Author: iMaster

Author: iMaster

US WeChat Users sue Trump Over Order Banning Messaging App
08/23/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Some U.S.-based users of WeChat are suing President Donald Trump in a bid to block an executive order that they say would effectively bar access in the U.S. to the hugely popular Chinese messaging app.The complaint, filed Friday in San Francisco, is being brought by the nonprofit U.S. WeChat Users Alliance and several people who

Details
TikTok says It’ll Sue Over Trump Crackdown
08/23/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Video app TikTok said Saturday it will challenge in court a Trump administration crackdown on the popular Chinese-owned platform, which Washington accuses of being a national security threat.As tensions soar between the world’s two biggest economies, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 6 giving Americans 45 days to stop doing business with

Details
Facebook in India Embroiled in Political Hate Speech Controversy
08/22/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Facebook’s India chief said Friday the social media giant denounces hate and bigotry in the wake of a controversy sparked by a media report alleging it failed to remove hate-speech posted by members linked to the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party over fears of damaging its business in the country.      “We’ve made

Details
Trump Wants Supreme Court OK to Block Critics on His Personal Twitter
08/21/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to allow him to block critics from his personal Twitter account. The administration said in a high-court filing Thursday that Trump’s @realdonaldtrump account with more than 85 million followers is his personal property and blocking people from it is akin to elected officials who refuse to allow their

Details
Telegram App Helps Drive Belarus Protests
08/21/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Every day, like clockwork, to-do lists for those protesting against Belarus’ authoritarian leader appear in the popular Telegram messaging app. They lay out goals, give times and locations of rallies with business-like precision, and offer spirited encouragement. “Today will be one more important day in the fight for our freedom. Tectonic shifts are happening on all

Details
Apple Is 1st US Company to Be Valued at $2 Trillion
08/19/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Apple is the first U.S. company to boast a market value of $2 trillion, just two years after it became the first to reach $1 trillion.   Apple shares have gained nearly 60% this year as the company overcame the shutdown of factories in China that produce the iPhone and the closure of its retail

Details
USAGM Funds Two Internet Freedom Projects
08/19/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

The U.S. Agency for Global Media announced Tuesday that it is moving forward with funding two internet firewall circumvention projects despite an ongoing legal battle over the agency’s broader internet freedom strategy. The awardees — Psiphon and ACI — write software that help people gain access to websites and information blocked by their governments.  “Our agency

Details
US Tightening Restrictions on Huawei Access to Technology, Chips
08/17/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

The Trump administration announced on Monday it will further tighten restrictions on Huawei Technologies Co, aimed at cracking down on its access to commercially available chips. The U.S. Commerce Department actions, first reported by Reuters, will expand restrictions announced in May aimed at preventing the Chinese telecommunications giant from obtaining semiconductors without a special license

Details
Google Pushes Back Against Proposed Australian Law Over News Content 
08/17/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Google is warning that Australians’ personal information could be “at risk” if the digital giant has to pay for news content. A proposed law would require firms like Google and Facebook to pay Australian news organizations for the content that appears on their websites. The law was drafted last month after months of negotiations between the

Details
German Watchdog Launches Amazon Investigation: Report
08/16/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Germany’s antitrust authority has launched an investigation into Amazon’s relationship with third-party traders selling on its site, its head was quoted as saying Sunday.”We are currently investigating whether and how Amazon influences how traders set prices on the market-place,” Andreas Mundt, president of the Federal Cartel Office, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily.Germany is Amazon’s

Details
Facebook Beefs Up Anti-Misinfo Efforts Ahead of US Election
08/13/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Beginning Thursday, U.S. Facebook users who post about voting may start seeing an addendum to their messages — labels directing readers to authoritative information about the upcoming presidential election. It’s the social network’s latest step to to combat election-related misinformation on its platform as the Nov. 3 election nears — one in which many voters

Details
US, Slovenia to Sign 5G Joint Declaration
08/13/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is meeting Thursday with leaders in Slovenia, where they are set to sign a joint declaration on 5G technology.Over the past year, European countries including Poland, Estonia and the Czech Republic have signed agreements with the United States pledging that 5G suppliers would not be subject to control by

Details
Pentagon Identifies More Bandwidth for Commercial 5G Network Sharing
08/10/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

The Pentagon and the White House have identified an additional 100 MHz in the coveted mid-band frequency spectrum to be used for the commercial 5G wireless technology network within the United States.The announcement on Monday takes frequencies previously designated for use by the Department of Defense and makes them available for spectrum sharing between the

Details
A Ban on WeChat and TikTok, a Disconnected World and Two Internets
08/10/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

President Trump’s new executive orders banning Chinese social media apps TikTok and WeChat marked a significant escalation in the ongoing technology tensions between the U.S. and China, according to analysts.On Aug. 6, 2020, Trump declared that TikTok and WeChat posed a threat to national security and invoked the International Emergency Economic Power Act. He prohibited Americans

Details
Chatbots and Telemedicine Join Vietnam’s COVID-19 Fight
08/10/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

An idea is percolating in Vietnam as it fights COVID-19: “send in the robots.”  The pandemic has brought artificial intelligence (AI) more of a spotlight as nations around the world look for uses, from combing data for clues to predict an outbreak, to robot waiters that reduce human contact. In Vietnam, which has reported remarkably low infection

Details
Twitter Expressed Interest in Buying TikTok’s US Operations, Sources Say
08/09/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Twitter Inc has approached TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to express interest in acquiring the U.S. operations of the video-sharing app, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as experts raised doubts over Twitter’s ability to put together financing for a potential deal.It is far from certain that Twitter would be able to outbid Microsoft

Details
TikTok Threatens to Sue after US Moves to Ban App  
08/08/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

TikTok reacted to President Donald Trump’s executive order barring U.S. companies and individuals from doing business with its parent company, ByteDance, by threatening to take legal action and urging its U.S. users to lobby on its behalf.  Trump ordered sweeping bans late Thursday prohibiting U.S. companies from doing business with ByteDance and Tencent, the owner of the messenger app

Details
Citing Security Concerns, Trump Orders Bans on TikTok, WeChat
08/07/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

U.S. President Donald Trump Thursday ordered sweeping bans on two Chinese consumer apps.He ordered the bans prohibiting U.S. companies from doing business with ByteDance, the owner of the video-sharing app TikTok, and Tencent, the owner of the messenger app WeChat. The executive orders targeting the Chinese companies go into effect in 45 days.Whether Trump has

Details
Tensions Mount over China’s Industrial Espionage in US
08/06/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Tensions between the U.S. and China are escalating at a dizzying pace, with July 24 marking the lowest point of bilateral relations in decades. On that day, the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas, was closed and taken over by U.S. officials.FILE – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the State

Details
Twitter Announces Labels for State-Controlled Media
08/06/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Twitter announced its decision Thursday to label the accounts of state-controlled media outlets.     The new label will apply exclusively to “outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution,” according to a Twitter blog post.     So far,

Details
Facebook, Citing Virus Misinformation, Deletes Trump Post
08/06/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Facebook has deleted a post by President Donald Trump for violating its policy against spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. The post in question featured a link to a Fox News video in which Trump says children are “virtually immune” to the virus. Facebook said Wednesday that the “video includes false claims that a group of

Details
Drones with Infrared Cameras Help Track Elusive Koalas
08/06/2020 iLines,iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Conservationists in Australia are hoping infrared drones might help save the remaining koala population in New South Wales, one of the regions most affected by recent Australian bushfires. The infrared camera makes it easier to spot the iconic marsupials — not bears — which scientists say could be extinct by 2050. VOA’s Mariama Diallo has

Details