El Salvador has become the first country in the world to formally adopt bitcoin as legal tender after Congress approved President Nayib Bukele’s proposal to embrace the cryptocurrency.
Category: Technology
Disney+ removes Peter Pan, Dumbo and other movies for showing offensive stereotypes
Disney+ removed several movies, including Dumbo and Peter Pan, from children’s profiles over stereotypes deemed offensive.
Facebook fined €7 million in Italy after refusing to address user data concerns
Italy has fined Facebook €7 million ($8.5 million) after the social network company failed to address and rectify user data practices that were flagged as a concern in November 2018.
Starlink is available to order in more than six countries, here’s all you need to know about
Elon Musk’s satellite internet service Elon Musk is inching ever closer to fulfilling his dream of creating super-fast internet around the world, which beams down from satellites in orbit to Earth.
Apple supplier Wistron to restart India factory
Apple Inc on Tuesday said supplier Wistron Corp will restart operations at its factory in southern India after violence at the site led to its shutdown late last year, though the Taiwanese company would remain on probation.
Google opens paid-for Australia news platform in drive to undercut Canberra’s content payment law
Tech giant Google on Friday launched a platform in Australia offering news it has paid for, striking its own content deals with publishers in a drive to show legislation proposed by Canberra to enforce payments, a world first, is unnecessary.
Project Veritas releases leaked video of Facebook Executives admitting they are too Powerful
The latest exposé by Project Veritas reveals hours of video obtained by an anonymous Facebook insider with Mark Zuckerberg and other executives admitting that they ‘have too much power’.
Antifa sues Apple to remove Telegram from AppStore for allowing Free Speech
A lobbyist group affiliated with Antifa is suing Apple in an effort to get free speech messaging platform Telegram removed from the app store, claiming that it allows ‘extremists’ to spread ‘hate speech’.
“This is Going to be much bigger Than Just One Account” says Jack Dorsey on Twitter censorship
Footage from an employee inside Twitter shows the company’s CEO Jack Dorsey discussing how he plans to wage a massive censorship campaign in the wake of President Trump’s account suspension.
French Government echoing Merkel, calling Big Tech a threat to Democracy
The French government has echoed Angela Merkel’s sentiment in saying it is “shocked” at Twitter’s banning of President Trump, asserting that Big Tech is a threat to democracy.
Ron Paul blocked from Facebook after criticising Community Standard Violations
Facebook has blocked former Congressman Dr. Ron Paul from being able to edit his page, the former US Rep noted.
Apple & Hyundai set to agree electric car cooperation
Hyundai Motor and Apple Inc plan to sign a partnership deal on autonomous electric cars by March and start production around 2024 in the United States, local newspaper Korea IT News reported on Sunday.
Erdogan ditches WhatsApp as Ankara urges Turks to use domestic apps in fight against digital fascism
The media office of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is reportedly shutting down its WhatsApp groups over privacy concerns.
Parler: Amazon to remove site from web hosting service, following Apple and Google
Amazon is removing free speech social network Parler from its web hosting service for continuous disregard to censor free speech and not offering a save space for far-left ideologies.
Parler suspended from Google Play Store over lack of free-speech censorship
Google has purged social media site Parler from its Play Store, calling for the need to “protect user safety” while saying the platform allows posts that “incite violence,” as Apple considers a similar move.
Iran’s Supreme leader is a better human being than Trump, according to Twitter’s ban of America’s anti-war President
Many concerned intellectuals and other activists of free speech have pointed fingers at messages from Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accusing the platform of double standards amid Presidents Twitter ban.
US suspends tariffs on French luxury goods over tax on Big-Tech
Washington has backed down from plans to hit $1.3 billion of French products with new tariffs. The levies were meant to be in retaliation to France’s attempt to hike taxes on American tech giants.
USTR slams India, Italy, Turkey on digital taxes but holds off on tariffs
Digital services taxes adopted by India, Italy and Turkey discriminate against U.S. companies and are inconsistent with international tax principles, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said on Wednesday, paving the way for potential retaliatory tariffs.
PayPal backs crypto tax start-up Taxbit
PayPal Holdings Inc’s venture arm has made an investment in Salt Lake City, Utah-based tech start-up Taxbit, which helps consumers and businesses calculate the taxes owed on cryptocurrency holdings, the companies said on Thursday.
Yandex warns against limiting foreign ownership in Russian online streaming services
A draft law proposing to limit foreign shareholdings in Russian companies that offer online video streaming services to 20% could worsen the investment climate, a spokesperson for internet giant Yandex told Reuters on Monday.
Big Tech’s massive push to influence the Biden administration
Silicon Valley is working behind the scenes to secure senior roles for tech allies in lesser-known but still vital parts of president-elect Joe Biden’s administration, even as the pushback against Big Tech from progressive groups and regulators grows.
Smart home suddenly became stupid
Google Home users from around the world, who use the Big Tech company’s service to run their households directly from an app, found themselves left in the dark after Monday’s Google outage.
European tech start-ups near record $41 billion investment
European tech start-up investment has bounced back from the spring shock of the coronavirus outbreak and is on track to hit a record high this year, venture capital firm Atomico forecast.
Tech Giants push back against EU rules on illegal content online
Twitter and three other U.S. tech companies have urged the EU to take a flexible approach towards harmful and illegal online content instead of blanket rules requiring takedown, saying this would preserve an open internet.
Yandex robots start to deliver restaurant meals in central Moscow
Driverless robot buggies started delivering hot restaurant meals to paying customers in one central Moscow district on Wednesday, their operator, Russian Internet giant Yandex, said.
Criminals getting smarter in use of digital currencies to launder money
Criminals are becoming more sophisticated in their use of cryptocurrencies to launder money, with hundreds of millions of dollars of dirty funds last year flowing through digital wallets that allow users to hide their trail, according to Elliptic.
Facebook faces U.S. lawsuits that could force sale of Instagram and WhatsApp
Facebook Inc could be forced to sell its prized assets WhatsApp and Instagram after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and nearly every U.S. state filed lawsuits against the social media company, saying it used a “buy or bury” strategy to snap up rivals and keep smaller competitors at bay.
SpaceX’s Starship prototype explodes on landing after test launch
SpaceX’s Starship prototype exploded while attempting to land on Wednesday after an otherwise successful test launch from the company’s rocket facility in Boca Chica, Texas, live video of the flight showed.
Amazon to give $500 million in holiday bonuses to front-line U.S. workers
Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday it would spend more than $500 million on one-time bonuses for its front-line employees in the United States who are working the holiday season amid the pandemic.
Britain to curb Google and Facebook with tougher competition rules
The code will be enforced by a dedicated unit within the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which this year said it needed new laws to keep the tech giants in check.
Bitcoin at $100,000 in 2021?
Bitcoin investors, which include top hedge funds and money managers, are betting the virtual currency could more than quintuple to as high as $100,000 in a year.
Tesla market value crosses $500 billion
Tesla Inc blew past $500 billion in market value on Tuesday as investors snapped up its shares in the run-up to its debut in the S&P 500, extending a spectacular rally that has seen it surge over 500% this year.
Rivian CEO wants smaller electric vehicles on the market
Electric vehicle start-up Rivian, which is backed by Amazon and Ford Motor Co on Wednesday said it plans to follow up its first two products, a full-size pickup and SUV, with smaller models targeted at China and Europe where it may eventually build some vehicles.
Apple lowers App Store fees for small developers
Apple Inc said on Wednesday it plans to start a program to lower its App Store commissions for software developers who make $1 million or less in proceeds each year from the store, but some of the company’s critics called the move “window dressing.”
Tech groups’ services could face bans if they breach rules
Technology companies’ services could be banned from the European market if they do not heed EU regulation, Europe’s industry chief Thierry Breton told, as the European Commission finalizes rules on internet companies.
SpaceX launches astronauts into space
Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX launched four astronauts on a flight to the International Space Station on Sunday, NASA’s first full-fledged mission sending a crew into orbit aboard a privately-owned spacecraft.
PlayStation 5 sold out online as lockdowns continue
The COVID-19 pandemic has driven a boom in gaming demand, but Sony has made the launch sale online only to maintain social distancing, calling for consumers to “be safe, stay home, and place your order online.”
Apple unveils first Macs built to run more like iPhones
Apple unveils first Macs built to run more like iPhones.
EU files antitrust charges against Amazon
EU files antitrust charges against Amazon.
Meet Luca, an electric car made out of recycled material
Luca, an electric car made out of recycled material, designed and developed by 22 Dutch Students in 18 months.
Apple share slip due to weak iPhone 12 sales
Apple shares fell by 4% after iPhone sales missed the Wall Street estimates
Apple to replace Google with own search engine
Apple is developing a fully-fledged alternative to the Google search engine, according to a Financial Times report on Wednesday. The report cites an iOS 14 feature that shows
Satellites help tracking of COVID-19 deaths in Yemen
A first of its kind study using satellite images to count fresh graves and analyse burial activity in Yemen has estimated the death toll there from COVID-19 or COVID-related causes is far higher than official government figures suggest.
Robots help Rwandan health workers
Robots are helping doctors and nurses to avoid contagion risk at the Kanyinya treatment facility, near Rwanda´s capital Kigali.