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The year when smartphones dominated

The year 2020 will always be remembered as the year where the world’s population locked itself indoors to ward off COVID-19 pandemic. Last year will also be remembered as the year that smartphones became one of the few tools for communication, playing games, downloading apps and accessing news and information in most countries around the […]

China criticizes US order against dealing with Chinese apps

China’s government on Wednesday accused Washington of misusing national security as an excuse to hurt commercial competitors after President Donald Trump signed an order banning transactions with payment services Alipay and WeChat Pay and six other apps. Tuesday’s order escalated a conflict with Beijing over technology, security and spying accusations that has plunged U.S.-Chinese relations […]

Trump widens US ban on Chinese apps as his term nears end

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese apps including Alipay and WeChat Pay in an escalation of a trade war that has been unfolding through most of his term. The order, however, goes into effect in 45 days, nearly a month after Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the […]

From Zoom to Quibi, the tech winners and losers of 2020

We streamed, we Zoomed, we ordered groceries and houseplants online, we created virtual villages while navigating laptop shortages to work and learn from home. In many ways, 2020’s pandemic-induced isolation threw our dependence on technology into overdrive, snipping away at our real-life connections while bringing digital relationships to the fore. But for every life-changing Zoom, […]

Report: Social media manipulation affects even US senators

The conversation taking place on the verified social media accounts of two U.S. senators remained vulnerable to manipulation, even amid heightened scrutiny in the run up to the U.S. presidential election, an investigation by the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence found. Researchers from the center, a NATO-accredited research group based in Riga, Latvia, paid […]

UK plans big fines for online companies over harmful content

Social media and other internet companies face big fines in Britain if they don’t remove and limit the spread of harmful material such as child sexual abuse or terrorist content and protect users on their platforms, officials said Tuesday. Separately, Irish regulators fined Twitter for a data breach, in the first penalty for a U.S. […]

US antitrust siege of tech widens with lawsuits vs Facebook

The giant tech companies whose services are woven into the fabric of social life are now the targets of a widening assault by government competition enforcers. Regulators filed landmark antitrust lawsuits Wednesday against Facebook, the second major government offensive this year against once seemingly untouchable tech behemoths. The Federal Trade Commission and 48 states and […]

Huawei selling Honor phone brand in face of US sanctions

Chinese tech giant Huawei is selling its budget-price Honor smartphone brand in an effort to rescue the struggling business from damaging U.S. sanctions imposed on its parent company. The sale announced Tuesday is aimed at reviving Honor by separating it from Huawei’s network equipment business, which Washington says is a security threat, an accusation Huawei […]

TelkomONE to become South Africa’s first streaming platform

South Africa’s telecom mobile operator, Telkom, has teamed up with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to launch a new streaming platform called TelkomONE. The unique partnership will stretch over a five-year period and is set to showcase the country’s most popular and on-demand TV programs as well as radio platforms all in one place. […]

Did social media actually counter election misinformation?

Ahead of the election, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube promised to clamp down on election misinformation, including unsubstantiated charges of fraud and premature declarations of victory by candidates. And they mostly did just that — though not without a few hiccups. But overall their measures still didn’t really address the problems exposed by the 2020 U.S. […]