Telegram refuses to join child protection schemes, Barbie flip phone goes on sale
The BBC has learned that Telegram – the messaging app service whose boss has been arrested in France – refuses to join international programmes aimed at detecting and removing child abuse material online. The app is not a member of either the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) or the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) – both of which work with most online platforms to find, report and remove such material. It comes as the founder and chief executive of the app – which has more than 950 million registered users – remains under investigation in France. BBC
Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that senior officials within the Biden administration “repeatedly pressured” Meta to “censor” COVID-related content during the pandemic. The claims by the CEO of Meta are in a letter dated 26 August to the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. Zuckerberg said he regretted not speaking up about this pressure earlier, as well as other decisions he had made as owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp around taking down certain content. Sky News
Nokia manufacturer Human Mobile Devices (HMD) has announced that the long-awaited Barbie Flip Phone is available in the UK from today, August 28. According to The Verge, US customers will be able to pre-order the phone from September 23, with the first units shipping on October 1, while ChannelNews reports that Barbie fans in Australia can pre-order it from September 5. The new feature phone sports a 2.8-inch inner screen, a 0.3MP camera with flash, and a 1.77-inch clock display on the mirrored outer surface. Tech Radar
The chief executive and founder of European Tesla-rival Polestar has quit after seven years at the helm. Polestar, which is controlled by Sweden’s Volvo and China’s Geely, confirmed on Wednesday the resignation of long-time boss and founder Thomas Ingenlath. He will be replaced from Oct 1. His resignation comes after sales of the Swedish company’s upmarket electric cars slumped. Global volumes fell 40pc in the first quarter of 2024 to 7,221, down from 12,076 the previous year. Telegraph
The Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez, who spent some of his happiest years chronicling life in Caracas, once declared journalism “the best job in the world”. Not so if you are reporting on today’s Venezuela, where journalists are feeling the heat as the South American country lurches towards full-blown dictatorship under President Nicolás Maduro. In the four weeks since Venezuela’s disputed election, local journalists have come up with a distinctly 21st-century tactic to avoid being arrested for reporting on 21st-century socialism: using artificial intelligence avatars to report all the news Maduro’s regime deems unfit to print. The Guardian
Huawei held an event in China today, where in introduced TrueSense. It is a ground-breaking system, aiming to set a new standard in health monitoring.
The tech combines data from sensors for respiratory rate, SpO2 (blood oxygen levels), body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, which aren’t new for a Huawei wearable. However the company claims they are more accurate, and comprehensive, and better used in the company’s ecosystem. GSM Arena
