China’s Rulers Want More Control of Big Tech
By: Economist April 8, 2021 China’s tech tycoons have not been themselves lately. In early March, at the annual session of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, Pony Ma called for stricter regulation of Tencent, the $700bn online empire he founded. Days later a rising star, Simon Hu, left his post as chief executive of Ant Group, a […]
UK Policies On Tackling Runaway CEO Pay Have Backfired, Says Vince Cable
By: The Guardian April 7, 2021 Vince Cable has said government policies aimed at tackling the vast pay gap between chief executives and their staff do not address the root cause of the issue and in some cases may have made the problem worse. The former business secretary said measures to increase the transparency of […]
Janet Yellen Calls for a Global Minimum Tax on Companies. Could it Happen?
By: Economist April 6, 2021 CORPORATE TAXATION is one of the thorniest issues in international economic policy. Janet Yellen, President Joe Biden’s treasury secretary, and a former head of the Federal Reserve, is duly weighing in. On April 5th she grabbed the attention of the occupants of corner offices worldwide with a speech to […]
Facebook Pledged To Suspend Political Donations, Then Quietly Funneled $50,000 to GOP Group Pushing Voter Suppression Laws
By: Popular Info April 5, 2021 On January 11, Facebook announced that “following last week’s awful violence” it was suspending donations from its political committee “for at least the current quarter, while we review our policies.” But campaign finance records obtained by Popular Information reveal that, 44 days later, Facebook donated $50,000 to the Republican […]
Scientists Create Online Games To Show Risks Of AI Emotion Recognition
By: The Guardian April 4, 2021 It is a technology that has been frowned upon by ethicists: now researchers are hoping to unmask the reality of emotion recognition systems in an effort to boost public debate. Technology designed to identify human emotions using machine learning algorithms is a huge industry, with claims it could […]
Facebook Data on 533 Million Users Re-emerges Online for Free
By: Bloomberg April 3, 2021 The personal data of more than half a billion Facebook Inc. users reemerged online for free on Saturday, a reminder of the company’s ability to collect mountains of information and its struggles to protect these sensitive assets. The leak includes personal information on 533 million Facebook users, such […]
The Truth Behind The Tories’ Northern Strongholds
By: The Economist April 3, 2021 Michael finn, the design director of Barratt Developments, Britain’s biggest home builder, does not like the term “estates”. It sounds “very 1960s and very concrete”, he says. “We build places.” That is not the only change. Barratt homes come with more storage space than they used to, he […]
Supreme Court Sides with Facebook in Text Message Dispute
By: abcnews April 2, 2021 WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with Facebook in a lawsuit over unwanted text notifications it sent, rejecting a claim that the messages violated the federal ban on robocalls. The high court’s ruling for the Menlo Park, California-based social media giant was unanimous. Democratic lawmakers […]
Governments Have Identified Commodities Essential to Economic and Military Security
By: The Economist March 31, 2021 Cut deep into the desert rock of southern California are the jagged tiers of an open-pit mine. Mountain Pass is North America’s only mine of rare-earth metals, used in everything from fighter jets to the drive-trains of electric cars. In 2015 Mountain Pass shut, unable to compete with […]