Trump’s tweets do bitcoin and Facebook a favour July 23, 2019 Donald Trump’s recent tweet about bitcoin and that Facebook’s new quasi-crypto the “libra” would get the full force of the US regulators if they “want to become a bank” has put the crypto kitty amongst the pigeons. Why now? Surely Trump doesn’t care about bitcoin? Well, it was timed just before Facebook had to testify [...]
Israeli security firm NSO denies Whatsapp spyware can hack data from Google Cloud, iCloud and Facebook July 19, 2019 Israeli cyber security company NSO has denied telling customers that its Whatsapp-hacking spyware is capable of hacking people’s data from the servers of Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. NSO’s smartphone malware, named Pegasus, has been used by governments for a number of years to spy on specific individuals and how they use their smartphones, [...]
Facebook launches crackdown on scam ads following Martin Lewis lawsuit July 16, 2019 Facebook has launched a new tool to fight fake adverts on its platform following a lawsuit filed by money saving guru Martin Lewis. Lewis, who founded personal finance website Money Saving Expert, sued the social media platform last year over fake Facebook adverts that used his name and image. Read more: Facebook to be slapped [...]
UK ploughs ahead with digital services tax despite US backlash July 11, 2019 The UK has vowed to plough ahead with a digital services tax on large tech companies, just hours after the US launched a probe into France for a similar levy. The government today published draft legislation for its next finance bill, which includes a new tax aimed tech giants such as Facebook, Amazon and Google. [...]
France passes digital services tax despite US investigation July 11, 2019 France has given final approval to a new digital services tax on tech giants, despite protests from the US that the move unfairly targets American companies. The three per cent levy will apply to digital revenue earned in France by multinational tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon. Read more: France will tax Amazon [...]
Plans for internet regulation ‘could lead to censorship’ July 9, 2019 Government plans to crack down on internet firms over online harms could lead to the UK having the highest level of online censorship of all major democracies, a City law firm has warned. In its response to a recent government white paper, RPC said plans to hold businesses accountable for material posted to their platforms [...]
Wework poaches Facebook executive as it gears up for stock market float July 9, 2019 Wework has poached senior Facebook executive Martin Ott as the firm looks to beef up its management team ahead of its highly-anticipated stock market debut. Ott, who previously served as Facebook’s managing director for central Europe, will join the flexible workspace firm as managing director for EMEA, City A.M. can reveal. Read more: EMA to [...]
Facebook fixes glitch that crippled photo-sharing across platforms July 4, 2019 Facebook said it has resolved a glitch that prevented users from sending and viewing images and videos across its platforms for several hours yesterday. Read more: Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra could run into tax trouble, say lawyers An outage yesterday crippled image-sharing for Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp users around the world. But in a tweet [...]
Competition watchdog launches probe into tech giants over digital advertising dominance July 3, 2019 The competition watchdog has launched an inquiry into major tech firms amid fears about their dominance in the digital advertising market. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) today said it has launched a market study into online platforms such as Facebook and Google, which are funded almost entirely by digital advertising. Read more: Hammond calls [...]
Social media ad spend growth plummets amid decline in trust July 2, 2019 Growth in advertising revenue for social media firms declined by roughly a half in the first three months of the year, in a sign of possible cooling in the digital ad market. Social media giants remain dominant in the online advertising sector, with ad spend rising 26 per cent year-on-year to just under $18bn (£14.2bn), [...]