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SubscriptionsCategory: Tech, Data and Algorithms
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Rogue Drones and Tall Tales
Kate Devlin dispels the sudden Science Fiction panic around superintelligence, and looks at the real threats to employment and the environment from AI and machine learning
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Unpicking the Government’s Blacklist Policy: ‘The Devil is in the Details’
A renowned weapons expert uninvited from a government conference sets out his concerns around the policy that has now appeared to justify experts being ‘cancelled’ in Whitehall
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Years of Secrecy Unravel: UK Cabinet Office Under Scrutiny for Withholding Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp Messages
After two years of investigation by Byline Times and The Citizens, the scandal of secret government communications is finally coming to light
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How Important is it that this Article is Written by a Human?
Artificial intelligence has already made its way into newsrooms – what are the risks?
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‘I Was Cancelled by Sunak’s Government For Criticising Them on Twitter’
Renowned weapons expert Dan Kaszeta reveals how he fell victim to a Soviet-style blacklist after UK officials discovered he had criticised Government policy on Twitter
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‘Cancelled from a Civil Service Talk for Retweeting a Liz Truss Parody Account’
Kate Devlin explains why an invitation to address Ministry of Justice staff was rescinded because of Government ‘due diligence’ of her social media accounts
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Queen had ‘Secret Agreement’ with Murdoch Papers to Spare Harry Hacking Trial Ordeal, Court Hears
The Duke of Sussex claims secret deal included ‘very large’ payout for his brother Prince William
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Will New Cabinet Office Guidance Tackle ‘Government by WhatsApp’?
The policy change does not go so far as to prohibit the use of automatic deletion functionality around messages
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Geopolitical Hypocrisies: TikTok, Insecurity and Sino-US Relations
Chris Ogden shows how the logical extension of banning the Chinese platform for its data collection would be to clamp down on other forms of social media, including Facebook and Google
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Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
24-hour news, smartphones, social media, Simon Speakman Cordall explores how the incessant and diverting streams of news and comment are radicalising us all
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Former President Proves Russia is Pursuing Modern-Day Fascism
The claims of Dmitry Medvedev denying the existence of Ukraine remove all doubt about the Kremlin’s genocidal thinking. But what of its totalitarian methods?
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Lack of Transparency over Police Forces’ Covert Use of Predictive Policing Software Raises Concerns about Human Rights Abuses
UK police forces are under scrutiny for their lack of transparency regarding the use of harmful technologies known to exacerbate racist policing
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Did the Cabinet Office Lie?
Despite years of asking for the former special advisor’s WhatsApp messages under Freedom of Information laws, the Cabinet Office may never have asked Dominic Cummings for them. Why? Iain Overton reports
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Gary Lineker, Andrew Neil and the BBC’s Real Impartiality Crisis
Prominent right-wingers at the BBC have long been given the sort of leeway for their views that those on the left never will, writes Adam Bienkov
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‘Incompetent Ministers and Duplicitous Journalists:’ The Matt Hancock Leaks
Isabel Oakeshott’s exposé comes in the wake of repeated rejections by the Government of every Freedom of Information request on the disclosure of ministers’ use of WhatsApp for official business, reports Iain Overton
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‘It’s Made Me Lose Trust in People’: Women and Girls Victimised by Image-Based Abuse
New research has found that non-consensual sharing of intimate images bear many of the hallmarks of domestic abuse
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Debate Over AI in Journalism: ‘Can Machines Replace Human Reporters?’
In a dialogue with ChatGPT, Iain Overton explores whether truth and meaning can really be left to machines
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‘Taking Sides in Journalism: Objectivity is Not Neutrality’
In his editorial from the February 2023 print edition of Byline Times, Peter Jukes looks at Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch and the scandals around ‘Russiagate’ coverage in the US
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GOP Congressional Hearing Accidentally Debunks ‘Twitter Files’: Trump — Not Biden — Tried to Censor Tweets
Elon Musk’s selective leaks suggested Twitter ‘censored’ Conservatives, but evidence shows they refused to boost a right-wing disinformation campaign around Hunter Biden’s laptop
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Minutes of Boris Johnson Meeting with Cambridge Analytica ‘Would Directly Undermine Trust Between the UK and US’
UK-US relations would be harmed by the details of Johnson’s summit with the now-disgraced data firm, an independent regulator has concluded
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The Rise of Fringe Science, Contrarian Doctors, and the Threat to Public Health
Dr David Robert Grimes looks at the partisan polarisation and obsession with scientists rather than science that makes us prone to medical misinformation and anti-vaccine propaganda
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The Incel Hate for Andrew Tate
Sian Norris reports from the incel forums on their reaction to the Tik-Tok influencer’s arrest – and the reaction is not what you would expect
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Fighting Back Against Big Tech
Emma De Souza reports on how countries are tackling the rise in misinformation through the legal and education systems
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Red Tory to Blue Labour – How Spiked and Unherd are Keeping National Populism Alive
Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar look at the reach and influence of an unlikely coalition of ex-Trotskyites, traditionalist Tories and communitarian Labourites
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Close Associate of Roman Abramovich Key Partner of UK Parliamentary Group
A businessman with ties to the sanctioned Russian oligarch is listed as a partner and advisor to a Westminster group containing senior MPs and peers
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If Elon Musk’s Twitter is All About Free Speech Then What About its Second Biggest Investor?
Mark Frary and Nik Williams look at the perilous position of Saudi Arabia’s 25 million Twitter users, who face imprisonment or even execution for speaking out on social media For all that Elon Musk talks about his belief in free speech, he has chosen some “interesting” bedfellows when it comes to his $44 billion acquisition…
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Unions Warn of Pattern of Algorithm Racism Impacts Uber Eats Drivers
An Uber Eats courier claims he was blocked from the app after failing its ID verification, but he is not the first says the IWGB Union. Sian Norris reports
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The Toxin of Televisuality
As the democratic dangers posed by social media are exposed, the degradation of our politics by the small screen should not be forgotten, writes AC Grayling
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‘Musk’s Twitter Buy Makes No Sense – Unless It’s Part of Something Bigger’
Brexit and Trump were initially seen as jokes, but the new owner of the social media giant could pose a serious threat to democracy – and a boon for Vladimir Putin, writes David Troy
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Elon Musk Takes Over Twitter – Is a Rise in Hate Speech and Abuse Inevitable?
Adrian Goldberg speaks to Imran Ahmed of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate and Heidi Cuda from the Radicalized Pod about developments at the social medial platform for the Byline Times Podcast
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All But One of Boris Johnson’s Cabinet Ministers Used Private Email – Why?
Suella Braverman has returned to the Home Office following her resignation last week over her use of private email – but Iain Overton reports how using personal channels is a common occurrence among cabinet ministers
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‘How Will We Know Putin hasn’t Picked the Most Disruptive Candidate?’
Security experts and democracy campaigners raise fears over wild west Conservative leadership election if it goes to members, reports Josiah Mortimer
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Britain’s Stark Choice Ahead: Transformation or Collapse
The country is following a familiar pattern of environmental, energy and economic-driven state failure – and if the next government refuses to break with neoliberal orthodoxy, it will only accelerate this downwards trajectory, writes Nafeez Ahmed
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The Men Who Want a ‘Paper Abortion’
Discussions of so-called ‘financial abortions’ – to cut ties with unwanted children – are on the rise in men’s rights circles. But what is this weird trend and what does it tell us about misogyny? Sian Norris reports
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How Russia Feeds the Factory of Unthinking
From Ukrainians being mainly Jewish to allegations of black magic, hypnotism and colonising Africa, Oleksiy Pluzhnyk explores the Kremlin’s exploitation of the conspiratorial mindset
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More than Half of Incels Support Paedophilia, Finds New Report
Research by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate has found widespread acceptance of sexual violence against children in ‘incel’ communities
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Can the Milk Tea Alliance Take Its Fight Offline?
In Asia, a new movement for democracy has been gaining strength – but how can it enact change on the ground when it comes to corruption and authoritarianism?
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The Memes Fighting Russian Propaganda
Chris Hamill-Stewart explores how a decentralised network of meme-makers is subverting Putin’s online trolls
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Online Propaganda: A Gateway into the ‘Pro Russian Ecosystem’
Matt Bernardini investigates the influential academic website Swiss Policy Research which claims to expose ‘geopolitical propaganda’ but seems more intent on spreading it
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‘The Grooming Agenda’: Social Media Companies Accused of Amplifying LGBTIQ Hate
Facebook and Twitter are both failing to deal with hateful allegations that the LGBTIQ community is grooming children, as the far and mainstream right join forces
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Kenya Elections: Have Social Media Companies Learnt from Past Mistakes?
Harvey Pitt looks at the role social media has played in Kenya’s 2022 election and finds that the social media giants are failing to learn from the errors of the past
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Content Creating Over Policy Making: The Next Instagram Prime Minister
Sascha Lavin explores how branding beats ideas in the Tory leadership election
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The Battle to be New Prime Minister Will be Fought and Won Online
Ian Lucas explains how the Conservative Party leadership contenders will use the online space to drum up support – with a warning for the safety of our democracy
