San Francisco: Meta-owned Instagram reinstated adult website Pornhub account on the platform in “error” on Sunday for a few hours but then shut it down again.
The company said that Pornhub’s Instagram account came back online for a few hours Sunday — but that was a mistake, reports ‘Variety’.
“This was done in error, a Meta spokesperson was quoted as saying.
“As we’ve said previously, we permanently disabled this Instagram account for repeatedly violating our policies,” it added.
In September last year, Instagram permanently disabled the account of Pornhub for repeatedly violating its policies.
Pornhub defended its position, stating that those in the adult industry “have for years been undermined by Instagram’s opaque, discriminatory and hypocritical enforcement of its own Terms and Policies”.
Moreover, a representative from Pornhub stated that “within hours of reinstating our Instagram account, Meta has demonstrated that its policies have no rhyme or reason when they deactivated our account again, despite not violating any guidelines. This comes at a time of increased censorship and discrimination against performers in the adult space when platforms like Instagram should be inclusive and provide safe communities for creators to express themselves”.
“Instead, Meta and Instagram’s haphazard and irrational enforcement of their policies place undue hardships on the livelihoods of those in the adult industry, an already marginalised group. We call on Meta to once again reverse its decision,” it added.
In December last year, YouTube banned Pornhub’s channel due to multiple community guidelines violations.
According to Google, Pornhub’s account violated YouTube’s external link policy, which forbids users from linking to content that is not allowed on the platform such as pornography.
Court orders 2 doctors to pay Saudi woman SR52,500 in compensation for medical error
The General Court in Riyadh has ordered two doctors, a male and a female, to pay SR52,500 in compensation to a Saudi woman, local media reported. The medical report and expert opinions showed that the doctors made a 100 per cent error in the woman’s treatment plan, causing harm to her teeth and gums.
The ruling came after the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health recently announced the completion of the transfer of the jurisdiction of the legitimate health bodies from the Ministry of Health to the general judiciary.
The Supreme Judiciary Council established a number of specialized departments to handle such disputes in the Court of Appeal and the General Court in Riyadh, where judges and their assistants were trained and qualified, in order to ensure quality and accuracy in the judicial verdicts issued over these disputes.
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ALSO READ: Most Popular Saudi Youtuber Aziz Al Ahmed aka Dwarf Died at the Age of 27
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Nadhim Zahawi was battling to save his political career on Saturday night after he finally admitted reaching a tax settlement with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) following an “error” over a controversial multimillion-pound shareholding in the polling company YouGov.
In a carefully worded statement, Zahawi appeared to confirm that HMRC had carried out an investigation into his financial affairs while he was serving as chancellor last summer. Zahawi, now the Tory party chairman, said that the tax authority had concluded that he had made a “careless but not deliberate” error.
“So that I could focus on my life as a public servant, I chose to settle the matter and pay what they said was due, which was the right thing to do,” he stated. Tax experts said the statement was a tacit acknowledgment that Zahawi had paid a penalty.
The admission raises questions for Rishi Sunak over what he knew about the settlement and when. It comes with the prime minister already under pressure after being fined for not wearing a seatbelt, with MPs also unhappy over his rejection of tax cuts and the government’s allocation of levelling up funds. In an attempt to protect Sunak, Zahawi added: “When I was appointed by the prime minister, all my tax affairs were up to date.”
Zahawi’s tax affairs were thrown into the spotlight last summer when he was appointed chancellor by Boris Johnson, the day before Johnson was forced to resign. The Observer reported that civil servants in the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team had alerted Johnson to an HMRC “flag” over Zahawi before his appointment, but it had been ignored.
Zahawi faced scrutiny on a tranche of shares in YouGov, the polling company he co-founded, which were held by a Gibraltar company, Balshore Investments, and sold for about £27m between 2006 and 2018. It was estimated by the thinktank Tax Policy Associates he may have avoided £3.7m capital gains tax on the sale of these shares.
Saturday’s statement immediately set off new demands for Britain’s most senior civil servant and parliament’s standards commissioner to launch separate investigations into the affair, after questions over whether Zahawi has made the correct declarations to officials and parliament concerning his financial interests.
Zahawi has still not disclosed the size of the HMRC settlement or confirmed he paid a penalty. It follows a Guardian report that he paid about £5m in relation to the sale of shares in YouGov.
Unlike his YouGov co-founder, Stephan Shakespeare, Zahawi took no shares in YouGov. However, a 42.5% shareholding was held by Balshore Investments, an offshore trust controlled by Zahawi’s parents. As YouGov grew in value, Balshore sold all the shares by 2018.
Zahawi said his father took shares “in exchange for some capital and his invaluable guidance”. He added that while HMRC agreed that his father was entitled to shares, it “disagreed about the exact allocation. They concluded that this was a ‘careless and not deliberate’ error.”
Zahawi said HMRC had agreed he had never set up an offshore structure, including Balshore Investments, and that “I am not the beneficiary of Balshore Investments”. When asked on Saturday night, his team would not comment on whether he had ever benefited from Balshore Investments in the past.
Dan Neidle, a tax lawyer and founder of Tax Policy Associates, said: “When I first reported this, he denied it, threatened to sue me and said throughout his tax affairs were in order. It is a disgrace.”
Opposition parties are now demanding the publication of all of Zahawi’s correspondence with HMRC. They are also calling for independent investigations into whether Zahawi made the necessary declarations to officials and parliament.
Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, is facing calls to oversee an investigation into whether Zahawi should have declared any links relating to YouGov or Balshore under the ministerial code. The Liberal Democrats’ deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, has written to Case, calling for his intervention.
Cooper said: “Zahawi and his Conservative cabinet colleagues are arrogantly trying to brush this under the carpet. There are facts that still need to be established so there must be an independent investigation to get to the bottom of this. The British public has lost all faith in Conservative ministers to tell the truth after years of scandal.”
Meanwhile, Labour has also written to Daniel Greenberg, the new parliamentary commissioner for standards, asking whether Zahawi should have declared Balshore Investments in the public register of members’ interests.
Anneliese Dodds, the Labour chair, said Zahawi’s new remarks raised more questions. “This carefully worded statement blows a hole in Nadhim Zahawi’s previous accounts of this murky affair,” she said. “He must now publish all correspondence with HMRC so we can get the full picture. In the middle of the biggest cost of living crisis in a generation, the public will rightly be astonished that anyone could claim that failing to pay millions of pounds worth of tax is a simple matter of ‘carelessness’.”
She added: “Nadhim Zahawi still needs to explain when he became aware of the investigation, and if he was chancellor and in charge of our tax system at the time.”
Several senior ministers have defended Zahawi, including the prime minister. At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Sunak said Zahawi had “already addressed this matter in full and there’s nothing more that I can add”.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
The Tory party chair, Nadhim Zahawi, has said HMRC concluded his tax errors were “careless and not deliberate” after reports that he paid a penalty as part of a multimillion-pound settlement.
The former chancellor, who still attends Rishi Sunak’s cabinet, released a statement to “address some of the confusion about my finances” after it emerged he had agreed to pay millions to the tax agency in December.
Zahawi’s comments came after the Guardian reported he had paid a 30% penalty as part of an estimated total tax bill of almost £5m.
He said: “As a senior politician I know that scrutiny and propriety are important parts of public life. Twenty-two years ago I co-founded a company called YouGov.
“I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved. It is an amazing business that has employed thousands of people and provides a world-beating service.
“When we set it up, I didn’t have the money or the expertise to go it alone. So I asked my father to help. In the process, he took founder shares in the business in exchange for some capital and his invaluable guidance.
“Twenty-one years later, when I was being appointed chancellor of the exchequer, questions were being raised about my tax affairs. I discussed this with the Cabinet Office at the time.
“Following discussions with HMRC, they agreed that my father was entitled to founder shares in YouGov, though they disagreed about the exact allocation. They concluded that this was a ‘careless and not deliberate’ error.”
Penalties are applied if someone does not pay the correct tax at the right time.
“So that I could focus on my life as a public servant, I chose to settle the matter and pay what they said was due, which was the right thing to do,” he said.
“Additionally, HMRC agreed with my accountants that I have never set up an offshore structure, including Balshore Investments, and that I am not the beneficiary of Balshore Investments.
“This matter was resolved prior to my appointments as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and subsequently chairman of the party I love so much. When I was appointed by the prime minister, all my tax affairs were up to date.”
Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, called for an explanation earlier on Saturday. “I believe his position is untenable,” she said. “If he’s lied and misled the public and HMRC regarding his tax affairs then I think his position is untenable.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
