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Activist group says it has scraped 86m music files from Spotify
December 23, 2025
Platform with 700m users says it is investigating after Anna’s Archive claims to have scraped tracks and metadata An activist group has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to release them online. Observers said the apparent leak could boost AI companies looking for material to develop their technology. Continue…
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Tinsel and Home Alone back in style as TikTok seeks comfort in #90sChristmas
December 21, 2025
Emphasis this year is on nostalgia as present day feels ‘a bit more uncertain’, say trend experts Tinsel, DIY tree decorations, deep burgundy drapes – and Home Alone on VHS. Christmas has gone retro on TikTok, and in people’s living rooms. The app has reported a surge in Christmas decor videos, with an emphasis on…
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TikTok signs Trump-backed deal to avoid US ban
December 19, 2025
Joint venture will take over part of app’s US operations, including data protection, algorithm security and content moderation Business live – latest updates US politics live – latest updates TikTok has reached a deal to form a joint venture that will allow it to continue operating in the US, five years after Donald Trump threatened…
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Google AI summaries are ruining the livelihoods of recipe writers: ‘It’s an extinction event’
December 16, 2025
AI Mode is mangling recipes by merging instructions from multiple creators – and causing them huge dips in ad traffic This past March, when Google began rolling out its AI Mode search capability, it began offering AI-generated recipes. The recipes were not all that intelligent. The AI had taken elements of similar recipes from multiple…
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‘Don’t pander to the tech giants!’ How a youth movement for digital justice is spreading across Europe
December 9, 2025
Gen Z are the first generation to have grown up with social media, they were the earliest adopters, and therefore the first to suffer its harms. Now they are fighting back Late one night in April 2020, towards the start of the Covid lockdowns, Shanley Clémot McLaren was scrolling on her phone when she noticed…
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New York Times sues AI startup for ‘illegal’ copying of millions of articles
December 6, 2025
Perplexity AI also faces lawsuit from Murdoch-owned Dow Jones and New York Post for its use of copyrighted content The New York Times sued an embattled artificial intelligence startup on Friday, accusing the firm of illegally copying millions of articles. The newspaper alleged Perplexity AI had distributed and displayed journalists’ work without permission en masse.…
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Elon Musk’s X fined €120m by EU in first clash under new digital laws
December 5, 2025
Ruling likely to put European Commission on collision course with billionaire, and possibly Donald Trump Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has been fined €120m (£105m) after it was found in breach of new EU digital laws, in a high-stakes ruling likely to put the European Commission on a collision course with the US billionaire…
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Anti-immigrant material among AI-generated content getting billions of views on TikTok
December 3, 2025
Researchers uncovered 354 AI-focused accounts that had accumulated 4.5bn views in a month Hundreds of accounts on TikTok are garnering billions of views by pumping out AI-generated content, including anti-immigrant and sexualised material, according to a report. Researchers said they had uncovered 354 AI-focused accounts pushing 43,000 posts made with generative AI tools and accumulating…
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How big tech is creating its own friendly media bubble to ‘win the narrative battle online’
December 1, 2025
At a time when distrust of big tech is high, Silicon Valley is embracing an alternative ecosystem where every CEO is a star A montage of Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, and waving US flags set to a remix of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck blasts out as the intro for the tech billionaire’s interview with Sourcery, a YouTube…
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Small changes to ‘for you’ feed on X can rapidly increase political polarisation
November 28, 2025
Study finds that a week of political content can bring about a shift in views that previously would have taken three years Small changes to the tone of posts fed to users of X can increase feelings of political polarisation as much in a week as would have historically taken at least three years, research…
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