LinkedIn’s 600 job cuts; TikTok acts on Israel-Hamas misinformation

LinkedIn lays off over 600 staff

Social media platform LinkedIn revealed on Monday that it would make 668 members of staff redundant.

The Microsoft-owned social platform, primarily used as an online resume for users to display their career experience and to network with others, plans to lay off employees across its engineers, talent and finance teams.

It is the second round of job cuts this year for LinkedIn and affects more than 3% of the 20,000 staff currently employed by the platform.

“While we are adapting our organisational structures and streamlining our decision making, we are continuing to invest in strategic priorities for our future and to ensure we continue to deliver value for our members and customers,” the firm wrote in a post on the LinkedIn website.

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TikTok combats misinformation and distressing images following Israel-Hamas war

Short-video social media app, TikTok has said it has “immediately” acted over counter misinformation related to the Israeli-Hamas war.

TikTok made its statement after the European Union warned the platform’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, to “urgently step up” efforts, and “spell out” how it was complying with European law last Friday.

EU commissioner, Theirry Breton, wrote in a letter to TikTok on Friday enforcing that the platform needs to be mindful of its popularity with the younger generation, and “protect children and teenagers from violent content and terrorist propaganda as well as death challenges and potentially life-threatening content.”

The platform said it has removed “violative content and accounts” in a statement on Sunday. Adding: “We immediately mobilised significant resources and personnel to help maintain the safety of our community and integrity of our platform.”

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Big tech shifts profits abroad to avoid UK tax man

A campaign group calling for greater tax transparency has revealed that the UK is missing an estimated £2 billion in tax from big tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google, due to the firms routing the profits abroad.

The group, TaxWatch claims that, in total, big tech firms have paid only £750 million in comparison to what should be expected.

It suggests that the firms are declaring their profits, technically made in the UK, in other countries worldwide to avoid paying UK taxes – although TaxWatch has not stated that the companies have evaded taxes illegally.

TaxWatch’s analysis also includes Amazon and Meta, alongside network company Cisco and Photoshop creator Adobe.

The group admits the figures are only rough estimates due to a lack of data but adds that the lack of transparency is part of the problem which should be solved by country-by-country tax reporting.

All the companies that responded said they complied with relevant tax laws.

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X charges new users $1 a year

X, formerly known as Twitter, has started chagrining new users $1 a year, under Elon Musk’s ownership, to access key features as part of a new trial.

The trial, happening in New Zealand and the Philippines, only allows users to tweet, retweet, like and reply to posts if they pay the $1 subscription fee.

Users who don’t pay will only be able to read posts, watch videos, and follow accounts.

X said that the goal is to “reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity.”

The new users will also need to verify their phone numbers in the setup of their accounts.

The platform is already charging users worldwide for an “X Premium” account that costs $8 a month in the US.

X Premium allows users to write longer posts, gain a blue tick (originally only accessible to high-profile people and companies who went through a free verification process), and gain increased visibility on the platform.

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