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The autopilot function on a Tesla car involved in a fatal crash in Texas in April was “not available” at the time, according to a preliminary report.

Police said one victim was found in the front passenger seat, the other in the back after it crashed and caught fire.

The early findings suggest the car’s autopilot was “not available” on the road where the accident happened.

But cruise-control could have been in operation, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

Police said there was nobody in the driving seat when the vehicle, which struck a tree and caught fire, was found.

The 2019 Tesla Model S had been travelling at high speed when it failed to negotiate a curve on a winding road.

The car firm’s founder, Elon Musk, had previously tweeted that the vehicle’s logs suggested that its autopilot feature had not been enabled at the time of the crash. “Moreover, standard autopilot would require lane lines to turn on, which this street did not have,” he wrote at the time.

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Neither the NTSB nor the police has yet reached a final conclusion about the cause of the accident.

Mark Herman, Harris County Precinct 4 constable, said last month that “no-one was driving the vehicle at the time of impact”.

But footage from the owner’s home-security camera showed the driver getting into the driver’s seat, and the passenger into the front passenger seat, the NTSB said.

Live-audio app Clubhouse is launching on Google’s Android, more than a year after its initial launch.

The invitation-only platform has previously been available on only Apple’s App Store, where downloads have significantly fallen.

The app spiked in popularity this year, with celebrities using the service and invitations being sold online.

But many are questioning its long-term viability, after competitors Facebook and Twitter launched copycat features.

Clubhouse said it was testing the app for users in the US initially, with UK and other English-speaking countries to follow “in the coming days”.

Is Clubhouse really worth $4bn?
Clubhouse: What is it and how do you get invited?
“Our plan over the next few weeks is to collect feedback from the community, fix any issues we see and work to add a few final features like payments and club creation before rolling it out more broadly,” the technology company blogged .

It thanked Android users for their patience and said the app would be rolled out to the rest of the world during the next few weeks and users outside the US could register to receive a notification when it was available in their area.

‘Compelling-content creators’
Clubhouse had about 13.4 million users in late March, according to research company App Annie.

But after peaking in February, with 9.6 million downloads, it had had just 2.7 million in March and 900,000 in April, mobile-app-store analysts Sensor Tower said.

Enders Analysis technology head Joseph Evans said: “Clubhouse is still invite-only, so they are not judging success by how many people are using it.

“They are much more focused on getting compelling-content creators and then hoping that the users will follow at some point in the future.”

But “deep-pocketed” rivals could steal users from Clubhouse by creating a more polished product.

Facebook is testing a web-based app of its own called Hotline, which lets hosts chat to their audience via audio and text and will be available to both Android and Apple users.

And Twitter has launched Spaces, an audio-streaming feature inside the existing Twitter app, which will soon allow users to charge for admission to its audio chat rooms.

‘Increasingly irrelevant’
“People can now have the best of both worlds on the platforms they know and trust, rather than jumping between multiple social networks,” South Coast Social social-media agency founder Clare Groombridge said.

All In content-creator agency founder Kevin Tewe said Clubhouse’s initial success had been due to people staying at home during the pandemic.

“Users soon realised it is always the same topics by the same people, who are selling themselves or getting deals for their agencies,” he said.

And the platform would become increasingly irrelevant as people were allowed to interact in person more.

Review platform TripAdvisor has apologised after initially opting to leave up an offensive review of the Auschwitz Museum in Poland.

The review has now been deleted and the poster banned, it said, blaming a screening “failure”.

The museum complained about the post, in which the reviewer joked about bringing a baby to the gas chambers of the death camp.

The post also flippantly described the experience as “fun for the family”.

The Auschwitz Museum said that when it contacted TripAdvisor, it was initially informed that the posting fell within the site’s submission guidelines.

At least 1.1 million men, women and children were murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp, run by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland, during World War Two. The majority were killed in its large complex of gas chambers.

The site now functions as a museum and memorial.

In a statement, TripAdvisor said it used “a blend of technology and people” in reviewing posts, and that in this case “our initial screening failed to identify this review as promoting intolerance”. It did not say whether human or machines had been involved in the original decision.

“Through our escalation process, this review was removed,” it said.

“We always aim to get it right the first time and we apologize to the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum, the Jewish community at large, and all communities and individuals affected by this initial miss.”

The Auschwitz Museum had tweeted about the original error, and followed up by thanking TripAdvisor for its later action.

Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile customers face the longest wait to speak to customer service operators by phone, the regulator Ofcom has found.

Virgin Media customers waited seven minutes and 40 seconds on average, while Virgin Mobile took six minutes and 44 seconds to answer calls in 2020.

EE had the shortest average wait time with one minute and 15 seconds, followed by TalkTalk.

Virgin Media said customer service was a “top priority”.

Overall, 52% of all UK broadband customers were happy with how their complaints were dealt with.

That compared with 57% of mobile users.

Virgin Media said it had been forced to change the set-up of its contact centres during the pandemic.

“We’re proud of how we rose to this challenge,” it said.

“However, we recognise there’s room for improvement, which is why we have already increased our investments in digital and customer service, including creating more than 1,000 customer care roles in the UK last year, and will be making further improvements later this year.”

Better deals
It is Ofcom’s fifth annual report exploring how well the major providers support customers and provide information about what they offer.

The regulator said while many companies were now offering better deals, customer service was still facing issues.

Other findings included:

Broadband and landline customers waited four minutes and nine seconds on average to speak to someone in 2020
Mobile customers waited two minutes and seven seconds
26% of broadband customers had “a reason to complain” about their provider or service
Only 3% of mobile customers were unhappy with their service
Most people were only without services for a maximum of two days due to faults
Soaring demand
Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom’s network and communications group director, said on the whole broadband and mobile companies had “adapted well” to soaring demand for connectivity during the pandemic.

“Some have struggled with customer service problems,” she added.

“We’re challenging them to act now, so the telecoms industry becomes the gold standard for customer service.”

Rocio Concha, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Which? said it was important for the sector to uphold the commitments they had made in 2019.

“In a time where being connected is more important than ever, providers need to take their commitments seriously and do more to meet consumers’ expectations – particularly on customer service, pricing and ease of changing contracts,” she said.

Donald Trump’s ban from Facebook and Instagram has been upheld by Facebook’s Oversight Board.

But it criticised the indefinite nature of the ban as beyond the scope of Facebook’s normal penalties.

It has ordered Facebook to review the decision and “justify a proportionate response” that is applied to everyone, including ordinary users.

The former president was banned from both sites in January following the Capitol Hill riots.

The Oversight Board said the initial decision to permanently suspend Mr Trump was “indeterminate and standardless”, and that the correct response should be “consistent with the rules that are applied to other users of its platform”.

Facebook must respond within six months, it said.

At a press conference, co-chair Helle Thorning-Schmidt admitted: “We did not have an easy answer.”

She added that she felt Facebook would “appreciate the decision”.

“We are telling Facebook to go back and be more transparent about how it assesses these things. Treat all users the same and don’t give arbitrary penalties.”

In response, Facebook said it would “consider the board’s decision and determine an action that is clear and proportionate”.

The board also made a number of recommendations about how Facebook should improve its policies and the social network promised to “carefully review” these.

The Board was due to announce its decision last month but delayed the ruling in order to review more than 9,000 public responses to cases, it said.

In the meantime, Mr Trump, who is also banned from Twitter, launched a new website on Tuesday to update supporters with his thoughts.

Following the ruling, Mr Trump wrote that “what Facebook, Twitter, and Google have done is a total disgrace”.

“Free speech has been taken away from the President of the United States because the radical left lunatics are afraid of the truth,” he said, referring to himself as president.

“The people of our country will not stand for it! These corrupt social media companies must pay a political price, and must never again be allowed to destroy and decimate our electoral process,” he said.

The administration of Mr Trump’s successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, declined to comment on Facebook’s ruling on Wednesday.

But White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said it was President Biden’s view that “major platforms have a responsibility related to the health and safety of all Americans to stop amplifying untrustworthy content, disinformation and misinformation”.

What did the Board say?
The ruling means that Mr Trump’s suspension remains in place for now.

The Oversight Board decided that Mr Trump had broken Facebook’s community standards, and upheld the ban.

But it is the “indefinite” part of the ban that it took issue with because that is not within its own rules.

“It is not permissible for Facebook to keep a user off the platform for an undefined period, with no criteria for when or whether the account will be restored,” it said in a statement.

Applying that type of ban to Mr Trump was not following any clear procedure, it said.

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The Board argued that Facebook had essentially issued “a vague, standardless penalty and then [referred] this case to the Board to resolve”.

It said doing so meant “Facebook seeks to avoid its responsibilities” – and sent the decision back to Facebook.

Co-chair Michael McConnell justified the timeframe saying that it was a decision “not to be rushed” and admitted that the firm may decide to throw it back to the Oversight Board yet again.

Setting up a “Supreme Court” to rule on tricky issues seemed like a smart move by Mark Zuckerberg. Whatever the Oversight Board decided, Facebook’s boss could say “not my fault, blame the judges”.

But that’s unlikely to wash here. There can be no more divisive issue than President Trump’s presence on a platform credited or blamed by many for his electoral success in 2016 and probably crucial if he decides to run again in 2024.

Now, the Oversight Board has thrown the hot potato right back into Mr Zuckerberg’s lap.

He and his team have been told to go away and have a long hard think about how they handle tricky cases like this one. They will have to decide the meaning of the term “newsworthy” and conduct a proper inquest into the platform’s role in the events of 6 January.

And at the end of it all, Facebook will still have to decide what to do about Donald Trump.

Mark Zuckerberg could be forgiven for wondering whether setting up this body was such a good idea after all – and why he is paying the generous salaries of the board’s members.

Presentational grey line
What is the Oversight Board?
Often referred to as “Facebook’s Supreme Court”, it was set up to rule on difficult or controversial moderation decisions made by Facebook.

It was established by Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg but operates as an independent entity, although its wages and other costs are covered by Facebook. It is made up of journalists, human rights activists, lawyers and academics.

Facebook faces delay over Trump ban decision
Facebook Oversight Board reveals its first cases
The committee has already ruled on nine cases including a comment that seemed derogatory to Muslims. The post from a user in Myanmar, removed for breaking hate-speech rules, was found by the board not to be Islamophobic when taken in context.

What happened to Trump’s account?
Following the Capitol Hill riots on 6 January, Facebook announced it was banning Mr Trump for breaking its “glorification of violence” rules.

Hundreds of his supporters entered the complex as the US Congress attempted to certify Joe Biden’s victory in last year’s presidential election.

Mr Trump was acquitted of a charge of inciting insurrection at the US Capitol in his second impeachment trial in February, after being accused of encouraging the violence in which five people lost their lives.

The social network had originally imposed a 24-hour ban after the attack which was then extended “indefinitely”.

Mr Zuckerberg announced that the risks of allowing Mr Trump to post were “simply too great”.

The former president has also been banned from Twitter and YouTube.

Apple has added extra paid-for advertisements to its App Store, a week after its new operating system limited tracking for ads from other companies.

The new ad space lets app-makers advertise on the App Store search tab, rather than just in the search results.

Last week’s release of iOS 14.5 placed strict limits on tracking on iPhones – including tracking for advertising.

And Facebook fiercely opposed the change, warning it would favour Apple’s own advertising system.

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature requires apps on iPhones to ask for permission to track the user for advertising.

During a long-running row between the two, Facebook had warned Apple’s “privacy” features would hurt advertisers – including app makers – and benefit Apple.

“Apple’s policies leave very limited options for app developers to find customers through effective advertising – and, conveniently, Apple’s own advertising products is one of them,” Facebook had said.

‘Increased demand’
Previously, Apple sold adverts to appear at the top of search results only. The new slot effectively doubles the advertising space for sale.

Enders Analysis senior media analyst Jamie MacEwan said: “The timing makes sense.

“Apple probably anticipates increased demand for exposure on the App Store. That’s because Apple’s iOS privacy changes have made other options less attractive.”

Facebook v Apple: The ad tracking row heats up
Google promises to drop personalised ad tracking
Ad campaigns on other sites had less reliable measurements of success, he said.

And app developers ran ads only if they were sure the cost of winning new customers was lower than the amount they would spend on the app.

“As its ads business grows, Apple will have to make sure its execution on consent and privacy is impeccable” to avoid accusations of putting itself first, Mr MacEwan added.

Some reports suggest Apple’s ad sales could be worth more than $2bn and are growing.

Apple has not responded to a request for comment on the timing of the new advertising product launch.

Legal battle
The new feature also comes as internal Apple emails reveal a tension in the company over its advertising business.

The emails, between Apple employees in 2015, discussed the possibility of adding adverts to the App Store, after Google launched them for its own Android store.

The documents emerged as part of Apple’s continuing legal battle with Epic Games and were first reported on by Apple news site 9to5Mac.

Apple anti-fraud unit head Eric Friedman was discussing the idea of ads with engineer David Neumann, the documents reveal, and how they could work better for app discovery than a “top apps” chart.

“The dev[eloper]s would love it,” Mr Friedman wrote.

“The problem is that [Apple chief executive Tim Cook] is telling the world that we make great products without monetising users.

“Ads would be weirdly at odds with that.”

Mr Cook has long criticised big technology companies for monetising users’ data, whereas Apple makes most of its money through selling high-end devices.

Apple ended up introducing its first App Store ads in mid-2016, more than a year after those emails.

But the number of ads it displays remains low compared with rival Google Play, or most social networks.

A US judge has refused to dismiss Amazon’s allegations that political interference cost the company a $10bn (£7bn) Pentagon contract.

The 10-year JEDI contract is aimed at making the US defence department more technologically agile.

Amazon had been considered the favourite to win. However, the contract was eventually awarded to Microsoft.

The tech giant alleges Mr Trump’s dislike of its founder Jeff Bezos influenced the final decision.

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The ruling on Wednesday means that Mr Trump could be among those Amazon asks to appear in court as part of any future proceedings.

“The record of improper influence by former President Trump is disturbing, and we are pleased the Court will review the remarkable impact it had on the JEDI contract award,” an Amazon spokesman said in a statement.

“AWS continues to be the superior technical choice, the less expensive choice, and would provide the best value to the DOD and the American taxpayer.”

However, a spokesman for Microsoft insisted that the new ruling “changes little”.

“Not once, but twice, professional procurement staff at the DoD chose Microsoft after a thorough review. Many other large and sophisticated customers make the same choice every week.

“We’ve continued for more than a year to do the internal work necessary to move forward on JEDI quickly, and we continue to work with DoD, as we have for more than 40 years, on mission-critical initiatives.”

Four companies had initially been in the running for the deal when the process was launched in 2017.

IBM was eliminated, as was Oracle, which lodged an unsuccessful legal challenge alleging conflict of interest stemming from Amazon’s hiring of two former defence department employees. Both were said to have been involved in the JEDI selection process.

Washington DC’s Metropolitan Police Department has said its computer network has been breached in a targeted cyber-attack, US media report.

A ransomware group called Babuk is reportedly threatening to release sensitive data on police informants if it is not contacted within three days.

The FBI is investigating the extent of the breach, US media reported, citing the Washington DC police department.

Ransomware is used to scramble computer networks and steal information.

Attackers target companies or organisations and can lock their systems, then demand large sums of money in return for ending the hack.

What is ransomware?
On Monday, Washington DC’s police department said in a statement that it was “aware of unauthorised access on our server”, AP news agency reported.

“While we determine the full impact and continue to review activity, we have engaged the FBI to fully investigate this matter,” the statement added, without providing further details of the reported breach.

It is not clear if attackers managed to lock police out of their systems during the breach.

Babuk, a Russian-speaking ransomware group that emerged earlier this year, said it had downloaded “a sufficient amount of information” from the police department’s internal networks, AP reports.

Screenshots said to have been posted by the group on the dark web and shared on social media appeared to suggest it had gained access to information on criminal gang activity and police intelligence reports.

The head of UK-based cyber-security consultancy Bridewell Consulting, James Smith, said a risk remained for companies and organisations even if a ransom was paid.

“With these types of attacks, the data has probably been stolen already, before it was encrypted, and the likelihood that the data will be sold or stored by the hacker is great,” he said in a statement to the BBC.

Earlier this month, Babuk reportedly targeted the Houston Rockets basketball team with ransomware and claimed to have accessed documents including player contracts and financial data.

A spokeswoman for the Houston Rockets, Tracey Hughes, said that while the group had accessed some information, it failed to install its ransomware because of a security system in place.

Last week, a Russian man in the US pleaded guilty to plotting to extort money from the electric car company Tesla. He planned to use ransomware to steal company secrets for extortion, prosecutors said.

According to media reports, US government agencies have been targeted 26 times so far this year.

Apple has announced its new iOS 14.5 update for the iPhone and iPad.

The most newsy feature is its new App Tracking Transparency function – which means users will have to “opt in” if they want their online activity tracked by companies. Here are the things that caught our eye.

Unlocking an iPhone wearing a mask
Apple’s new operating system will allow you to unlock your phone whilst wearing a mask – with a gigantic catch.

Apple’s facial recognition doesn’t generally work when users are wearing a mask. Apple’s work-around involves you also owning an Apple Watch.

Apple said: “With Apple Watch on the wrist, unlocked, and in close proximity to iPhone, users can simply glance at their iPhone and they will receive haptic feedback from Apple Watch, indicating their iPhone has been unlocked.”

For anyone who doesn’t own an Apple Watch, as well as an iPhone, this feature won’t work.

App Tracking Transparency
The new update will mean a prompt will flash up when you want to download an app – asking for your permission for the app to track your online activity.

That data is currently used to create highly targeted ads based on your online behaviour by companies like Facebook.

Facebook has publically lobbied against the new change. The less Facebook knows about you, the less money it can charge for adverts.

Apple’s motives for the move have been questioned. If app developers can’t make as much through advertising, they might be more inclined to charge for services – and Apple makes money from these payments.

You can read more about this update here.

Like millions of iPhone users I downloaded iOS 14.5 last night and waited to find out what Apple’s brave new world of freedom from tracking looked like.

But nothing happened. There were no alerts from the hundreds of apps I have installed, asking me to agree to tracking. I tried downloading some new apps, but again: nothing, nada, zilch.

Buried in the privacy section of the phone’s settings is a switch labelled “Allow Apps to Request to Track” which was toggled on. Underneath, just one app was listed – a streaming service which I think I updated last night.

It seems that even if that is switched on, tracking stays off until the apps themselves push out a request screen inviting you to accept it.

Facebook says it is in the process of pushing out its screen – preceded by another one, explaining why tracking is a good thing and has helped to keep many small businesses afloat.

But a huge system of data collection, which sees app users tracked wherever they go, has been switched off for all who download the update.

What’s not clear is how much of it will be switched on again – by users, or even by the developers themselves. Many may decide that this kind of tracking has had its day, and they need to find a new model for advertising.

2px presentational grey line
New Emojis
Apple has introduced several new emojis in its latest update.

For example, people will be able to select different skin tones for the “couple kissing” emoji and “couple with heart” emoji.

Apple said that “Additional emoji include characters for face exhaling, face with spiral eyes, face in clouds, hearts on fire, mending heart, and woman with a beard, among others.”

Siri
Apple says Siri, its voice-controlled assistant, is becoming more diverse.

“Siri no longer has a default voice, allowing users to choose the voice that speaks to them when they first set up their device,” says Apple.

“In English, users can now select more diverse voice options. These new Siri voices use Neural Text to Speech technology for an incredibly natural sound,” says Apple.

Apple says these updates represent longstanding commitments to diversity and inclusion.

However many of Apple’s devices are made in China, where Apple has received criticism for not being more vocal about the government’s treatment of Uyghurs.

Apple’s critics say that the company should be consistent in its messaging on diversity – both at home and abroad.

AirTags
Apple’s new operating system will work with the newly launched “AirTags”.

The small disc can be attached to things like your keys or wallet. If you lose them, you’ll be able to track them with the Find My app.

Premier League, English Football League and Women’s Super League clubs will join in a four-day boycott of social media platforms in an effort to combat abuse and discrimination.

The boycott will start on 30 April.

The Football Association, as well as league bodies and other organisations, including anti-discrimination charity Kick it Out, will also be involved.

“This boycott signifies our collective anger,” said Kick it Out’s chairman Sanjay Bhandari.

“Social media is now sadly a regular vessel for toxic abuse.

“By removing ourselves from the platforms, we are making a symbolic gesture to those with power. We need you to act. We need you to create change.

“We need social media companies to make their platforms a hostile environment for trolls rather than for the football family.”

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Sheffield United’s David McGoldrick, who was racially abused last year, welcomed the move, saying: “It is about time. What has gone off on social media, it has happened to me.

“It has happened to many players. Something needs to happen, it is too easily to get racially abused on there.”

Speaking to Sky Sports on Saturday night after scoring in his side’s 1-0 win over Brighton, the striker added: “The Super League got cut off in 48 hours, why is racism on the back foot? It is bigger in my eyes.”

Brighton forward Neal Maupay has also been the subject of online abuse and he told Sky Sports the boycott was a “very good” move.

“The players get a lot of abuse online and we need to fight it. It’s a good way to do it. It’s good that we are in this together,” the Frenchman said.

The Football Supporters’ Association, League Managers’ Association, Women in Football, Women’s Championship and its clubs as well as refereeing body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) have also committed to the boycott of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

The move will come three weeks after Swansea City turned off their social media accounts for a week to make a stand against abuse following a number of their players being targeted.

Championship rivals Birmingham City and Scottish champions Rangers followed Swansea’s lead in announcing a boycott of social media.

Former Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry removed himself from all social media in March because of racism and bullying across platforms.

In an interview with BBC’s Newsnight programme, the 43-year-old said “enough was enough” and that he had to make a stand against racism on social media.

Earlier in April, Liverpool said racist abuse on social media “cannot be allowed to continue” after Trent Alexander-Arnold, Naby Keita and Sadio Mane were targeted in April.

A joint statement from English football’s governing bodies said the boycott is a way “to emphasise that social media companies must do more to eradicate online hate”, while also “highlighting the importance of educating people”.

“Boycott action from football in isolation will, of course, not eradicate the scourge of online discriminatory abuse, but it will demonstrate that the game is willing to take voluntary and proactive steps in this continued fight,” the statement continued.

The FA’s director of equality and diversity Edleen John said “English football will not tolerate discrimination in any form”.

“We are calling on organisations and individuals across the game to join us in a temporary boycott of these social media platforms, to show solidarity and unite in the message,” she said.

“Social media companies need to be held accountable if they continue to fall short of their moral and social responsibilities to address this endemic problem.”

The UK government has previously threatened social media companies with “large fines” which could amount to “billions of pounds” if they fail to tackle abuse on their platforms.

Facebook said in February that tougher measures would be taken to tackle the issue.

Last week, Instagram – which is owned by Facebook – announced a tool to enable users to automatically filter out abusive messages from those they do not follow on the platform.
The UK government has previously threatened social media companies with “large fines” which could amount to “billions of pounds” if they fail to tackle abuse on their platforms.

Facebook said in February that tougher measures would be taken to tackle the issue.