{"id":115337,"date":"2018-06-01T14:11:01","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T14:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=115337"},"modified":"2018-06-01T14:11:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T14:11:01","slug":"five-things-arkady-babcenko-www-madeley-vs-williamson-evening-standard-and-roseanne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/five-things-arkady-babcenko-www-madeley-vs-williamson-evening-standard-and-roseanne\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Things: Arkady Babcenko, WWW, Madeley vs Williamson, Evening Standard and Roseanne"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s Five Things includes the journalist who did(n\u2019t) die, the world wide web, Madeley vs Williamson, accusations against the Evening Standard and the end of Roseanne.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Arkady Babchenko<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ukraine<\/p>\n

Arkady Babchenko is the Russian dissident journalist based in Kiev, who was in the news on Tuesday following his \u2018assassination\u2019. Less than 24 hours later, Babchenko made a shock appearance on a live TV press conference, to reveal the whole \u2018murder\u2019 had been a ruse to ‘foil a Russian assassination plot’. He was particularly apologetic to his wife, who was not in on the ploy and had believed he was dead after finding his bloodied body.<\/p>\n

The cold war antics have jarred with modern day practices and Ukraine has been widely condemned for its part in spreading \u2018fake news\u2019. Harlem Desir, a representative from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said<\/a>: \u2018I deplore the decision to spread false information on the life of a journalist. It is the duty of the state to provide correct information to the public.\u2019<\/p>\n

Christophe Deloire, head of Reporters Without Borders, said: \u2018Reporters Without Borders expresses its sharp indignation on learning of the Ukrainian secret service’s manipulation carried out as part of an information war\u2019.<\/p>\n

The good news is that Babchenko is still alive, Ukraine are claiming a victory having made an arrest and the journalist will now live under the country\u2019s protection. The bad news is the continuing spread of misinformation has never been perceived as so damaging to society and this has only made that situation worse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Half the world\u2019s online<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"internet<\/p>\n

Mary Meeker, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has released her annual report<\/a> of internet trends. The presentation, made at the Recode conference, covers a vast array of internet-related stats from smartphone prices (down on average), to the importance of immigration to US tech companies. There are 294 slides to the presentation, but one of the biggest stats is that there are now more than 3.6bn internet users; for the first time ever, over half the world\u2019s population is now online. Meeker noted that this may be a problem for internet service companies – \u2018growth is harder to find after hitting 50% market penetration\u2019 – but the graph is still showing a steady rise, with no signs of the ominous plateau.<\/p>\n

\"Pew<\/p>\n

And what are all these people doing online? Well, if it\u2019s in the US and they\u2019re a teenager, they\u2019re probably on YouTube. A new survey from the Pew Research Center<\/a> suggests 85% of teens use YouTube, whereas only 51% use Facebook. This huge decline in Facebook use (down from 71% in 2015), will be painful for the company\u00a0although it is offset by the rise in popularity of Facebook-owned Instagram, which is used by 72% of teens, up from 52% in 2015.<\/p>\n

The biggest problem for Facebook is probably the rise of Snapchat: it is now used by 69% of teens (up from 41% in 2015), and, perhaps more significantly, 35% of teens say they use Snapchat most often (compared with just 10% who use Facebook most often).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Gavin Williamson is shut up and sent away<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Richard Madeley was applauded this week for getting fed up with Gavin Williamson, defence secretary, for not answering his question. Madeley, who was pressing Williamson on his \u2018Russia should go away, it should shut up\u2019 remarks, eventually cut Williamson off as the latter made no attempt to acknowledge the question. The next day, Madeley wrote a piece for The Guardian<\/a>, \u2018Cutting short Gavin Williamson was the most popular thing I\u2019ve ever done\u2019, which is hard to argue with.<\/p>\n

Check out the full exchange below, and watch to the end for the elephant\u2019s comic timing.<\/p>\n