Payment firms back out in painful blow to Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra

Posted on October 11, 2019 by Admin

Several large companies have announced their departure, including Visa and Mastercard, a week after PayPal exited

Nearly every payment firm that initially agreed to join Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra has backed out, in a potentially fatal blow to the social network’s plan for a worldwide digital currency.

Visa and Mastercard said on Friday they would no longer participate in the Libra Association and Latin American payment system Mercado Pago announced it would back out as well. Several other large companies have announced their departures .

Facebook paid just £28m tax on record £1.6bn earnings in UK

Posted on October 11, 2019 by Admin

Profits on social media app surged by more than 50% to £797m in latest tax year

Facebook’s UK operations paid £28m in tax last year despite attracting a record £1.6bn in British sales.

The social media company’s latest UK accounts show that gross income from advertisers rose almost 30% last year to £1.65bn, and pretax profits surged by more than 50% from £63m to £97m.

Zuckerberg: I’ll ‘go to the mat and fight’ Warren over plan to break up Facebook

Posted on October 1, 2019 by Admin

Leaked recordings published by the Verge show Zuckerberg fears ‘existential threat’ if Democratic contender becomes president

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said his company will “go to the mat” if Elizabeth Warren is elected president and seeks to fulfil her promise to break up America’s tech giants.

Climate strikes: hoax photo accusing Australian protesters of leaving rubbish behind goes viral

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Admin

The image was not taken after a climate strike and was not even taken in Australia

A hoax photo that claims to show rubbish left behind by Australian climate strike protesters is circulating on Facebook, despite being revealed as fake months ago.

Though it lacks any verification, and was debunked in April, the image and false caption have been shared 19,000 times in 12 hours, and thousands of times from copycats.

Chinese deepfake app Zao sparks privacy row after going viral

Posted on September 2, 2019 by Admin

Critics say face-swap app could spread misinformation on a massive scale

A Chinese app that lets users convincingly swap their faces with film or TV characters has rapidly become one of the country’s most downloaded apps, triggering a privacy row.

Instagram censors Melbourne artist’s anti-Beijing post but ignores trolls

Posted on August 20, 2019 by Admin

Badiucao accuses the social media firm of violating the free speech of people who speak up against China’s bullying

A Melbourne artist who posted anti-Chinese government work has had it pulled offline by Instagram, while death threats against him have remained uncensored.

The censorship of Badiucao – and later restoration – by Instagram came as Twitter and Facebook suspended more than 200,000 accounts deemed to be part of a “co-ordinated state-backed operation” of misinformation from the People’s Republic of China.

Johnson ally Lynton Crosby could be called to give evidence to MPs

Posted on August 2, 2019 by Admin

Disinformation committee wants CTF Partners chief to detail its propaganda activities

Sir Lynton Crosby could be called to give evidence to a House of Commons select committee on disinformation after the Guardian revealed how his lobbying company, CTF Partners, was involved in running a propaganda network on Facebook on behalf of foreign states and major corporate clients.

MPs told the Guardian they would seek to summon representatives of CTF to discuss their role in running a disinformation network that reached tens of millions of people. It comes as trade groups seek to distance themselves from CTF and its activities.

US could ban ‘addictive’ autoplay videos and infinite scrolling online

Posted on July 31, 2019 by Admin

Senator says bill aims to tackle features that ‘capture attention by using psychological tricks’

Autoplaying videos on YouTube, Facebook’s infinite newsfeed and Snapstreaks could be banned in the US under a proposed new bill.

The Social Media Addiction Reduction Technology (Smart) Act takes aim at techniques and features that, according to its author, Republican Senator Josh Hawley, are created to encourage and deepen addictive behaviours.

Neuroscientists decode brain speech signals into written text

Posted on July 30, 2019 by Admin

Study funded by Facebook aims to improve communication with paralysed patients

Doctors have turned the brain signals for speech into written sentences in a research project that aims to transform how patients with severe disabilities communicate in the future.

The breakthrough is the first to demonstrate how the intention to say specific words can be extracted from brain activity and converted into text rapidly enough to keep pace with natural conversation.

US justice department targets big tech firms in antitrust review

Posted on July 23, 2019 by Admin

Officials to look into whether Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple are unlawfully limiting competition

The US justice department is opening a broad antitrust review into major technology firms, as criticism over the companies’ growing reach and power heats up.

The investigation will focus on growing complaints that the companies are unlawfully stifling competition.

Margrethe Vestager scares the tech giants. If we leave the EU, we’ll miss her

Posted on July 21, 2019 by Admin

Trump says the competition commissioner hates the US, but what she really hates is tax avoidance

The greatest economic threat facing Europe is of falling hopelessly behind the US and China in adopting the next generation of technology. That is the view of many across Europe’s industrial and financial sectors who watch with wonder the proxy battle between the US and Chinese administrations on behalf of their tech giants.

Business leaders from Dublin to Warsaw are open-mouthed – not so much at the often-bizarre tug of war between the two sides as at the fact that these economic blocs can lay claim to almost all the world’s tech giants.

Stand Out of Our Light: politics and the big tech threat

Posted on July 20, 2019 by Admin

Books by James Williams and Carles Boix offer fascinating takes on how we can combat anger and distraction online

We’re having problems with the internet and big tech, principally Alphabet (Google/YouTube), Amazon, Apple and Facebook. The government has taken note.

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: Facebook

Payment firms back out in painful blow to Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra

Facebook paid just £28m tax on record £1.6bn earnings in UK

Zuckerberg: I’ll ‘go to the mat and fight’ Warren over plan to break up Facebook

Climate strikes: hoax photo accusing Australian protesters of leaving rubbish behind goes viral

Neuroscientists decode brain speech signals into written text

US justice department targets big tech firms in antitrust review

Margrethe Vestager scares the tech giants. If we leave the EU, we’ll miss her