China Steps Up Online Controls With New Rule for Bloggers
China is continuing to evolve the playbook for extreme censorship, and has progressed to controlling not only what its citizens have access to, and read, but increasingly, the “information production” part of the supply chain. This can’t end well, as private sector tech companies are roped into increasingly acting as accessories to this censorship. It not only closes off the ringfenced, internet wall around China, but also has long term consequences for the country and its society, in terms of idea generation, development and the flourishing of innovation. It’s difficult to see how the necessary richness can emerge in such a narrowly constrained environment.
Rishi Sunak Doubles Down on 2021 Deadline for Global Tech Tax Deal
The winds of change are coalescing as governments scrounge for revenues to cover Covid costs. The massive wealth and almost exclusive growth of tech companies, combined with a growing realisation of the scale of tax mitigation undertaken by most over the past 10-15years, is placing them squarely in the bulls-eye of tax regulation. It’s only a matter of time. Is this risk priced into their valuations?
Big Tech’s Next Big Problem Could Come From People Like ‘Mr. Sweepy’
Redistribution is coming in one form AND another. “Already, more than 10 suits echoing the federal and state cases have been filed against one or both of the Silicon Valley giants in recent months. Many of them lean on evidence unearthed by the government investigations.” Even if these claims are not successful, they will be costly in terms of time, distraction and settlements or pay-outs.
Drones Used By Police To Monitor Political Protests in England
We still have very little governance around the use of drones for crowd surveillance, let alone internationally accepted standards or even best practices. This is an arena that will require a nuanced approach: e.g. when can it be used, for which purpose, how long is data held for, any discriminatory practices, etc. For now, citizens of individual countries are primarily relying on the goodwill, interpretation and transparency of their given policing forces. However the companies providing the surveillance tech ought to be cautious about the tide turning.
Salesforce Declares The 9-to-5 Workday Dead, Will Let Some Employees Work Remotely From Now On
Salesforce, one of Silicon Valley’s most progressive firms, is not only providing flexibility for its workforce with respect to office attendance, but also regarding working hours. Covid has essentially already promoted this flexibility in hours, as most have had to juggle other obligations…this merely formalises it. The next framework to go, could be the 5-day work week. There are already experiments underway with 4-day work weeks and this might develop further, to accommodate a dispersed workforce. As we highlighted in July of last year, the 9-5, 5X2 work week is disintegrating and it’s interesting to see the innovative structures that might take its place