Headlines
Protests continue in the Belarusian capital of Minsk amid widespread police brutality and torture.
The protests began lasts weekend after President Lukashenko claimed an 80% majority in Sunday’s election. As skepticism about the result spread, social media platforms and other sites became inaccessible. In addition, all Belarusian .by domains went dark.
This was the first of intermittent blackouts between Sunday evening and Tuesday morning. The Belarusian government claimed the attack came from outside the country.
However, reporting from Netblocks showed the government were responsible (and how co-ordinating such an attack from outside Belarus would be impossible).
State telecommunications company Beltelecom control all connections to international internet networks. But how exactly can they just turn the internet off?
Find out below:
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Facebook has launched as ‘election information centre’ in the run up to the 2020 US Presidential elections.
Users posting about the elections will see labels directing them to the information centre. Initially the primary focus is to get users to register to vote.
Facebook has previously launched initiative to combat misinformation around the Coronavirus which also involved showing users links. The company has also invested $100 million dollars in its journalism project ($75 million of which was an additional marketing spend on news organisations.)
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Facebook has also banned posts and photos depicting black face, and common anti-semitic stereotypes.
The platform updated its ‘Community Guidelines’ to explicitly include reference such posts, as part of its policy on hate speech.
The ban will extend to posts about the highly controversial ‘Black Pete’ Dutch folklore character.
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Fortnite publisher Epic Games is involved in a stand off with the Apple App Store. The dispute began after Epic Games announced an in game payment system which by passes Apple’s 30% fees.
Paying directly into the Fortnite app rather than the App Store (or Google Pay) offers users a discount of around 20% on the Fortnite’s in game currency.
Apple and Google Pay have since removed the Fortnite app from their stores. Epic Games responded by suing them both and posting a parody of a famous Apple advert from the eighties.
It seems they were well prepared.
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Donald Trump now has a verified account on Tik Tok rival Triller. This come’s as the US President continues his campaign to ban Tik Tok in the US, or force a sale to a US company.
As we know from last week’s video, Microsoft are seen as the front runner to buy the embattled platform (though Bill Gates has described the deal as a poisoned chalice as social media is a complex market.)
There are reports that Twitter are now also in the running.
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Good to know
OFCOM’s latest research shows that fewer people in the UK are getting their news from social media.
45% are seeking out the latest stories on platforms like Facebook (least popular for news) and Twitter (most popular for news), down from 49% the previous year.
The report does not cover news habits during during lockdown in the UK, however.
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Tik Tok is set to make the first round of payments to users from its Creators Fund.
The scheme, similar to Youtube’s payment regime, requires users to have over 10000 followers and have amassed over 10000 views in the last thirty days.
Nineteen users will receive payments from the $200 million fund in this round.
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UK political ads on social media may have to carry labels detailing who paid for them for the first time.
The government unveiled plans on Wednesday which could mean all digital ads made by formal campaigns, as well as candidates and campaigners, would bear a ‘digital imprint’.
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Sen. Ed Markey is rallying Gen Z voters on Tik Tok in his Senate race against Joe Kennedy III.
However, Minnesota State Senator Matt Little is perhaps the most Tik Tok famous US politician with 140,000 followers.
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