Business secretary urged to refer Vodafone to Covid corruption commissioner
The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has been asked to refer Vodafone to the Covid corruption commissioner, after a legal claim alleged the £18bn telecoms group benefited from government pandemic support intended for small businesses.The request to examine the conduct of the FTSE 100 company follows last month’s high court claim by current and former Vodafone franchisees, which alleged the company “unjustly enriched” itself at the expense of scores of vulnerable small business owners who were running the group’s high street stores.In a letter to Reynolds, John Hayes, a Conservative MP and former minister, said: “Given the allegations about potential misuse of government Covid financial assistance, will your department refer these allegations to the ongoing inquiry into potential misappropriation of public funds during the pandemic, and the Covid corruption commissioner?”Last month Rachel Reeves appointed Tom Hayhoe, a former Conservative cabinet adviser, as her Covid corruption commissioner with the remit of clawing back billions of pounds in fraudulent contracts.While Hayhoe is initially reviewing the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), he has powers to scrutinise general government pandemic spending to ensure “everything possible has been done to recover public funds in other Covid schemes including furlough, Covid grants and bounce back loans”.Last month a group of 61 of about 150 Vodafone franchise operators filed a £120m-plus legal claim alleging the company acted in “bad faith” by unilaterally cutting fees to its franchisees; imposed swingeing fines on them totalling thousands of pounds for seemingly minor administrative errors; and then cajoled them into taking out loans and government grants to keep their businesses afloat.
The legal papers add that “Vodafone gathered information on state relief that had been awarded to some of the claimants” – and then used its knowledge of the small business grants to reduce the commission payments it was making to franchisees.These actions, the legal papers allege, effectively meant Vodafone took the benefit of government support intended for small businesses.Some of the franchisees have told the Guardian how they had suicidal thoughts because of the pressure exerted by the telecoms group.Many have been left with large personal debts of more than £100,000.Vodafone has previously said “the uptake of [government support] was at the discretion of the franchisee”, and “at no point did Vodafone UK receive government funds”.
However, it stopped short of denying Vodafone had benefited from taxpayer-funded schemes.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionThe company also said last month that it “strongly refutes” it “unjustly enriched” itself and added it had conducted “a number of investigations” into the allegations, which resulted in the company making “a number of improvements to our franchise partner programme”.“In 2022, a full assurance review was conducted into our franchise estate, taking over 400 hours.The review did find questions to be answered in relation to the franchise programme, its process and communication.It concluded with clear actions to make improvements in the areas identified,” Vodafone said.
Meta to get rid of factcheckers and recommend more political content
Meta will get rid of factcheckers, “dramatically reduce the amount of censorship” and recommend more political content on its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads, founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced.In a video message, Zuckerberg vowed to prioritise free speech after the return of Donald Trump to the White House and said that, starting in the US, he would “get rid of factcheckers and replace them with community notes similar to X”.X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, relies on other users to add caveats and context to contentious posts.Zuckerberg said Meta’s “factcheckers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created”.The tech firm’s content moderation teams will be moved from California to Texas “where there is less concern about the bias of our teams”, he said
Nick Clegg’s departure signals a new political era at Meta
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. Happy New Year! May dry January leave us all with fewer headaches. Today in TechScape: Meta promotes a Trumpian bulldog, TikTok faces mounting problems that aren’t a ban, Meta faces backlash against its approach to AI and Elon Musk meddles abroad.Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom, is now the former head of global affairs at Meta. He announced his resignation on Thursday after six years at the tech giant
Apple says it will update AI feature after inaccurate news alerts
Apple has said it will update an artificial intelligence feature that has issued inaccurate news alerts on its latest iPhones, including that a man accused of killing a US insurance boss had shot himself and that the tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.The tech company said it was developing a software update that would “further clarify” when news notifications were actually summaries generated by the company’s Apple Intelligence system. It said the update would be rolled out in the coming weeks.It follows a formal complaint by the BBC in December, when news alerts branded with the corporation’s logo told some iPhone users that Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Mangione is alive and being held at a prison in Brooklyn
British AI startup with government ties is developing tech for military drones
A company that has worked closely with the UK government on artificial intelligence safety, the NHS and education is also developing AI for military drones.The consultancy Faculty AI has “experience developing and deploying AI models on to UAVs”, or unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a defence industry partner company.Faculty has emerged as one of the most active companies selling AI services in the UK. Unlike the likes of OpenAI, Deepmind or Anthropic, it does not develop models itself, instead focusing on reselling models, notably from OpenAI, and consulting on their use in government and industry.Faculty gained particular prominence in the UK after working on data analysis for the Vote Leave campaign under Dominic Cummings, who went on to serve as Boris Johnson’s adviser
Rural internet deserts in England and Wales to finally get fast broadband
The last corners of England and Wales yet to be covered by a £5bn push to widen fast broadband could finally get access to rapid downloads, streaming and video calls after the government announced £289m in new taxpayer-funded contracts enabling coverage.After some people in broadband blackspots were forced to turn to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite-enabled internet connections, the latest deals to boost connectivity should give 131,000 households and businesses in village and rural internet deserts gigabit-level fibre coverage – allowing a high-definition movie to be downloaded in around a minute.The announcement comes after years of frustration over a mostly rural-urban digital divide. Campaigners have said slow internet in the countryside inhibits business, restricts access to online health and education services, and can worsen social isolation.The new contracts to lay full-fibre connections in areas not reached by private investment would apply in north Wales, including Anglesey, south-west Wales, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Devon, Somerset, Essex and the north-east of England, the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) announced
LA tech entrepreneur nearly misses flight after getting trapped in robotaxi
A tech entrepreneur based in Los Angeles became trapped in a malfunctioning self-driving car for several minutes last month, causing him to nearly miss a flight, he said.Mike Johns was riding in an autonomous Waymo car on his way to Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix when the vehicle began driving around a parking lot repeatedly, circling eight times as he was on the phone seeking help from the company.“I got my seat belt on. I can’t get out of the car. Has this been hacked? What’s going on?” he can be heard telling a Waymo representative in a video he posted to LinkedIn three weeks ago
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