Facebook has introduced new measures to tackle the spread of revenge porn.
The social media platform has introduced photo-matching technology to prevent attempts to share non-consensual intimate photos on the site, as well as on its Messenger service and Instagram.
It has also added further tools to enable users to report suspect images.
Private sexual photos will be removed by a specially trained team if they are found to violate the site's community standards.
In most cases, accounts found to be sharing an inappropriate image will also be disabled.
There will be an appeals process if someone believes an image has been taken down in error.
In a recent 6,500-word manifesto, posted on his own Facebook page, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg also addressed the social network's plan to "build a global community".
He wrote: "Our success isn't just based on whether we can capture videos and share them with friends.
"It's about whether we're building a community that helps keep us safe - that prevents harm, helps during crises, and rebuilds afterwards."
It has been an offence to share private sexual photographs or films without the subject's consent in England and Wales for the last two years, with a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment.
Online safety charities say victims are left "hugely damaged" after a partner or ex-partner purposefully distributes images or videos of a sexual nature without their consent.
A US study of revenge porn victims found that 93% of people affected by the sharing of intimate images report significant emotional distress.
Revenge Porn Helpline founder Laura Higgins said Facebook's new process "will provide reassurance for many victims of image-based sexual abuse".
She also said she hoped the move would "inspire other social media companies to take similar action".
New UK revenge porn sentencing proposals drafted in March have suggested tougher penalties for behaviour calculated to cause maximum distress to victims, and "sophisticated" cases involving significant planning.
Last month, British-born actress Mischa Barton spoke out about the "pain and humiliation" of a sex tape recorded last year without her consent and offered to the highest bidder.
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Six held in St Petersburg over 'Islamic State recruitment'
Russia says it has detained six terrorist recruiters in St Petersburg after an attack on the city's metro system that killed 14 people.
The suspects, from former Soviet Central Asia, have been held on suspicion of recruiting for Islamic State and aiding terrorist activity.
Authorities say there is no evidence yet they are connected to Monday's bomb attack on the city.
But Russia's state investigative committee said those held are suspected of actively recruiting other Central Asian migrants to join Islamic State and another militant group, the Nusra Front, since November 2015.
It came as Russian investigators prepared to question the parents of the man from Central Asia alleged to be behind the bombing of the underground network.
He has been named as Akbarzhon Jalilov, a 22-year-old Kyrgyzstan-born Russian citizen who lived in St Petersburg for several years working as a car repairman and later at a sushi bar.
State-owned Rossiya 24 television showed footage of a middle-aged woman in a red coat and a white headscarf and a man in a black jacket, chased by journalists.
The woman, who AP identified as Jalilov's mother, said she did not believe her son was responsible for the bombing.
Authorities searched Jalilov's home overnight and have been hunting for his possible accomplices while trying to establish a motive for his attack.
Jalilov's social media pages appear to show an interest in radical Islam and boxing.
Parts of the bomber's body were found in the wreckage of the metro carriage after the attack, which occurred between Sennaya Square and Technology Institute stations, the Russian authorities said.
They say he also planted another bomb disguised as a fire extinguisher in Vosstaniya Square station that was defused before it could explode.
No organisations have yet come forward and said they were responsible for the blast, which also injured 50 people.
Islamic State - which has fighters from ex-Soviet Central Asia among its ranks - has repeatedly threatened to attack Russia in revenge for Moscow's backing of Syrian leader Bashar al Assad.
Before Jalilov travelled to St Petersburg where he eventually got Russian citizenship, his ethnic Uzbek family lived in Osh, a city in southern Kyrgyzstan with a mainly Muslim population.
The suspects, from former Soviet Central Asia, have been held on suspicion of recruiting for Islamic State and aiding terrorist activity.
Authorities say there is no evidence yet they are connected to Monday's bomb attack on the city.
But Russia's state investigative committee said those held are suspected of actively recruiting other Central Asian migrants to join Islamic State and another militant group, the Nusra Front, since November 2015.
It came as Russian investigators prepared to question the parents of the man from Central Asia alleged to be behind the bombing of the underground network.
He has been named as Akbarzhon Jalilov, a 22-year-old Kyrgyzstan-born Russian citizen who lived in St Petersburg for several years working as a car repairman and later at a sushi bar.
State-owned Rossiya 24 television showed footage of a middle-aged woman in a red coat and a white headscarf and a man in a black jacket, chased by journalists.
The woman, who AP identified as Jalilov's mother, said she did not believe her son was responsible for the bombing.
Authorities searched Jalilov's home overnight and have been hunting for his possible accomplices while trying to establish a motive for his attack.
Jalilov's social media pages appear to show an interest in radical Islam and boxing.
Parts of the bomber's body were found in the wreckage of the metro carriage after the attack, which occurred between Sennaya Square and Technology Institute stations, the Russian authorities said.
They say he also planted another bomb disguised as a fire extinguisher in Vosstaniya Square station that was defused before it could explode.
No organisations have yet come forward and said they were responsible for the blast, which also injured 50 people.
Islamic State - which has fighters from ex-Soviet Central Asia among its ranks - has repeatedly threatened to attack Russia in revenge for Moscow's backing of Syrian leader Bashar al Assad.
Before Jalilov travelled to St Petersburg where he eventually got Russian citizenship, his ethnic Uzbek family lived in Osh, a city in southern Kyrgyzstan with a mainly Muslim population.
Bumper performance: Record UK car sales ahead of tax change
A record number of new cars were registered in March as drivers rushed to beat a new tax that came into force on 1 April.
There was an 8.4% rise in sales of new cars from the same time last year - with more than 560,000 new cars registered.
The new vehicle excise duty (VED) rates mean all new cars, except those with zero emissions, will be subject to a substantial annual flat rate charge.
Just days after the new tax was introduced, London Mayor Sadiq Khan also revealed plans to introduce fees of up to £24 a day for all but the newest diesel cars driving in the capital.
The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will see cars, vans and motorcycles which do not meet emission standards paying £12.50 per day on top of the existing £11.50 congestion charge.
But Prime Minister Theresa May has said that diesel drivers will not be punished by the so-called toxin tax.
Demand for petrol cars increased by 13.2% according to the latest figures, while diesel registrations rose just 1.6%.
The year-to-date market share for diesel cars has fallen by just over 3% compared with this time last year.
However, the alternatively fuelled vehicle market grew by 31% in March to take a 4.1% market share.
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) chief executive Mike Hawes said: "These record figures are undoubtedly boosted by consumers reacting to new VED changes, pulling forward purchases into March, especially those ultra-low emission vehicles that will no longer benefit from a zero-rate fee."
Motorists were previously encouraged to buy diesel cars under Tony Blair's Labour government as they were considered better for the environment.
However, Tony Blair's former chief scientist David King has recently admitted "we were wrong".
While diesel engines emit less carbon dioxide than petrol cars, they produce more toxic nitrogen oxide.
A Government report published in April 2016 showed diesel cars being sold in the UK emit an average of six times more nitrogen oxide in real-world driving than the legal limit used in official tests.
There was an 8.4% rise in sales of new cars from the same time last year - with more than 560,000 new cars registered.
The new vehicle excise duty (VED) rates mean all new cars, except those with zero emissions, will be subject to a substantial annual flat rate charge.
Just days after the new tax was introduced, London Mayor Sadiq Khan also revealed plans to introduce fees of up to £24 a day for all but the newest diesel cars driving in the capital.
The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will see cars, vans and motorcycles which do not meet emission standards paying £12.50 per day on top of the existing £11.50 congestion charge.
But Prime Minister Theresa May has said that diesel drivers will not be punished by the so-called toxin tax.
Demand for petrol cars increased by 13.2% according to the latest figures, while diesel registrations rose just 1.6%.
The year-to-date market share for diesel cars has fallen by just over 3% compared with this time last year.
However, the alternatively fuelled vehicle market grew by 31% in March to take a 4.1% market share.
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) chief executive Mike Hawes said: "These record figures are undoubtedly boosted by consumers reacting to new VED changes, pulling forward purchases into March, especially those ultra-low emission vehicles that will no longer benefit from a zero-rate fee."
Motorists were previously encouraged to buy diesel cars under Tony Blair's Labour government as they were considered better for the environment.
However, Tony Blair's former chief scientist David King has recently admitted "we were wrong".
While diesel engines emit less carbon dioxide than petrol cars, they produce more toxic nitrogen oxide.
A Government report published in April 2016 showed diesel cars being sold in the UK emit an average of six times more nitrogen oxide in real-world driving than the legal limit used in official tests.
Sky Views: How the iPhone killed off ringtones
Next time you hear the xylophone chirp of the iPhone ringtone on a busy train or bus, watch how many people take out their phone to see if they're the one being called.
We all have the same ringtone, which slightly defeats the point of a ringtone.
But it seems to fit a narrative of dull conformity: all of us pawing slack-jawed, stoop-necked at the same black rectangular slabs.
In a more colourful age, the personalised ringtone ruled. The fact it no longer does tells us about how technology has changed over the last decade, and how we've changed with it.
Back in the late 1990s and mid-2000s, there was of course another ubiquitous ringtone - Nokia's, mocked on Trigger Happy TV. An unfair fate for a classical score originally composed in 1902.
But a million personalised versions also bloomed.
I spent many of my teenage hours on Nokia Composer, a program built into the 3210 and 3310, recreating songs in bleep form using the phone's keypad. (Yes, this was extremely dorky. Here's how the start of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal went: 8a1 16a1 16a1 16g1 16a1.)
For those less dedicated to ringtone craft, you could download ringtones via text - and it was big business. In 2005, ringtone sales worldwide were worth $4.4bn (£3.5bn), according to Billboard.
Phones packed more features in, going beyond the bleeps into full, glorious polyphony and then, finally, into "realtones" or "truetones".
Madonna even released a song - Hung Up - as a 30-second truetone before she put it out as a single.
The disgusting culmination of all this was of course Crazy Frog, the priapic advertising sensation released upon the public by ringtone maker Jamba.
Ringtones were a way of expressing identity. If you had Crazy Frog, for instance, you were clearly a serial killer. A 2008 study by psychologists at Aalto University in Helsinki, though, found that personalising phones supported the need for "relatedness" - humans' basic desire to connect with and care for each other.
But 2005 was the high watermark for ringtone sales. They dwindled away. PRS, the music licensing society, no longer includes ringtones in its annual financial reports for the industry.
The fault was less Crazy Frog's than Madonna's, though. Hung Up was incorporated into the marketing for the Motorola Rokr phone, a collaboration with Apple. Steve Jobs was so appalled by the device that he went and made the iPhone instead, in 2007.
The iPhone killed the ringtone, even though it made downloading ringtones and songs easier than ever before, for two reasons.
First, we stopped making calls. In 2004, the average person spent 227 minutes making calls on their mobile each month, according to Ofcom. Last year, it was only 182 minutes on the blower. We text and WhatsApp instead.
Second, iPhones gave us plenty of other ways to waste our time - games, music and a whole world of apps. Less time for Nokia Composer.
But what's less important here isn't the opportunity for distraction - ample though that may be - but that apps now let users express their identity much better.
In 2014, researchers from Imperial College investigated how we make our phones 'ours'. They wrote: "Collecting contacts, photographs, videos and other information were all tasks that made a phone unique to one user."
One subject told them: "Look at these two phones," referring to his iPhone 4S and an iPhone 4S owned by one of the authors. "They are identical unless you turn them on."
Apps like Snapchat and Instagram turbocharge that same process.
We all carry the same black rectangles around, with the same ringtone.
But they let us express our identity much better than we could in the heady days of phone personalisation.
We all have the same ringtone, which slightly defeats the point of a ringtone.
But it seems to fit a narrative of dull conformity: all of us pawing slack-jawed, stoop-necked at the same black rectangular slabs.
In a more colourful age, the personalised ringtone ruled. The fact it no longer does tells us about how technology has changed over the last decade, and how we've changed with it.
Back in the late 1990s and mid-2000s, there was of course another ubiquitous ringtone - Nokia's, mocked on Trigger Happy TV. An unfair fate for a classical score originally composed in 1902.
But a million personalised versions also bloomed.
I spent many of my teenage hours on Nokia Composer, a program built into the 3210 and 3310, recreating songs in bleep form using the phone's keypad. (Yes, this was extremely dorky. Here's how the start of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal went: 8a1 16a1 16a1 16g1 16a1.)
For those less dedicated to ringtone craft, you could download ringtones via text - and it was big business. In 2005, ringtone sales worldwide were worth $4.4bn (£3.5bn), according to Billboard.
Phones packed more features in, going beyond the bleeps into full, glorious polyphony and then, finally, into "realtones" or "truetones".
Madonna even released a song - Hung Up - as a 30-second truetone before she put it out as a single.
The disgusting culmination of all this was of course Crazy Frog, the priapic advertising sensation released upon the public by ringtone maker Jamba.
Ringtones were a way of expressing identity. If you had Crazy Frog, for instance, you were clearly a serial killer. A 2008 study by psychologists at Aalto University in Helsinki, though, found that personalising phones supported the need for "relatedness" - humans' basic desire to connect with and care for each other.
But 2005 was the high watermark for ringtone sales. They dwindled away. PRS, the music licensing society, no longer includes ringtones in its annual financial reports for the industry.
The fault was less Crazy Frog's than Madonna's, though. Hung Up was incorporated into the marketing for the Motorola Rokr phone, a collaboration with Apple. Steve Jobs was so appalled by the device that he went and made the iPhone instead, in 2007.
The iPhone killed the ringtone, even though it made downloading ringtones and songs easier than ever before, for two reasons.
First, we stopped making calls. In 2004, the average person spent 227 minutes making calls on their mobile each month, according to Ofcom. Last year, it was only 182 minutes on the blower. We text and WhatsApp instead.
Second, iPhones gave us plenty of other ways to waste our time - games, music and a whole world of apps. Less time for Nokia Composer.
But what's less important here isn't the opportunity for distraction - ample though that may be - but that apps now let users express their identity much better.
In 2014, researchers from Imperial College investigated how we make our phones 'ours'. They wrote: "Collecting contacts, photographs, videos and other information were all tasks that made a phone unique to one user."
One subject told them: "Look at these two phones," referring to his iPhone 4S and an iPhone 4S owned by one of the authors. "They are identical unless you turn them on."
Apps like Snapchat and Instagram turbocharge that same process.
We all carry the same black rectangles around, with the same ringtone.
But they let us express our identity much better than we could in the heady days of phone personalisation.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
AOL and Yahoo to merge into new firm called Oath
Internet firms Yahoo and AOL are set to be merged into a joint company called Oath, AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong has confirmed on Twitter.
The move comes after AOL parent company Verizon, which is one of America's biggest communications firms, agreed to buy Yahoo's internet business for just under $4.5bn.
Mr Armstrong's tweet, sent from his verified account, read; "Billion+ Consumers, 20+ Brands, Unstoppable Team. #TakeTheOath. Summer 2017."
It also revealed the new company's logo.
But the name has already attracted derision online with many branding it "sinister".
"Oath is the name of the evil tech company in the sci-fi story you wrote in 7th grade," one person tweeted, while another asked "Who is doing their marketing?"
Others have been quick to coin puns based on the name, with one social media user joking: "The best time to check your Oath Mail is while you're eating oatmeal."
Another quipped: "What'll be the metric for Oath's success as a company? Groath."
Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo's operating business is expected to be completed by July, at which point the rest of the company will become a new entity involved in investment called Altaba Inc.
The move comes after AOL parent company Verizon, which is one of America's biggest communications firms, agreed to buy Yahoo's internet business for just under $4.5bn.
Mr Armstrong's tweet, sent from his verified account, read; "Billion+ Consumers, 20+ Brands, Unstoppable Team. #TakeTheOath. Summer 2017."
It also revealed the new company's logo.
But the name has already attracted derision online with many branding it "sinister".
"Oath is the name of the evil tech company in the sci-fi story you wrote in 7th grade," one person tweeted, while another asked "Who is doing their marketing?"
Others have been quick to coin puns based on the name, with one social media user joking: "The best time to check your Oath Mail is while you're eating oatmeal."
Another quipped: "What'll be the metric for Oath's success as a company? Groath."
Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo's operating business is expected to be completed by July, at which point the rest of the company will become a new entity involved in investment called Altaba Inc.
Emergency UN meeting to take place following Syria 'gas attack'
The UK, France and the US have proposed a UN Security Council resolution to condemn a suspected gas attack in Syria which has killed at least 100 people.
It calls on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to quickly reveal its findings on Tuesday's attack in Idlib province, where 400 people were injured.
The draft resolution "condemns in the strongest terms the use of chemical weapons" in Syria, in particular the attack on Khan Sheikhun, and expresses "outrage" over the use of toxic gases in the six-year war.
It also urges UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report monthly on whether the Syrian government is co-operating with an international inquiry into the use of chemical weapons across the war-torn country.
Diplomats say the resolution is likely to be put to a vote when the UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting on Wednesday.
Distressing footage from the town of Khan Sheikhoun showed people choking and fainting in the aftermath of the attack - with some victims left foaming at the mouth.
Rescue workers hosed down children to wash away any chemicals from their skin and gave them oxygen.
Mohammed Hassoun, an activist in nearby Sarmin, said: "Because of the number of wounded, they have been distributed around in rural Idlib.
"They were unconscious, they had seizures and when oxygen was administered, they bled from the nose and mouth."
Other videos showed dead children being covered with blankets, and bodies being loaded into trucks.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the attack was believed to have been carried out by government jets, but the Syrian military has denied responsibility and said it would never use chemical weapons.
Russia's defence ministry has also denied carrying out any airstrikes in the area.
While the attack has been met with international condemnation, the United States' response to the strike has been criticised.
In a statement, President Trump called the assault "reprehensible" - but took the unusual step of saying that Barack Obama's strategy for Syria was partly to blame.
"These heinous actions by the Bashar al Assad regime are a consequence of the past administration's weakness and irresolution," Mr Trump wrote.
It calls on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to quickly reveal its findings on Tuesday's attack in Idlib province, where 400 people were injured.
The draft resolution "condemns in the strongest terms the use of chemical weapons" in Syria, in particular the attack on Khan Sheikhun, and expresses "outrage" over the use of toxic gases in the six-year war.
It also urges UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report monthly on whether the Syrian government is co-operating with an international inquiry into the use of chemical weapons across the war-torn country.
Diplomats say the resolution is likely to be put to a vote when the UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting on Wednesday.
Distressing footage from the town of Khan Sheikhoun showed people choking and fainting in the aftermath of the attack - with some victims left foaming at the mouth.
Rescue workers hosed down children to wash away any chemicals from their skin and gave them oxygen.
Mohammed Hassoun, an activist in nearby Sarmin, said: "Because of the number of wounded, they have been distributed around in rural Idlib.
"They were unconscious, they had seizures and when oxygen was administered, they bled from the nose and mouth."
Other videos showed dead children being covered with blankets, and bodies being loaded into trucks.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the attack was believed to have been carried out by government jets, but the Syrian military has denied responsibility and said it would never use chemical weapons.
Russia's defence ministry has also denied carrying out any airstrikes in the area.
While the attack has been met with international condemnation, the United States' response to the strike has been criticised.
In a statement, President Trump called the assault "reprehensible" - but took the unusual step of saying that Barack Obama's strategy for Syria was partly to blame.
"These heinous actions by the Bashar al Assad regime are a consequence of the past administration's weakness and irresolution," Mr Trump wrote.
A spoonful of Marmite a day keeps brains healthy, study suggests
Eating Marmite every day can help keep your brain healthy, a study suggests.
Love it or hate it, researchers believe the yeast extract helps boost levels of an important neurotransmitter which stops brain cells from becoming overexcited.
In the University of York study, volunteers who ate a teaspoon of Marmite every day for a month showed a 30% decrease in their brain's response to visual patterns compared to those who ate peanut butter instead.
Scientists believe that the Marmite, which is rich in vitamin B12, boosted their levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) - the neurotransmitter which "regulates the delicate balance of activity needed to maintain a healthy brain".
Past studies have concluded that GABA may help to dampen feelings of fear and anxiety, which often arise when neurons are overstimulated.
Abnormal levels of GABA have also been associated with epileptic seizures, opening up the possibility that Marmite could have beneficial effects for people who suffer with certain neurological disorders.
Anika Smith, a PhD student involved in the study, said: "As the effects of Marmite consumption took around eight weeks to wear off after participants stopped the study, this suggests that dietary changes could potentially have long-term effects on brain function."
The research team's next study will involve giving volunteers a course of vitamin B12 tablets, or a placebo, to try and figure out whether this is the ingredient responsible for the increase of GABA in the brain.
Their work has been published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Love it or hate it, researchers believe the yeast extract helps boost levels of an important neurotransmitter which stops brain cells from becoming overexcited.
In the University of York study, volunteers who ate a teaspoon of Marmite every day for a month showed a 30% decrease in their brain's response to visual patterns compared to those who ate peanut butter instead.
Scientists believe that the Marmite, which is rich in vitamin B12, boosted their levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) - the neurotransmitter which "regulates the delicate balance of activity needed to maintain a healthy brain".
Past studies have concluded that GABA may help to dampen feelings of fear and anxiety, which often arise when neurons are overstimulated.
Abnormal levels of GABA have also been associated with epileptic seizures, opening up the possibility that Marmite could have beneficial effects for people who suffer with certain neurological disorders.
Anika Smith, a PhD student involved in the study, said: "As the effects of Marmite consumption took around eight weeks to wear off after participants stopped the study, this suggests that dietary changes could potentially have long-term effects on brain function."
The research team's next study will involve giving volunteers a course of vitamin B12 tablets, or a placebo, to try and figure out whether this is the ingredient responsible for the increase of GABA in the brain.
Their work has been published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
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