Posts

US Supreme Court upholds law banning TikTok

Image
WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court refused to rescue TikTok on Friday from a law that required the popular short-video app to be sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance or banned on Sunday in the United States on national security grounds – a major blow to a platform used by nearly half of all Americans. The justices ruled that the law, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by Democratic President Joe Biden, did not violate the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech. The justices overturned a lower court’s decision that had upheld the measure after it was challenged by TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app’s users. “There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community. But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national securit...
Post a Comment
Read more

iPhone loses sales crown in China to Vivo and Huawei

Image
Apple was dethroned as China’s biggest smartphone seller in 2024, with local rivals Vivo and Huawei overtaking the iPhone maker after its annual shipments in the country declined 17%, data from research firm Canalys showed on Thursday. It was Apple’s largest-ever annual sales decline in China and involved contraction in all four quarters, including a 25% drop in the final quarter, according to the data. iPhone discounts in China- January 2025 For the full year, budget smartphone maker Vivo captured a 17% market share in China, followed by premium rival Huawei with 16% and Apple with 15%, demonstrating the growing sales pressure it faces from domestic manufacturers in one of its biggest global markets. The decline also points to how factors such as the absence of artificial intelligence capabilities in the latest iPhones sold in China, where ChatGPT is not available, are eating into Apple’s competitiveness. “This marks Apple’s worst annual performance in China,” Canalys analyst To...
Post a Comment
Read more

Google signs deal to buy carbon removal credits from India

Image
Google will buy carbon credits from Varaha- an Indian initiative that turns large amounts of agricultural waste into biochar – a form of charcoal that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and returns it to the soil, it said on Thursday. The deal – signed by Google and Indian supplier Varaha – is one of the biggest ever involving biochar, and is the tech giant’s first foray into India’s carbon dioxide removal (CDR) sector. Google is one of a number of big tech companies looking to offset emissions through CDR, which refers to a range of interventions designed to remove CO2 already in the atmosphere and oceans. While some developers are looking at expensive new technologies that extract CO2 directly from the air, solutions like biochar could prove a cheaper near-term option. “Biochar is a promising approach to carbon removal because it has the ability to scale worldwide, using existing technology, with positive side effects for soil health,” said Randy Spock, Google’s carbon r...
Post a Comment
Read more

TikTok, 5 other Chinese firms hit by EU privacy complaints

Image
TikTok, Shein, Xiaomi and three other Chinese companies were named in a privacy complaint filed on Thursday by Austrian advocacy group Noyb which claimed the firms were unlawfully sending European Union user data to China. Noyb is known for filing complaints against American companies such as Apple, Alphabet and Meta, which has led to several investigations and billions of dollars in fines. Vienna-based Noyb (None Of Your Business) said this is their first complaint against Chinese firms. Noyb has filed six complaints in four European countries for suspension of data transfers to China and is seeking fines that can reach up to 4% of a firm’s global revenue. Noyb said Alibaba’s e-commerce site AliExpress, retailer Shein, TikTok and phone maker Xiaomi admit to sending Europeans’ personal data to China, while retailer Temu and Tencent’s messenger app WeChat transfer data to undisclosed “third countries” likely China. Under European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) p...
Post a Comment
Read more

China welcomes influx of ‘TikTok refugees’ on RedNote

Image
Users of the Chinese social media app RedNote welcomed “TikTok refugees” from the United States with selfies and messages on Wednesday, as Beijing said it encouraged stronger cultural ties with other countries in response to the sudden influx. Known in China as Xiaohongshu and as a platform to find lifestyle recommendations on areas from beauty to food, the app has in recent days been transformed into an unexpected bilateral channel for U.S.-China exchanges, with users swapping photos and questions about pets, favourite foods and their lives. Not everyone was happy, though, with some grumbling that their platform was being taken over and nationalist bloggers warning against American influences. The influx of more than 700,000 new users has been driven by a looming U.S. ban on TikTok, used by 170 million Americans, on national security concerns. Many Chinese users on Wednesday posted selfies and messages saying “welcome TikTok refugees”, and responded eagerly to questions from U.S....
Post a Comment
Read more

TikTok prepares for US shutdown

Image
TikTok plans to shut its app for US users from Sunday, when a federal ban on the social media app could come into effect, unless the Supreme Court moves to block it, sources familiar with the matter said. The outcome of the shutdown would be different from that mandated by the law. The law would mandate a ban only on new TikTok downloads on Apple or Google app stores, while existing users could continue using it for some time. Under TikTok’s plan, people attempting to open the app will see a pop-up message directing them to a website with information about the ban, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the matter is not public. TikTok also plans to give users the option to download all their data so that they can take a record of their personal, they said. TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments. The Information first reported the news. President Joe Biden had in April last year signed a law requiring Bytedance to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

TikTok seeks to reassure US employees ahead of Jan. 19 ban deadline

Image
TikTok plans to keep paying US employees even if the Supreme Court does not overturn a law that would force the sale of the short-video app in the US or ban it, the company’s leadership said in an internal memo reviewed by Reuters on Tuesday. The hugely popular platform is owned by China-based ByteDance and has 7,000 employees in the US. “I cannot emphasize enough that your wellbeing is a top priority and so most importantly, I want to reinforce that as employees in the US, your employment, pay, and benefits are secure, and our offices will remain open, even if this situation hasn’t been resolved before the January 19 deadline,” the memo to TikTok employees said. Last week, the US Supreme Court seemed inclined to uphold the law, which was passed in April, despite calls from US President-elect Donald Trump and lawmakers to extend the Jan. 19 deadline. Read more: China exploring possible sale of US TikTok to Musk: report Trump, whose inauguration takes place the day after the law g...
Post a Comment
Read more