Meta faces £1.8bn lawsuit over claims it inflamed violence in Ethiopia

Meta faces a $2.4bn (£1.8bn) lawsuit accusing the Facebook owner of inflaming violence in Ethiopia after the Kenyan high court said a legal case against the US tech group could go ahead.The case brought by two Ethiopian nationals calls on Facebook to alter its algorithm to stop promoting hateful material and incitement to violence, as well as hiring more content moderators in Africa. It is also seeking a $2

Don’t weaken online safety laws for UK-US trade deal, campaigners urge

Child safety campaigners have warned the government against watering down landmark online laws as part of a UK-US trade deal, describing the prospect of a compromise as an “appalling sellout” that would be rejected by voters.A draft transatlantic trade agreement contains commitments to review enforcement of the Online Safety Act, according to a report on Thursday, amid White House concerns the legislation poses a threat to free speech.The Molly Rose Foundation, a charity established by the family of Molly Russell, a British teenager who took her own life after viewing harmful online content, said it was “dismayed and appalled” at the prospect of the act being a bargaining chip in a deal.The MRF said it had written to the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, outlining its concerns and urging him “not to continue with an appalling sellout of children’s safety”.The commitment to review enforcement of the OSA and another tech-focused piece of legislation – the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act – was reported by the online newsletter Playbook, which said the legislation would undergo a review of how it is implemented and not a “do-over”

Floppy disks and vaccine cards: exhibition tells tale of privacy rights in UK

Forty years ago, it would take a four-drawer filing cabinet to store 10,000 documents. You would need 736 floppy disks to hold those same files; now it takes up no physical space at all to store 10,000 documents on the cloud.As data storage has evolved, so too has the whole information landscape, and with it the challenges of storing, transferring and appropriately using people’s personal data.An exhibition by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which opened at Manchester Central Library this week, charts the evolution of data privacy through 40 items, each chosen to illustrate how access to information has evolved, or how data has been at the heart of some of the biggest news events of the past four decades.“I think the wonderful thing about the exhibition is that the world that we occupy, like any specialty, is filled with jargon and technicalities,” the information commissioner, John Edwards, said

UK government tries to placate opponents of AI copyright bill

The UK government is trying to placate peer and Labour backbencher concerns about copyright proposals by pledging to assess the economic impact of its plans.Creative professionals including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Tom Stoppard and Kate Bush have strongly criticised ministers’ proposals to let artificial intelligence companies train their models on copyright-protected work without permission, unless the rights holder opts out.Their stance has been supported by peers, who have passed amendments pushing back on the proposals, and by some backbench MPs.It is understood that concessions offered to MPs and peers this week include an economic impact assessment, with a report that could address issues such as how AI developers access data to train their models and transparency around use of copyright-protected works.Ministers are hoping the concessions will allow thethe data (use and access) bill to pass

Tesla quarterly sales slump 13% amid backlash against Elon Musk

Tesla reported a 13% drop in vehicle sales in the first three months of the year, making it the electric vehicle maker’s worst quarter since 2022. It’s another sign that Elon Musk’s once high-flying electric car company is struggling to attract buyers.The drop is probably due to a combination of factors, including its ageing lineup, competition from rivals and a backlash from Musk’s embrace of rightwing politics. It also is a warning that the company’s first-quarter earnings report later this month could disappoint investors.Tesla reported deliveries of 336,681 vehicles globally in the January-March quarter

Italian police increase security at Tesla dealerships after 17 cars destroyed in Rome fire

Italy’s interior ministry has written to police forces across the country to increase security at Tesla dealerships after 17 of the electric cars made by Elon Musk’s company were destroyed in a fire in Rome.Italy’s state police anti-terrorism unit, Digos, is investigating whether the fire at the Tesla dealership in Torre Angela, a suburb in the east of the capital, was started by anarchists.Firefighters worked for hours to put out the blaze in the early hours of Monday. Drone images showed a row of the burnt-out remains of the vehicles in a parking area of the dealership. Using his social media platform, X, Musk referred to it as “terrorism”