Amid intense scrutiny over TikTok as a potential national security risk in the U.S., WeChat, the essential tool for Chinese people’s day-to-day life, is also taking heat from Washington. TechCrunch reports: White House trade advisor Peter Navarro told Fox Business on Sunday that “[TikTok] and WeChat are the biggest forms of censorship on the Chinese mainland, and so expect strong action…
Tag: TechCrunch
TikTok Pulls Out of Hong Kong
AmiMoJo quotes TechCrunch: TikTok announced that it would pull out of Hong Kong, which is facing an unprecedented wave of control from the Beijing government after the promulgation of the national security law. “In light of recent events, we’ve decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong,” said a TikTok spokesperson. The company declined further comment on the…
Amazon Will Pay $135,000 To Settle Alleged US Sanction Violations
In a statement (PDF) issued this week, the U.S. Treasury Department notes that Amazon has agreed to pay $134,523 to settle potential liability over alleged sanctions violations. TechCrunch reports: The charges specifically pertain to goods and services sent to people located in Crimea, Iran and Syria, which are covered by Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions, between November 2011 and…
Facebook Boycott Leaders ‘Disappointed’ After Meeting With Zuckerberg, Sandberg
Leaders from four of the organizations spearheading the #StopHateforProfit campaign sat down with Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and Chief Product Officer Chris Cox today to discuss the demands of a large advertiser boycott that now includes hundreds of brands. According to Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, the chat was an unequivocal disappointment. “Today we saw little and heard just about nothing,”…
US Online Grocery Sales Hit Record $7.2 Billion In June
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Despite the slow reopening of the U.S. economy over the past several weeks, online grocery shopping is continuing to reach ever-higher numbers as Americans seem to be in no rush to return to the store. According to new research released today by Brick Meets Click and Mercatus, U.S. online grocery sales hit a…
India’s Richest Man Takes On Zoom
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: India’s Reliance Jio Platforms, which recently concluded a $15.2 billion fundraise run, is ready to enter a new business: Video conferencing. On Thursday evening, the firm — backed by Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man — formally launched JioMeet, its video-conference service that looks uncannily like Zoom. Like Zoom and Google Meet, JioMeet offers…
With DOJ Charges, Former VC Mike Rothenberg Could Now Be Facing Serious Jail Time
Connie Loizos writing via TechCrunch: While some in Silicon Valley might prefer to forget about investor Mike Rothenberg roughly four years after his young venture firm began to implode, his story is still being written, and the latest chapter doesn’t bode well for the 36-year-old. While Rothenberg earlier tangled with the Securities and Exchange Commission and lost, it was a civil…
Tim O’Reilly Asks If Venture Capital Is Doing More Harm Than Good
Tim O’Reilly is the founder of O’Reilly Media (formerly O’Reilly & Associates), and is credited by Wikipedia as helping to popularize the term open source. But Techcrunch reveals what he’s learned about venture capital from his work with Bryce Roberts (O’Reilly’s investing partner at early-stage venture firm O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures). “At a minimum, O’Reilly — who bootstrapped his own company, O’Reilly…
Apple ‘Suddenly Catches TikTok Secretly Spying On Millions Of iPhone Users’, Claims Forbes
In February, Reddit’s CEO called TikTok “fundamentally parasitic,” according to a report on TechCrunch, adding “it’s always listening, the fingerprinting technology they use is truly terrifying, and I could not bring myself to install an app like that on my phone… I actively tell people, ‘Don’t install that spyware on your phone.'” TikTok called his remarks “baseless accusations made without a…
Apple Will Let You Emulate Old Apps, Run iOS Apps on ARM Macs
At the WWDC 2020 keynote today, Apple announced that the company is going to switch from Intel chips to Apple’s own silicon, based on ARM architecture. They also announced that iPad and iPhone apps will be able to run natively on ARM-powered Macs. TechCrunch reports: First, you’ll be able to compile your app to run both on Intel-based Macs and ARM-based…