Is big tech now just too big to stomach?

Posted on February 6, 2021 by Admin

The Covid crisis has turbo-charged profits and share prices. But are the big six now too powerful for regulators to ignore?

The coronavirus pandemic has wrought economic disruption on a global scale, but one sector has marched on throughout the chaos: big tech.

Further evidence of the industry’s relentless progress has come in recent weeks with the news that Apple and Amazon both raked in sales of $100bn (£72bn) over the past three months – 25% more than Tesco brings in over a full year.

Jeff Bezos to resign as chief executive of Amazon

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Admin

Bezos, who founded the company in 1994, will step down after company recorded $100bn in sales for last three months of 2020

Jeff Bezos, billionaire founder of Amazon, will step down as chief executive, the company announced on Tuesday.

Twitter suspends hundreds of Indian accounts after government demand

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Admin

Government claimed accounts of news sites, actors and activists sought to foment violence amid farmer protests

Hundreds of Indian Twitter accounts including those belonging to news websites, activists and actors were suspended for more than 12 hours on Monday after the government said users were posting content inciting violence.

The move came in the wake of weeks-long protests by Indian farmers against a new farm bill. The protests turned violent last week when riot police were sent in. One demonstrator was killed and hundreds of people were injured including police officers.

Mighty Amazon looks all but unassailable as Covid continues

Posted on January 30, 2021 by Admin

Jeff Bezos’s company is set for sales topping $100bn last quarter, and while rivals are nibbling, its position looks secure

The earliest references to the “one-stop shop” emerged during the first decades of 20th century as the fast-growing US economy spurred rapid retail innovation. A single location for various products provides obvious benefits: removing the hassle of travelling around town to visit different stores.

Jeff Bezos redefined that logic for the internet age, making Amazon a dominant (and perhaps ambivalent) force first in selling books, and then in pretty much everything else. Before 2020 Amazon was a phenomenon, but the coronavirus pandemic has made it all but ubiquitous.

The strange case of Alibaba’s Jack Ma and his three-month vanishing act

Posted on January 23, 2021 by Admin

The ebullient tech tycoon embarrassed China’s leaders and went missing. Now he’s back, but seems far less outspoken

Wearing burgundy lipstick and a long peroxide wig, the diminutive entrepreneur who would soon become China’s richest man took to the stage and belted out Can You Feel the Love Tonight? from Disney’s The Lion King.

Jack Ma, chief executive of e-commerce giant Alibaba, had earned the right to make a spectacle of himself. On that day in September 2009, in front of 16,000 adoring employees packed into Hangzhou’s Yellow Dragon stadium, the eccentric but iron-willed former English teacher was celebrating. He had built a bona fide tech champion, China’s answer to Amazon, eBay and PayPal rolled into one.

Von der Leyen: big tech firms need to be reined in despite Trump’s exit

Posted on January 20, 2021 by Admin

Internet giants that spread hate speech and conspiracy theories should face ‘democratic limits’, says European commission president

The end of Donald Trump’s tenure in the White House was celebrated by the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday, as she warned that the former US president’s rise highlighted the need to confront the internet giants who helped him spread “conspiracy theories and fake news”.

The European commission president spoke of her relief at Trump’s departure, but warned that the outgoing leader’s movement still existed, and that the digital platforms used to spread hate needed to be tackled.

When film stars attack: Russell Crowe’s reaction to criticism could set a trend

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Admin

The actor’s unexpected response to a complaint about an 18-year-old film could pave the way for big-name actors to personally insult Twitter users

One of the most surprising new avenues to have formed for celebrities over the course of the pandemic has been Cameo. For the uninitiated, Cameo is a service where celebrities can create personalised messages for their fans. For £75, Hodor from Game of Thrones will wish you a happy birthday or – if you have £750 lying around – Richard Dreyfuss will put on a Jaws shirt and struggle to pronounce your name.

But maybe this isn’t enough for you. Maybe you want to find direct engagement, with a much bigger star than Cameo offers, and for free. If that’s the case, I can heartily endorse not liking a Russell Crowe movie. Because, even if it takes him a while, Crowe will do his best to respond to your criticism. And if you’re really lucky, he’ll sound like an out-of-touch bus stop crackpot in the process. Here’s what happened.

Revealed: Tory MPs and commentators who joined banned app Parler

Posted on January 17, 2021 by Admin

Nadine Dorries, James Cleverly and Michael Gove joined the platform favoured by Trump supporters

At least 14 Conservative MPs, including several ministers, cabinet minister Michael Gove and a number of prominent Tory commentators joined Parler, the social media platform favoured by the far right that was forced offline last week for hosting threats of violence and racist slurs.

Parler was taken offline after Amazon Web Services pulled the plug last Sunday, saying violent posts and racist threats connected to the recent attack on the US Capitol violated its terms.

‘Internexit’ for Leave.EU as domain name temporarily suspended

Posted on January 15, 2021 by Admin

Error message greets visitors to site registered in name of Irish businessman who claims he does not know campaign group

Leave.EU has been forced to “Internexit” after the group’s EU domain name was temporarily suspended. It comes after the Irish businessman in whose name the pro-Brexit campaign group’s domain name is registered denied having any involvement with the organisation.

Now visitors to the site are greeted with an error message, and the EU’s online registry marks the domain as under a server hold, meaning it is “temporarily inactive and under investigation”.

Wikipedia at 20: last gasp of an internet vision, or a beacon to a better future?

Posted on January 15, 2021 by Admin

The naysayers said the user-written encyclopedia would never work. Now it boasts 55m articles and 1.7bn visitors a month

Twenty years ago today, a tech startup called Nupedia launched a side project. The company had been hard at work producing a free online encyclopaedia, but it was slow going: its strict editing process, comprehensive peer review and focus on expert authors meant it finished only 21 articles in its first year.

The side project would do away with all of that. Instead, anyone would be able to write and edit articles. Nupedia’s founders were split over whether the trade-off – more content with a lower barrier to entry – was worth it, but by the end of its first year, the side project had amassed articles on more than 18,000 topics. Nupedia, by the time it shut in 2003, had finished just 25.

Amazon.com and ‘Big Five’ publishers accused of ebook price-fixing

Posted on January 15, 2021 by Admin

Class action lawsuit filed in US claims the houses have colluded with the online giant to keep prices artificially high

Amazon.com and the “Big Five” publishers – Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster – have been accused of colluding to fix ebook prices, in a class action filed by the law firm that successfully sued Apple and the Big Five on the same charge 10 years ago.

The lawsuit, filed in district court in New York on Thursday by Seattle firm Hagens Berman, on behalf of consumers in several US states, names the retail giant as the sole defendant but labels the publishers “co-conspirators”. It alleges Amazon and the publishers use a clause known as “Most Favored Nations” (MFN) to keep ebook prices artificially high, by agreeing to price restraints that force consumers to pay more for ebooks purchased on retail platforms that are not Amazon.com.

Noxious internet drama makes me nostalgic for the good old days of passive aggressive notes | Brigid Delaney

Posted on January 14, 2021 by Admin

TikTok artist Lubalin brilliantly captures the drama of low stakes online fights. But internet discord is increasingly spilling into everyday life

It was summer 2016 and I was looking after a friend’s flat in Kirribilli.

Out the back was a communal laundry and clothesline.

Twitter chief says Trump ban was right decision but sets ‘dangerous precedent’

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Admin

Jack Dorsey: ‘I do not celebrate having to ban Donald Trump’
‘A ban is a failure of ours to promote healthy conversation’

Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter, has said that banning Donald Trump from the platform was the “right decision” but that it sets a dangerous precedent.

Blocked: how the internet turned on Donald Trump

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Admin

From Facebook and Twitter to Reddit and Amazon, tech firms are moving to silence the president, and his QAnon supporters

Twitter’s decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account on Wednesday evening has opened the floodgates for tech companies and platforms to remove the outgoing US president from their services.

Twitter’s suspension was followed by Facebook, which a day later announced the move would be “indefinite”. Twitter then announced a “permanent” suspension of Trump’s account.

Twitter suspends 70,000 accounts sharing QAnon content

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Admin

The network said it acted after ‘violent events in Washington’ when a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol

Twitter has said it has suspended more than 70,000 accounts since Friday that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content as the social media site continued to crack down on content after supporters of Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol.

“Given the violent events in Washington DC, and increased risk of harm, we began permanently suspending thousands of accounts that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content on Friday afternoon,” Twitter said in a blog late on Monday.

Opinion divided over Trump’s ban from social media

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Admin

Actions spark debate on free speech and whether chief executives of tech firms are fit to act as judge and jury

As rioters were gathering around the US Capitol last Wednesday, a familiar question began to echo around the offices of the large social networks: what should they do about Donald Trump and his provocative posts?

The answer has been emphatic: ban him.

Trump Twitter: Republicans and Democrats split over freedom of speech

Posted on January 9, 2021 by Admin

Allies of president claim company restricted free speech
Opponents say suspension was long overdue
Woman killed in Capitol riot was devoted conspiracy theorist

Twitter’s decision to permanently suspend Donald Trump’s account in the wake of the storming of Capitol Hill on Wednesday continues to stoke fierce debate, supporters and critics split on partisan lines as they contest what the suspension means for a cherished American tradition: freedom of speech.

Fat felines: we all love a ‘chonky’ cat – but the online trend has to end

Posted on January 4, 2021 by Admin

Over the last few years, the internet has thrilled to pictures of chubby pets. But now experts are calling for a new era of cat shaming and determined dieting

Name: Fat cats.

Age: Probably no older than 10, given their propensity to die young.

Appearance: Fat.

Roundup Newswires

Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network

Category Archives: Internet

Jeff Bezos to resign as chief executive of Amazon

Twitter suspends hundreds of Indian accounts after government demand

Mighty Amazon looks all but unassailable as Covid continues

The strange case of Alibaba’s Jack Ma and his three-month vanishing act

When film stars attack: Russell Crowe’s reaction to criticism could set a trend

‘Internexit’ for Leave.EU as domain name temporarily suspended

Wikipedia at 20: last gasp of an internet vision, or a beacon to a better future?

Amazon.com and ‘Big Five’ publishers accused of ebook price-fixing

Noxious internet drama makes me nostalgic for the good old days of passive aggressive notes | Brigid Delaney

Twitter chief says Trump ban was right decision but sets ‘dangerous precedent’

Twitter suspends 70,000 accounts sharing QAnon content