Tech This Week | Encouraging small sellers to get online must be a policy priority
The pandemic is bad news for the Indian retailer. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) estimated when the lockdown was imposed. In addition, the body also estimated that at least 20% of Indian retailers were likely to wind up their business in the coming months. Because of restrictions in movement, it is hard for […]
Grofers plays sanskaari while BigBasket gets set for liquor delivery
Kolkata: Online grocery platform Grofers is not keen to enter into the business of liquor delivery saying it serves mostly families, even as its main competitor BigBasket is set to foray into doorstep supply of alcoholic beverages. SoftBank-backed Grofers, which currently operates in 27 cities of the country, has lined up USD 25-30 million over […]
Pulled over by cops, people can now activate ‘Hey Siri’ shortcut to record video
San Francisco: The widespread protests against police brutality have created a buzz around a software shortcut letting people cue iPhones to start video recording during a traffic stop in case of misconduct by officers. The tech trick created by software developer Robert Petersen puts iPhones into action by telling Apple’s digital assistant Siri that “I’m […]
Black video artists sue YouTube for discrimination
San Francisco: A lawsuit filed this week in federal court accuses YouTube of discriminating against African American video makers and viewers by factoring in race when it comes to filtering or monetising content. The suit filed in a courthouse in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose on Tuesday seeks class action status and names […]
France calls out US’ bully stance on taxing Big Tech
Paris: France and the US locked horns Thursday over taxing digital giants such as Google and Facebook, after Washington said it was breaking off talks aimed at establishing a global framework for making the companies pay larger levies where they operate. “This letter is a provocation,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said, confirming receipt […]
Unlike 2016, Facebook says it will block foreign state ads on US election
San Francisco: Facebook says it will block ads from foreign state media during the US election, as well as allowing users to hide all paid-for political messages. The move comes with the social media giant under growing pressure over its hands-off approach to misinformation and inflammatory posts—including from Donald Trump—and following criticism it turned a […]
WhatsApp payments launched in Brazil, ahead of its second attempt in India with Jio
New Delhi: WhatsApp has launched its ‘WhatsApp Pay’ in Brazil, nearly two years after it began testing the payments service in India. In 2018, the Facebook-owned company had started testing the service in India, which allows users to utilise the messaging platform to send and receive money. However, the ambitious plan has been caught in […]
What online education when 56 per cent of children have no access?
New Delhi: About 56 per cent of children were found to have no access to smartphones which have emerged as essential tools for online learning during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, according to a new study that surveyed 42,831 students at various school levels. The study ‘Scenario amidst COVID 19 – Onground Situations and Possible Solutions’ was […]
Microsoft joins Amazon, IBM to pause face scans for police, but they’re small players
Microsoft has become the third big tech company this week to say it won’t sell its facial recognition software to police, following similar moves by Amazon and IBM. Microsoft’s president and chief counsel, Brad Smith, announced the decision and called on Congress to regulate the technology during a Washington Post video event on Thursday. “We’ve […]
Amazon too reviews its policy on police use of its face-recognition tech amid #BLM
San Francisco: Amazon on Wednesday announced a one-year ban on letting police use its facial recognition technology, calling for strong government regulations for its ethical use. The moratorium comes after repeated calls by critics and racial justice groups for Amazon’s cloud computing unit to stop providing police and immigration officials with tools that can be […]
What’s being done about fake news? EU wants Google, Facebook monthly reports
Brussels: A senior European Union official warned online platforms like Google and Facebook on Wednesday to step up the fight against fake news, coming notably from countries like China and Russia, but she praised the approach of Twitter for fact-checking a tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump. Unveiling a plan to fight disinformation linked to […]
Assam Chief Minister Sonowal’s Facebook flooded with ‘Comrade’, ‘Lal Salam’ greetings
Guwahati: Assam’s BJP Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is being defiantly addressed as ‘comrade’ and greeted with ‘lal salam’ on Facebook by netizens outraged by the charge-sheeting of peasant leader and activist Akhil Gogoi over alleged sedition and terrorist activities. Days after Gogoi and three of his associates were charged by the NIA, which cited the […]
Won’t support evildoers: Snapchat won’t recommend Trump anymore to users
San Francisco: Snapchat on Wednesday became the latest social network moving to curb the reach of US President Donald Trump, claiming the president has been inciting “racial violence.” The youth-focused social network said it would no longer promote Trump on its Discover platform for recommended content. “We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence […]
Facebook users, you can now add songs to your profile from Saregama
New Delhi: Saregama on Wednesday announced a global deal with Facebook to license its music for video and other social experiences across Facebook and Instagram. The partnership will allow users to choose from a wide variety of music to add to their social experiences such as videos, stories via music stickers and other creative content, […]
Donald Trump gets sued
New York: A tech-focused civil liberties group on Tuesday sued to block President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to regulate social media, saying it violates the First Amendment and puts curbs on free speech. Trump’s order, signed last week, could allow more lawsuits against internet companies like Twitter and Facebook for what their users […]
No place for hate: Satya Nadella backs Black Americans, as he did Muslim Indians
Washington: There is no place for hate and racism in the society, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said, asserting that empathy and shared understanding are a start, but more needs to be done. Nadella’s remarks come in the wake of the custodial death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man who was pinned to the […]
No way we gonna pay: Google snubs Australia government demand to pay news publishers
Sydney: Google has rejected demands it pay hundreds of millions of dollars per year in compensation to Australian news media under a government-imposed revenue sharing deal. The company’s top executive in Australia said Google made barely Aus$10 million (US$6.7 million) per year from news-linked advertising, a fraction of a government watchdog’s estimates for the sector. […]
Sundar Pichai says Google stands with black community; had opposed Muslim ban earlier
Washington: Google stands in support of racial equality, the tech giant’s Indian-American CEO Sunder Pichai has said, expressing solidarity with the African-American community in the US in wake of protests sparked by the death in police custody of African-American George Floyd. Floyd, a 46-year-old African American restaurant worker, died in Minneapolis on Monday after a […]
Tech This Week | #BanTikTok Solves Nothing
Earlier this month, there was a huge push on Twitter to #BanTikTok. While Twitter is always enraged about most things, there are few apps in India that divide opinion more than TikTok. Earlier last year, Madras High Court placed a ban on the app, only to lift it later. Let us go a level deeper […]
Aussie papers go digital, downsize amid double whammy of Google-Facebook and COVID
Canberra: Australia’s largest newspaper publisher, News Corp., announced on Thursday that most of its suburban and regional mastheads across the country will become digital-only next month due to the pandemic. News Corp. Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller described the shift that will take effect on June 29 as significant and said jobs will be lost. […]