Twitter apologises over racial bias in image algorithm September 21, 2020 Twitter has issued an apology after users highlighted how its image-cropping algorithms would favour showing white or lighter faces over Black ones. When images are attached to a tweet, Twitter will crop the preview of the image so that it takes up less space on a user’s timeline. Users who noticed the feature’s bias on [...]
Big Tech’s market might in five charts September 21, 2020 | City Talk The largest US technology stocks – Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Google (Alphabet) – known as the “FAMAGs”, tumbled sharply at the beginning of this month, after supercharging the US stock market from the depths of the Covid-pandemic in March. These “superstar” firms have largely benefitted from the economic fallout of the crisis, as more people [...]
London venture capital firm Kindred Capital closes second £81m fund September 21, 2020 London venture capital firm Kindred Capital has closed its second fund for seed-stage startups at £81m. Kindred has invested in the likes of self-driving car startup Five, software firm Paddle and will-writing startup Farewill. It backed a total of 29 companies using its first fund, which closed at £80m in 2018. Partner Leila Zegna said [...]
Nikola founder steps down after short-seller’s fraud allegations September 21, 2020 The founder of electric truck firm Nikola has stepped down from his position as executive chairman, following a spate of fraud claims against the company by short-seller Hindenburg Research. “The focus should be on the company and its world-changing mission, not me. So I made the difficult decision to approach the board and volunteer to [...]
The digital services tax is targeting the wrong companies September 21, 2020 Cost-pass-through is a well-established economic theory. It describes what happens when a business changes the price of the products or services it sells following a change in the cost of producing them – be that an increase in procurement or production costs, increased demand, or a tax hike. When the government announced its ban on [...]
Tech testing firm Calnex plots £42m London listing as it cashes in on 5G September 21, 2020 Telecoms testing firm Calnex today said it is aiming to raise £22.5m through a London initial public offering (IPO) as it looks to capitalise on the rollout of 5G. The Scottish tech firm said the Aim listing, planned for early October, will value the company at £42m. Calnex specialises in test equipment for telecoms networks, [...]
Judge blocks Trump’s Wechat ban on constitutional grounds September 20, 2020 A US judge has blocked the US Commerce Department’s order for app stores to remove Chinese messaging app Wechat, ahead of a ban coming into force today. The Commerce Department issued an order on Friday requiring Apple and Google to remove Chinese-owned messaging app Wechat for downloads by this evening. The order also previously included [...]
EU to toughen up enforcement powers against tech giants September 20, 2020 The EU is said to be preparing new rules to strengthen its executive arm, which would allow it to force companies to break up or sell off their European operations if deemed a threat to competition. The European Commission is currently planning to propose a Digital Services Act by the end of this year, which [...]
Bytedance seeks $60bn Tiktok price tag after Oracle deal gets green light September 20, 2020 Tiktok owner Bytedance is said to be seeking a valuation of $60bn for Tiktok’s US operations, after a partnership with Oracle and Walmart was approved by the Trump administration late last night. Through the creation of a new entity called Tiktok Global, software giant Oracle will take a 12.5 per cent stake and manage the [...]
Tiktok and Wechat US downloads to be banned from Sunday September 18, 2020 Downloads of popular video app Tiktok and Chinese messaging app Wechat will be banned in the US from Sunday, White House officials have said. However the ban on Tiktok could still be reversed if its owner Bytedance is able to get a deal to offload its ownership over the US service approved by US President [...]
