Lawsuit alleges TikTok’s algorithm exposed teenagers to videos promoting suicide, self-harm and eating disorders Seven French families have filed a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the platform of exposing their adolescent children to harmful content that led to two of them taking their own lives at 15, their lawyer said. The lawsuit alleges TikTok’s algorithm exposed the seven teenagers to videos promoting suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, lawyer Laure Boutron-Marmion told broadcaster Franceinfo on Monday. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Posts lauding anything from running in the rain to tiredness and a comfy bed are springing up on Instagram and TikTok “What a privilege it is to run in the rain. What a privilege it is to have a house I need to clean.” Social media is usually criticised for being a toxic space, but an emerging trend is pushing back against negativity with gratitude. Posts entitled “What a privilege” feature everything from images of cosy beds (What a privilege it is to be exhausted after a long day) to videos of travelling (What a privilege it is to carry a heavy bag) to kitchen hobs (What a privilege it is to think about what to make for dinner everyday) have sprung up on Instagram and TikTok. Continue reading...

A fascinating fortnightly show explores the darker side of the scare industry. Plus: five of the creepiest podcasts • Don’t get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Happy season of pumpkin-based food waste! Or, if you prefer, Halloween. Like all humans since the dawn of time, the extra hours of darkness that autumn brings will no doubt have many ask: “Where are the creepy podcasts at?” You’re in luck. We’ve got a run-down of the finest spooky listens, from horror podcasts to paranormal shows crowdsourcing blood-curdling experiences for a seasonal special. There’s a look at a new series that plunges into a suburban Halloween experience, which went from fun haunted house to such a traumatic experience we had to write a whole feature on it. Plus, they’re joined by an advice show hosted by two terrifyingly evil types: Harry Clark and Paul Gordon from The Traitors. Be warned: follow their tips at your peril. Alexi Duggins Deputy TV editor Continue reading...

Advertising executive, 58, shares old-school tricks of the marketing trade, enjoyed by millions of viewers Rory Sutherland is reaching for an analogy to describe his newfound status as one of the UK’s most viral TikTokers. “It’s a bit like Lord Byron, I woke up and found myself famous.” Continue reading...

PM says content creators must be paid and vows to ensure technology ‘does not begin to chip away’ at press freedoms Keir Starmer has said media outlets should have control over – and be paid for – their work as artificial intelligence technology transforms the economy and the UK. Calling journalism the “lifeblood of democracy”, the prime minister vowed to “champion press freedoms” and ensure that “the growing power of digital technology does not begin to chip away” at the ability of journalists and publishers to uphold democratic values. Continue reading...

Media mogul and coalition of stars join the growing battle over tech firms using creative works to train programs It is an unlikely alliance: the billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch and a panoply of leading artists including the Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke, the actors Kevin Bacon and Julianne Moore, and the author Kazuo Ishiguro. This week, they began two very public fights with artificial intelligence companies, accusing them of using their intellectual property without permission to build the increasingly powerful and lucrative new technology. Continue reading...

X owner renews hostilities with Center for Countering Digital Hate after it is linked to US election interference row * UK politics live – latest updates A UK-founded anti-hate speech campaign group dragged into the Labour US election interference row has vowed to carry on its work after Elon Musk’s latest declaration of “war” against the organisation. The Center for Countering Digital Hate returned to the crosshairs of the world’s richest person this week after Musk alleged that it was violating laws against foreign interference in US elections. Continue reading...

The comedian bridges the gap between truth and fiction in Up in Smoke. Plus: five of the best podcasts with shocking twists • Don’t get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Have you been glued to Wondery’s latest true crime pod, Kill List? Tech journalist Carl Miller discovered a list of names on the dark web, which he learned was a murder-for-hire site. It turned out to be a money-making scam, but the people who paid up were deadly serious about getting rid of their targets – “Tell me the execution time in advance – I can’t be there,” was just one instruction found. In the podcast, Miller tracks down people on the hitlist and tries to get the authorities to take the risks to their lives seriously. Continue reading...

ByteDance dismissed person in August it says ‘maliciously interfered’ with training of artificial intelligence models The owner of TikTok has sacked an intern for allegedly sabotaging an internal artificial intelligence project. ByteDance said it had dismissed the person in August after they “maliciously interfered” with the training of artificial intelligence (AI) models used in a research project. Continue reading...

The owner of X is just one of many who may prefer Donald Trump to greater regulation under the Democrats Way back in the 1960s “the personal is political” was a powerful slogan capturing the reality of power dynamics within marriages. Today, an equally meaningful slogan might be that “the technological is political”, to reflect the way that a small number of global corporations have acquired political clout within liberal democracies. If anyone doubted that, then the recent appearance of Elon Musk alongside Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania provided useful confirmation of how technology has moved centre-stage in American politics. Musk may be a manchild with a bad tweeting habit, but he also owns the company that is providing internet connectivity to Ukrainian troops on the battlefield; and his rocket has been chosen by Nasa to be the vehicle to land the next Americans on the moon. There was a time when the tech industry wasn’t much interested in politics. It didn’t need to be because politics at the time wasn’t interested in it. Accordingly, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple grew to their gargantuan proportions in a remarkably permissive political environment. When democratic governments were not being dazzled by the technology, they were asleep at the wheel; and antitrust regulators had been captured by the legalistic doctrine peddled by Robert Bork and his enablers in the University of Chicago Law School – the doctrine that there was little wrong with corporate dominance unless it was harming consumers. The test for harm was price-gouging, and since Google’s and Facebook’s services were “free”, where was the harm, exactly? And though Amazon’s products weren’t free, the company was ruthlessly undercutting competitors’ prices and pandering to customers’ need for next-day delivery. Again: where was the harm in that? Continue reading...