Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rachel 🦁 @rachelnull.bsky.social · 1d

Being a "digital native" doesn't excuse failing to fact check.

I'm not shocked the claim went so viral. Cronyism ( corruption) is hardly unheard of in UK government procurement, making the claim believable. Similar claim will probably be made about infosys getting the contract at some point.

Michael Savage @michaelsavage.bsky.social · 2d

NEW: A false claim about Euan Blair found its way into Have I Got News For You.

It was from an X post seen almost 3m times - and it was wrong.

Production chief blames a "digital native" culture.

A very online media class drinking in social media = danger:

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

BBC airing false claim about Euan Blair blamed on young producers ‘marinated in social media’

Broadcaster apologised after Have I Got News For You falsely said former PM’s son had won digital ID contract

www.theguardian.com

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Pete Birkinshaw @binaryape.bsky.social · 2d

"During a trip to India this week, Sir Keir praised the country's Aadhaar digital ID system, which is far more extensive than the plans initially announced for the UK and involves the storing of biometric data, as a "massive success"."

*facepalm* Aadhaar has had a massive number of problems

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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 2d

All my comics have happy endings!

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Molly Scott Cato @greenpartymolly.bsky.social · 2d

A woman who has struggled against authoritarianism wins the Nobel Peace prize

Such a good choice

news.sky.com/story/nobel-...

Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado named Nobel Peace Prize winner

Venezuelan opposition leader and pro-democracy campaigner Maria Corina Machado has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

news.sky.com

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Rachel 🦁 @rachelnull.bsky.social · 2d

No reason for 13-year olds to have digital ID unless the government is planning to:

Send 13-year olds to work. Seems unlikely but maybe the children yearn for the mines in the name of economic growth.

Or fully age-gating the internet in name of "protecting the children". Seems far more likely.

Edwin Hayward @edwinhayward.com · 2d

Great. Now Labour plan to hand the IDs of 13-year olds over to hackers as well as those of adults.

(There's no way the database won't be hacked, right?)

www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Rachel 🦁 @rachelnull.bsky.social · 2d

IWF's anti-encryption talking points are getting ridiculously. First example used to try justifying their renamed mass surveillance isn't even "upload prevention" but a feature designed to improve the user experience. And the second is for malware detection. Neither are mandated by law.

Screenshot from page 9 of the IWF's doc 'Preventing the upload of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in E2EE environments'.

Rich preview link (WhatsApp)
When a link is shared in an encrypted chat, the app first processes it on the user’s device before it is encrypted.
The device fetches basic metadata from the webpage (such as the title, description, and thumbnail image) 27 and
generates a “rich preview.” Only after this check is the message encrypted and sent. This ensures the preview
data is created and checked before the content enters the encrypted environment, making it an example of
pre-encryption activity in practice.

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Rachel 🦁 @rachelnull.bsky.social · 2d

Since the #OnlineSafetyAct age verification took effect in July, I've gone out of my way to avoid it and this is why.

404 Media @404media.co · 2d

BREAKING: A catastrophic breach has impacted Discord user data including selfies and identity documents uploaded as part of the app’s verification process, email addresses, phone numbers, approximately where the user lives, and much more.

🔗 www.404media.co/the-discord-...

The Discord Hack is Every Users’ Worst Nightmare

A hack impacting Discord’s age verification process shows in stark terms the risk of tech companies collecting users’ ID documents. Now the hackers are posting peoples’ IDs and other sensitive informa...

www.404media.co

Rachel 🦁 @rachelnull.bsky.social · 2d

Hey, @ofcom.bsky.social now do you get that age verification is a catastrophic stupid idea?

404 Media @404media.co · 2d

BREAKING: A catastrophic breach has impacted Discord user data including selfies and identity documents uploaded as part of the app’s verification process, email addresses, phone numbers, approximately where the user lives, and much more.

🔗 www.404media.co/the-discord-...

The Discord Hack is Every Users’ Worst Nightmare

A hack impacting Discord’s age verification process shows in stark terms the risk of tech companies collecting users’ ID documents. Now the hackers are posting peoples’ IDs and other sensitive informa...

www.404media.co

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Pat Walshe - Privacy Matters @privacymatters.bsky.social · 2d

But “won’t ya think of the children” …. Many did and that’s why many objected to age verification & the processing of identity documents

404 Media @404media.co · 2d

BREAKING: A catastrophic breach has impacted Discord user data including selfies and identity documents uploaded as part of the app’s verification process, email addresses, phone numbers, approximately where the user lives, and much more.

🔗 www.404media.co/the-discord-...

The Discord Hack is Every Users’ Worst Nightmare

A hack impacting Discord’s age verification process shows in stark terms the risk of tech companies collecting users’ ID documents. Now the hackers are posting peoples’ IDs and other sensitive informa...

www.404media.co

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Troy Hunt @troyhunt.com · 3d

As the clock counts down to the deadline the Qantas hackers have threatened to publish their data on, how much will the court injunction actually help the breach victims (which includes me)? www.troyhunt.com/court-injunc...

Court Injunctions are the Thoughts and Prayers of Data Breach Response

You see it all the time after a tragedy occurs somewhere, and people flock to offer their sympathies via the "thoughts and prayers" line. Sympathy is great, and we should all express that sentiment…

www.troyhunt.com

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Rachel 🦁 @rachelnull.bsky.social · 3d

"evidence is clear" says the essay. Cites no evidence.

web.archive.org/web/20251009...

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Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 3d

Over the months, we gathered material and analysis before working with colleagues @srfnews.bsky.social, @972mag.com, and @theferret.scot to bring the investigation together for their respective audiences.

SRF International podcast (via Susanne Brunner) www.srf.ch/audio/intern...

Realistische Fantasy: Die 3D-Erklärvideos der Israelischen Armee

Die israelische Armee erklärt Angriffe auf Ziele in Gaza und Libanon in Videos mit 3D-Grafiken. Der angebliche Beweis für Terror-Zentralen in Spitälern und Häusern ist jedoch irreführend.

www.srf.ch

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John Scott-Railton @jsrailton.bsky.social · 3d

NEW: Germany opposes mass scanning of private messages.

"must be taboo in a constitutional state"

"even the worst crimes don't justify giving up basic civil rights"

Well said Minister Stefanie Hubig!

Leadership we need from Europe's democracies.
www.bmjv.de/SharedDocs/Z...

Dr. Stefanie Hubig, Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection, on the occasion of political discussions about privacy in the digital space and about a proposal for an EU regulation to prevent and combat sexual abuse

„Unreasonable chat control must be taboo in a constitutional state. Private communication must never be under general suspicion.“

08. October 2025

„Unreasonable chat control must be taboo in a constitutional state. Private communication must never be under general suspicion. The state must also not force messengers to scan messages en masse for suspicious content before sending them. Germany will not agree to such proposals at EU level. We must also make progress in the fight against child pornography at EU level. That's what I'm committed to. But even the worst crimes do not justify giving up basic civil rights. The federal government's votes have insisted on this for months. And it will stay that way.“

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Rachel 🦁 @rachelnull.bsky.social · 4d

[Citation needed]

Could a politician for just ones not rely on emotional charged language to try and justify restricting teens freedom of expression.

Jacob Öberg @profjacob.bsky.social · 4d

“Mobile phones and social media are stealing our children’s childhood,” she said in her opening speech to the Folketing.

“We have unleashed a monster,” Frederiksen said, noting that almost all Danish seventh graders, where pupils are typically 13 or 14 years old, own a cellphone. /2

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 4d

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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Tanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · 5d

I say this with the bluntness it requires: they will get people murdered if this continues. This is not just populism anymore either: it’s completely unhinged and a deliberate choice that does endanger lives. I am not saying this lightly at all.

Screenshot of an Express article; it says: Robert Jenrick lists 30 'activist judges' he vows to axe in war on UK's open border

In a bold move, Robert Jenrick is set to unveil a controversial plan targeting what he calls 'activist' judges, at the Conservative Party conference.

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Darren Dahly @statsepi.bsky.social · 5d

Now he will win. Because that's how it is here. It's simply too funny not to do, so that's what will happen. I don't make the rules.

The Journal @thejournal.ie · 5d

The counting of votes will proceed as normal, the returning officer said, “in line with the rules for the counting of votes as set out in the 1993 Act”.

http://jrnl.ie/6837130

Jim Gavin will be on the ballot and votes will be counted as normal, returning officer confirms

Gavin made the shock announcement late on Sunday night to withdraw from the presidential election.

jrnl.ie

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

"The majority of those killed by Israel’s offensive in the strip have been civilians, and the overall total now exceeds 67,000. Entire families have been wiped out in a single airstrike. Sometimes, only a single individual, frequently a child, is left alive." It must end.

The ruin of Gaza: how Israel’s two-year assault has devastated the territory

IDF’s bombs and ground offensive have killed tens of thousands of people and reduced entire cities to rubble

www.theguardian.com

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 5d

Incredibly dangerous for a senior politician to suggest that there's some zero-sum game to be played between mourning the losses of Oct7 and protesting an ongoing genocide. And incredibly cynical given that the protests are directed at his own complicity

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Keir Starmer calls student protests on 7 October anniversary ‘un-British’

Prime minister urges students not to protest on the second anniversary of Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel

www.theguardian.com

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Brendan Hughes @brendanhughes64.bsky.social · 6d

Explosive device left at Sinn Féin office in Newry

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Newry: Pipe bomb left at Sinn Féin office of Liz Kimmins and Dáire Hughes

Sinn Féin says it was found outside the constituency offices of Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins and Dáire Hughes MP.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel 🦁 @rachelnull.bsky.social · 6d

Israel has attacked and stormed several British-flagged flotilla vessels over the last few months. Our government hasn't publicly responded to any of these illegal acts, so this is hardly a surprising development.

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 6d

Keir Starmer’s spokesman asked about Israel detaining British citizens who were on the Gaza aid flotilla, while in international waters, replies that it is a “matter for the Israeli Government”

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 6d

This is an EU proposed policy with the benign-sounding name "Child Sexual Abuse Regulation" which proposes to screen private online communications using sketchy image-scanning algorithms. It is technically unworkable, and would be a privacy catastrophe, especially for those in authoritarian states

Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 6d

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

Signal @signal.org · 8d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

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Rachel 🦁 @rachelnull.bsky.social · 6d

Also Shabana Mahmood in 2014 www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midland...

Watch: Birmingham MP Shabana Mahmood hauled in by Labour bosses after this video of Sainsbury's Gaza protest

Shabana Mahmood was part of a protest in support of the people of Gaza which forced a Sainsbury's store to close temporarily

www.birminghammail.co.uk

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Rachel 🦁 @rachelnull.bsky.social · 6d

Isn't the PSNI 100s of officers under strength?

Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 7d

BREAKING: Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) arrest protestors in Trafalgar Square, London, for holding signs which say they oppose genocide and support Palestine Action.

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Rachel 🦁 @rachelnull.bsky.social · 7d

uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/rishi-s... 😆

Rishi Sunak’s ‘NFT for Britain’ plan quietly scrapped after just 11 months

The UK Treasury has abandoned its proposal for the Royal Mint to develop its own non-fungible token (NFT).

uk.finance.yahoo.com

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