SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Facebook acknowledged Tuesday it was facing multiple inquiries from US and British regulators about the major Cambridge Analytica user data scandal. The leading social network offered no details but its admission confirmed reports of a widening investigation into the misuse of private data by Facebook and its partners. “We are cooperating with officials in the US, UK and beyond,” a Facebook spokesman said in response to an AFP query. “We’ve provided […]
Tag: IT
Dell becomes public company five years after buyout
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP)–Dell, the onetime leader in personal computers and tech industry stalwart, said Monday it will become publicly traded five years after a contentious private equity buyout. The company announced a stock swap deal with its software subsidiary VMware that will result in a reorganized tech giant that returns to the stock market, with founder Michael Dell retaining control as chairman and chief executive. The move comes after a 2013 private equity […]
Apple and Samsung settle lengthy iPhone patent battle
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) – Apple and Samsung have ended a years-long patent battle over copied iPhone design with an undisclosed settlement, according to a US court filing Wednesday. The world’s two biggest smartphone makers reached a truce in their seven-year-old court battle a month after a federal court jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple some $539 million for copying patented iPhone features. That award was seen as a victory for Apple, which had […]
Facebook eases ban on cryptocurrency ads
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)–Facebook said Tuesday it was easing a ban on ads for cryptocurrencies while keeping a prohibition on initial coin offerings to raise assets. The move comes five months after the leading social network said it was banning all ads related to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as a way to curb scams. To place ads on Facebook for cryptocurrencies, companies will need to be pre-approved and offer proof they have licenses or are […]
With a billion users, Instagram takes on YouTube in video
by Julie Charpentrat Agence France-Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Instagram said Wednesday it now has more than one billion active users, as it unveiled a new long-form video feature in a bid to attract “creators” like those on YouTube. It becomes the fourth Facebook platform to hit the billion-user mark, including the namesake social network with more than two billion users, and the messaging applications WhatsApp and Messenger. Instagram, which had some […]
Tesla reorganizing to speed up production
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP)—Tesla chief Elon Musk told employees Monday the electric carmaker is being reorganized to speed up production of Model 3 vehicles — a key to profitability at the fast-growing firm. “To ensure that Tesla is well prepared for the future, we have been undertaking a thorough reorganization of our company,” the memo obtained by AFP said. “As part of the reorg, we are flattening the management structure to improve communication, combining […]
In Trump rebuke, US Senate votes to reimpose ban on China’s ZTE
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Senate defied President Donald Trump by voting Monday to overrule his administration’s deal with Chinese telecom firm ZTE and reimpose a ban on high-tech chip sales to the company. Senators added an amendment targeting ZTE into a sweeping, must-pass national defense spending bill that cleared the chamber on an 85-10 vote. The company has been on life support ever since Washington said it had banned US companies from selling […]
Sharp drop in Facebook use among US teens, survey shows
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Facebook is rapidly losing ground against rival internet platforms in attracting and keeping US teenagers, a survey showed Thursday. The Pew Research Center report confirms a trend seen in other surveys, showing a sharp drop in Facebook’s share of what had long been a core age segment for the huge social network. The survey found 51 percent of US teens ages 13 to 17 use Facebook, compared with 85 […]
Facebook, Twitter tighten rules for political ads
by Rob Lever Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Twitter on Thursday announced new guidelines to clearly mark political ads on its platform as Facebook said it began implementing a policy requiring labeling and verification of identities of those paying for political messages. The moves by the two social media firms come in response to criticism over their role in allowing disinformation to spread during the 2016 US election, in many cases […]
Cambridge Analytica files for voluntary bankruptcy in US: court filing
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — British political consulting group Cambridge Analytica filed for voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York, court documents showed. The firm, whose attorney filed late Wednesday, announced early May that it would close and file for bankruptcy in Britain and the United States after failing to recover from the Facebook data scandal. The documents, seen by AFP, listed Cambridge Analytica LLC’s estimated assets in the […]
Trump pledges to safeguard Chinese telecoms jobs
by Issam Ahmed © Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump said Sunday he was working with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to prevent telecom giant ZTE from going out of business after it was hit by an American technology sales ban. Writing on Twitter, Trump said he had issued instructions for officials to come up with a rescue plan, saying too many jobs were at risk. “President Xi of […]
Twitter reports second straight quarterly profit
by Rob Lever Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Twitter reported its second consecutive quarterly profit Wednesday in a positive sign for the short messaging service after years in the red. The San Francisco-based social network earned $61 million in the first three months of the year, helped by strong growth in advertising revenue and modest gains in users. First-quarter revenues rose 21 percent from a year ago to $665 million, and […]





