Publicis Groupe's flexible working offer may have backfired at Starcom, "Campaign" reports. The company has written to staff, pointing out that managers and clients have noticed the policy has resulted in the office being empty on a Friday and warned if this continues, flexible working will be withdrawn.

Facebook and Instagram have been awarded brand-safety accreditations from JICWEBS, the UK's digital marketing standards agency, "Mediatel" reports.

Facebook officials were grilled over their cryptocurrency proposals by representatives from central banks in Switzerland yesterday, including The Bank of England and the Federal Reserve, the "Independent" writes.

"The Drum" is reporting its big takeaway from this year's Dmexco in Germany was that publishers are taking the fight to the duopoly of Google and Facebook by using first-party data.

Apple begins its appeal tomorrow against a European Commission ruling that it owes around GBP11bn in back taxes to the Irish government, "The Telegraph" reports.

"The Telegraph" is reporting on a group of celebrities who have decided not to respond to trolls but instead block some commentators and report others to the police. The principle is that this starves a troll of the publicity they seek.

A copywriter from New Zealand has hit the headlines after taking a clown as his representative into a meeting to discuss his imminent redundancy. "Campaign" reveals that the scribe suspected he was going to be shown the door, and so decided the best support he could have in the room was a cheery clown making animals out of balloons.

Twitter generated income in excess of GBP100m in the UK last year, which saw pre-tax profits rise 46%. However, Campaign points out, its UK corporation tax bill of just GBP41,000 means any of its employees earning a salary of GBP120,000 or more will have paid more tax in the year than the social media giant.

Edward Snowden is attempting to claim asylum in France, "Press Gazette" reports. He has tried unsuccessfully before, but is now claiming that President Macron should grant his wish because, in his opinion, housing him would be protecting a whistleblower and would not be seen as a hostile act in America. France has yet to comment.

A new app has been launched to automatically cancel app subscriptions once a free trial period ends, the BBC reports.