- Maga v Musk: Trump camp divided in bitter fight over immigration policy
- About 500,000 trees cut down at site of Tesla gigafactory near Berlin
- How did X become so full of hatred? And is it ethical to keep using it?