Ottawa, Canada | AFP | Canada will impose a levy on internet giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook similar to France’s digital services tax that created tensions with Washington, two ministers said Monday. “We’ve been very clear that we want to make sure that digital companies pay their fair …
Read More »Former Trump advisor accuses White House of blocking Twitter access
Washington, United States | AFP | Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton said the White House denied him access to his Twitter account after his dismissal in early September, in a series of tweets that signal his return to the social media site. “Since resigning as National Security Advisor, …
Read More »Internet access improves, but digital gender gap is growing -Report
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Fewer women have access to the World Wide Web than men, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report released by the International Telecommunications Union. The report; Measuring Digital Development: Facts and Figures 2019, estimates that over half the total global female population is still …
Read More »50 years after internet conception, dark side stirs fear
San Francisco, United States | AFP | On October 29, 1969, professor Leonard Kleinrock and a team at the University of California at Los Angeles got a computer to “talk” to a machine in what is now known as Silicon Valley. The event gave birth to a network that later became …
Read More »Companies failing to address offline harm incited by online hate – Rights experts
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | States and internet companies have failed to combat online hate which is slowly manifesting into offline harm on individuals, David Kaye, an independent rights expert on freedom of speech and expression has said. Kaye cautioned that the world faces real dangers posed by a lack …
Read More »50 years after internet conception, dark side stirs fear
San Francisco, United States | AFP | On October 29, 1969, professor Leonard Kleinrock and a team at the University of California at Los Angeles got a computer to “talk” to a machine in what is now known as Silicon Valley. The event gave birth to a network that later became …
Read More »US pressures tech giants over encrypted WhatsApp messages
Washington, United States | AFP | The US government on Friday urged tech giants to allow police to read encrypted messages, saying access was essential to prevent serious crime despite privacy concerns. After Facebook rejected giving access to law enforcement agencies, US Attorney General William Barr upped the pressure by …
Read More »Blow as PayPal abandons Facebook-backed Libra cryptocurrency group
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Pioneering digital payments firm PayPal on Friday said it is abandoning an alliance intended to oversee the Facebook-backed Libra cryptocurrency, which has come under attack by regulators. “PayPal has made the decision to forgo further participation in the Libra Association at this time,” …
Read More »EU governments, Uganda’s Kasaija warn about crypto-currencies
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT & AFP | A day after Uganda’s Finance Minister Matia Kasaija warned about the use of crypto-currencies, European governments are asking questions about Libra, forcing Facebook’s partners to reconsider. Mastercard, Visa and other financial partners being enlisted to oversee Facebook-backed cryptocurrency Libra are having second thoughts …
Read More »Twitter CEO account hacked, tweets by text halted
Washington, United States | AFP | Twitter on Wednesday halted users’ ability to fire off tweets via text messages as it seeks to fix a vulnerability that led to CEO Jack Dorsey’s account being hijacked. Dorsey last week was the target of so-called “SIM swap” fraud, which enables a hacker …
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