Stories

14.02.23

Big Tech

‘Please Acknowledge the Dick’: Inside a catfishing factory

Remote workers are being paid a pittance to play fictional women messaging men who sign up for sex-chat services

29.01.23

Big Tech

‘Sham credibility’: how UK shell companies fuel ‘pig-butchering’ crypto scams

Criminal gangs are exploiting lax regulation to use the UK as a base for carrying out industrial-scale fraud

14.12.22

Big Tech

Meta sued for £2bn over Ethiopia hate speech revealed by Bureau

The petition, filed in the Kenyan courts on Tuesday, cites the Bureau and Observer’s reporting from February, which told the stories of Ethiopian civilians who say their family members were killed as...

21.11.22

Big Tech

The eyes of Amazon: a hidden workforce driving a vast surveillance system

How low-paid employees in India and Costa Rica power the system used to monitor warehouse workers

20.10.22

Big Tech

Behind TikTok’s boom: A legion of traumatised, $10-a-day content moderators

Moderators told the Bureau they faced inadequate psychological support to deal with the endless stream of disturbing content and had to work to gruelling performance targets

25.09.22

Big Tech

Unholy alliance: the far-right religious network attacking reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights

CitizenGo network combines the US Christian right, militant European Catholics, Russian Orthodox hardliners and sanctioned oligarchs

30.03.22

Big Tech

US investment firms prop up ad revenue for Russian propaganda sites

Yandex, a company owned almost entirely by Western investors is still helping sites pushing false Russian claims make thousands of dollars a day through on-site adverts

20.02.22

Big Tech

Facebook accused by survivors of letting activists incite ethnic massacres with hate and misinformation in Ethiopia

Fact checkers and civil society organisations describe company's virtually 'non-existent' support for their work tackling misinformation

09.02.22

Big Tech

Twitter cuts ties to Swiss tech company after Bureau investigation

Twitter is distancing itself from Swiss tech company Mitto after Bloomberg and Bureau investigation. Google has also passed on concerns

06.12.21

Big Tech

Spam, Spies, SMS: how it works

Little-known bulk messaging companies use the access they’ve brokered to hundreds of phone networks to send millions of messages cheaply and quickly around the world. But this efficiency comes at a co...

06.12.21

Big Tech

Swiss tech company boss accused of selling mobile network access for spying

Mitto AG’s network used to track people via mobile phones, former employees say

10.06.21

Big Tech

So much hot air: Twitter and Facebook let quack Covid cures spread unchecked in India

Social media platforms are failing to get to grips with a wave of dangerous misinformation targeting Indians on social media

19.04.21

Big Tech

Home Office algorithm to detect sham marriages may contain built-in discrimination

Internal document warns that new system could perpetuate existing biases against certain nationalities

11.04.21

Big Tech

Instagraft: Covid conspiracy theorists selling silver spray and $50 seawater

The Bureau has identified more than 100 Instagram accounts using the platform to make money through spreading misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines

28.02.21

Big Tech

Factchecks and fake news – but Facebook still let them post

Despite changing its rules after the Bureau found reams of misinformation on its platform, Facebook was still letting popular pages post dangerous false statements about Covid-19 and vaccines

24.02.21

Big Tech

Revealed: Data giant given ‘emergency’ Covid contract had been wooing NHS for months

Controversial tech firm Palantir now holds £23m deal to oversee critical data store of patient records

31.01.21

Big Tech

Misinformation market: The money-making tools Facebook hands to Covid cranks

The Bureau has found hundreds of pages using monetisation tools designed by Facebook while spreading dangerous misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines

16.12.20

Big Tech

The rapid rise of phone surveillance firms

An investigation has found evidence of phone intrusions by private intelligence companies in more than 60 countries. How did we get to this point?

16.12.20

Big Tech

Spy companies using Channel Islands to track phones around the world

A security vulnerability in phone technology is being exploited by private intelligence companies via small networks in Jersey and Guernsey

08.12.20

Big Tech

Revealed: Mark Zuckerberg threatened to pull UK investment in secret meeting with Matt Hancock

The Facebook CEO's threat can be revealed by the Bureau after a two-year fight to make notes from the meeting in 2018 public

‘Please Acknowledge the Dick’: Inside a catfishing factory

‘Sham credibility’: how UK shell companies fuel ‘pig-butchering’ crypto scams

Meta sued for £2bn over Ethiopia hate speech revealed by Bureau

The eyes of Amazon: a hidden workforce driving a vast surveillance system

Behind TikTok’s boom: A legion of traumatised, $10-a-day content moderators

Unholy alliance: the far-right religious network attacking reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights

US investment firms prop up ad revenue for Russian propaganda sites

Facebook accused by survivors of letting activists incite ethnic massacres with hate and misinformation in Ethiopia

Twitter cuts ties to Swiss tech company after Bureau investigation

Spam, Spies, SMS: how it works

Swiss tech company boss accused of selling mobile network access for spying

So much hot air: Twitter and Facebook let quack Covid cures spread unchecked in India

Home Office algorithm to detect sham marriages may contain built-in discrimination

Instagraft: Covid conspiracy theorists selling silver spray and $50 seawater

Factchecks and fake news – but Facebook still let them post

Revealed: Data giant given ‘emergency’ Covid contract had been wooing NHS for months

Misinformation market: The money-making tools Facebook hands to Covid cranks

The rapid rise of phone surveillance firms

Spy companies using Channel Islands to track phones around the world

Revealed: Mark Zuckerberg threatened to pull UK investment in secret meeting with Matt Hancock

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