BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union is asking its citizens to help decide on a fairer tax regime for large digital corporations that may include a tax on their global profits.Firms such as Amazon Google and Facebook have often been accused of paying too little tax within the bloc by establishing their regional headquarters in low-tax countries such as Luxembourg and Ireland.The executive European Commission has said it will make binding legislative proposals for a fair taxation of the digital economy by March.In a public consultation published on Thursday, it listed new ideas on what such a blueprint might contain.It is seeking responses on a “unitary tax” that would be levied on a share of digital companies’ global profits, divided up between the EU countries where they operate.

Twitter has announced that it will stop taking advertising from all accounts owned by Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, effective immediately as US lawmakers continue to investigate the impact of foreign-sponsored fake news on the 2016 election.Twitter plans to make political ads more transparent amid Russia revelations Read moreIn a blogpost on Thursday the company said it had taken the decision following its own investigations and the US intelligence community’s conclusion that both RT and Sputnik attempted to interfere with the election on behalf of the Russian government.“We did not come to this decision lightly, and are taking this step now as part of our ongoing commitment to help protect the integrity of the user experience on Twitter,” the company said.

Reuters) – Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) on Thursday reported stronger-than-expected advertising sales and higher operating margins, driving shares up in after-hours trading as investors brushed off concerns about higher costs for acquiring mobile customers.The company’s shares were up nearly 3 percent at $1,020 after the bell. They have gained 25 percent this year.Third-quarter revenue for Alphabet, the parent company of Google, jumped 24 percent to $27.8 billion, above the average analysts’ estimate of $27.2 billion.Profit of $6.7 billion, or $9.57 per share, was well ahead of Wall Street estimates.Alphabet, along with much of the tech sector, has enjoyed torrid growth in recent years as advertising moves from traditional media to the internet and consumers flock to an ever-expanding array of digital devices.

An incredible sequence of security mistakes led to a US National Security Agency contractor leaking his own confidential hacking tools to Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based company has alleged.The claim comes as part of an internal investigation into allegations that the company helped Russian spies discover and steal the NSA files, by locating and flagging the contractor.Kaspersky Lab does not dispute that it discovered hacking tools on the computer of a user of one of its consumer antivirus products. But the timeline it lays out is one of multiple serious security errors on the part of the user, believed to be an NSA contractor.

Reddit has closed down several extremist forums after updating its policy regarding violent content.The newly banned and removed pages include r/NationalSocialism, r/Nazi, r/whitesarecriminals and r/far_right.Reddit’s new policy says: ”Do not post content that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people.”One legal expert has said the policy may be difficult to enforce.The updated policy notes that violent content may sometimes be posted as part of educational, newsworthy or artistic material but adds that the context and reason for posting such content should be made clear.Material that glorifies or encourages the abuse of animals, such as bestiality, is also now being removed.In 2015, Reddit updated its policy to deter harassment – a move that resulted in the shutting down of forums including r/fatpeoplehate.

Jared O’Mara is not the first person to have old comments he posted online come back to haunt him.The Labour MP resigned from the Women and Equalities Committee after misogynistic remarks and degrading jokes he posted more than 10 years ago resurfaced.The scandal raises the question: what steps can you take to avoid old online posts – that may no longer reflect your point of view – coming back to haunt you?But first a warning! Trying to hide your online history could draw more attention to it, than just leaving it alone – and an attempted cover-up could be a bigger scandal than the original posts.