Micro-blogging giant Twitter seems to be in hot water on multiple fronts this week, as its previous suspension of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account during his last days in office seem to be haunting the platform. The social media company is facing freedom of speech and regulation-oriented debates over the content that’s being pushed […]
Inside Telecom
South African telecom-giant MTN Group announced on Tuesday that it will sell its 20 percent shareholding stake in Belgacom International Carrier Services (BICS) to Belgian state-controlled telecoms firm Proximus for $121.41 million. However, the timing of closing is dependent on customary regulatory approvals. Once all the saleconditions,legal precedent, has been fulfilled, MTN will receive proceeds […]
China has given broader approval for the domestic-made Sinovac coronavirus vaccine, expanding those who can receive it beyond the high-risk and priority groups already allowed under an emergency clearance. Regulators gave conditional approval for Sinovac Biotech Ltd’s shot, CoronaVac, on Friday, clearing the way for general use, The National Medical Products Administration announced in a […]
Google is contemplating developing an Android version of Apple’s upcoming App Tracking Transparency update, which is a newly planned opt-in requirement the iPhone maker will force on developers to ask permission from iPhone users before tracking their data. The news – first brought to light by Bloomberg – highlights the increased spotlight placed on online […]
A team of scientists from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Jameel Clinic (J-Clinic) announced that they had created a breast cancer risk-assessment algorithm that shows consistent performance across patients from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. The researchers said the model needed both algorithmic improvements and large-scale validation across several hospitals to […]
When President Ronald Reagan created the Lifeline program 35 years ago to help low-income Americans with subsidized telephone services, few could have predicted just how lifesaving it would become. Under normal circumstances, access to the internet is essential to participating in today’s economy. During the global pandemic, however, this access has become a literal lifeline […]
Apple says it will roll out a new privacy control in the spring to prevent iPhone apps from secretly shadowing people. The delay in its anticipated rollout aims to placate Facebook and other digital services that depend on such data surveillance to help sell ads. Although Apple didn’t provide a specific date, the general timetable […]
Many of Big Tech’s expected future regulatory challenges are a result of their own making – as in the case of Facebook, Google, and Amazon. These companies are being charged by some countries with monopolistic tendencies, prompting some of the regulators in states to send warnings to these firms so they can get their act […]
Two senior U.S. representatives blasted Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg, noting the platform’s content problems were “systemic” and require deep change beyond just moderation. “Perhaps no single entity is more responsible for the spread of dangerous conspiracy theories at scale or for inflaming anti-government grievance than the one that you started and that you oversee today […]
Newly sworn-in President Joe Biden named late Thursday longtime Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworel to head the agency. Rosenworcel brings with her over two decades of communications policy work, including a term at the FCC that began in 2012 running to 2021, during which public policy had gone back and forth on such key issues […]