‘This craving to go viral is tiresome’: the artists sick of the pressure to promote on social media

From Stewart Lee in his wolf costume to Werner Herzog’s big steak sizzle-up, artists are now under huge duress to ‘chase the algorithm’ and reach audiences. Many of them are hitting burnout – and hitting back

Gary Neville’s media group buys football YouTuber Mark Goldbridge’s channels

Exclusive: Neville has criticised “those bloody YouTubers” – but The Overlap has now acquired channels with 3.7m subscribers for seven-figure sum

Meta creating AI version of Mark Zuckerberg so staff can talk to the boss

Digital clone being trained on his thoughts, tone and mannerisms to help workers feel connected

Parents are helping their children bypass Roblox age checks and play as adults

Gaming company says it looks for signs a user may be younger than they appear in the age check process introduced in December

Elon Musk’s X cuts payments to users who post clickbait

Platform says it will reward original creators as it penalises ‘aggregators’ for flooding timelines with ‘stolen posts’

Social media was once a great global conversation. Now it’s just individuals locked into their own private worlds

I met the mother of my children on Twitter – and made lasting friendships. But now social media isn’t so social, says academic philosopher and writer Tom Whyman

Lifestyle blogger said to have inspired Devil Wears Prada character uses unpaid student interns

Use of interns by Plum Sykes, an ex-assistant of Anna Wintour whose family owns a Yorkshire estate, reignites debate about creative industries

From Andrew Tate to Mountbatten-Windsor, my first name has been dragged through the mud. Can a global community of ‘Drews’ help change that?

The ‘Council of Andrews’ started as a bit of fun – but has led to friendships, financial help and even fiances…

Reform UK voters least likely to see social media posts from family and friends, study finds

Thinktank says algorithms are fuelling isolation and division after analysing posts shown to social media users

Greece announces social media ban for under-15s, citing anxiety and sleep problems

PM says ban will come into force in January if it is backed by parliament and calls for united action across EU

Porn, dog poo and social media snaps: the ‘taskers’ scraping the internet for AI firm part-owned by Meta

Scale AI gig workers describe desperation of using people’s personal profiles and copyrighted work to train AI

Sluts, simps and body shaming: the rise of Africa’s manosphere

Experts have been alarmed at the growth of deep misogyny dressed up as self-help on social media. We profile seven men from across the continent who are gaining traction

Children in UK report online sextortion attempts in record numbers

Exclusive: Call for nudity-detection tech on phones as number of under-18s reporting blackmail attempts rises by 34%

‘I felt ashamed and scared’: how an online friendship became a sextortion nightmare

Thomas found connection online after moving to a rural village with no friends nearby. Then things started to spiral

‘Traceability is vital’: labs test thousands of unregulated substances amid peptide craze

Experts warn consumers of unknown risks as one lab says about a third of samples fail basic quality checks