“Even with Friday’s bounce, GameStop Corp. wrapped up its worst week on record as a stunning reversal of fortune wiped out $18 billion from the video-game retailer’s stock-market value,” reports Bloomberg: The stock fell 80% in the last five days, its worst weekly performance on record, to $63.77 in New York. The 19% gain on Friday after Robinhood Markets removed buying…
Tag: platforms
Internet Blackouts Skyrocket Amid Global Political Unrest
Where there’s a coup, there will probably be an internet outage. From a report: Internet disruptions in Myanmar early Monday morning coincided with reports that top politicians, including the country’s de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were being rounded up by the military. That’s no surprise: internet blackouts are now common around the world when power hangs in the balance. At…
As Google Eyes Australia Exit, Microsoft Talks Bing With Prime Minister
Software giant Microsoft is confident its search product Bing can fill the gap in Australia if Google pulls its search over required payments to media outlets, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday. From a report: Australia has introduced laws that would force internet giant Google and social media heavyweight Facebook Inc to negotiate payments to domestic media outlets whose content…
ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota Warn EU Lawmakers Over ‘Anti-Encryption’ Push
Four European apps which secure user data via end-to-end encryption, ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota, have issued a joint-statement warning over recent moves by EU institutions that they say are setting lawmakers on a dangerous path to backdooring encryption. From a report: Last month the EU Council passed a resolution on encryption that’s riven with contradiction — calling for “security through…
Discord Bans the r/WallStreetBets Server As Subreddit Goes Private
According to The Verge, Discord has banned the r/WallStreetBets server for allowing “hateful and discriminatory content after repeated warnings.” It did not ban the server for financial fraud. We have also learned that Reddit’s WallStreetBets subreddit has been set to private. Here is Discord’s full statement: The server has been on our Trust & Safety team’s radar for some time due…
GameStop, AMC Trading Now Being Restricted at TD Ameritrade, Schwab
Some major brokerage houses have begun to respond to a frenetic surge in the price of shares of companies that has been attributed to rabid buying by individual investors on social-media platforms. From a report: On Wednesday, TD Ameritrade said it was restricting trading for GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings, as well as other names, amid a triple-digit percentage surge in…
Browser Makers Launch New Project For Writing Documentation For Web APIs
A coalition of tech companies announced today the launch of Open Web Docs, a new initiative to help write documentation for Web APIs, JavaScript, and other web tooling and platforms. From a report: The new project does not view itself as a replacement for MDN Web Docs, a website hosted by Mozilla, where all browser makers agreed to move the official…
After 28 Years, Tucows Finally Closes Its Downloads Site
“We have made the difficult decision to retire the Tucows Downloads site,” writes CEO Elliot Noss in a blog post at Tucows.com/retired: We’re pleased to say that much of the software and other assets that made up the Tucows Downloads library have been transferred to our friends at the Internet Archive for posterity. The shareware downloads bulletin board system (BBS) that…
Ant Group Sponsors Reality Competition Show About Programmers
“A two-episode series which debuted on Chinese streaming platforms last week has been described as the first reality competition to focus on programmers,” reports the I Programmer web site: The show, sponsored by the Ant Group, an affiliate company of the Chinese Alibaba Group, is called Ranshaoba tiancaichengxuyuan, which roughly translates to “Burn Bright! Genius Programmer,” and followed four teams engaged…
Report Finds Extremists Did Use Facebook to Plan Capitol Attack
NBC News reports: A number of pro-Trump extremists used Facebook to plan their attack on the U.S. Capitol, a watchdog organization has found, contradicting claims by Facebook’s leadership that such planning was largely done on other sites. Private Facebook groups spent months advising one another about how to “take down” the U.S. government, particularly after Joe Biden was elected president, according…