Hours after Facebook reversed its controversial decision to prohibit Australians from accessing news content on the platform, the company announced its first proposed deal with one of the nation’s media organizations, Seven West Media. Alongside the statement on the discussions with Seven West Media, Facebook also revealed it is working …
Read More »UK government to hike corporation tax to offset expense of Covid-19 aid – report
The government is expected to increase the tax on business from 19 pence in the pound and to outline a pathway whereby it rises to 23 pence in the pound by the time of the next general election. The measure will be officially announced on March 3, and is set …
Read More »Dutch curfew extended by emergency bill as government shuns court ruling of Covid lockdown ‘illegality’
The emergency bill passed in a 45-13 vote on Friday evening, according to local media, upholding the nightly curfew in the face of an ongoing legal challenge to the restrictions, intended to stem the spread of Covid-19. While a lower court ruled in favor of Dutch activist group Viruswaarheid (Virus …
Read More »Residents in breakaway Ukrainian Donbass regions have more trust in government than those living under Kiev’s rule, new poll finds
Published by the Global Voices international reporting project – which is funded by Western NGOs – on Wednesday, researchers from Moscow’s Levada Center and Kiev’s Institute of Sociology found that those in the rebel-held Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DNR/LNR) said their local authorities were doing a good job. Around 26 …
Read More »Twitter labels Chinese newspaper as ‘UK government official’ in apparent bizarre algorithmic blunder
The China Daily is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party, with a global distribution managed by offices in cities like New York City, Washington, D.C., London, and Kathmandu. In December 2012, it also established an African edition, published out of Nairobi, Kenya. …
Read More »UK minister refuses to deny government is planning return to local Covid-19 lockdown system
Speaking to Sky News, Whately was asked about reports that the previous tiered system of lockdowns or regional Covid-19 restrictions could return as the national measures are eased. Avoiding answering the question directly, the care minister simply explained that the UK government is reluctant to reveal what the roadmap out …
Read More »Facebook to ban Australian users from reading and sharing news in response to government’s Big Tech bill
Facebook and Google are firmly opposed to Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code, which is in the process of being reformed and has been debated by lawmakers this week. The legislation forces tech companies to be more transparent about algorithms that help control news content on their platforms. “The proposed law …
Read More »UK government has decided to introduce Covid ghettos. What next, Covid camps?
The list was expanded after scientists at Oxford University developed an algorithm to assess people’s risk of severe disease or death based on their ethnicity, BMI, postcode, and their levels of deprivation. As a social scientist that has researched, lived, and known working-class communities I can look at this list …
Read More »The Hague court sides with activists, tells Dutch government to IMMEDIATELY lift ‘illegitimate’ curfew
In a statement, The Hague declared that the government’s use of the Extraordinary Powers of Civil Authority Act – an emergency act which allows the state to bypass the legislative process to impose a curfew in “very urgent and exceptional circumstance” – was not justified in this case during the …
Read More »Caitlin Johnstone: Conspiracy theories are caused by government secrecy
The DC Circuit has ruled that the CIA is under no obligation to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests pertaining to its involvement with insurgent militias in Syria, overturning a lower court’s previous ruling in favor of a Buzzfeed News reporter seeking such documents. As Sputnik‘s Morgan Artyukhina clearly outlines, this ruling comes despite the fact …
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