campaigners

In a bid to comply with updated privacy rules in Europe, Meta recently gave Facebook and Instagram users in the region an ultimatum. They either had to agree to receive targeted ads or sign up for a €10 per month subscription for each app (or stop using them altogether). That would give users the choice of opting out of ad tracking, but they'd have to pay a hefty sum to do so.Now, an Austrian privacy group called noyb has filed a complaint against that Meta's actions on behalf of a client in financial distress. The group…

Campaigners have saved the birthplace of the Brontë sisters and are now fundraising to turn the building into a cultural and education centre – helped by a man with a link to the literary family.Nigel West, who traces a family connection to Charlotte Brontë’s husband, made a “significant donation” to the crowdfunding appeal, which aims to transform 72-74 Market Street in Thornton, Bradford, into a tourist destination.Around a million visitors a year travel to Haworth, to visit the house that writers Charlotte, Anne and…

Irish film-maker and journalist Sinéad O’Shea has a gripping and inspirational story to tell about her home town of Navan in Co Meath, and she tells it terrifically well, talking to the people involved, engaging with the history, delivering the drama and teasing out the poignancies and complexities.O’Shea is speaking to the people who stood up to church abuse in the 60s and 70s, at a time when challenging the Catholic authorities seemed unthinkable. There can hardly be anyone left now who doesn’t know something about…

Grassroots live music venues are operating on a knife-edge, a new report by the Music Venue Trust (MVT) suggests. In its 2022 annual report, the live music venue charity reveals that live music still has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, with an average of 16.7% fewer shows per year compared with 2019.While audience numbers are down 11%, average expenditure by grassroots venues was up 40% – a contribution to the economy totalling £500m – meaning that venues are operating at a profit margin of 0.2%, with the average…

Instagram has removed the official account for PornHub as pressure from campaigners against the site grows. The news was first reported by Variety, which notes that at the time of its removal, PornHub’s Instagram account had some 13.1 million followers and 6,200 posts. The account posted safe-for-work content that promoted PornHub’s various videos and performers. PornHub still operates popular accounts on other social media platforms like Twitter. It’s not clear exactly why Instagram’s parent company Meta removed the…

With periodic readings from Robert Tressell’s classic text The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, documentary maker Daniel Draper gives us a downbeat, sombre film about socialist Merseyside activists and their gruelling experience campaigning for Labour in the 2019 general election – a film which leaves open the question of what exactly they have learned and what exactly they would do differently the next time. Maybe nothing. Maybe the point is that you stick to your guns and keep the pressure on.The film shows party…