Beijing, China | AFP | Twitter’s manager for China, whose appointment just eight months ago sparked controversy, has announced her resignation but welcomed the growing number of Chinese advertisers even though the service is blocked by Beijing. Kathy Chen, appointed in April as general manager for the China region comprising …
Read More »Canada regulator declares high-speed internet an essential service
Ottawa, Canada | AFP | Canada’s telecommunications regulator on Wednesday declared access to high-speed internet an essential service that must be available to all, including rural and remote areas of the world’s second-largest nation by land mass. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said a new Can$750 million fund …
Read More »Facebook faces fines for ‘misleading’ information in WhatsApp buyout
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The EU charged Facebook on Tuesday with providing “misleading” information when it sought approval for its blockbuster $22-billon buyout of the WhatsApp mobile messaging service. The commission said the EU’s greenlight of the buyout, announced in October 2014, was not put back into question but …
Read More »INTERVIEW: Low infrastructure hampering internet usage
What key areas does your work portfolio focus on? When the Telecom duopoly was de-regularised in 2006, we were the first company to get a licence. We started the business as wholesalers of voice and data under the capacity re-sell licence. We spent the first three years doing only that. …
Read More »DR Congo orders social networks blocked as Kabila’s term expires
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have ordered that social networks including Facebook and WhatsApp be blocked soon before President Joseph Kabila’s mandate expires, three internet providers said Thursday. Congo’s telecoms regulator issued an order, seen by AFP, demanding that providers cut access …
Read More »Amazon video goes global, steps up challenge to Netflix
Washington, United States | AFP | Amazon announced Wednesday it was extending its on-demand video streaming service to more than 200 markets, stepping up its challenge to Netflix as a global television network. The US online giant said its Prime Video would be available in “more than 200 countries and …
Read More »Internet Archive heads to Canada to be ‘safe’
Washington, United States | AFP | The Internet Archive, which keeps historical records of Web pages, is creating a new backup center in Canada, citing concerns about surveillance following the US presidential election of Donald Trump. “On November 9 in America, we woke up to a new administration promising radical …
Read More »Rule by tweet: Trump cultivates new ‘bully pulpit’
Washington, United States | AFP | US presidents are normally wary that their words alone can move armies and markets, but for President-elect Donald Trump, incendiary early morning tweet-bombs are a style of governance. Since his shock win on November 8, the septuagenarian mogul has used Twitter to wade neck-deep …
Read More »Over half of world’s population does not use internet
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | More than half the world’s population does not use the internet, with prohibitive broadband costs keeping billions off line, a United Nations report said Tuesday. The UN’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) said that 3.9 billion people do not have home or mobile internet access and …
Read More »Doctors use WhatsApp to find kin of India train survivors
Pukhrāyān, India | AFP | Eight-year-old Sejal Yadav was pulled from the wreckage of a derailed train in northern India and rushed alone to hospital. Hours later she was reunited with her brother — thanks to WhatsApp. As survivors were rescued from the mangled carriages of the Indore-Patna Express on …
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