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 …
Read More »Could cryptocurrency dethrone the US dollar?
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Bank of England governor Mark Carney has suggested that a virtual currency, modelled on Facebook’s Libra, could one day replace the dollar as king of the foreign exchange market. The BoE chief aired vague proposals for a so-called “Synthetic Hegemonic Currency” at the recent …
Read More »PM Boris Johnson supports new digital tax
Johnson insists US digital giants must be taxed ‘fairly and properly’ Biarritz, France | AFP | British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday said that US digital giants needed to be taxed “fairly and properly” in a growing dispute with the United States over taxing the likes of Amazon, Apple, …
Read More »Google, Facebook, Amazon decry French digital tax as ‘discriminatory’
Washington, United States | AFP | American tech giants Amazon, Facebook and Google joined forces on Monday to decry the French digital tax as retroactive and discriminatory. President Donald Trump is considering retaliating against the tax — approved July 11 — with punitive tariffs on French wine imports, prompting an …
Read More »Internet a distant dream for many in oil-rich E. Guinea
Malabo, Equatorial Guinea | AFP | Equatorial Guinea is awash in oil, although little of the wealth has trickled down to the poor. Yet one of the most glaring inequalities here is access to the internet. Other parts of the world are pushing ahead with plans for fast, free — …
Read More »France begins debating digital tax, defying US ire
Paris, France | AFP | French lawmakers on Monday began debating a new tax on digital giants such as Facebook and Apple that has angered the United States, with Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire boasting that France was proud to be in the vanguard of such a move. The United …
Read More »EU: Breaking up Big Tech not the answer
Washington, United States | AFP | Breaking up the world’s tech titans is not the best way to counter their power, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Friday, while leaving room for that eventuality as a “last resort.” “There is a risk that with the network effects, even if we …
Read More »The mind distracted: technology’s battle for our attention
Paris, France | AFP | Between distractions, diversions and the flickering allure of a random suggestion, the major computer platforms aim to keep us glued to our screens come what may. Now some think it is time to escape the tyranny of the digital age. Everyone staring for hours at …
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