To the average person, it looks very similar to Meta’s Instagram – with a few differences Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast TikTok quietly launched its Instagram rival, Notes, in Australia and Canada on Thursday, testing out a new app dedicated to still images and text. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup ..read more

The This is Going to Hurt author is Very Online – so he has some gems to share, including 7,000 fireworks going off at once and a parody of every comedy heist film ever made According to my nark of a phone, my screen time exceeds five hours a day, with almost all of that spent on the internet. What a waste of a life. I could write about 10 books a year if I managed to knock that on the head. I’m struggling to think of any major benefits of my very-online life, beyond the fact that this article only took me about three minutes to write. Oh, and I met my husband on Twitter ..read more

European Commission has concerns about app’s impact on children, as well as addiction The EU has given TikTok 24 hours to provide a risk assessment over a new service it has launched in the EU amid concerns it will encourage children to become addicted to videos on the platform. The watch-and-get-rewarded application, TikTok Lite, launched in France and Spain this month, effectively offering users prizes such as Amazon vouchers, gift cards via PayPal or TikTok’s Coins currency for points earned through “tasks ..read more

More children and families extorted with AI-made photos and videos, says National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Child sexual exploitation is on the rise online and taking new forms such as images and videos generated by artificial intelligence, according to an annual assessment released on Tuesday by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), a US-based clearinghouse for the reporting of child sexual abuse material. Reports to the NCMEC of child abuse online rose by more than 12% in 2023 compared with the previous year, surpassing 36.2m reports, the organizat ..read more

Julie Inman Grant issues notices compelling companies to remove offending material within 24 hours Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Facebook’s parent company Meta and X/Twitter have been told to remove violent and distressing videos and imagery of the stabbing of a prominent Orthodox Christian leader in Sydney’s west on Monday evening. The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, told reporters on Tuesday that X and Meta had been issued with notices to remove material within 24 hours that depicted ..read more

Many people of a certain age can’t help but hesitate when recording their TikTok clips – we’re looking at you, Gary Barlow Name: The boomer pause. Age: A split second ..read more

More than 40 locations across the US reported the backlash after rightwing account stokes anti-trans rhetoric about its rules More than 40 Planet Fitness locations across the country have received bomb threats after a conservative movement against the gym’s trans-inclusive locker room policy went viral online. In the weeks since the backlash against the gym chain started in March, at least 43 locations in Connecticut, Florida, Alabama and other states have received bomb threats, according to progressive media watchdog group Media Matters ..read more

Reesa Teesa chronicled how she ‘met, dated, married and divorced’ a ‘pathological liar’, leaving viewers obsessed April Reign watched all 50 parts of the viral TikTok series, Who TF Did I Marry? Reign, creator of the 2015 viral social media campaign, #OscarSoWhite, was among the millions and counting who tuned in to see Reesa Teesa, whose real name is Tareasa Johnson, talk about how she “met, dated, married and divorced” a man who she described as “a real pathological liar ..read more

Cross-party committee urges creation of strategy engage with new platforms that appeal to young The government needs a TikTok strategy to help combat misinformation directed at young people, MPs have said. Members of the cross-party culture, media and sport committee said the government needed to adapt to new apps and platforms that appeal to young people who are increasingly turning away from traditional sources of news ..read more

As Tax Day approaches, accountants debunk some money-saving claims that are a little too good to be true You can find anything on TikTok from book reviews to sex education classes. So it’s unsurprising that some people hit up the app for tax advice. Just try not to be one of those people yourself. The Washington Post reported this week that “bad tax advice is multiplying on TikTok”, with accountants-slash-influencers (or sketchy “financial experts” who boast absolutely no credentials) supposedly revealing the one per cent’s secret money-saving schemes ..read more