How Meta’s victim-blaming failed to sway jurors in landmark social media addiction trial

When Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, sought to defend itself in the landmark social media addiction lawsuit alleging its products caused personal injury to a young user, it went on the offensive. The mental health problems that the 20-year-old known as KGM suffered since she was a child were not the result of exposure to harm on Instagram, Meta’s lawyers and public relations team argued, but instead linked to her mother’s parenting and her offline social problems.In a bench memo filed before the trial began, lawyers for Meta quoted excerpts from KGM’s teenage text messages, personal writings and social media posts complaining about her mother. They combed through therapy notes and called on doctors to testify to examples of personal conflict. Throughout the proceedings, Meta’s communications team sent reporters repeated updates from the trial and quotes from testimony that highlighted her familial issues

UK iPhone users face over-18 age check to use services after update

Millions of Apple iPhone customers in the UK will now have to confirm they are 18 or older to use all available services, including by showing a credit card or by scanning an ID.The move, believed to be a first for a European market, comes amid pressure on tech companies from the government to do more to protect children online.The new requirement will be included in a software update. It was welcomed by Ofcom, the online regulator, which called it “a real win for children and families” and said it was part of a wider drive to “keep young people away from harmful content”.However, some users complained that it raised concerns about the privacy of the information that is uploaded to prove age

Matt Brittin: why the BBC’s new Doctor Who-loving boss may not have much time for sleep

In recent months, Matt Brittin, the Doctor Who-loving fitness fanatic and former Google executive, has made no secret of his desire to make the jump from big tech to the world of broadcasting.At the end of last year, he told an event filled with some of television’s most senior figures that he had wanted to break into their industry “for a very long time”.As the BBC’s new director general, Brittin has not only fulfilled that goal. He has parachuted into the British media’s most powerful – and treacherous – job.The 57-year-old may be a big believer in the transformative power of sleep – one of Brittin’s favourite books is Why We Sleep, by the neuroscientist, Matthew Walker – but his new job is guaranteed to ensure he has less of it

Apple subsidiary fined by UK government over Moscow sanctions breach

The UK government has fined a subsidiary of Apple £390,000 for breaching sanctions against Moscow over payments it made to a Russian streaming platform.Apple Distribution International (ADI), based in the Republic of Ireland, instructed an unnamed UK-based bank to make two payments to a company owned by a sanctioned Russian entity.The payments, worth more than £635,000 in total, were made to the streaming service Okko from an ADI bank account based in Britain. ADI is responsible for selling Apple products in Europe and the Middle East, including from the iPhone maker’s app store.The fine was imposed by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), the UK’s sanctions watchdog and part of the Treasury

‘Soon publishers won’t stand a chance’: literary world in struggle to detect AI-written books

Recently, the literary agent Kate Nash started noticing that the submission letters she was receiving from authors were becoming more thorough – albeit also more formulaic.“I took it as a rise in diligence,” she said. “I thought it was a good thing.”But then she had what she described as her eureka moment: the letter with the AI prompt right at the top. “It read: ‘Rewrite my query letter for Kate Nash including a comp to a writer she represents,’” she said

Brussels opens investigation into Snapchat amid concern over children’s safety

Brussels has opened an investigation into Snapchat over concerns the social messaging app is exposing children to grooming, sexual exploitation and other criminality.In a separate decision on Thursday, the European Commission also said four pornographic websites were failing to prevent minors seeing adult content, harming young people’s mental health and fuelling negative gender attitudes.The investigations into five tech companies were brought under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which has come under fire from Donald Trump since coming into force two years ago. Aiming to protect European society from a wide range of internet harms, the DSA includes child safety provisions to combat cyberbullying, exposure to adult content and illegal products.The announcements came after a landmark ruling in a Los Angeles court found that two social media companies, Meta and YouTube, had deliberately created addictive products that harmed a young user