TikTok removes Russian state media accounts, Telegram agrees to hand over some data

TikTok has said it has removed accounts associated with Russian state media for “engaging in covert influence operations”. It’s part of the site’s efforts to prevent disinformation in the run up to November’s US presidential election. Accounts affected are those from media group Rossiya Segodnya, which owns the RIA Novosti and Sputnik news services; and TV-Novosti, the parent body of the RT news channel. TikTok said the accounts were previously restricted in the UK and EU, and that their worldwide content was marked as state-controlled media. Sky News 

Social media owners, politicians and governments are the biggest threats to a trustworthy online news environment, according to an expert group studying misinformation whose work is modelled on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) said owners of social media platforms topped a survey of concerns, followed by domestic and foreign governments and politicians. The Guardian

The messaging app Telegram has said it will hand over users’ IP addresses and phone numbers to authorities who have search warrants or other valid legal requests. The change to its terms of service and privacy policy “should discourage criminals”, CEO Pavel Durov said in a Telegram post on Monday. “While 99.999% of Telegram users have nothing to do with crime, the 0.001% involved in illicit activities create a bad image for the entire platform, putting the interests of our almost billion users at risk,” he continued. BBC 

The Samsung Galaxy Ring has barely been out for two months at the time of writing, but it’s already been lauded as one of the best smart rings, and new models are allegedly already in the pipeline.  Up until now, Samsung has made Samsung Galaxy Rings ranging between US ring sizes 5, its smallest option, and US ring size 13. However, two more rings are on the way, sized for larger fingers (US ring sizes 14 and 15) according to a recent post on X by All About Samsung blogger and leaker Max Jambor, from Germany. Tech Radar

Elon Musk is facing a backlash after announcing that the block button on X (fomerly Twitter) will no longer prevent people from viewing posts. The billionaire, who took over the social media app in 2022, said the update was long overdue, having previously claimed that the feature “makes no sense” and should be removed entirely. “High time this happened,” Mr Musk wrote on X. “The block function will block that account from engaging with, but not block seeing, public post.” Independent