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The Ticwatch Sport, also known as the Ticwatch S, is the latest offering from the Chinese company . As the name suggests it’s a fitness-focused smartwatch, and a fairly high-end one at that: it features GPS, impressive water resistance and an always-on display. Yet the price is a lot more manageable than even the entry-level .

In this article we discuss the Ticwatch Sport’s design, build quality, features and specs, and outline its performance in testing. We’ll help you decide if this is the fitness watch for you. (For broader buying advice take a look at Best fitness trackers.)

Price & availability

You can buy the Ticwatch Sport for £150.50/$199.99; if you’d prefer the reassurance of a familiar vendor you can get it from Amazon for £177.99 or $199.99.

Design

The Ticwatch S has a chunky, robust-feeling body with a round face and a single hardware button in an oversized bracket on the left. The button has a slightly ‘sticky’ action with very little click or tactile feedback when pressed, but it’s reliable.

The watch is made of matt-finish polycarbonate and feels pleasant on the wrist, as well as capable of absorbing plenty of punishment. It’s rated IP67 water- and dust-resistant, which to dust-tight and protected against liquid immersion up to 1m, although the manufacturer does not recommend swimming with it.

Weight-wise it would sit somewhere towards the upper end of the Apple Watch range (45.5g; only the larger stainless steel and ceramic editions of the Series 3 weigh more) but that still leaves it in the ‘comfortably lightweight’ zone; indeed for part of the testing period we wore the Ticwatch and the Apple Watch at the same time on the same wrist without being especially inconvenienced, even though in fashion terms we don’t recommend this look.

Note that the rubbery polyurethane strap (which has integrated GPS) cannot be removed or replaced, so you’ll need to make sure you pick the right colour initially. If you’d prefer a removable strap, go for the variant, which has GPS in the watch body.

Colour options

The Ticwatch S comes in three colours: black (‘Knight’), neon yellow (‘Aurora’) and white (‘Glacier’). Black is probably the safest choice but you can get away with gaudier colours in gym/sporty settings and we’re rather fond of the yellow. We suspect, however – based on similar materials and colours on other manufacturers’ watches – that this and the white option will both start to look grubby after a few months of use.

Interface

When you jog, tap or rotate the Ticwatch it wakes up and displays the full watch face, but by default – this feature can be disabled to preserve battery – a simpler always-on version is shown at other times.

The watch is based on and pairs most naturally with an Android phone (Android 4.3 or later is required.) It’s possible to use it, however – albeit with a less optimised experience – with an iPhone running iOS 8 or later.

Having only one button (and no dial) might seem limiting, but the interface manages for the most part to make life simple. The button toggles between the list of apps and the watch face, and you can easily swipe up and down to browse options, tap to select one or swipe left to right to go back one menu tier.

Occasionally the interface is less user-friendly than we’d like – when selecting a new watch face, for example, we paused for just a moment on one particular face and the watch unilaterally decided that this was what we were getting – but it’s generally simple and intuitive. We do like the way recent apps automatically appear at the top of the list for ease of repeat access, although it seems counterintuitive that they appear below as well; in the photo above you can see the Alarm app twice within the space of four slots.

Speaking of faces, the way watch face customisation is handled is odd (albeit standard fare for a Wear OS device). Opening the relevant section of the settings shows only three; if you tap through to add more, you find there are really 19, all accessible without download, hidden in the submenu. You have to select one of these to add it to the higher-tier menu – the ‘favourites’ – and then select again to make it the selection.

You can access even more faces than this, but you have to download them from the Play Store.

Features & performance

You get the usual range of Wear OS smartwatch features – music, email and text notifications, Shazam, Google Assistant – but this is primarily a fitness device. (To be fair the company’s website also boasts that the Ticwatch features a vibrator, but we assume this is a translation issue because we couldn’t find one in the box.)

With onboard GPS, which the makers boast is particularly accurate because of its integration into the strap, our expectations were high. But we found the device mildly prone to underestimation: a route that a trusted Apple Watch Series 2 pegged at 3.8km (backed up by Google Maps) was estimated at 3.69km by the Ticwatch. That’s not a bad margin for error, mind you.

Smartwatches and treadmills are not happy bedfellows – they cannot use their GPS and don’t know how fast the machine is running – but we gave it a try just to see how it would cope. As expected, the Ticwatch struggled, believing a 5km run was only 3.7km. But you can’t expect much better than that without syncing with the machine, or training a smartwatch with your stride length (which takes time and will only improve, not fix, the problem).

For comparison, our well-trained Apple Watch still underestimated the treadmill run but less egregiously: it reckoned we’d done 4.3km.

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When it comes to free broadcasting software, there’s only one contender: OBS, or . Though until recently the open-source app looked like it came straight from Windows 98, a UI update has provided a much-needed facelift. It also makes OBS easier to use, especially for those new to the world of livestreaming.

It still doesn’t come with any kind of tutorial though, and sorting through sources and scenes might be confusing for some. Don’t worry; we’ve been using OBS for some time, and here’s where we talk you through everything you need to know about OBS, from connecting to your streaming platform to adding a live webcam feed to your game streams.

How to set up OBS to stream on Twitch, YouTube and Facebook

The first step in live streaming your favourite games using OBS is to connect to your preferred streaming platform, be it YouTube, Facebook or Twitch. OBS does support other services, as well as the ability to connect to a custom streaming server, but we’ll only be covering the three most popular platforms in this tutorial.

To connect to your preferred livestream platform, follow these steps:

1. Right-click OBS and select Run as Administrator if you’re using the software on Windows, as it’s necessary to have admin permissions when using Game Capture software on PC.
2. Click File > Settings and select the Stream tab on the left-hand side.

From here, you’ll have to select your platform. Each service has a slightly different setup process, so we’ll run through each below.

Twitch

1. Select Twitch from the dropdown list of Streaming Services.
2. On your , select Settings > Stream Key > Show Key, agreeing to on-screen prompts warning you not to share your key with anybody else.
3. Copy and paste the Stream Key into the Stream Key box in the Broadcast Settings menu in OBS, then click Apply.

YouTube

1. Select YouTube/YouTube Gaming from the dropdown list of Streaming Services.
2. Head to your and select the Live Streaming tab on the left.
3. Locate the Encoder Setup section and click Reveal to reveal your Stream Key.
4. Copy and paste the Stream Key into the Stream Key box in the Broadcast Settings menu in OBS, then click Apply.

Facebook Live

1. Select Facebook Live from the dropdown list of Streaming Services.
2. Head to the , and click Create Live Stream (don’t worry, you don’t have to go live right away!).
3. In the Connect tab, make sure the “Enable persistent stream key” box is selected.
4. Copy and paste the Stream Key into the Stream Key box in the Broadcast Settings menu in OBS, then click Apply.

How to set up your stream layout

Now you’ve configured your stream, the next step is to set up the layout of your livestream, whether that’s by adding a live webcam feed, adding your Twitter handle so people can follow you, or simply by adding nice images or a banner around the edges of your stream.

OBS has two windows; scenes and sources. Each scene is comprised of multiple sources, from the game capture window to your live webcam input and more. You can create multiple scenes for different games and load them up simply by selecting them from the scene menu, giving your stream layout a more custom look.

If you want to keep it simple, you can create a single scene for all games too!

Once you’ve created your scene, you’ll need to add your sources. Here’s how to add the most important visual elements for any successful live stream.

Add your game source

Most crucially, you need to select the window that OBS is going to capture and stream. To do this:

1. Click the Plus icon in the Sources menu and select Game Capture.
2. Give your game capture a name to make it easily recognisable amongst several sources.
3. Now you can customise the capture settings. The mode is what’s important here: you can set it up to automatically capture any fullscreen application, capture the foreground window when a hotkey is pressed or manually select which window should be captured (though that will require you to start the game for it to appear).
4. Once you’re happy, click OK to save your settings and add the source to your scene.

Add your webcam

If you really want to add some personality to your live streams, why not include your live webcam feed? It’ll allow your followers to see how you react to crucial game moments both in-game and in real life, and provides more of a connection to your audience.

1. Click the Plus icon in the Sources menu and select Video Capture Device.
2. Give your Video Capture Device a name – we’d recommend calling it webcam, but it’s down to you.
3. You’ll now be able to access the webcam capture properties. Select your webcam from the Device drop-down and tweak any other settings (though we’d recommend sticking with the default settings if you’re not video-savvy).
4. Once you’re happy, click OK to add your webcam to your scene.
5. If you want to resize or move your camera input, simply click on it and drag the corners to adjust the size, or click-and-drag anywhere else to move the webcam feed.

Add text

You can also add text to direct followers to your social media accounts to help build your following. It’s easy to do too:

1. Click the Plus icon in the Sources menu and select Text (GDI+).
2. Enter a name for your text box – this is the name of the source, not the text that’s displayed.
3. In the text menu, you can customise the look of your font. Change the font, size, colour, opacity and more to get the desired effect, and add the text you’d like to be displayed in the Text window.
4. Once you’re ready, click OK to close the window and save the text.
5. You should now see the text displayed on-screen. To adjust the position, select Edit Scene and simply drag-and-drop the text to the desired location. You can also select the red dots to adjust the size of the text.

You can also design your own custom text to add to your livestream. For more information, check out our tutorial on adding text to live streams using OBS.

Add images

If you want to give your live stream that custom finish, why not add a custom banner? It’s really easy to add images to your OBS live stream:

1. In the Sources box, click Add > Image and name the source to easily locate it amongst other sources (best to describe the image you’re including).
2. Click Browse… to find the saved image on your computer, and click Open to use it. If you want it to be transparent, change the Opacity to a number less than 100.
3. Once you’ve finished tweaking the settings, click OK to add the image to your livestream.
4. Like with other sources, if you move your image, simply drag-and-drop the image to where you want it to be.

How to initiate livestream

Once you’ve connected to your preferred streaming platform and you’re happy with the placement of all your on-screen elements, it’s time to go live. In OBS, it’s easy to go live – simply click Start Streaming in the bottom-right corner of the main OBS window.

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Thanks to Snapchat’s popularity there are quite a few scams to which you can easily fall prey. However, if you keep your wits about you and use the information below to know what to look out for, you’ll be able to keep your account, and your snaps, safe.

Snapchat chain hoaxes

The most recent is a message being circulated that your Memories (i.e. saved photos) would be deleted unless you copy the message and share it with your friends. Snapchat confirmed on its Twitter account that the post was #fakenews.

We’re aware of a screenshot going around with a rumor about your Memories – don’t worry! This is �

— Snapchat Support (@snapchatsupport)

Another chain hoax threatened to upload any nude photos. It was, like the Memories screenshot, made to look as if it was sent by the official Team Snapchat account. The poor grammar should have been a giveaway: this is often a clear sign that it’s not genuine.

Know my friend just sent it to me freaking out

— Ice Coyote Brave Tail (@chocolatebunz8)

Phishing emails

A common scam, not limited even to social media, is a fake email that tells you to log into your Snapchat account for one reason or another.

This will typically send you to a fake website in your phone’s web browser that looks just like Snapchat’s sign-in screen. Almost 60,000 Snapchat accounts were compromised in July 2017 by a phishing email scam such as this. If yours was one of them you would have been notified by Snapchat and been forced to choose a new password.

Another well-known phishing scam is that you can click a link to see ‘leaked snaps’. The site asks you to log in to your account, at which point you’ve just handed over your details to the scammers. Don’t do it!

How to avoid Snapchat scams

First, always download the app from an official app store and never from an unknown source.

Second, don’t click on links in emails that direct you to a login screen. Always open the app manually and sign in.

Ignore emails and messages that tell you there’s a problem with your account, you’ve won a competition “You’re today’s winner!” or that your account has been locked. Snapchat does lock accounts if they’re using such as Snap Upload, Casper, Snap Crack and Phantom, or if your account is displaying “abusive behaviour”. You won’t get an email, though. Instead you’ll see a message when you try to log in. If you’re using third-party apps, uninstall those apps and the issues – according to Snapchat – will resolve themselves.

When you open a link in Snapchat, you should see a warning of any dangerous website that is suspected of phishing scams or containing malware. Watch out for these and don’t ignore them.

Here’s why Snapchat isn’t safe for kids.

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UMIDIGI’s S2 Pro goes big on all the best bits: big screen, big battery and big storage. And that’s not just what the marketing says.

Despite coming in around £200, only a slightly chunky chassis gives away the fact this budget phone is anything other than a premium device.

There’s an 18:9 display with super-slim bezels, a dual-camera, a capacious 5100mAh battery, and a massive 128GB of storage. 

Is this phone too good to be true?

UMIDIGI S2 Pro Price & Availability

At the time of writing the UMIDIGI S2 Pro was available via (which supplied our sample for review) at £208.49/US$279.99/236.75€. You can also buy it from Amazon, but with a significant markup. 

Do remember, though, that this phone ships from Hong Kong. If customs pick it up they will demand 20 percent of the value on the shipping paperwork in import duty, so be sure to factor this into your budget. Read more about what to watch out for when buying from China here.

The S2 Pro is sold unlocked and SIM-free, so you’ll want to pair it with a great SIM deal for the best value long-term.

Also see: Best budget Chinese phones

UMIDIGI S2 Pro Design & Build

UMIDIGI is well-known for its good-looking budget phones, and the S2 Pro is possibly the best-looking yet. That’s thanks to a huge 5.99in Sharp TDDI in-cell display that adorns 90 percent of the front of the device.

The bezels are not as slim as you might see on the latest flagships from the likes of Samsung and LG, but they’re pretty minimal. Very little space is found above the screen, and the chin is short thanks to onscreen navigation buttons. 

With more screen area available, the S2 Pro becomes attractive as a device for watching movies and playing games. At this price you’ll not be surprised to find it doesn’t offer class-leading performance, but the Helio P25 chip inside is more than up to casual gaming. 

It’s a nice screen too, usefully bright which is handy in direct sunlight, and with good colours and strong viewing angles. It is only Full-HD in resolution, and we’d like to see Quad-HD at this size, but text and images are fuzz-free. Even the latest Samsung Galaxy phones now default to Full-HD.

The 18:9 panel makes this smartphone look like a premium device, and that is mirrored elsewhere in the design. A Gorilla Glass 4 protective screen layer and sandblasted metal unibody chassis make the S2 Pro feel tough and built to last. It comes with a free case in the box, too.

It’s arguably a little on the heavy side at 188g, and relatively chunky too at 8.8mm, but the tall aspect ratio of the 5.99in screen and curved rear edges mean it’s easily manageable in a single hand.

The chunk is partly due to a massive 128GB storage and two-day, fast-charging 5100mAh battery inside (0-100% in 150 mins). A pin-operated SIM tray high on the left edge can accommodate either two SIMs or a single SIM and a microSD card, allowing you to boost storage by a further 256GB.

Though we don’t usually like these hybrid SIM trays that force you to choose between storage and connectivity, here you wonder who might actually need more than 128GB built-in. At around £200 that’s very impressive.

Elsewhere around the phone’s edges you’ll find a reversible USB-C slot, but no headphone jack. You’ll find an adaptor in the box for plugging in a standard pair of earphones, or you can make use of the phone’s mono speaker. It’s surprisingly loud, though really rather tinny at max volume.

Around the back of the S2 Pro are subtle antenna lines top and bottom to improve reception, and a vertically stacked dual-camera, two-tone flash and fingerprint scanner. The UMIDIGI logo at the bottom is relatively small and unobtrusive.

UMIDIGI S2 Pro Hardware & Performance

The UMIDIGI S2 Pro runs a Helio P25 chip from MediaTek, which has eight cores and is clocked at 2.5GHz. This integrates the Mali T880 GPU, and is paired with a substantial 6GB of RAM, all of which leads to much better performance than you should expect at this price.

It’s very closely in line with the Moto G6 in general performance. In GFXBench the UMIDIGI recorded 841 points single-core and 3882 points multi-core to the Moto G6’s 752 and 3972.

The Moto G6 fell slightly behind in GFXBench graphics, recording 20fps in T-Rex where the S2 Pro could muster 22fps. In reality both are more than capable of casual gaming and video playback.

You can see the full benchmark comparison in the chart below.

In terms of connectivity the S2 Pro lacks NFC, but includes 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. The 4G support covers all UK bands, and there’s the aforementioned second slot if you’d rather use that than boost the internal storage.

Also see: Best Chinese phones 

UMIDIGI S2 Pro Cameras & Photography

The S2 Pro has a dual-camera at the rear that lets you create the bokeh (blurred background) effect, though this must be applied at the composition stage since editing tools are restricted to exposure, contrast, shadows, vibrance and hue, plus a black and white filter.

There are seven other filters you can apply before you take the shot, plus Beauty and ‘FaceCute’ modes that seem to do the same thing: smooth your skin and widen your eyes. Snapchat-style lenses and stickers are also be applied, though they are limited and gimmicky.

All these extras are available for video, too, and the S2 Pro can record 4K, slow-mo and time-lapse footage. It’s not bad, but the mic seemed to pick up a lot of background noise in our tests.

Leaving aside the gimmicks, the Sony-made cameras are quite acceptable for a phone at this price. Rated at 13Mp and 5Mp at the back, and 5Mp at the front, they don’t offer pin-sharp detail but in good conditions they produce a nice shot.

As you’ll see in our Auto and HDR examples below, the camera was capable of picking up individual bricks and the street sign on the building across the road, though more noise is introduced toward the edges of the photo, which are 4:3 by default.

HDR mode made a notable difference, even on a sunny day like this, and that can’t be said of all budget phone cameras.

Low-light performance is less impressive, and the UMIDIGI struggled to accurately light the scene without the aid of its two-tone flash. It has had a hard time picking out the different shades of black here, and text is fuzzy.

The front camera supports Face Unlock, which takes only a second or two to enable access to the phone once you’ve woken the screen. It’s handy if you don’t want to use the fingerprint scanner or type in a PIN, though unlike those options it requires good lighting to work effectively.

UMIDIGI S2 Pro Software

One of the down sides of the S2 Pro is the fact it’s running Android 7.0 Nougat with no upgrade in sight. With Android P nearing consumer release, we cannot be sure that the UMIDIGI will ever even see Oreo at this stage.

Nougat is still a good OS, if not the latest, and it’s overlaid here with UMIDIGI’s own UMI 2.0 UI. Aside from the lack of an app tray it’s really not all that different, and functions exactly as would any other Android phone.

There are some unfamiliar apps preinstalled, however, such as an App Store and Themes store, Freezer (a place for unloved apps where they can’t hog resources), Clone (a phone-to-phone data transfer tool), Super Share and FreeShare (sharing apps), 360 Security, App Cleanup, Speedup and Avatar Master (for cloned apps). 

You’ll also find some additions in the Settings, such as the bizarrely named Eyebrow mode, which lets you adjust the blue, green and red light filters and enable a night mode that reduces screen brightness. You can also customise the colour of the notification LED to display for calls, SMS and other notifications.

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Mesh routers aren’t exactly new, but until now they’ve tended to command the kind of price points that have kept them out of the reach of the majority. TP-Link hopes to change that with the Deco M5, which offers up a mesh system much cheaper than the competition.

In case you haven’t been keeping tabs on the wonderful world of wireless connectivity, mesh takes the flaky coverage of the traditional single router system and replace it with a better coverage by employing two or three units. In the case of Deco M5 Whole-Home Wi-Fi System you get three units in the box.

Price and availability

The big news about the TP-Link Deco M5 offering is that at $300 (£230, around AU$400) it’s more affordable than most of the competition. Google WiFi will set you back $279 (£310, around AU$360) for three units, while the high-performing Netgear Orbi rolls in at closer to $400 (about £320, AU$520) for just a pair. The BT Whole Home triple pack can be had for about the same money as the Deco M5, but is only available in the UK.

As with other offerings, you can buy additional satellites if you feel the need, although as this is a three unit offering, you probably won’t have to unless your home is very long, or particularly large.

Design and setup

An important aspect of this new breed of wireless solutions is that they’re not the traditional routers and extenders that the more tech savvy are used to. Gone are they unruly antennas of yore, replaced by stylish designs and simple interfaces.

Indeed, on the Deco M5 M5 units there’s a single LED at the centre of the unit that lets you know everything you need to about its current status: red means there’s a problem, orange and blue only appear when it’s being set up and green indicates that everything is working as intended.

You do get more information from the app that runs on your smartphone, but even here it’s generally broad strokes stuff to do with the devices that are connected, and the throughput they are enjoying. It’s simplistic in a way that your average joe can get it up and running and doesn’t require that they fancy themselves as a would-be networking engineer on the side.

The three units are attractively designed with a hint of minimalism, with the aforementioned LED being joined by a pair of Ethernet ports on the read of the unit (if a cylinder really has a rear), and a USB Type-C port used as a power connector off to one side. There are no obvious holes for wall mounting, but the design is such that you really won’t mind having them in plain sight. They’re very much like the Google WiFi mesh system in that respect.

In order to install the Deco M5s you need to install and run an accompanying app – it is available on the Google Play store and Apple App store. This app is clear and straightforward to use, and setting up the network was was quick and painless. 

The initial unit was installed and up and running in a matter of minutes, with the other two units taking about the same amount of time. You do need to set up an account with TP-Link in order to do this, but it works well – made easier by the fact that the app uses Bluetooth to communicate with the Deco M5s so that you don’t have to keep entering the same information.

One thing that TP-Link has done to try and set itself apart from the crowd is provide a one-stop solution when it comes to security, bundling as it does a three year subscription to Trend antivirus. You also get parental controls to ensure that the little ones aren’t visiting the wrong kind of sites.

Performance

The TP-Link Deco M5 units are focused more on coverage than high-throughput, although the connection was much, much stronger than what we had previously. We did see patchy throughputs initially, but once the devices were bedded in for a while, we saw throughput improve significantly.

Going from a single router with a smattering of powerline gear to the Deco M5 was a revelation. The network may not be super fast, but it does work, and affords total house coverage seamlessly – with connected devices jumping between the various Deco M5 unitss as needed.

If you want serious performance, then you can connect your the units together using Ethernet, and it’ll use the best connection possible when assessing the networking infrastructure, although this does kind of defeat the point of their flexibility. 

For the most part they’ll use either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz band to maintain a connection, which we found worked well enough.

We liked

The TP-Link Deco M5 is incredibly easy to set up, and the coverage it provides from the three units is a genuine revelation. 

The design is pleasing and minimalist, and including two Ethernet ports on each unit gives plenty of connection possibilities.

The accompanying app is easy to use, and makes monitoring the network as straightforward as possible. The inclusion of the security software is just the icing on the cake.

We disliked

The performance tailed off quite quickly at longer distances where more obstructions were involved – more so that we’ve seen from the likes of the Netgear Orbi. We would have liked the app to provide a bit more information on the network itself, but this is a minor criticism.

Final verdict

There are two things that stand out for TP-Link’s mesh offering: the price and the ease of use. 

Individually these would be enough to pique our interest, but together they make for a great combo that is only slightly let down by the top-line throughput. 

The fact that this is AC1300 kit means that it simply can’t compete with the likes of the Orbi, but then they are more expensive. You really do get what you pay for in that respect.

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A German company has concocted a scheme by the name of ‘Games from Space’ which borrows your GPU for cryptocurrency mining purposes, and in return gives you free PC games.

Now, obviously they’re not exactly free as such – as the use of your graphics card for mining will up your PC’s power consumption, and have a cost on your electricity bill – but nonetheless, there’s no direct cash outlay, and so this is a tempting proposition on the face of it.

Particularly given that some of the games are newer big-name affairs, like, for example, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) or Grand Theft Auto V.

To get involved, you need a Windows PC with a graphics card that has at least 3GB of video RAM.

You can then pick a game you want, and watch a progress bar slowly tick up as your GPU is used for the company’s mining efforts. The faster your graphics card, obviously enough, the quicker progress you’ll make towards getting that game.

On the website, you’re shown estimated timeframes of how long it will take for you to snare any particular title, based on using a GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card. For example, the aforementioned PUBG and GTA V will take you around 28 days of mining, according to the company.

Older titles can be had much more quickly, of course: you can get DiRT 3 in a day.

Variable load

The mining application will run at full pelt if your PC is idle, and won’t interfere with the daily operation of your machine, the German firm promises.

Regarding when you fire up a game, in a press statement, the company noted: “If the user starts to play a game that uses the power of their graphics card, our software automatically shuts down.”

Although on the website, it suggests users can still game and mine at the same time, depending on the game being played, of course. But the overall idea is not to interfere with how well the game runs, as you would expect.

Games from Space is an interesting scheme which could well be worth a whirl, and free games definitely beats the only thing we’ve ever got from space previously: namely potentially life-threatening sized chunks of rock flying at us.

Via Wccftech.com

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Facebook has said it will block ads relating to Ireland’s forthcoming referendum on abortion that do not originate from advertisers inside the country.

There had been worries in Ireland that foreign ads could influence the result of the vote.

Facebook has not applied such a policy to British elections or referendums.

A poll that could repeal the Eighth Amendment in the Republic of Ireland’s constitution will be held on 25 May.

The amendment upholds strict rules around abortion by acknowledging “the right to life of the unborn”.

It means that the country has a near-total ban on abortion, with terminations not allowed in cases of rape or incest, for example.

In April, Irish data protection commissioner Helen Dixon said it was possible that foreign actors could try to sway the referendum.

Facebook said that its ban on foreign ads would be effective from 8 May. The company will rely on reports from campaign groups that identify such ads.

It added that such a policy would also apply to future elections in the Republic of Ireland.

Ads uploaded to Facebook by organisations based in the country could still be funded by foreign sources, however.

“This is an issue we have been thinking about for some time,” said Facebook in a statement, referring to the Eighth Amendment referendum.

“Today, as part of our efforts to help protect the integrity of elections and referendums from undue influence, we will begin rejecting ads related to the referendum if they are being run by advertisers based outside of Ireland.

“We feel the spirit of this approach is also consistent with the Irish electoral law that prohibits campaigns from accepting foreign donations.”

The firm added that it intended to provide an open platform “for people to express ideas and views on both sides of a debate”.

In April, Facebook announced it would vet ads relating to the UK’s local elections, which took place earlier this month.

However, this action did not extend to blocking ads simply because they had been placed by foreign organisations.

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