ShinyShiny snippets: Twitter dissolves Trust and Safety Council


Twitter has dissolved its Trust and Safety Council, the advisory group of nearly 100 independent civil, human rights and other organisations. The company, now run by Elon Musk, formed the council in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other problems on the platform. It had been scheduled to meet with Twitter representatives on Monday night. But, according to multiple members, Twitter informed the group via email shortly before the meeting was to take place, that it was disbanding it. Sky News 

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been arrested in The Bahamas, the country’s attorney general has said. He is scheduled to appear on Tuesday in a magistrates’ court in the Caribbean country’s capital, Nassau. Police said Mr Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested for “financial offences” against laws in the US and The Bahamas. Last month FTX filed for bankruptcy in the US, leaving many users unable to withdraw their funds. According to a court filing last month, FTX owed its 50 largest creditors almost $3.1bn (£2.5bn). BBC 

Apple’s iOS 16.2 is arriving any minute now, along with a bunch of brilliant new features. The iOS 16.2 iPhone update should be great for those who care about security and privacy, because it comes with a feature called Advanced Data protection… This sees end-to-end encryption expanded out to more iCloud categories—including iCloud Backup, Notes, and Photos. The expansion of end-to-end encryption in iOS 16.2 means no party has access to your data within this expanded list of categories, including the government and Apple itself. Forbes 

The polite version is that it didn’t go quite according to plan when Elon Musk made his most recent stage appearance. “Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for the richest man in the world,” the comedian Dave Chappelle roared on stage at the Chase Center in San Francisco as he invited the Twitter owner out to join him on Sunday night. For the first couple of seconds Musk appeared ready to accept a euphoric welcome from the crowd of 18,000. He raised his arms high in the air and spun around as though he’d just scored a World Cup decider. Then the booing started. And it continued. And it got louder. And louder. For the best part of 10 minutes Musk was given a real-time readout of his current popularity ratings. The Guardian 

Xiaomi finally debuted the Xiaomi 13 series in China yesterday, along with a slew of other mobile devices and MIUI 14. Unlike last year when the company launched the Xiaomi 12, Xiaomi 12 Pro, and Xiaomi 12X, only the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro were unveiled in China yesterday, and official communication has now confirmed a global release for both phones. As shared by Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun on Twitter yesterday, the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro are both billed to launch globally in the future. “We are going to launch Xiaomi 13 Series for our international markets soon! Stay tuned,” the executive posted, along with an image of the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro. Notebook Check

Demand for electric cars is falling for the first time since the pandemic as soaring electricity costs make the vehicles increasingly costly to run. Fewer than one in five car buyers were hunting for an electric vehicle in November, according to data from AutoTrader, down from 27pc in June. Interest is waning as petrol prices fall and surging energy bills make the cost of running battery powered vehicles more expensive. The Government has also withdrawn subsidies for electric cars. In June, ministers scrapped a £1,500 grant and in November Jeremy Hunt announced that EVs would be subject to road tax from 2025. Telegraph

Chris Price