A former TikTok content moderator in Kenya, James Oyange Odhiambo, has alleged that he developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to his work and was unfairly dismissed for advocating for better working conditions.
The law firm representing Odhiambo has sent a letter to TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and the outsourcing company Majorel threatening a lawsuit if their demands are not met within two weeks. The letter alleges that content moderators were, at times, required to watch between 250 and 350 disturbing and violent videos per hour without adequate mental health support. A TikTok spokesperson declined to comment on the accusations made in the letter. ByteDance did not respond to Time’s request for comment.
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, has filed a lawsuit against the Montana state ban and is seeking a preliminary injunction to block its enforcement that should come into effect on 1 January. Montana passed a law imposing fines of $10,000 for each violation by TikTok. The law does not impose penalties on individual TikTok users.
TikTok filed suit in May and is now asking the US District Judge to issue a preliminary injunction to block the first-of-its-kind US state ban on several grounds, claiming that it infringes on the First Amendment rights of both TikTok and its users. Additionally, the platforms claim that the ban is preempted by federal law and violates the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution.
The company estimates that around 380,000 people in Montana use TikTok out of 150 million users nationwide. The platform also insists that it does not share any data with the Chinese government and warns that the ban would have significant and irreversible effects on its business and brand. Montana, on the other hand, is considering expanding the ban.
The newspaper created a custom-built map de_vonya in a secret room underneath a map that players can stumble upon. Only ‘killed’ players can wander around the map and open the door to the secret room, where the map shows facts, figures, and photographs of the situation in Ukraine. If a player is still active or ‘alive’ in the game, the door to the secret room remains closed.
The newspaper said that to shed light on press freedom, they have created a custom map of a Slavic city called Voyna, meaning war in Russian. The information provided in the secret room is in Russian and is reported by the newspaper’s war correspondents in Ukraine. The map has been one of the most visited in the game during May.
Since 2016, China has been running an annual campaign to ‘clean up’ the Chinese cyberspace. Reasons for banning or shutdowns vary from promoting unauthorised politically related content and news services to spreading ‘harmful information’ such as superstitions, gambling, prostitution, pornography, and illegal lending. China has tightened its control of the internet also in an attempt to limit Western influence. To date, major platforms such as Bing.com, Baidu, Sina Weibo, Douyu, and Douban have been fined for failing to supervise information posted by users.
The Cyberspace Administration also seeks on-site inspections through provincial and prefecture-level enforcement teams.
The governor of Montana is now looking to broaden the SB 419 bill to include other social media platforms suspected of sharing data with foreign adversaries and hold mobile app stores liable for offering them in the state.
Twitter ended its old verification system on Friday, 20 April, but rather than boosting subscription sales, public data shows that fewer than 500 out of 400,000 legacy users purchased the blue tick starting at $8 a month. Soon after, the blue mark became a symbol of privilege and inspired the ‘Block the blue’ campaign prompting users to block those with the purchased verification.
The re-verification combined with the interim loss of credibility of having the ‘blue tick’ has some celebrities questioning whether marking their accounts as ‘paid for’ is an attempt by the social platform to gain some legitimacy. Others have gone as far as to ponder the legality of the move, its potential for defamation, or a false impression of endorsement.
German magazine Die Aktuelle, owned by the Funke media group, published on 15 April an AI-generated ‘interview’ with Michael Schumacher. The magazine’s front cover claimed to offer ‘the first interview’ with a Formula One driver featuring a photo of him smiling. The interview text, however, turned out to be AI-generated conversations and quotes. The mixed feelings around the deceptively real ‘interview’ caused the editor-in-chief to be fired after being on the job since 2009.
Michael Schumacher and his family have been leading a strictly private life without interviews since his skiing accident in 2013. The family is said to be planning legal action against the magazine.
The order comes after a group of 43 content moderators, previously employed by Sama, sued Meta and its partners for unlawful practices of discrimination and contract terminations. In March, evidence showed that Majorel, Meta’s replacement for Sama, has not improved work conditions resulting in the court barring Majorel from becoming Meta’s new moderation partner and mandating it to continue with the outgoing subcontractor, Sama, until the case was heard.
After the final verdict, it is unclear who will perform content moderation for Meta in the region. Meta spokesperson said that Meta’s working with ‘global partners’, causing concern about their ability to sift through content with a nuanced understanding of local African languages.
After last month’s Congressional hearing of TikTok’s CEO, the Biden administration has been trying to ban the social platform in the United States. Concerns have escalated about TikTok being the Chinese government’s backdoor into the US, a tool for manipulating American citizens and gathering their personal data.
Focusing more locally, Montana has become the first state in the US to ban TikTok. Governor Greg Gianforte signed the law stating that TikTok poses a security threat of surveillance and encouragement of dangerous activities. The law primarily applies to companies, prohibiting app stores from offering TikTok and not to individual users who already use the app and may continue to do so. Some industry leaders have critiqued the new law, saying it sets a dangerous precedent for the government to ban businesses without clear evidence of wrongdoing.
Attempts to ban TikTok are not new, as the Trump administration attempted a forceful sale to Microsoft in an effort to ban it back in 2020. However, it has now become clear that even the politically unified Washington does not have a clear way of banning TikTok. Attempts to force selling it to an American enterprise have been futile. No precedent exists where a communication tool has been banned before without clear evidence of a national threat. Even if a new law gets passed, the legal battle of banning TikTok will hit a stalemate regarding the First Amendment. A nationwide ban seems impossible also due to the political backlash of more than 150 million users in the country.
In her recent draft report for the proposed European Media Freedom Act, Sabine Verheyen, the EU parliamentarian serving as the rapporteur in the culture and education parliamentary committee (CULT), introduces important changes in content moderation, governance, market concentration and media outlets from outside Europe.
The European Media Freedom Act is the first-ever legislative proposal regulating the EU media sector. While aimed at ensuring media pluralism and independence, the proposal has been criticised by publishers.
The proposal has been modified to include the limitation of content or services and not just suspensions. Platforms would be required to notify media providers 48 hours before the implementation of the restriction. This also applies to situations where the platform’s algorithm reduces the visibility of the content, allowing for a lengthy objection period of two days, a considerable amount of time for online sharing on social media.
The report also calls for establishing a new regulatory body, the European Board for Media Services, to boost cooperation between national media regulators and ensure greater independence from the European Commission. The report limits market concentration to mergers that ‘significantly impact pluralism’. Such wording distinguishes among mergers that ensure the survival of smaller, less financially viable outlets.
This report will be the foundation for the upcoming discussions among lawmakers leading to the legislation’s adoption in September.
