As expected, the British competition authorities have decided to block Facebook’s (now Meta) acquisition of Giphy, which in May 2020 had originally been agreed at $400 million.
The British regulator has told Facebook to undo the buyout and sell Giphy, following an investigation showing that the deal would highly likely…
UK cosmetics company Lush has announced its decision to leave Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, saying its decision reflects concerns about the alleged effects of these social networks on the mental health of their users. The brand will maintain its presence on Twitter and YouTube.
Apple’s recent lawsuit against the Israeli company NSO Group, which creates and sells highly specialist spyware to governments that use it to breach the security of iPhones, highlights the growing concern about the growth of the spyware industry, and raises the question as to whether companies like NSO should be…
Apple has halted the sale of its products in Turkey as the value of the lira continues to plummet, largely precipitated by the inflammatory statements of its grandiloquent and populist president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, defending recent interest rate cuts and declaring an “economic war of independence.”
Erdoğanonomics are a textbook…
One of the most annoying aspects of using apps must surely be the constant flow of notifications. …
Baidu has been authorized to start charging for its autonomous robotaxi service in Beijing with a safety driver, after providing the service free of charge with 67 vehicles since October 2020, since when more than 20,000 people made around ten trips per month.
In a move with potentially huge ramifications, the European Union’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) has voted to impose considerably tougher restrictions on the advertising practices of large online platforms, and particularly on their user-tracking activities.
Under the new EU requirements, overwhelmingly approved, these gatekeepers, shall, for their…
An interesting article in Fast Company, “More than Joe Rogan: Inside Spotify’s audio revolution”, looks at Spotify’s success with podcasts, a phenomenon that has been growing in popularity since 2005, but has not yet become the next big thing many predicted.
In 2005, three young Silicon Valley industry veterans, Ev…
A growing number of car insurers are looking at offering Usage-Based Insurance (UBI policies, which instead of assessing risk based on the driver’s claims history, do so by installing a range of sensors in the vehicle.
Also known as Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD) or Pay-How-You-Drive (PHYD), these are policies that estimate the…
Spain’s Finance Minister, Maria Jesus Montero, has announced (links in Spanish) that from next January, civil servants will have the option of teleworking a total of three days a week and two in the office, with face-to-face nature of at least 10% per month for those living in depopulated rural…
