NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Heavily indebted Indian telecoms firm Vodafone Idea (VODA.NS) won some reprieve on Tuesday as the country’s top court gave mobile carriers 10 years to settle government dues, but the company’s longer-term problems are not over. Vodafone I... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s top court on Tuesday gave telecom firms 10 years to pay back dues they owe to the federal government after they failed to make the payment by the January deadline. Telecom providers in India pay the Department of Telecommunication... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) on Tuesday said it would stop Australians sharing news content on its platforms if a proposal to make it pay local media outlets for their content becomes law, escalating tension with the Australian government. Under Aust... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) said it will block news sharing on its platforms in Australia if the government goes ahead with a law to force it, and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, to pay local media outlets for featuring their content on its platfor... More »
(Reuters) – Facebook Inc said on Tuesday that it was preparing for Myanmar’s general election in November by improving the detection and removal of hate speech and content that incites violence and preventing the spread of misinformation. The company said in a... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) said on Monday it had erred in blocking a pro-Biden ad submitted by Democratic political action committee Priorities USA, after initially telling the group the video violated its policy against “sensational” conten... More »
(Reuters) – Facebook Inc said on Monday it is partnering with external researchers to examine the impact of the social media site on society during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The company said findings of the studies will not be published until the mi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secret-spilling website WikiLeaks, a pivotal player in the email leaks that buffeted the 2016 U.S. presidential election, suffered a brief outage on Monday. Visitors to the site were met with an error message saying the security certific... More »
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – An unidentified flying object parachuted into dense Congo jungle to the confusion of local authorities, who detained two people for questioning until a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet confirmed the de... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s anti-trust authority has launched an investigation into Amazon’s relationship with third-party traders selling on its site, its head was quoted as saying on Sunday. “We are currently investigating whether and how Amazon influences ... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google on Monday said a proposed antitrust law in Australia forcing tech firms to pay for news that appears on their social media websites would adversely impact individual content creators and channel operators. Goo... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian court on Monday fined Google 1.5 million roubles ($20,350) after finding it guilty of failing to block content banned in Russia, the Interfax news agency reported. Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-alphabet-lawsuit/... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Chinese government-linked hackers have been targeting U.S. election infrastructure ahead of the 2020 presidential election, White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said on Sunday, indicating a more active level of alleged Ch... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Grammy-winning R&B star Lizzo has signed a deal to produce television programming for Amazon.com Inc’s Prime Video streaming service, the singer announced on Thursday. The 32-year-old singer of “Good as Hell” and “Juice” had a breakout ... More »
DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – After years of being part of a future that never quite arrived, the coronavirus pandemic has put U.S. online car sellers on the map. Now comes a race to spend vast sums on digital commerce platforms specifically designed to handle ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The survival of J.C. Penney Co Inc hangs on whether the department store chain can reach a complex deal within days to sell itself to an alliance of retail mavens and distressed-debt investors. The 118-year-old retailer blew through a Frid... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Several Republican senators on Sunday backed a plan by China’s ByteDance to divest the U.S. operations of TikTok after President Donald Trump said on Friday he had decided to ban the popular short-video app. Senator John Cornyn, a Texas ... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s competition regulator on Monday accused Alphabet’s Google of misleading consumers to get permission for use of their personal data for targeted advertising, seeking a fine “in the millions” and aiming to establish a precedent. Th... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British rap artist Wiley is facing a police investigation after a string of anti-Semitic comments appeared on his social media accounts, prompting his management to drop him. The rapper’s Twitter account, which has half a million followers, ... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia is scrutinising the popular Chinese-owned social media TikTok platform for any risks it may pose to users from around potential foreign interference and data privacy issues, government sources told Reuters. Owned by Bytedance, TikT... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) total exports from small and medium sellers in India, part of a company programme to export products to global markets, have crossed the $2 billion mark, two company executives said on Monday. Amazon’s “Global Se... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Twitter Inc disabled a campaign-style video that President Donald Trump retweeted on Saturday, citing a copyright complaint. The video, which included music from the group Linkin Park, disappeared from the president’s Twitter feed late S... More »
SHANGHAI/SEOUL (Reuters) – Some K-pop stars’ accounts have been blocked from view on TikTok’s China equivalent Douyin, Reuters’ checks showed on Friday, days after South Korea’s media regulator slapped fines on the short-video app for data privacy noncomplianc... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe’s top court will on Thursday rule on the legality of tools companies use to transfer Europeans’ data around the world, in the latest clash between Facebook and Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems. If the court finds the mechanisms... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google on Monday said it would spend around $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years through equity investments and tie-ups, marking its biggest commitment to a key growth market. The investments will be done ... More »
(Reuters) – Ride-sharing company Uber Technologies Inc has agreed on a deal to buy food-delivery app Postmates Inc in a $2.65 billion all-stock agreement, Bloomberg News reported bloom.bg/2Z0TVcd late Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal ha... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Social media app TikTok distanced itself from Beijing after India banned 59 Chinese apps in the country, according to a correspondence seen by Reuters. In a letter to the Indian government dated June 28th and seen by Reuters on Friday, Ti... More »
TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada’s biggest lenders confirmed on Friday they had joined a widespread boycott of Facebook Inc (FB.O) begun by U.S. civil rights groups seeking to pressure the world’s largest social media platform to take concrete steps to block hate sp... More »
CARACAS(Reuters) – With Venezuela now three months into a coronavirus quarantine that has kept children locked indoors, music and art teachers and storytellers are for the first time moving their classes online. The change is an uphill battle in the South Amer... More »
(Reuters) – A stock rebound marked by Wall Street’s strongest quarter in more than two decades has slowed in recent weeks, as a resurgence in coronavirus cases threatens to derail the economy’s recovery from a deep downturn. With the S&P 500 up 18% in the quar... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – More joined up rules may be needed across the payments sector after the collapse of Germany’s Wirecard AG, Bank for International Settlements president Augustin Carstens said. Wirecard’s demise has thrown a spotlight on payments, which is on... More »
OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google upended plans by European media companies to block it from harvesting data about their readers and slash some of its dominance in online advertising, seven people involved in the talks said this month... More »
(Reuters) – Social media site Reddit on Monday shut down r/The_Donald, a forum which long served as a popular online home base for fans of President Donald Trump, saying it violated the site’s hate speech rules. Other sites also conducted high-profile sweeps: ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) Chief Executive Jeff Bezos is willing to testify to a congressional panel investigating potential violations of U.S. antitrust law by big technology companies, according to a letter from an attorney representing A... More »
(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is willing to testify before a House antitrust investigation into the market power of major tech companies, the New York Times reported here on Monday, citing a lawyer for Amazon who wrote to lawmak... More »
OSLO (Reuters) – Norway will halt its COVID-19 track and trace app and delete all data collected so far after criticism from the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) said on Monday. The app was introduced by some... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese Beidou navigation network will be complete this month when its final satellite goes into orbit, giving China greater independence from U.S.-owned GPS and heating up competition in a sector long dominated by the United States. Th... More »
(Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s (DIS.N) top streaming executive, Kevin Mayer, will leave the entertainment and theme parks giant to become the chief executive officer of TikTok, the popular video app owned by China’s ByteDance Technology Co, the companies said on... More »
(Reuters) – Chinese search engine giant Baidu Inc forecast second-quarter revenue above expectations on Monday, as businesses reopen in the world’s second-largest economy after strict lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Baidu’s U.S.-listed shares ... More »
LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigerian comedian Maryam Apaokagi has a sure-fire way of getting people to listen to her coronavirus health advice – she delivers it with a hard slap in the face. The 21-year-old has joined a line-up of the nation’s top performers working hea... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The French government has rejected a request by Amazon (AMZN.O) to tap a state partial unemployment scheme for employees at its six warehouses in the country, a spokeswoman for the labor ministry said on Monday. The e-commerce giant has shut ... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp said on Monday it will launch an e-commerce service in India this week to enable customers stuck at home during a nationwide lockdown to buy its products from their local retailer. The new service, Mi ... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Russia and China are taking advantage of the coronavirus emergency to put their interests forward in Europe, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday, describing Chinese efforts to promote Huawei mobile phone network equipment as malig... More »
((This April 30 story has been corrected to say Starship can carry more than 100 metric tonnes of cargo, not 100 pounds in paragraph 9. The error occurred in a previous version as well.)) By Joey Rouelette (Reuters) – NASA on Thursday selected space firms Spac... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Citing grave dangers to privacy, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on Sunday that the government must bring its use of mobile phone tracking deployed in the battle against the new coronavirus under legislation. Circumventing parliament in Marc... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – U.S. states promoting apps that could prove essential to ending the coronavirus lockdown may be headed for a showdown with the two Silicon Valley companies that control key software on 99% of smartphones over the collection of sensiti... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Six dancers from the Dutch National Ballet headed out into the empty streets of Amsterdam this week to perform their parts in a piece of choreography inspired by the coronavirus lockdown. Each put on a solo performance out in the open, so... More »
(Reuters) – Walmart Inc’s video-on-demand service, Vudu, said on Monday it would be acquired by Fandango Media LLC, a movie ticketing service owned by cable company Comcast Corp. The terms or value of the deal were not disclosed. Walmart bought Vudu over a dec... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – With countless hours of research and planning kept as closely guarded as the President’s nuclear football, cyber security is in focus for this week’s NFL Draft, as teams pivot to a “virtual” format on COVID-19 lockdown. Usually Draft Day s... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Facebook Inc is preparing to apply for regulatory approval in Indonesia to launch mobile payments in partnership with three local digital fintech firms, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The plan, if approved, could be among the... More »
(Reuters) – The coronavirus crisis has seen millions locked in their homes turn to videoconferencing apps, bringing with it question marks over security and privacy and a new verb – Zoombombing – the practice of uninvited users crashing into conversations. Fro... More »
(Reuters) – When stay-at-home orders sparked by the coronavirus forced him to find new ways to reach young voters ahead of the November U.S. election, Felix Clarke turned to an online computer game. The New Hampshire college student logged in to Minecraft, dre... More »
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian brothers Nikita and Egor Zigura work on their sculpture of a giant fingerprint as art enthusiasts look on via a live-streaming internet link and make bids for the developing work. The online auction is part of a new “Stay Art Home” s... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – As coronavirus cases surge in Indonesia, doctors are working double-time treating patients both at hospitals and online through healthtech startups – an approach that is quickly becoming part of the national healthcare system. Doctor Mohamm... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian ballet dancers on partial lockdown have begun giving performances at home to keep fans engaged online after theatres across the country closed their doors due to the coronavirus. Seven dancers from the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Pet... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – While making blinis one morning in self-isolation, Natalia Goroshko noticed one in her pan had taken the floppy form of one of Salvador Dali’s melting clocks. The 31-year-old Belarusian living in Texas placed three blinis in her kitchen to m... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Lockdowns and travel retrictions prompted by the new coronavirus have been a boon to JOOX, Chinese tech giant Tencent’s international music streaming platform, driving traffic to its karaoke services up by as much as 50%, an executive sai... More »
(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc has been in contact with the CEOs of two coronavirus test makers as it considers how to screen its staff and reduce the risk of infection at its warehouses, according to internal meeting notes seen by Reuters. The chief executives of... More »
(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) is postponing its major summer shopping event, Prime Day, until at least August and expects a potential $100 million hit from excess devices it might now sell at a discount, according to internal meeting notes seen by Reuter... More »
(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc’s general counsel on Thursday said his emotions clouded his judgment when he wrote meeting notes in which he allegedly outlined a public relations strategy against a protest organizer and questioned the employee’s intelligence. Amazo... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Infectious disease researchers are using Facebook Inc mobile location data to provide daily updates to U.S. cities and states evaluating the effectiveness of social distancing orders aimed at slowing the novel coronavirus. The COVID-1... More »
(Reuters) – Netflix Inc led rivals YouTube, Amazon Prime and Disney+ with over 59 million installs in the first quarter of 2020, but more time was spent on YouTube’s Kids service as usage boomed following the shutdown of thousands of schools in March. YouTube,... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s (DIS.N) Disney+ content will be available for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa on regional pay television and online streaming service provider OSN from April 9. Dubai-headquartered OSN has signed a “long-te... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – A South Korean K-Pop star on Wednesday pulled an April Fool’s prank announcing that he had contracted coronavirus, and later removed the Instagram post after triggering a backlash. Kim Jae-joong, a member of boyband JYJ, posted on his Instagr... More »
Britain’s big telecoms providers have agreed to remove all data caps on fixed-line broadband services that have become a lifeline for people isolated at home during the coronavirus crisis, the government said on Sunday. The companies, which include BT (BT.L), ... More »
(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) will donate more than $800 million in funds towards producing medical supplies used to fight COVID-19, and in ad credits to government and health organizations and businesses, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said on Fri... More »
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc will lower video streaming quality on its platform and on Instagram in Latin America, replicating measures adopted in Europe, to ease network congestion in a region that is starting to feel the grip of the coronavirus. On Sun... More »
(Reuters) – The NBA may have been suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak but that has not stopped the league from using its massive online reach to good effect by educating its followers, sharing important information and guidelines related to the pandemic.... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google is exploring ways to use location information to slow the spread of the coronavirus by, for example, determining the effectiveness of social distancing. U.S. Senator Ed Markey, who has long championed consumer priva... More »
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Some Amazon sellers say the online retailer’s abrupt decision to stop receiving non-essential inventory in response to the coronavirus pandemic could strangle the sales they need to make payments on their Amazon loans. The chal... More »
(Reuters) – Activist investor Starboard Value is pressuring eBay for the second time in two years and said on Thursday that it plans to install four directors on the e-commerce company’s 14-member board. The hedge fund, which last year helped fill one board se... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google sister company Verily launched a website late on Sunday that invites adults in northern California to answer questions about their recent health and travel that could result in their getting a free coronavirus test. U.S. Presid... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The mayors of New York City and Los Angeles, the two largest cities in the United States, on Sunday said they were ordering restaurants, theaters, bars and movie houses closed in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Any restaur... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he is considering a full pardon for his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about dealings with Russia’s ambassador before Trump took offi... More »
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The filming in Mexico of a big budget Steven Spielberg-produced Amazon mini-series, starring Spanish actor Javier Bardem, has been suspended due to concerns about the coronavirus, according to a letter sent to cast and crew on Friday an... More »
(Reuters) – Walt Disney Co said on Friday it would make the sequel to hit animated movie “Frozen” available on its streaming platform Disney+ three months ahead of schedule in the United States, as media companies respond to the coronavirus outbreak. The compa... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is seeking court permission to reconsider certain aspects of its decision to award a $10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft Corp, court filings showed on Thursday. A U.S. judge last month granted Amaz... More »
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on the powerful judiciary committee on Thursday introduced a bill aimed at curbing online distribution of child sexual abuse material that technology and civil liberties groups said was a... More »
(Reuters) – Twitter Inc said on Thursday it is banning posts that “dehumanize” people because they have a disease or disability or because of their age, a step that happens to correspond to an explosion of tweets about the spreading coronavirus. The company to... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of ethnic Uighurs were moved to work in conditions suggestive of “forced labor” in factories across China supplying 83 global brands, an Australian think tank said in a report released on Sunday. The Australian Strategic P... More »
OSLO (Reuters) – Eight candidates have applied to head Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the country’s central bank said on Tuesday, as its board prepares to decide who should steer the global portfolio of assets worth $1.1 trillion through a time of transition.... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – As the new coronavirus spreads in South Korea, private software developers have set up websites and apps to help people track cases and shun places where infected people have been in the hope of avoiding the fast-spreading virus. The governme... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Houston Astros, the Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball asked a U.S. judge to dismiss a proposed class-action lawsuit by DraftKings participants who said the teams’ electronic sign-stealing distorted fantasy baseball contests they... More »
RIYADH (Reuters) – Failure to reach a global deal on where and how much to tax digital giants such as Google (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) or Facebook (FB.O) would result in many digital tax regimes emerging all over the world, France’s Finance Minister said on S... More »
RIYADH (Reuters) – Japanese finance minister Taro Aso criticized on Sunday a U.S. tax reform proposal that he said could undermine global efforts to agree new rules on taxing big tech companies. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) i... More »
RIYADH (Reuters) – Leading world economies must show unity in dealing with aggressive “tax optimization” by global digital giants like Google (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Facebook (FB.O), G20 officials said on Saturday. The Organisation for Economic Cooperat... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Fast-growing British digital bank Monzo plans to hire up to 500 people and forecasts it will get 5.5 million users this year, as it prepares to have another crack at charging some customers to turn a profit. The loss-making firm has burned t... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart are among online retailers demanding that India scale back a proposed tax on third-party sellers on their platforms, saying the burden of compliance will hurt the fledgling industry, according to documents se... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s parliament will soon begin debating a sweeping new bill that proposes corporate tax cuts and seeks to make internet giants pay more taxes, as part of a wider plan to simplify laws and boost investments in Southeast Asia’s bigges... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The UK firm OneWeb launched 34 satellites from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early on Friday as part of its effort to provide global high-speed internet access using satellite communications by 2021. The Russian Soyuz rocket left Baikonu... More »
(Reuters) – Twitter Inc has banned financial market website Zero Hedge from the social media platform after it published an article linking a Chinese scientist to the outbreak of the fast-spreading coronavirus last week. Zero Hedge said it received a notificat... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai said on Friday the telecommunications regulator plans to take action against at least one unnamed wireless carrier over the apparent unauthorized sale of real-time location d... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) said it will take down misinformation about China’s fast-spreading coronavirus, in a rare departure from its usual approach to dubious health content that is presenting a fresh challenge for social media companies.... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. state attorneys general will meet Justice Department attorneys next week to share information on their investigations into Alphabet Inc’s Google, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday. The probes revolve around monopolist... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department is planning to hold a conference to discuss the future of a federal law which largely exempts online platforms from legal liability for the material their users post, sources familiar with the plans said on Fr... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – French telecoms and media group Iliad formally launched on Monday its previously announced plan for a 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion) capital increase, which will be used to finance a share buyback offer. Iliad, which runs the Free telecoms ... More »
HEGANG, China (Reuters) – Li Hai is a nobody in China. But the 32-year-old ship mechanic became a minor internet sensation last month after posting a video of his everyday life in a largely forgotten coal city in the country’s far north. Resource-rich cities l... More »
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Seattle, the Pacific Northwest city where home-grown online retailer Amazon.com has increasingly flexed its political muscle, is expected to approve on Monday legislation banning political contributions by companies with at least 5% foreign... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A delegation of U.S. officials will arrive in Britain on Monday to try to persuade Britain not to use Huawei equipment in the upgrade of its telecoms network, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Sunday. Britain is expected to mak... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Thousands of small-scale traders in India are planning to organize protests against Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos, who will visit the country next week for a company event and potential meetings with government officials. Bez... More »
