Parents sue TikTok over child deaths allegedly caused by ‘blackout challenge’

The parents of four British teenagers have sued TikTok over the deaths of their children, which they claim were the result of the viral “blackout challenge”.The lawsuit claims Isaac Kenevan, 13, Archie Battersbee, 12, Julian “Jools” Sweeney, 14, and Maia Walsh, 13, died in 2022 while attempting the “blackout challenge”, which became popular on social media in 2021.The US-based Social Media Victims Law Center filed the wrongful death lawsuit against the social media platform TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, on behalf of the children’s parents on Thursday.Matthew Bergman, the founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, said: “It’s no coincidence that three of the four children who died from self-suffocation after being exposed to the dangerous and deadly TikTok blackout challenge lived in the same city and that they all fit a similar demographic.“TikTok’s algorithm purposely targeted these children with dangerous content to increase their engagement time on the platform and drive revenue

UK demands ability to access Apple users’ encrypted data

The UK government has demanded that Apple creates a backdoor in its encrypted cloud service, in a confrontation that challenges the US tech firm’s avowed stance on protecting user privacy.The Washington Post reported on Friday that the Home Office had issued a “technical capability notice” under the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), which requires companies to assist law enforcement in providing evidence.The demand, issued last month, relates to Apple’s Advanced Data Protection (ADP) service, which heavily encrypts personal data uploaded and stored remotely in Apple’s cloud servers, according to the Post, which said this was a “blanket” request that applied to any Apple user worldwide. The ADP service uses end-to-end encryption, a form of security that means only the account holder can decrypt the files and no one else can – including Apple.Apple declined to comment

Call to make tech firms report data centre energy use as AI booms

Tech companies should be required by law to report the energy and water consumption for their data centres, as the boom in AI risks causing irreparable damage to the environment, experts have said.AI is growing at a rate unparalleled by other energy systems, bringing heightened environmental risk, a report by the National Engineering Policy Centre (NEPC) said.The report calls for the UK government to make tech companies submit mandatory reports on their energy and water consumption and carbon emissions in order to set conditions in which data centres are designed to use fewer vital resources.“In recent years advances in AI systems and services have largely been driven by a race for size and scale, demanding increasing amounts of computational power,” said Prof Tom Rodden, the pro-vice-chancellor of research and knowledge exchange at the University of Nottingham, who was a member of the NEPC working group that delivered the study.“As a result, AI systems and services are growing at a rate unparalleled by other high-energy systems – and generally without much regard for resource efficiency

Google edits Super Bowl ad for AI that featured false information

Google has edited an advert for its leading artificial intelligence (AI) tool, Gemini, before its broadcast during the Super Bowl after it was found to contain false information about gouda cheese.The local commercial, which advertises how people can use “AI for every business”, showcases Gemini’s abilities by depicting the tool helping a cheesemonger in Wisconsin to write a product description, including the erroneous line that gouda accounts for “50% to 60% of global cheese consumption”.However, a blogger posted on X that the stat was an “AI hallucination” that is “unequivocally false”, as more reliable data suggests the Dutch cheese is probably less popular than cheddar or mozzarella.The blogger Nate Hake added: “I found the above AI slop example in 20 minutes, and on the first Super Bowl ad I tried factchecking.”Replying to him, the Google executive Jerry Dischler said this was not a “hallucination” – where AI systems invent untrue information – but rather a reflection of the fact the untrue information is contained in the websites that Gemini scrapes

Owner of spyware used in alleged WhatsApp breach ends contract with Italy

Paragon Solutions, whose military-grade hacking software was allegedly used to target 90 people, including journalists and members of civil society, in two dozen countries, has terminated its client relationship with Italy, according a person familiar with the matter.Paragon’s decision to end the Italy contract followed revelations that an Italian investigative journalist and two activists who were critical of Italy’s dealings with Libya were among the people who had allegedly been targeted with the spyware. The work of all three individuals has been critical of the rightwing government of Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.A person familiar with the matter said Italy had breached the terms of Paragon’s contract with the government, which does not allow for journalists or members of civil society to be targeted with the spyware.Like Pegasus, the hacking software made by the rival NSO Group, Paragon’s hacking spyware, called Graphite, can infect a mobile phone without a user’s knowledge

UK app drivers: will you be logging off on Valentine’s Day?

Many UK drivers for platforms including Uber, Bolt and Addison Lee are planning to log off and refuse work on Valentine’s Day, as part of a push to demand better pay and conditions.The UK supreme court ruled in 2021 that Uber drives are entitled to worker status – meaning they can access rights such as holiday pay – but unions say conditions have worsened since then, saying companies responded by cutting rates.The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) is planning a protest outside London’s City Hall on 14 February, while private hire drivers log off.We want to hear from you. Are you a private hire driver who will be affected by the developments? What do you think of your working conditions? What will be your reasons for either logging off or continuing to work on 14 February?You can tell us your story using the form below