Liv McMahon / BBC: Paris prosecutors say they raided X's French offices with assistance from Europol; Elon Musk and ex-CEO Linda Yaccarino have been summoned to April hearings — Offices belonging to Elon Musk's social media platform, X, in France are being raided by the Paris prosecutor.
Koh Ewe / BBC: Chinese media: China executed 11 members of the Ming mafia family that ran online scam centres in Myanmar; five Bai family members are also sentenced to death — China has executed 11 members of a notorious mafia family that ran scam centres in Myanmar along its north-eastern border, state media report.
Milagros Costabel / BBC: A look at AI-powered tools and apps like Aira Explorer that are helping blind people access visual feedback about their bodies, sometimes for the first time — Artificial intelligence is helping blind people access visual feedback about their bodies, sometimes for the first time …
Rachel Clun / BBC: UK crypto buyers are required to share their account details with tax officials starting January 1 or face penalties, as the UK seeks to collect unpaid taxes — People buying cryptocurrency in the UK now need to share their account details or face penalties, in changes that came into effect on 1 January.
BBC: Sundar Pichai says there is some “irrationality” in the AI boom, the industry can “overshoot” in investment cycles, and “no company is going to be immune” — In an exclusive BBC interview, Sundar Pichai hailed artificial intelligence as an “extraordinary moment” …
Liv McMahon / BBC: The UK proposes an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that would let “authorized testers” proactively assess AI models for their ability to generate CSAM — The UK government will allow tech firms and child safety charities to proactively test artificial intelligence tools …
Joe Tidy / BBC: An interview with Ukrainian cyber-crime kingpin Vyacheslav Penchukov, aka Tank, who was arrested in 2022 after spending ~10 years on the FBI's Most Wanted list — After years of reading about “Tank” and months of planning a visit to him in a Colorado prison, I hear the door click open before I see him walk into the room.
Osmond Chia / BBC: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues Roblox, accusing the company of “flagrantly ignoring” safety laws and calling it a “breeding ground for predators” — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he has sued Roblox over “flagrantly ignoring” safety laws and …
Sima Kotecha / BBC: UK police dismantle an international gang suspected of smuggling up to 40K stolen smartphones from the UK to China, arrest 18 suspects, and recover 2,000 phones — Police say they have dismantled an international gang suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen mobile phones from the UK to China in the past year.
BBC: A look at major UK businesses hit by cyberattacks in 2025; a government survey estimates 43% of businesses and 30% of charities were hit in the past 12 months — The true cost of cyber attacks on UK business is greater than it seems — Are this year's major attacks the …
Kate Whannel / BBC: The UK unveils plans for a digital ID, which will be required to work in the country, to combat illegal immigration; the ID will be stored on people's phones — Digital ID will be mandatory in order to work in the UK, as part of plans to tackle illegal migration.
Imran Rahman-Jones / BBC: UK's National Crime Agency says it's arrested a man in connection with a cyberattack that has caused days of disruption at Heathrow and other European airports — A person has been arrested in connection with a cyber-attack which has caused days of disruption at several European airports including Heathrow.
BBC: An investigation finds spammers are deploying Holocaust-themed AI slop images across Facebook, in an attempt to game Meta's content monetization program — An international network of spammers are posting AI-generated images of Holocaust victims on Facebook, a BBC investigation into “AI slop” has found.
Chris Vallance / BBC: Apple says the UK CMA's proposed “EU-style” regulation is “bad for users and bad for developers”, “undermines” privacy and security, and “hampers” innovation — Apple has warned that “EU-style rules” proposed by the UK competition watchdog “are bad for users and bad for developers”.
Graham Fraser / BBC: French prosecutors open an investigation into Australian video platform Kick over the death of a content creator who was violently abused during livestreams — French prosecutors have opened an investigation into the Australian video platform Kick over the death of a content creator during a livestream.
Beth Rose / BBC: How AI tools from ElevenLabs and others were used to recreate a woman's voice, lost to motor neuron disease, from just eight seconds of audio on a VHS tape — “After such a long time, I couldn't really remember my voice,” Sarah Ezekiel tells BBC Access All. “When I first heard it again, I felt like crying.
Tom McArthur / BBC: Kick says it is “urgently reviewing” the circumstances around the death of a French livestreamer subjected to violence and sleep deprivation during streams — An investigation has been launched into the death of a French streamer known for extreme challenges.
BBC: Barbour ABI: the UK's data center count, currently 477, is set to jump by ~100 over the next five years, with more than half in London and neighboring counties — The number of data centres in the UK is set to increase by almost a fifth, according to figures shared with BBC News.
BBC: Google says it revised its Android Earthquake Alerts algorithm after it failed to send the highest-level Take Action warnings to 10M people in Turkey in 2023 — Google has admitted its earthquake early warning system failed to accurately alert people during Turkey's deadly quake of 2023.
Osmond Chia / BBC: Netflix used AI tools for the first time in one of its TV shows, for a VFX sequence; Ted Sarandos says the VFX costs would have been too high otherwise — Netflix says it has used visual effects created by generative artificial intelligence (AI) in one of its original TV shows for the first time.
Joe Tidy / BBC: UK police arrest four people, a 20-year-old woman and three men aged 17 to 19, in connection to the M&S and Co-op hacks that began in mid-April and caused havoc — Four people have been arrested by police investigating the cyber-attacks that have caused havoc at M&S and the Co-op.
Joshua Nevett / BBC: UK minister instructs the Turing AI institute, which has lately focused on responsible AI and ethics, to prioritize national security and defense instead — Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has written to the UK's national institute for artificial intelligence (AI) to tell its bosses to refocus on defence and security.
BBC: Aylo, which owns Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube, will add “government approved age assurance methods” in the UK by July 25 to comply with the Online Safety Act — Aylo, the owner of adult sites Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube, says it will introduce “government approved age assurance methods” in the UK.
Zoe Kleinman / BBC: The UK passes the Data (Use and Access) Bill, criticized by creatives, without an amendment to force companies to declare using copyrighted material to train AI — A bill which sparked an extraordinary stand-off between some of the UK's most high-profile artists - and their backers in the House of Lords - has finally been passed.
Zoe Kleinman / BBC: Will Cathcart says WhatsApp plans to support Apple's legal case against the UK Home Office over an encryption backdoor, which “could set a dangerous precedent” — WhatsApp is planning to support Apple in its legal action against the UK Home Office over user data privacy, BBC News has learnt.
BBC: Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki tells parents that “if you're not comfortable, don't let your kids be on Roblox” and says “tens of millions” have positive experiences — Parents who are worried about their children being on Roblox should not let them use it …
Thomas Germain / BBC: A look at YouTube's hidden world: most of the videos on the platform capture everyday life and have rarely been seen, with the median video having just 41 views — There's a secret side of YouTube, just beyond the guiding hand of the algorithm - and it's nothing like what you know.
Liv McMahon / BBC: The US and the UK did not join France, China, India, and other countries in signing an international AI agreement in Paris, without explaining their reasons — The UK and US have not signed an international agreement on artificial intelligence (AI) at a global summit in Paris.
Thomas Germain / BBC: An Adalytics report shows how ad systems run by Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others inadvertently placed ads on a website that hosts CSAM — Some of the biggest tech companies in the world served ads on a website featuring images of child abuse, helping to fund its operations.
Sima Kotecha / BBC: The UK announces four new laws that make it illegal to possess, create, or distribute AI tools designed to produce CSAM, becoming the first country to do so — Four new laws will tackle the threat of child sexual abuse images generated by artificial intelligence (AI), the government has announced.
BBC: At least four UK teenagers have been arrested in connection with 764, a “Satanist” terror network targeting children online for sexual blackmail and violence — A teenager involved in what police have described as a Satanist terror network targeting children online for sexual blackmail …
Scott Nover / BBC: Q&A with scientists Charley Kline and Bill Duvall, who sent the first Arpanet message in 1969, on what the internet has become, lessons from Arpanet, and more — On 29 October 1969, two scientists established a connection between computers some 350 miles away and started typing a message.
João da Silva / BBC: ByteDance says it fired an intern in its ad tech team for “maliciously interfering” with AI training, and says operations were unaffected by their actions — TikTok owner, ByteDance, says it has sacked an intern for “maliciously interfering” with the training of one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
Gabriel Gatehouse / BBC: A look at Balaji Srinivasan's Network State concept, which envisions online communities acquiring land via crowdfunding, with the goal of becoming new countries — Do you look at the possibility of political turbulence ahead of November's US presidential election and think: democracy could be in trouble?
Georgina Rannard / BBC: Study: unintended electromagnetic radiation from second-gen Starlink satellites is stronger than first-gen, causing 32x more interference with radio telescopes — Radio waves from Elon Musk's growing network of satellites are blocking scientists' ability to peer into the universe, according to researchers in the Netherlands.
Imran Rahman-Jones / BBC: TikTok confirms it offered the US a “kill switch” in 2022 to shut down the app in the US at the government's discretion if TikTok did not follow certain rules — TikTok says it offered the US government the power to shut the platform down in an attempt to address lawmakers' data protection and national security concerns.
Joe Tidy / BBC: London hospitals hackers Qilin publish almost 400GB of data, including sensitive patient info, on their darknet site and on Telegram; the NHS is investigating — A gang of cyber criminals causing huge disruption to multiple London hospitals has published sensitive data stolen from an NHS blood testing company.
Thomas Germain / BBC: Copywriters detail how AI is affecting their jobs, with some noticing a new line of work to make AI-generated text sound more human, a job that pays a lot less — If you're worried about how AI will affect your job, the world of copywriters may offer a glimpse of the future.
Marianna Spring / BBC: A look at the uptick of AI-generated videos on TikTok featuring politicians in the UK; Ofcom says TikTok was the fastest growing news source in 2022 and 2023 — Young voters in key election battlegrounds are being recommended fake AI-generated videos featuring party leaders, misinformation …
BBC: A Finnish court sentences hacker Julius Kivimäki to six years and three months, after he breached a healthcare database and attempted to blackmail 33,000 people — One of Europe's most wanted cyber criminals has been jailed for attempting to blackmail 33,000 people whose confidential therapy notes he stole.
Kalkidan Yibeltal / BBC: Ethiopia's central bank says “a glitch” let Commercial Bank customers withdraw more cash than was in the account for hours; local media says $40M+ was withdrawn — Ethiopia's biggest commercial bank is scrambling to recoup large sums of money withdrawn by customers after a “systems glitch”.
Tom Gerken / BBC: Meta outlines its strategy to combat the misuse of generative AI ahead of the European elections in June, including setting up an EU-specific operations center — Facebook and Instagram owner Meta says it will form a team to tackle deceptive artificial intelligence (AI) content in the upcoming EU elections in June.
BBC: Investigation: instant loan app scams push people in India and other countries into a spiral of debt, driving many to suicide after shame and blackmail — A blackmail scam is using instant loan apps to entrap and humiliate people across India and other countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Imran Rahman-Jones / BBC: The FCC fines Dish Network $150,000 for failing to move its old EchoStar-7 satellite far enough away from others in use, the FCC's first space junk fine — The US government has issued its first ever fine to a company for leaving space junk orbiting the Earth.
BBC: After Meta criticizes potential UK encryption rules, the UK says Meta “failed to provide assurances” over keeping its platforms “safe from sickening abusers” — Facebook's owner Meta has hit back at a new government campaign strongly critical of its plans to encrypt messages.
James Clayton / BBC: EU study: social media companies have failed to stop pro-Russian disinformation and the “reach and influence of Kremlin-backed accounts” grew further in 2023 — Social media companies have failed to stop “large-scale” Russian disinformation campaigns since the invasion of Ukraine, the EU has said.
Joe Tidy / BBC: A UK court finds 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj and a 17-year-old were part of Lapsus$, the group that hacked Uber, Nvidia, and Rockstar Games in 2021 and 2022 — A court has found an 18-year-old from Oxford was a part of an international cyber-crime gang responsible for a hacking spree against major tech firms
Chris Vallance / BBC: Sama CEO Wendy Gonzalez says the company will no longer take on harmful content moderation work from Meta and she regrets the work, after staff sue the company — A firm which was contracted to moderate Facebook posts in East Africa has said with hindsight it should not have taken on the job.
BBC: An investigation citing hundreds of Turkish people claims Android's earthquake warning system failed to send alerts for the 7.8-magnitude quake on February 6 — Google's earthquake warning system failed to get to many Turkish residents before February's deadly tremor, a BBC Newsnight investigation has found.
Zoe Kleinman / BBC: Apple threatens to remove FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than weaken security under a proposed security bill amendment, dubbed a “snooper's charter” — Apple says it will remove services such as FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than weaken security if new proposals are made law and acted upon.