Facebook is a ‘major threat’ to public health, report warns August 19, 2020 Facebook’s failure to halt the spread of coronavirus misinformation makes it a “major threat” to public health, a damning new report has warned. Research by activist group Avaaz found health misinformation relating to the pandemic was viewed 3.8bn times on the social media site in the last year. Just 16 per cent of all misinformation [...]
Trump backs Oracle bid for Tiktok’s US business August 19, 2020 US President Trump has thrown his weight behind Oracle’s mooted bid for Tiktok, saying the software giant would be a “great company” to take over the hit video app. It follows reports that Oracle has held discussions with Chinese parent company Bytedance over an offer for Tiktok’s operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New [...]
Marriott International hit with London lawsuit over huge data breach August 19, 2020 Hotel group Marriott International is facing legal action in London over a huge data breach that compromised the personal details of roughly 393m guests. Martin Bryant, who runs a tech and media consultancy firm, has filed a collective action in the High Court on behalf of millions of guests from England and Wales who were [...]
Be eco-rational: The world’s environmental problems are too serious for petty political dogma August 19, 2020 On 14 February 1990, a photograph was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from the fringes of the solar system. As it sped further away, engineers spun it around to capture an image of the planet Earth, suspended in space roughly four billion miles away. Taking up only 0.12 of a pixel in the image, [...]
Amazon to create 3,500 new jobs as it plots return to office August 18, 2020 Amazon today unveiled plans to create 3,500 new jobs as it gears up to return to office life with an expanded physical presence across the US. The new corporate jobs will be based in the ecommerce giant’s tech hubs in Dallas, Detroit, Denver, New York, Phoenix and San Diego. Amazon said it plans to invest [...]
Oracle ‘in talks’ over Tiktok takeover as US ban looms August 18, 2020 Oracle is said to be mulling a bid for Tiktok as it looks to rival Microsoft in the race to take over the wildly popular social media platform. The US tech giant, which is led by billionaire Larry Ellison, has held preliminary talks with Tiktok’s Chinese parent company Bytedance over an offer for Tiktok’s operations [...]
Huawei: US ramps up sanctions as China tensions grow August 18, 2020 The US last night announced a fresh wave of sanctions on Huawei as it ramped up its efforts to prevent the Chinese tech giant from accessing American technology. The White House has already banned Huawei from buying American products and blocked vendors from using US technology to manufacture components for the controversial telecoms firm. The [...]
The UK must close its digital skills gap — or face an unemployment crisis August 18, 2020 With the economy plunging a catastrophic 20 per cent between April and June, the magnitude of challenges facing UK industries is becoming clearer. A wave of unemployment is likely, and when the furlough scheme officially ends there is no knowing how many people employers will let go. Even with additional taxpayer bailouts, there are large [...]
Huawei pushes for document release in trial of finance chief August 17, 2020 Huawei will today call for the release of more confidential documents relating to the arrest of the company’s finance director as her extradition battle ploughs on. Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver in 2018 after US authorities accused her of bank fraud and breaching sanctions against Iran. Meng, whose father Reng Zhengfei founded Huawei, is [...]
The UK has £10bn skills gap, so investors must back the ‘edtech’ boom August 17, 2020 The “edtech” revolution began long before 2020. The last two decades have seen a surge in demand for skills such as coding and data science, which traditional educational institutions have, as yet, been unable to meet. A recent study by Qlik and Accenture estimates this skills gap, evidenced by the difficulty to fill positions or [...]