UK must make tech firms pay for news, says competition watchdog April 13, 2021 The UK must introduce a new code to ensure news publishers are fairly compensated for the use of their stories on tech platforms, the competition watchdog has said. Daniel Gordon, senior director of markets at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), said his organisation agreed with the principles behind a new Australian law requiring tech [...]
Google accused of insider trading over secret digital ads programme April 12, 2021 Google has been accused of insider trading in the digital advertising market through its use of a secret programme that allegedly gave it an unfair advantage over rivals. Court documents filed in a Texas lawsuit state the scheme, dubbed Project Bernanke, used access to data about past bids in Google’s advertising exchange to give it [...]
UK launches new competition watchdog for Big Tech crackdown April 7, 2021 Tech giants such as Facebook and Google are facing a tougher regulatory regime in the UK after a new watchdog aimed at curbing their power launched today. The Digital Markets Unit (DMU) will be charged with setting up new rules to give consumers more control over their data, promote online competition and crack down on [...]
Amazon and Google unveil plans to send workers back to the office April 1, 2021 Amazon and Google have both made changes to their work-from-home policies as they look to encourage workers back into the office. In a memo to employees, Amazon said it expected most of its corporate staff to be back in the office by early autumn. The company said it planned to return to an “office-centric culture [...]
City Moves: Who is switching jobs in the Square Mile this week? March 31, 2021 Snakes and Ladders provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every Wednesday afternoon. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. Covatic appoints ex-BBC strategy head London-based start-up tech company Covatic has hired an ex-BBC veteran as its chief product officer. Daniel Pike joins the company, which aims to improve in-app consumer engagement, at [...]
Google steps up fight against fake news with $29m contribution to new EU fund March 31, 2021 Google will pay $29.3m to the newly formed European Media and Information Fund in a bid to combat fake news, the company said on Wednesday. The contribution comes amid criticism that the tech giant is not doing enough to debunk online disinformation. The pandemic and the US election prompted a spike in misinformation last year, [...]
Screenshot: Will workers’ rights put a puncture in Deliveroo’s IPO? March 26, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: Farewell to the real McCoy **Will workers’ rights put a puncture in Deliveroo’s IPO? **A watchdog bares its teeth Media Moment of the Week: Farewell to the real McCoy In a shock bit of transfer news this week, BBC presenter Simon McCoy announced he was leaving the Beeb [...]
Big Tech hearing: Facebook, Google and Twitter face Congress grilling March 25, 2021 The chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter will be hauled in front of Congress again this afternoon to face questions about misinformation and extremism on their platforms. Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Jack Dorsey will appear before a virtual joint hearing of two subcommittees of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It follows a [...]
Google plan to block cookies ‘under scrutiny’ from US regulators March 18, 2021 Google’s plan to scrap web-tracking advertising tools known as cookies is said to have attracted scrutiny from US regulators amid concerns the move could harm smaller rivals. The search engine giant has unveiled proposals to block cookies in its Chrome browser in an effort to increase user privacy. But the plans have stirred up anger [...]
Google launches $2m fund to help bridge funding gap for Black tech founders March 2, 2021 Google For Start Ups launches fund to tackle lack of black talent in tech