Category Archives: Technology

Trillion-dollar crypto collapse sparks flurry of US lawsuits – who’s to blame?

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Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather among those being sued, but prosecuting fraud in the crypto arena is notoriously difficult

With investors worldwide looking at a collective $1.5tn in recent cryptocurrency losses, a blizzard of class-action lawsuits are being prepared. One big question is: who, if anyone, is to blame – and who could be held to account?

With inflation and interest rates rising, the best-known cryptocurrencies have been hit with heavy and continuing losses: Bitcoin has lost more than 50% of its value this year; Ethereum, its largest rival, is down 65%; and the total value of crypto assets has dropped to less than $1tn from its November 2021 peak of $3tn. US federal regulators say 46,000 people have reported losing $1bn in crypto to scams since January 2021.

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TikTok moves to ease fears amid report workers in China accessed US users’ data

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The company has said that Oracle will store all private information and is limiting the number of employees with those privileges

TikTok has said that Oracle will store all the data from its US users, in a bid to allay fears about its safety in the hands of a platform owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.

The move comes as a report from BuzzFeed news, citing leaked audio from TikTok in-house meetings, said ByteDance employees in China have repeatedly accessed private information about US TikTok users.

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Jay-Z’s bitcoin school met with skepticism in his former housing project: ‘I don’t have money to be losing’

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The hip-hop mogul loves to rap about his roots in Brooklyn’s Marcy housing projects. But classes in cryptocurrency show the billionaire is out of touch, residents say

Marcy Houses, the 28-acre public housing development in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, is best-known as a pillar of rapper-turned-mogul Jay-Z’s New York persona. Built in 1949 as part of a push by the New York City Housing Authority to house the city’s low-income residents, Marcy had fallen into a state of dangerous disrepair by the 1970s when Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, was growing up there.

“Where I’m from, Marcy son, ain’t nothing nice,” he raps in “Where I’m From”. “Marcy me, just the way I am always gonna be,” he declares in 2017’s Marcy Me.

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‘This is another pandemic’: a female survivor of domestic abuse in China speaks out

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Chinese cyberspace is filled with videos showing violence against women and activists say only real social change will stop the abuse

Tang Ping, 31, a mother-of-two in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, says in 2014 when her first child was six months old, her husband – an academic – began routinely beating her. She felt hurt but also ashamed, blaming herself for not being a good enough wife. She did not know what to do.

Five years ago, after another round of violence, she finally summoned the courage to report her husband to the police. “I was told my injuries were not serious, therefore they could not intervene,” she says, as she prepares to legally dissolve the marriage this week.

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Hologram Zelenskiy promises Ukraine will defeat ‘the empire’

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Ukrainian president attends Paris trade show as electronic apparition, urging tech companies to aid ‘digital revolution’ on lend-lease terms

Volodymyr Zelenskiy referenced Star Wars and the second world war as the Ukrainian president appeared as a hologram at a conference in Paris to seek aid from big tech firms.

He told a crowd of hundreds at the VivaTech trade show that he was offering technology firms a unique chance to rebuild Ukraine as a fully digital democracy.

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Claim for £750m against Apple launched alleging battery ‘throttling’

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Consumer champion Justin Gutmann alleges older iPhones made slower to cope with software updates

A consumer champion has launched a more than £750m legal claim against Apple, linked to an incident in 2017 relating to a power management tool on older iPhones.

Justin Gutmann has accused the tech giant of slowing down the performance of iPhone handsets – a process known as “throttling” – by hiding a power management tool in software updates to combat performance issues and stop older devices from shutting down suddenly.

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Encrypted messaging apps should be regulated to tackle extremism, Victorian inquiry hears

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Experts say spread of misinformation and use of encrypted services drives far-right extremists and racism

The federal government needs to take action against encrypted messaging apps like Telegram to curb the rise of far-right extremism, a Victorian inquiry has been told.

Dr Belinda Barnet, a media lecturer at Swinburne University, told a hearing that far-right extremists had initially been sharing hateful content on mainstream sites such as Facebook and Twitter but were increasingly being deplatformed.

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US defence contractor in talks to take over NSO Group’s hacking technology

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Deal – which would require approval from US and Israel – would give L3Harris control over controversial Pegasus tool

The US defence contractor L3Harris is in talks to take over NSO Group’s surveillance technology, in a possible deal that would give an American company control over one of the world’s most sophisticated and controversial hacking tools.

Multiple sources confirmed that discussions were centred on a sale of the Israeli company’s core technology – or code – as well as a possible transfer of NSO personnel to L3Harris. But any agreement still faces significant hurdles, including requiring the blessing of the US and Israeli governments, which have not yet given the green light to a deal.

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Blow to Uber as top Massachusetts court blocks ballot question

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Justices reject planned ballot measure, citing proposal limiting companies’ liability for accidents

Massachusetts’ top court on Tuesday blocked an effort to ask voters whether app-based ride-share and delivery drivers should be treated as independent contractors rather than employees, in a setback for companies such as Uber and Lyft.

The unanimous decision by the Massachusetts supreme judicial court marked a victory for labor activists who sued and argued the ballot measure proposal contained loopholes that would create a sub-minimum wage for drivers for the companies.

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Elon Musk to hold first meeting with Twitter staff since $44bn bid

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World’s richest person to take questions from employees amid concerns over attempted takeover

Elon Musk will speak to Twitter employees this week for the first time since launching his $44bn (£36bn) bid in April, a source said on Monday, citing an email from Twitter chief executive, Parag Agrawal, to staff.

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, and Musk will take questions directly from Twitter employees, the source added.

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Bitcoin withdrawals temporarily suspended in volatile day for crypto market

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Value of assets dips below $1tn after Celsius Network halts withdrawals over ‘extreme’ conditions

The cryptocurrency market has endured another day of volatility as the Binance exchange temporarily suspended bitcoin withdrawals and the total value of the digital asset market dipped below $1tn (£820bn), after a cryptocurrency lender stopped customers from taking back their funds.

The cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network halted withdrawals because of “extreme market conditions”, prompting a sell-off.

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‘A gift from God’: Binley Mega Chippy owner basks in TikTok fame

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Kamal Gandhi, 70, and his Coventry chip shop became a sensation after its name was turned into a catchy song

It has been two weeks since his Coventry chip shop became a TikTok sensation drawing in crowds from around the country, and 70-year-old Kamal Gandhi is exhausted.

He has had to take on and train four new staff members, ensure a continuous supply of stock to deal with hundreds of new customers and help manage the long queues snaking down the road outside the now world famous Binley Mega Chippy.

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Scientists make ‘slightly sweaty’ robot finger with living skin

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Japanese innovation thought to have potential to ‘build a new relationship between humans and robots’

Japanese scientists have developed a “slightly sweaty” robotic finger covered in living skin in an advance they say brings truly human-like robots a step closer.

The finger, which was shown to be able to heal itself, is seen as an impressive technical feat that blurs the line between living flesh and machine. But scientists were divided on whether people would warm to its lifelike anatomy or find it creepy.

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Twitter set to comply with Elon Musk demand for data on fake accounts

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Network ready to provide stream of daily data after world’s richest man threatened to pull out of $44bn purchase if Twitter refused

Twitter is preparing to comply with Elon Musk’s demand for data on fake accounts, after the Tesla chief executive threatened to walk away from buying the business if it refused.

The social media company will provide the world’s richest man with access to a stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted every day, according to the Washington Post.

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Australia’s consumer watchdog launches legal action against Airbnb for alleged misleading prices

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ACCC is seeking compensation for Australian customers who were quoted accommodation prices in USD but charged in AUD

The consumer watchdog has launched legal action against Airbnb for allegedly misleading thousands of customers into believing accommodation prices were in Australian dollars when they were actually in US currency.

In a statement filed with the federal court, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is seeking compensation for the customers, who it claims were misled from at least January 2018 until August 2021 because the prices displayed to some Airbnb users did not mention that they were in US dollars, with reference to the foreign currency in the fine print.

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Elon Musk and Twitter: a timeline of the $44bn deal that threatens to crumble

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It’s been a long and winding saga for the social media company and the Tesla CEO, filled with threats, breaches and ‘poison pills’

Elon Musk on Monday made his most viable threat yet to walk away from a $44bn deal to buy Twitter, accusing the company of committing a “material breach” by failing to disclose the number of bots on the platform.

The letter was published on the website of the US financial watchdog on Monday. He had previously tweeted that the deal “cannot move forward” until the spam and fake account issue had been resolved.

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Friendlyjordies: John Barilaro to be paid $715,000 by Google over YouTube videos

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Tech giant and comedian Jordan Shanks may face contempt of court charges over videos published during trial

Google has been ordered to pay former New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro more than $700,000 over a series of “racist” and “abusive” videos published on YouTube channel Friendlyjordies.

On Monday, federal court justice Stephen Rares ruled that Barilaro had been left “traumatised” by a campaign of “relentless cyberbullying” by comedian Jordan Shanks, who uses the nom de plume Friendlyjordies

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Met police did not consult us on children’s data project, say youth violence experts

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Force claimed it approached groups before launch of Project Alpha which scours social media sites

Youth violence experts have said they had no involvement with a police scheme that collects children’s personal data, despite the Met claiming to have consulted them.

Project Alpha, involving more than 30 staff and launched in 2019 with Home Office funding, scours social media sites looking at drill music videos and other content. It has prompted concerns about racial profiling and potential privacy violations.

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Mercedes-Benz issues global recall of one million older cars

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German carmaker says move due to a potential problem with the braking system

Mercedes-Benz has announced it is immediately recalling nearly one million older vehicles worldwide due to a potential problem with the braking system.

Germany’s federal transport authority (KBA) said that the recall affected cars built between 2004 and 2015 of the SUV series ML and GL, and the R-Class luxury minivan.

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Elon Musk seeks 10% job cuts at Tesla over ‘super bad feeling’ about economy

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Email to executives also calls for hiring freeze at electric car maker, which has 100,000 staff worldwide

Elon Musk is considering a hiring freeze and job cuts of up to 10% of staff at Tesla because he has a “super bad feeling” about the state of the economy, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.

Tesla currently has about 5,000 job openings advertised worldwide, and 100,000 employees. The email was sent to Tesla executives late on Thursday with the subject line “pause all hiring worldwide”, and comes days after Musk ordered all employees to return to the office for at least 40 hours a week or face immediate termination.

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