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Lebron James, Spotify, HBO among 2020 Webby Award winners

LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James, Jimmy Fallon, Spotify and HBO are among the 2020 Webby Award winners for internet excellence. The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences announced the winners Tuesday. Fallon’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” won a Webby for best social media for promoting a celebrity, while James was honored […]

Video app TikTok names top Disney streaming exec as new CEO

>By TALI ARBEL AP Technology Writer TikTok, the popular short-video app that has also drawn national-security and privacy concerns, has a new high-profile CEO from Disney, Kevin Mayer. Mayer will also be chief operating officer of TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and report to its founder and CEO, Yiming Zhang, the company announced Monday. He […]

SoftBank racks up losses as Vision Fund investments plunge

>By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp. racked up a loss of 961.6 billion yen ($9 billion) for the fiscal year through March, on red ink related to its Vision Fund investments including troubled office space-sharing venture WeWork. SoftBank, founded in 1981, said Monday the drop in […]

China warns US of 'all necessary measures' over Huawei rules

BEIJING (AP) — China’s commerce ministry says it will take “all necessary measures” in response to new U.S. restrictions on Chinese tech giant Huawei’s ability to use American technology, calling the measures an abuse of state power and a violation of market principles. An unidentified spokesperson quoted Sunday in a statement on the ministry’s website […]

Privacy groups: TikTok app violating children's privacy

By TALI ARBEL AP Technology Writer Privacy watchdogs say that the popular TikTok video app is violating a children’s privacy law and putting kids at risk. A coalition of 20 groups, including Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy, filed a complaint Thursday with the Federal Trade Commission saying that TikTok […]

Faxes and email: Old technology slows COVID-19 response

By FRANK BAJAK AP Technology Writer On April 1, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emailed Nevada public health counterparts for lab reports on two travelers who had tested positive for the coronavirus. She asked Nevada to send those records via a secure network or a “password protected encrypted file” to […]

Why open a store? Chinese merchants go livestreaming instead

By ZEN SOO AP Business Writer HONG KONG (AP) — At the height of China’s coronavirus outbreak, the skincare-products maker Forest Cabin closed more than half of its 300 stores across the nation as shoppers stayed home. With sales plunging, founder Sun Laichun decided it was time to reach his customers more directly. “We knew […]

Virus conspiracy-theory video shows challenges for big tech

By AMANDA SEITZ and BARBARA ORTUTAY Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — One by one, tech companies across Silicon Valley scrambled to take down a slickly produced video of a discredited researcher peddling a variety of conspiracy theories about the coronavirus. It was all too late. The 26-minute documentary-style video dubbed “Plandemic,” in which anti-vaccine activist […]

Uber considers buying Grubhub, according to newspaper report

NEW YORK (AP) — Uber is considering acquiring Grubhub in a deal that would give the companies control over a majority of the U.S. food delivery business, according to published reports. Ride-sharing and food delivery giant Uber Technologies Inc. approached Grubhub Inc. earlier this year with an all-stock takeover offer, The Wall Street Journal reported […]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk restarts California factory amid lockdown

By TOM KRISHER and BEN MARGOT AP Auto Writer FREMONT, Calif. (AP) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed Monday that the company has restarted its California factory, a move that defied local government orders involving measures to contain the coronavirus. In a tweet, Musk practically dared authorities to arrest him, writing that he would be […]