County lines gang ‘recruited teen in 80 minutes via Snapchat’ 

  • Speaking with the BBC, a teenager has told how he was groomed by criminals to sell heroin and crack cocaine after being recruited through an advert posted on Snapchat. 
  • Two years ago, aged 14 and wanting to leave home, he responded to a message offering cash-in-hand work and accommodation, on the social media app. 
  • Within 80 minutes, a gang collected him and drove him elsewhere to sell drugs. 
  • The teenager, who said he spotted the advert on another person’s Snapchat story, said: “It was from a simple text to be honest with you…. Within an hour and 20 minutes of me texting them, they was already here.” 
  • For the full story, select here. 
  • To learn more about child criminal exploitation and County Lines, select here. 

Facebook tests video speed dating events with ‘Sparked’ 

  • Facebook confirmed it’s testing a video speed-dating app called Sparked, after the app’s website was spotted by The Verge.  
  • Unlike dating app giants such as Tinder, Sparked users don’t swipe on people they like or direct message others.  
  • Instead, they cycle through a series of short video dates during an event to make connections with others. The product itself is being developed by Facebook’s internal R&D group, but had not been officially announced. 
  • “Sparked is an early experiment by New Product Experimentation,” a spokesperson for Facebook’s NPE Team confirmed to TechCrunch. “We’re exploring how video-first speed dating can help people find love online.”
  • For the full story, select here. 

Facebook Oversight Board will review Facebook’s decisions to allow content to remain on platform

  • Facebook’s Oversight Board is to begin reviewing content that has been allowed to remain on the platform despite requests to remove it. 
  • Previously the board only heard appeals from users about content they felt had been unfairly removed – or referrals that came from Facebook itself. 
  • The board has the power to overrule Facebook’s original content decisions. 
  • Its 20 members include former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and ex-Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger. 
  • Anyone can submit content to the board for re-review, providing it has been reported to Facebook in the first instance.
  • For the full story, select here. 

         

        YouTuber Jake Paul accused of sexual assault 

        • YouTuber Jake Paul has been accused of sexual assault by a fellow social media creator. 
        • Justine Paradise, a TikTok user with more than 500,000 followers on the platform, shared the allegations in a recent YouTube video. 
        • She alleges that Paul assaulted her in July 2019 at the Team 10 house, his former mansion in Calabasas, California, which Paul later decided to sell.  
        • On Tuesday, Paul denied the claims via a statement from his attorney Daniel E Gardenswartz, who told TMZ: “Our client categorically denies the allegation and has every intention of aggressively disproving it and pursuing legal action against those responsible for the defamation of his character.”
        • For the full story, select here.