Tech Digest daily roundup: Plans to remove harmful content axed from Online Safety Bill

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Controversial measures which would have forced big technology platforms to take down legal but harmful material have been axed from the Online Safety Bill. Critics of the section in the bill claimed it posed a risk to free speech. Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan denied weakening laws protecting social media users and said adults would have more control over what they saw online. The bill – which aims to police the internet – is intended to become law in the UK before next summer. But some have criticised the latest changes, including Labour and the Samaritans who called it a hugely backward step. BBC 

Rolls-Royce and low-cost airline easyJet have tested what they say is the world’s first commercial airline engine powered by hydrogen fuel. A Rolls-Royce AE 2100 turboprop engine, which is usually used on the C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft, was tested on a ground rig at the Ministry of Defence’s Boscombe Down airfield, a location long associated with aerospace research. The successful test marks a milestone in moving global aviation towards greener fuels and away from kerosene. Advocates of the technology say it will help Britain meet a government target of net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Telegraph 

New Twitter owner Elon Musk has hit out at Apple – claiming it has threatened to block his social network from its app store without explanation. The world’s richest man, who took the company private last month for $44bn (£36.7bn), also said the iPhone maker has “mostly stopped advertising” on his platform. Musk wrote in a tweet: “Do they hate free speech in America?” And he also said in a message that tagged Apple‘s chief executive Tim Cook: “What’s going on here?” Sky News 

Eugen Rochko, the 29-year-old German software developer who six years ago created Twitter rival Mastodon out of frustration with the U.S. social network, has had quite a month. The chaos of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover in late October has led millions of users to look for an alternative, and Mastodon has provided many with a familiar—though not identical—life raft. The influx of users is fueling Rochko’s ambition of Mastodon one day matching Twitter in size, but the founder and CEO is taking a decidedly anti-Musk approach to growing his decentralized platform—forbidding hate speech, banning ads, eschewing revenue, and abdicating hands-on control of the network. He remains Mastodon’s sole full-time employee. Fortune

Tesla lost at least one customer this weekend, after Alyssa Milano tweeted that she had returned her model for a Volkswagen electric vehicle, prompting jokes from Elon Musk and conservative commentators about the German manufacturer’s Nazi origin story. Milano said she had ditched Tesla due to Musk’s ownership of Twitter. While Tesla owners do not seem to be following the actor’s move en masse, some note that they have been on the receiving end of road rage directed toward their vehicle choice. Guardian

LG Display has confirmed that all new OLED displays produced at its plants will feature improved performance and brightness now that the company has completed the transition to its more efficient OLED.EX technology.  A statement for LG confirmed it had completed the transition to the new tech during the second quarter 2022, meaning that all new panels it now produces will feature OLED EX. LG, who provide panels to the likes of Hisense, Sony, Panasonic, Philips, and Vizio, as well producing for its own branded TVs, claim that OLED.EX offers up to 30% higher brightness than regular OLED displays. Tech Radar 

 

 

Chris Price
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