Coronavirus: Netflix downgrades streaming quality after EU plea March 19, 2020 Netflix has said it will downgrade video streaming qualities on its platform in a bid to save network space. The US streaming giant said it will cut bitrates in Europe for 30 days, which is expected to reduce traffic by 25 per cent. It comes after the EU asked Netflix to restrict high definition (HD) [...]
British startups slam competition watchdog over ‘power grab’ March 19, 2020 British startups have accused the competition watchdog of mounting an “old-fashioned power grab” after it called for beefed up powers to crack down on tech firms. In its annual report published today, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said there was evidence of “growing market concentration and rising profit margins” in several sectors of the [...]
Twitter bans misleading information in coronavirus crackdown March 19, 2020 Twitter has banned users from posting misleading material about the coronavirus outbreak as it ramps up its crackdown on misinformation. In a blog post published last night, the social media firm said it would broaden its definition of harmful content to include anything that contradicts guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health [...]
Boom or bust: The risk of a repeat of the dot-com bubble March 19, 2020 On 10 March 2000, the US Nasdaq stock market peaked at 5,048.62. By October 2002, the index had lost 78 per cent of its value, or about $5 trillion. The Nasdaq had swelled due to the proliferation of internet-related companies aiming to make money from this nascent technology. In fact, between 1995 and 2000, the [...]
Serena Williams-backed health startup Quit Genius raises $11m in funding round March 18, 2020 A health tech startup backed by tennis champion Serena Williams has raised $11m (£9.4m) to help bolster its digital therapy services. San Francisco-based Quit Genius, which provides stop smoking services to NHS trusts in the UK, secured the cash injection in a series A funding round led by Octopus Ventures. The latest financing follows a [...]
Tencent posts rise in profit as pandemic drives surge in Wechat use March 18, 2020 Tencent today said the coronavirus outbreak had driven a huge surge in usage for its social media platform Wechat. The Chinese tech giant said Wechat had racked up 8bn visits since February as people logged in to access so-called health codes that allow them to travel during the outbreak. It came as Tencent posted fourth [...]
Amazon workers told to work overtime to meet coronavirus demand March 17, 2020 Workers at Amazon’s warehouses in the UK are being told to work overtime as the company meets the surge in demand amid the coronavirus outbreak. The GMB union said workers across at least four different sites were informed that they had to work “compulsory overtime” from Monday, according to the BBC. Amazon will also hire [...]
MPs blast government ‘delay’ in virus fake news crackdown March 17, 2020 MPs have lambasted the government over its ‘delayed’ attempt to clamp down on disinformation relating to coronavirus. Earlier this month the government launched a new cyber unit aimed at preventing the spread of fake news about the Covid-19 outbreak on social media. The team, assembled from departments across Whitehall, will also hold discussions with tech [...]
We need a carbon border tax to get Britain to net zero March 17, 2020 Later this year, the eyes of the world will be on the UK as it hosts COP26. While delegates won’t convene at the UN’s annual climate change conference until mid-November, the government needs to consider now how it can showcase leadership on climate action. The UK starts from a position of strength. In 2019, it [...]
Microsoft Teams goes down as people start to work remotely March 16, 2020 Microsoft’s chat and communications tool, Microsoft Teams, went down across Europe as people started to work from home amid the coronavirus outbreak. This morning the tool went down for more than two hours. The company said: “We’re investigating messaging-related functionality problems within Microsoft Teams. If you are a system administrator, please refer to TM206544 in [...]