Author: Tom Fair

A journalist for Birmingham Eastside. Multiplatform and Mobile Journalism MA.

Photo by Oleg Magni on Unsplash The home secretary is calling on tech companies like Facebook to do “their moral duty” and stop rolling out end-to-end encrypted messaging services, until safeguards for children are in place. Social media companies currently use a range of tools to help detect and flag potentially abusive content, such as child abuse images, or grooming in messages. Enabling end-to-end encryption for all users, which means messages can only be seen by the sender and receiver, could render the current tools useless. The NSPCC estimates that 70 per cent of all child abuse reports could be lost if end-to-end encryption plans are put…

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Multi-level marketing businesses have enjoyed a big rise in sales over the COVID-19 pandemic. But what awaits the people who sign up to be a part of them? Photo by freestocks on Unsplash “I’ve just done some videos to make up for yesterday. I didn’t post because it was my birthday. “My friend said, ‘Laura, you don’t need to apologise, my love. We’re not in multi-level marketing anymore, it doesn’t matter.’ “And that’s the thing that I constantly struggle with. You’re in this constant ‘go-go-go’. You never relax. The level of it just blows your mind.”- Laura Elizabeth Dos Santos Laura’s former trade…

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A Birmingham artist is on a mission – to teach people about her invisible illness. Charlotte lives with erythromelalgia (EM), also known as “man on fire” syndrome, which makes parts of her body swell up with an intense burning pain. “My hands feel like there are burning hot coals being pressed into them,” Charlotte says. “Even when the pain goes down, my fingers are still incredibly stiff. I have multiple flareups daily, and it makes it very difficult to stand and walk, or do anything with my hands.” A piece of art, showing various pain points on the body. Credit…

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