US judge temporarily blocks Trump’s Tiktok app store ban September 28, 2020 A US judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s ban on Tiktok downloads that was due to come into effect at midnight last night. A Washington district judge granted Tiktok’s last-minute request for a preliminary injunction on the ban late last night following a 90-minute hearing earlier in the day. App Store ban The Chinese-owned [...]
Brussels to appeal court ruling over Apple’s €13bn Irish tax bill September 25, 2020 The European Commission today said it will appeal a court decision that overturned a ruling for Apple to pay back €13bn (£11.8bn) in back taxes to Ireland. In July the General Court scrapped a 2016 ruling by the Commission that found Ireland’s selective tax breaks constituted illegal state aid and ordered Apple to pay back [...]
Tiktok files for injunction to overturn US app store ban September 24, 2020 Tiktok has submitted a request to block President Donald Trump’s plans to ban downloads of the video platform from US app stores on Sunday. The request, filed in a Washington district court yesterday, marks the latest attempt by the Chinese social media company to protect its service in the US in the face of a [...]
Hancock urges people to download new contact-tracing app September 24, 2020 The government has urged people living in England and Wales to download the NHS’s coronavirus contact-tracing app to help tackle the worrying rise in coronavirus cases, after it was officially released. It will be available to everyone aged 16 and over and will work in multiple languages. Mobile network operators Vodafone, Three, EE, O2, Sky [...]
Facebook, Youtube and Twitter strike deal with advertisers over harmful content September 23, 2020 Facebook, Youtube and Twitter have struck a deal with advertising giants over harmful content, as the Silicon Valley firms attempt to restore relations hammered by this year’s advertising boycott of social media sites. The tech giants will next year launch a new system for overseeing advertising on their sites, based on common definitions of hate [...]
The “homebody economy” – investing in your digital back yard September 23, 2020 It is clear that UK shares are unloved. No likes, no shares, no new friend requests. The level of gloom surrounding this market is remarkable even amongst UK based investors, who, you might think, should feel more comfortable investing here. This is not just pandemic queasiness. Although the UK economy is service-led to some extent, [...]
Debate: Has pandemic-induced online shopping killed the high street for good? September 22, 2020 The coronavirus lockdown in March forced the vast majority of high street shops to close their doors, at least temporarily. In turn, online shopping became the new normal for UK consumers. And even as the country eased out of lockdown, many have stuck with the habit. In fact, a recent survey found that two in [...]
Big Tech’s market might in five charts September 21, 2020 The largest US technology stocks – Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Google (Alphabet) – known as the “FAMAGs”, tumbled sharply at the beginning of this month, after supercharging the US stock market from the depths of the Covid-pandemic in March. These “superstar” firms have largely benefitted from the economic fallout of the crisis, as more people [...]
Judge blocks Trump’s Wechat ban on constitutional grounds September 20, 2020 A US judge has blocked the US Commerce Department’s order for app stores to remove Chinese messaging app Wechat, ahead of a ban coming into force today. The Commerce Department issued an order on Friday requiring Apple and Google to remove Chinese-owned messaging app Wechat for downloads by this evening. The order also previously included [...]
EU to toughen up enforcement powers against tech giants September 20, 2020 The EU is said to be preparing new rules to strengthen its executive arm, which would allow it to force companies to break up or sell off their European operations if deemed a threat to competition. The European Commission is currently planning to propose a Digital Services Act by the end of this year, which [...]