Paris, France | AFP | France will push ahead with its own tax on large internet and technology companies from January 1, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday, as the European Union struggles to finalise a new EU-wide levy. France has been driving hard for a new so-called “GAFA …
Read More »France to introduce tax on large internet, tech firms
Paris, France | AFP | France will introduce its own tax on large internet and technology companies from January 1, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday amid difficulties in finalising a new EU-wide levy. France has been pushing hard for a new so-called “GAFA tax” — named after Google, …
Read More »Israeli premier’s son blocked on Facebook for anti-Muslim posts
Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s eldest, Yair, tweeted on Sunday that Facebook blocked his page for 24 hours over apparent anti-Muslim posts and called the leading social network a “dictatorship”. In a message posted Thursday on his Facebook page after deadly Palestinian attacks, Yair Netanyahu had …
Read More »EU ministers raise privacy concerns in e-evidence bill
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | EU ministers raised concerns Friday about whether citizens’ rights are protected in a bill aimed at speeding up investigators’ access to email and other digital evidence in cross-border terrorism cases. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, introduced the bill in April to help prosecutors …
Read More »Italy fines Facebook for selling users’ data
Rome, Italy | AFP | Italy’s competition authority has fined Facebook 10 million euros ($11.3 million) for selling users’ data without informing them and “aggressively” discouraging users from trying to limit how the company shares their data. Facebook “misleadingly gets people to sign up… without informing them in an immediate …
Read More »EU steps up fake news fight before elections
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The European Union launched Wednesday a system for member countries to alert each other to online disinformation spread by opponents such as Russia to undermine next year’s key elections. The bloc also urged Facebook and other social media platforms to follow through on pledges to …
Read More »Pop star Ariana Grande’s ‘Thank U, Next’ video smashes records
New York, United States | AFP | Pop star Ariana Grande’s sugary new music video for the hit “Thank U, Next” is now the fastest to rack up 100 million views on YouTube, the platform told AFP Wednesday. After dropping Friday, the clip needed little more than three days to …
Read More »EU steps up fake news fight before elections
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The European Union launched Wednesday a system for member countries to alert each other to online disinformation spread by opponents such as Russia to undermine next year’s key elections. The bloc also urged Facebook and other social media platforms to follow through on pledges to …
Read More »‘Fix Facebook, whether it wants to or not’
Bruxelles, Belgium | AFP | Eight months after revealing the links between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica (CA), whistleblower Christopher Wylie is pushing for the internet giant to be regulated — whether it wants to or not. He is scathing about Facebook’s “man-child” chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and the arrogance of …
Read More »Former employee says Facebook failing black people
San Francisco, United States | AFP | A former Facebook employee on Tuesday went public with a memo saying the company is failing to include black people in its workforce and on the social network. Mark Luckie said that he shared the message with all Facebook employees around the world …
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