Sunday 17 January 2021

Facebook, John de Mol reach deal on fake crypto currency adverts

Facebook, John de Mol reach deal on fake crypto currency adverts

Television mogul John de Mol and Facebook have reached an ‘amicable settlement’ on stopping the appearance of adverts for bitcoin using De Mol’s face on the social media platform, the AD said on Tuesday. Last year, a Dutch court ordered Facebook to tackle fraudulent advertising for bitcoin using De Mol and other Dutch celebrities without their permission to promote crypto currencies, but the company said at the time it was technically impossible and launched an appeal. Now, according to the... More >

Rock waste dumping doc criticised

Rock waste dumping doc criticised

The Dutch Council for Journalism has criticised a television documentary which focused on the role of transport ministry officials in dumping rock waste in a nature reserve on the river Maas. The Zembla programme, broadcast in February, was ‘one-sided, unbalanced and tendentious’, the council said, following complaints by a company at the heart of the revelations. In the broadcast, the programme claimed senior civil servants at the transport ministry’s roads department pushed through a permit to dump half a million... More >

Police computer access to be monitored

Police computer access to be monitored

The national police force is planning to introduce new software to better monitor what files police officers are accessing in an effort to stamp out leaks, particularly to criminal gangs. The software will ‘detect noteworthy search behaviour at an early stage,’ the NRC reported. The system has been tested in Amsterdam for the past 18 months and will be rolled out nationwide next spring. In total, it will monitor the search patterns of all 65,000 police officers. The programme will... More >

Micro-targeting can affect voting choice

Micro-targeting can affect voting choice

Tailor-made messages from political parties that depend on your personality can have an effect, according to research carried about by scientists at the University of Amsterdam. Political micro-targeting will likely have a role in next year’s parliamentary elections and research shows people’s behaviour can be directed when they read a politically-oriented advertisement on social media. ‘You can’t get a VVD member to vote for GroenLinks… but microtargeting could be the final push a voter needs to choose a particular party,’... More >

Uber refused permission to sack staff

Uber refused permission to sack staff

Online taxi agency Uber has been refused permission to sack workers at its international headquarters in Amsterdam, the NRC has reported. State jobs agency UWV, which has to assess all formal applications for redundancy, has ruled that there were no valid grounds for dismissal because the company could not demonstrate that the downturn in the workload was structural. The UWV also referred to comments made by Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who told a staff meeting on September 1 that... More >

Police question Trump Twitter 'hacker'

Police question Trump Twitter 'hacker'

A Dutch hacker who said last month he had successfully logged into US president Donald Trump’s Twitter account has been questioned by police in the Netherlands, the Volkskrant has reported. At the time, both Twitter and the White House dismissed claims that Victor Gevers, an ethical hacker, had managed to log into Trump’s Twitter account by guessing his password. Magazine Vrij Nederland said in October Gevers had managed to access Trump’s Twitter account for the second time, after first gaining... More >

Dutch journalists connected to Russia

Dutch journalists connected to Russia

Investigative journalism website Bellingcat has published claims that a Dutch journalist who focuses on the MH17 disaster for an ‘alternative news’ website has links to the Russian intelligence service. Leaked emails show that Bonanza Media had frequent contact with a senior Russian military official and sent articles to the Russian military intelligence service GRU before publishing them, Bellingcat said. Bonanza Media, which describes itself as a platform for independent journalists, was founded in 2019 by ex-Russia Today journalist Yana Yerlashova... More >

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