Month: October 2021

Raft of new products include ability to respond to or develop other users’ ideas pins Pinterest will offer users the chance to riff on Jennifer Lopez’s Halloween costume as it launches new products to emphasise its appeal to “emotional wellbeing” amid a storm of negative publicity surrounding social media firms. The virtual mood board business …

Pinterest to offer ‘emotional wellbeing’ features amid social media outcry Read More »

Can the social media giant rebrand itself without alienating users? Here are five suggestions Facebook’s proposed rebrand comes at a crucial time for the company. On one hand, Mark Zuckerberg’s increasing focus on the “metaverse” seems to hint that he has ambitions far beyond simply destroying every non-Facebook industry on the planet. But at the …

New logo? Call itself ‘FCBK’? Bring back poking? How Facebook could rebrand Read More »

Boris Johnson has promised to present the delayed online harms bill to parliament before Christmas after the killing of David Amess. He made his comments after Keir Starmer urged him to work collaboratively in clamping down on web-based extremism. Johnson also appeared to agree to another of Starmer’s requests, that the bill would include a …

Boris Johnson promises ‘tough’ crackdown on online abuse and extremism – video Read More »

Prime minister also says bill will include criminal sanctions against those allowing ‘foul content’ online Boris Johnson has promised to present the delayed online harms bill to parliament before Christmas in the wake of the killing of Sir David Amess, after Keir Starmer urged him to work collaboratively in clamping down on web-based extremism. The …

Boris Johnson promises online harms bill debate before Christmas Read More »

CMA says firm ‘deliberately’ refused to supply information showing it had complied with order to separate businesses Facebook has been fined £50.5m for breaching an order imposed by the UK competition regulator during its investigation into the purchase of the gif creation website Giphy. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which launched an in-depth investigation …

Facebook fined £50.5m for breaching order in Giphy takeover investigation Read More »

Slew of walkouts by tech workers, unthinkable mere years ago, shows workers ‘now understand their labor power’, expert says Employees at Netflix will halt work on Wednesday in a virtual walkout to condemn the streaming platform’s handling of complaints against Dave Chappelle’s new special. The action is the latest in a string of highly visible …

Netflix employees join wave of tech activism with walkout over Chappelle controversy Read More »

As Facebook reportedly plans to unveil a new corporate name, we look at how four other firms fared Facebook is planning to rebrand with a new corporate name to reflect its shift to building the metaverse, it has been reported. According to the Verge, the announcement could be made during Facebook’s Connect conference on 28 …

A fashion turnaround and a logo no-go: hits and misses of rebranding Read More »

Up for discussion in the Guardian tech newsletter: the problem with the streaming company’s outlandish claims Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up here I’m going to try to convince you that you should care about exactly how many people watched the moral panic-inducing hit Netflix series Squid Game. Yes, I know there’s …

TechScape: From Friends to Squid Game – why Netflix viewing figures matter Read More »

Most of world’s richest person’s fortune so far has come from electric car company Tesla Elon Musk, the world’s richest person with an estimated $241bn fortune, could become the first person to become a trillionaire, a leading investment bank has predicted. Analysts at Morgan Stanley forecast that Musk, who has made most of his fortune …

SpaceX could make Elon Musk world’s first trillionaire, says Morgan Stanley Read More »

I leave the Lords with a heavy heart, as ministers kowtow to new and unaccountable forms of power David Puttnam is a film producer and is retiring from the House of Lords I’m retiring from the House of Lords after 24 years. In doing so I’ve found myself cast in the role of “reluctant whistleblower”. …

This government is helping big tech to undermine British democracy | David Puttnam Read More »