Tech

Brazil judge penalises Facebook for not blocking accounts of president supporters facing probe

Editorial Bureau August 1, 2020

BRASILIA (BRAZIL) – A Supreme Court judge in Brazil imposed a fine of 1.92 million reais ($367,710) on Facebook on Friday for failing to comply with an order to block the accounts of certain supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro who are implicated in a fake news probe. A day earlier,

World

Government to make Google, Facebook pay for news from Australian media outlets

Editorial Bureau July 31, 2020

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA) – In what is seen as a widely watched landmark step to provide protection to independent journalism, the government will make Facebook and Google pay Australian media outlets for news content. Australia is the first country to make the US tech giants pay for news sourced from media outlets under a royalty-style provision, […]

Tech

Facebook gets a respite from court on EU antitrust data demand

Ren Leen July 28, 2020

BRUSSELS (BELGIUM) – Facebook has crossed the first round of its court battle against excessive demands from European Union antitrust regulators. The US social media group has come under intense scrutiny by the European Commission for its immense data and online marketplace. Facebook on July 15 sued the EU competition enforcer at the Luxembourg-based General […]

USA

CEOs of 4 large US tech firms to appear for Congressional hearing

Editorial Bureau July 24, 2020

WASHINGTON (US) – In what is seen as a bid to deflect criticism in a Congressional hearing next week regarding the use of market clout to hurt rivals, the CEOS of four large US tech firms have said that they themselves face stiff competition. The CEOs of Facebook, Amazon.com Inc, Google and Apple, are slated […]

Tech

Facebook users can now broadcast live large video calls

Editorial Bureau July 23, 2020

WASHINGTON (US) – Facebook Inc announced on Thursday that it was unveiling a feature allowing users to broadcast live a video call involving up to 50 people. Facebook users can invite people to join “Messenger Rooms”, including those without an account, for group video calls and broadcast it live on any profile, page or group, […]

Tech

EU-US data transfer tool in Facebook case gets cancelled in EU Court

Ren Leen July 16, 2020

LUXEMBOURG CITY (LUXEMBOURG) – Europe’s top court on Thursday cancelled the validity of a mechanism used by a lot of companies to send data to the United States. This was in favour of the concerns about US surveillance raised by privacy activist Max Schrems during his clash with Facebook. The EU-US Privacy Shield was founded […]

Tech

Facebook sues individuals for offering data scraping

Ren Leen June 19, 2020

WASHINGTON (US) – Facebook Inc said on Thursday it filed lawsuits against individuals in Europe and the United States for abusing its platforms to offer automated tools for scraping users’ personal data and gathering likes. The social network site said the defendant in the US lawsuit operated a data scraping service called “Massroot8”, which

Europe

EU ready to go ahead with taxation of digital firms: Gentiloni

Ren Leen June 18, 2020

BRUSSELS (BELGIUM) – The European Union is ready to go ahead with taxing digital services of firms like Google, Amazon, Facebook or Apple even if there is no global deal on such a tax this year, European Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on Thursday. He was responding to the decision by the United States to […]

UK

UK bats for global digital tax as US quits discussions

Ren Leen June 18, 2020

LONDON (UK) – Britain will keep pushing for a global solution on taxing international digital companies such as Google and Facebook Inc after the United States left talks, a British Treasury spokesman said on Thursday. “We remain committed to a global solution,” the spokesman said. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin decided to pull out of […]

Tech

Facebook’s WhatsApp brings digital payment to users in Brazil

Ren Leen June 15, 2020

NEW YORK (Technology) – Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp messaging service rolled out a system across Brazil on Monday that will allow users to send money to individuals or local businesses within a chat, attaching payment as they would a photo or video. WhatsApp tested the payment system in India beginning in 2018. The Brazil launch will […]