Global superstar Taylor Swift caused a spike in voter registration across the US on Monday, according to Vote.org, largely on the back of a single Instagram post. One day after she concluded the US leg of her reputation stadium tour, Swift published a post on Instagram and Tumblr declaring her support for two Tennessee Democrat …

In a vast, dark room, the lights glow a steady green, blue, yellow. I’m not inside the Matrix, but it’s not far off. With every step, I walk past thousands upon thousands of virtual interactions between real people happening through the world’s largest social network, Facebook. I’m inside the company’s newest European data center in Clonee, Ireland, a small town …

Google and a group of other tech giants, including Facebook and Twitter, have signed a code of conduct on how they will tackle the spread of fake news, the European Commission said on Wednesday. With major European Parliament elections approaching in 2019, the EU is keen to minimize the influence of fake news on social media. The aim of the …

The British government could be preparing to set up an internet regulator that would police the actions of social networks and sanction them if they failed to comply with rules. Buzzfeed News reported on Thursday that it had obtained details of government proposals, which form part of legislation currently being drafted ahead of an official announcement later this year. One …

Sky Q subscribers are in for an early Christmas present when the broadcaster starts bundling Netflix with other TV packages in November. Sky is rolling its current Box Sets package, worth £5 per month, in with Netflix, worth £8 per month, to form one new service it’s calling Ultimate On Demand, the company said on Wednesday. Sky will charge £10 per …

Chinese phone maker OnePlus is opening a new division focused on making televisions, the company announced Monday. The division will make smart TVs that combine high-quality hardware with a seamless user experience and minimalist design, OnePlus said. Founder and CEO Pete Lau will lead the division, which OnePlus sees as a natural extension of its current tech business. “As other …

Facebook is looking for a director of human rights policy to improve the way the social network tackles abuses on its platforms, according to a job ad posted Saturday. The ad, posted on Facebook’s careers site, explains that the new director will lead a team working “to act against those who would use Facebook to enable harm, stifle expression, and …

Mass surveillance carried out by British intelligence agency GCHQ violated the European Convention on Human Rights, a court ruled Thursday. Judges in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, voted 5 to 2 that some aspects of the UK’s surveillance activities violated people’s right to a private life. These included indiscriminate “population-level” data collection, a lack of oversight …

Did you hear? Apple announced three brand new iPhones on Wednesday, as well as the fourth-generation Apple Watch. Each of the new products will go on sale over the next month or so in the UK, but once you’ve decided what you want to buy, the next question is where from. The first option is to buy them directly from …

Apple took its online store offline on Wednesday ahead of its annual iPhone unveiling bonanza at Apple Park in Cupertino, California. It’s common practice for Apple to pull the store down ahead of major media events, and when it pops back up it always features any new products the company has just announced. It also helps to build anticipation and …