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T&S Early Warning News
Get ahead of new stories that are impacting the T&S industry.
Scammers attempting to steal Instagram passwords, email logins
NYTV | Mar 12, 2022
Company Listed: Instagram
The organization says Instagram users are receiving what appears to be an official email from the social media platform reporting the user has violated copyright laws, and that their account will be deleted within 24 hours.
The bogus message continues, “Don’t worry! If you think that Instagram has made a mistake, all you need to do is click the button and verify your account.” Then the user is taken to a website that prompts them to input their Instagram credentials.
The BBB says most scams would end after that prompt, but this one then sends users to another popup window asking them to verify their email address and password before finally redirecting them to an official Instagram page.
Ukrainian stranded in London posts TikTok war videos with 36m views
The Times | Mar 14, 2022
Company Listed: TikTok
From the bright lights of Oxford Street to views of St Paul’s Cathedral, Marta Vasyuta was busy chronicling her adventures in London on TikTok when war broke out in her homeland.
The 20-year-old watched in horror as her social media feeds filled with scenes of Russian shells raining down on Ukraine. Stranded in the UK and feeling helpless, Vasyuta picked up her phone and began documenting the atrocities on the TikTok profile she once populated with selfies.
Meta narrows guidance to prohibit calls for death of a head of state
Reuter | Mar 14, 2022
Company Listed: Meta
Facebook owner Meta Platforms (FB.O) said on Sunday that it is further narrowing its content moderation policy for Ukraine to prohibit calls for the death of a head of state, according to an internal company post seen by Reuters.
The move came after Reuters reported last week that Meta was temporarily allowing some posts on Facebook and Instagram calling for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
After the Reuters report, Meta said on Friday that a temporary change in its content policy, only applicable for Ukraine, was needed to let users voice opposition to Russia's attack. On the same day, Russia opened a criminal case against the social media firm.
"We are now narrowing the focus to make it explicitly clear in the guidance that it is never to be interpreted as condoning violence against Russians in general," Meta global affairs President Nick Clegg wrote in a post on the company's internal platform on Sunday that was seen by Reuters.
Facebook Has A Child Predation Problem
Tech live | Mar 13, 2022
Company Listed: Facebook Meta
Surely due diligence would dictate proactive steps to prevent the creation of such groups, backed up by quick action to remove any that get through once they are flagged and reported. I would have thought so. Until I stumbled into these groups and began, with rising disbelief, to find it impossible to get them taken down.
Children are sharing personal images and contact information in a sexualized digital space, and being induced to join private groups or chats where further images and actions will be solicited and exchanged.
Even as debate over Congress’s Earn It Act calls attention to the use of digital channels to distribute sexually explicit materials, we are failing to grapple with a seismic shift in the ways child sexual abuse materials are generated. Forty-five percent of US children aged 9 to 12 report using Facebook every day. (That fact alone makes mockery of Facebook’s claim that they work actively to keep children under 13 off the platform.) According to recent research, over a quarter of 9 to 12 year olds report having experienced sexual solicitation online. One in eight report having been asked to send a nude photo or video; one in ten report having been asked to join a sexually explicit livestream. Smartphones, internet access, and Facebook together now reach into children’s hands and homes and create new spaces for active predation. At scale.
Trinity Church’s Conductor Put on Leave Amid Investigation
Nytimes | Ma 13, 2022
Company Listed: Social Media
Trinity Wall Street, one of New York’s wealthiest and most powerful churches, said on Saturday that it was placing its high-profile director of music on leave as it investigates an allegation of sexual misconduct against him.
The director, Julian Wachner, a highly-regarded conductor, composer and keyboardist who has been a fixture at the church for more than a decade, has been accused by a former Juilliard employee, Mary Poole, of sexual assault. Ms. Poole said in an interview with The New York Times that during a music festival in 2014, Mr. Wachner pushed her against a wall, groped her and kissed her, and that he ignored her demands that he stop. Mr. Wachner denies the accusations.
In a statement to The Times on Saturday, Trinity did not mention Ms. Poole by name but said the church first learned of “allegations of sexual misconduct” against Mr. Wachner last month from social media. Ms. Poole recently posted a detailed account of her encounter with Mr. Wachner on her social media accounts, saying, “I was totally violated.”
T&S Policies & Regulations
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New law banning cyberflashing to be included in online safety bill
The Gurdian | Mar 13, 2022
Company Listed: Social Media
Cyberflashing is to become a criminal offence, with perpetrators facing up to two years in jail under government plans to strengthen the upcoming online safety bill.
Three-quarters of girls aged 12-18 have been sent unsolicited nude images of boys or men, according to research published in 2020. A revised version of the online safety bill is expected to be published the week that will include a number of new offences in addition to cyberflashing.
The culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, said: “The forthcoming online safety bill will force tech companies to stop their platforms being used to commit vile acts of cyberflashing. We are bringing the full weight on individuals who perpetrate this awful behaviour.”
Regulators join up to form defence ring against digital platforms
Financial Review | Mar 13, 2022
Company Listed: Social Media
In the first step to unify government oversight of the digital economy, four federal digital regulators are joining forces, building “a ring of regulatory defence” against the large US digital tech platforms.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and its sister agency the Office of the eSafety Commissioner have formed the digital platform regulators forum, to be known as DP-REG.
New regulatory regime is evolving globally to regulate digital services
It Web | Mar 10, 2022
Company Listed: Social Media
Regulators in Europe, the UK and South Africa are being faced with new challenges in regulating rapidly evolving digital technologies. To address these complex issues, they are developing new regulatory tools and also adapting existing ones.
Webber Wentzel held a webinar on the Digital Economy in 2022, and Julian Cunningham-Day, a partner in the London office of Linklaters, explained that the EU and the UK are witnessing an evolving regulatory landscape for the digital economy, including data compliance (which has many different lenses), cyber resilience, platform liability and broader areas of regulation, such as competition, ESG and foreign investment controls.
The EU and UK approaches to regulating competition issues are starting to diverge slightly, post-Brexit, providing different models for other regimes to consider. In the EU, the proposed Digital Markets Act identifies and seeks to regulate core platform services, which includes a “gatekeeper" company concept. The big tech players (which are captured by this definition) can wield enormous power and EU regulators have decided that existing competition processes cannot move swiftly or aggressively enough to curb inappropriate behaviour by these platforms.
T&S Good News
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Online bullying: Advice to help keep children safe on social media
Thecourier | Mar 14, 2022
Company Listed: Social Media
In recent years, many videos of pupils being attacked in local parks and in schools in Tayside and Fife have been widely shared.
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