Platform Executive

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Zoom, Five9 to terminate nearly $15 billion all-stock deal after shareholder vote Five9 Inc shareholders voted down the call center software firm's $14.7 billion sale to Zoom Video Communications Inc , a major blow to Zoom's plan to expand its offerings following its pandemic boom. The termination of what would have been Zoom's biggest-ever acquisition comes after proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis earlier this month recommended that Five9 shareholders vote against the deal, citing growth concerns and dual-class shares. Under the deal terms announced in July, Five9 shareholders would have received 0.5533 Zoom share for every Five9 share. The terms implied a 12.8% premium over Five9's market price and valued the company at $14.7 billion. Since then, Zoom's stock has dropped over 25% as the virtual conferencing giant reported slower growth ...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Celebrity Instagram content linked to negative feelings, Facebook researchers say Major social media stars including Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber and Charli D'Amelio are among celebrities whose Instagram followers experience more negative feelings about their self-image, according to internal Facebook research revealed by the Wall Street Journal , raising questions about the impact of celebrity culture. The Journal released the leaked research slide decks on Wednesday, which served as the basis of articles it published earlier this month saying that Facebook knew its apps harmed the mental health of some teenage girls and young users. The research, titled "Social comparison on Instagram," surveyed 100,000 people in March and April 2020 in nine countries, including the US, Australia and Brazil. Facebook spokesperson Kevin McAlister said the survey respondents were not asked to name spe...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Cruise and Waymo win permits to offer self-driving rides in California General Motors Co's Cruise and Alphabet Inc's Waymo self-driving car subsidiaries on Thursday became the first companies to receive autonomous vehicle permits to offer rides to passengers in California. Cruise has obtained a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to offer driverless rides to passengers at night in some parts of San Francisco, and Waymo has won a permit from the regulator to deploy autonomous vehicles with safety drivers behind the wheel. The DMV said it would allow commercial service for the companies, but said they would need to obtain another permit from the California Public Utilities Commission to start charging passengers for rides. Another company, Nuro, last year received a California self-driving deployment permit, but that was for delivery of goods, not passenger rides. T...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Uber temporarily suspends Brussels service in first for Europe Uber Technologies Inc joined a protest of its drivers in Brussels with an unprecedented suspension of its service in the Belgian capital. Rules dating back to 1995 prohibit drivers from using smartphones, meaning those that use the Uber app to pick up customers and to drive them to their destination risk losing their vehicles, Uber said in a blog. "This is not acceptable in 2021," Uber Technologies said, adding the sector had been waiting seven years for reforms. In an email to clients, the hail-riding company said its services would be unavailable for three hours in the morning because the Brussels government had failed to present a reform plan before the summer, contrary to its pledge to do so. Uber said the suspension was "exceptional and unprecedented" in Europe and that it stood with the 2,000 independent drive...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Russian regulator: Facebook could face hefty fine over banned content Russian authorities have warned social media giant Facebook it faces a fine of up to 10% of its annual turnover in the country unless it deletes content Moscow deems illegal. Upping the ante in its standoff with US Big Tech, state communications regulator Roskomnadzor told journalists at our partner news agency Reuters it was planning to send Facebook's representatives in Russia an official notification saying it had repeatedly failed to remove banned information. That, it said, could lead to a fine of 5% or 10% of Facebook's annual Russian turnover unless the situation is remedied. Facebook's violations include failing to remove posts containing child pornography, drug abuse and extremist content, the Vedomosti daily reported separately. Facebook had no immediate comment. Moscow has increased pressure on foreign te...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Clubhouse rolls out conversation replay and clip-sharing to drive growth Viral audio network Clubhouse is launching the ability to record and replay conversations and also download 30-second clips to share on social media or other sites, it has said. The app will also roll out an improved search function to help people find live and scheduled audio rooms, users and clubs oriented around certain interests, the company said. The new features will aim to help content creators on Clubhouse expand their audience at a time when larger tech rivals like Facebook and Twitter have also introduced competing "social audio" features. "Right now it's too hard for (creators) to grow," Paul Davison, Clubhouse's co-creator and CEO, said in an interview. "Anytime you help create a great moment or there's a good quote, you can share that out far and wide, alongside a link that te...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Google tells court ‘staggering’ $5 billion EU antitrust fine flawed A $5 billion antitrust fine by the EU was based on flawed calculations, Google has said, urging Europe's second-highest court to scrap or reduce what it said was not an appropriate penalty. Google was fined for using its Android mobile operating system to thwart rivals and cement its dominance in general internet search from 2011, in the largest penalty meted out to any company found guilty of breaching European Union antitrust rules. "The fine that was imposed, a staggering 4.34 billion euros, was not appropriate," Google's lawyer Genevra Forwood told the five-judge panel of the General Court on the fourth day of a week-long hearing, which is taking place three years after the European Commission sanctioned the company. "The problem is not the headline-grabbing fine per se. The problem is how the Commission r...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Senators: Facebook research shows company knew of Instagram harm to teens US senators have grilled Facebook on its plans to better protect young users on its apps, drawing on leaked internal research that showed the social media giant was aware of how its Instagram app harmed the mental health of teens. The hearing in front of the Senate consumer protection subcommittee was called after the Wall Street Journal published several stories earlier this month about how Facebook knew Instagram caused some teen girls in particular to feel badly about their self-image. After growing opposition to the project, Facebook put plans for Instagram Kids, aimed at pre-teens, on hold this week. Antigone Davis, Facebook's global head of safety, disputed the committee and WSJ's conclusions of the research documents throughout the hearing, and said the company was working to release additional internal studies...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: New money: Central banks lay out operating manual for digital cash A group of central banks sketched out a potential operating manual for digital cash on Thursday as they aim to strike a balance between keeping up with cryptocurrencies and concerns that the new technology could upend commercial lenders. Worried that the explosion of bitcoin and its ilk could weaken their control of money, policymakers from Beijing to Washington are exploring central bank digital currencies, known as CBDCs. And while a widely-used digital dollar or euro may still be years away, work by central banks is gathering pace as consumers increasingly ditch coins and notes in favour of digital payments on debit or credit cards and mobile phones. The seven central banks - including those in America, the UK and the ECB in the euro zone, but not China - said publicly-used "retail" CBDC must harness both public and priv...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: China drafts new data measures, defines “core data” Communist China published new draft measures aimed at bolstering its new data security law, including definitions of what it considered "core" and "important" data. China implemented the Data Security Law on September the 1st which requires all companies in China to classify the data they handle into several categories and governs how such data is stored and transferred to other parties. But lawyers have criticised its ambiguities including its lack of definitions for data. Thursday's draft measures describe in detail three categories of data - ordinary data, important data, and core data. The authorities describe ordinary data as data with a minimal ability to impact society at large, or that will affect a small number of individuals or enterprises. Important data is defined as data that poses a threat to China's nati...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Amazon settles with employees allegedly fired for criticizing working conditions Amazon and the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) have apparently reached a settlement with two former employees who alleged they were fired last year for criticizing the working conditions at the e-commerce giant's warehouses. Amazon had terminated the employment of Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, who had accused the company of enforcing policies in a discriminatory fashion and instituting rules that "chill and restrain" the staff from exercising rights, according to their charge filed in October. The NLRB found in April that Amazon illegally fired them after they advocated for better working conditions during the pandemic. "Amazon will be required to pay us our lost wages and post a notice to all of its tech and warehouse workers nationwide that Amazon can't fire workers for organizing a...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: YouTube blocks all anti-vaccine content YouTube will block all anti-vaccine content, moving beyond its ban on false information about the COVID vaccines to include content that contains misinformation about other approved vaccines, it said in a blog post. Examples of content that won't be allowed on YouTube include claims that the flu vaccine causes infertility and that the MMR shot, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella, can cause autism, according to YouTube's policies. The online video company owned by Alphabet Inc is also banning channels associated with several prominent anti-vaccine activists including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Joseph Mercola, a YouTube spokesperson said. A press email for Mercola's website said in a statement: "We are united across the world, we will not live in fear, we will stand together and restore our freedoms." Kennedy said in a stat...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: US and EU agree to work on chip supplies, tech rules, China trade The United States and European Union agreed on Wednesday to deepen transatlantic cooperation to strengthen semiconductor supply chains, curb China's non-market trade practices and take a more unified approach to regulating big, global technology firms. Launching a new forum, the US-EU Trade and Technology Council, senior cabinet officials from both continents also pledged to cooperate on the screening of investments on export controls for sensitive dual-use technologies and on the development of artificial intelligence (AI). The statement did not mention China but said: "We stand together in continuing to protect our businesses, consumers, and workers from unfair trade practices, in particular those posed by non-market economies, that are undermining the world trading system." The Biden administration has kept in place t...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Google adds visual search features in shopping, video push Google users can soon combine images and text in search queries, a feature that could help the Alphabet Inc unit expand its role in e-commerce and dominance in online video. The new feature will arrive within months through its Google Lens search tool, the company said in its livestreamed Search On conference. Google said in May that advances in artificial intelligence software would make this possible. "With this new capability, you can tap on the Lens icon when you're looking at a picture of a shirt, and ask Google to find you the same pattern — but on another article of clothing, like socks," SVP Prabhakar Raghavan said. "This helps when you're looking for something that might be difficult to describe accurately with words alone." The technology also sorts within videos, including on YouTube , already the in...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Russia threatens to block YouTube, Kremlin urges ‘zero tolerance’ Russia has threatened to block YouTube and the Kremlin called for "zero tolerance" towards the video hosting giant after it removed Russian state-backed broadcaster RT's German-language channels from its site. The online video company owned by Alphabet Inc deleted Russian state-backed broadcaster RT's German-language channels on Tuesday, saying they had breached its COVID-19 misinformation policy. On Wednesday YouTube said it would block all anti-vaccine content, moving beyond COVID-19 to include content that alleges vaccines cause chronic health effects or contains misinformation on the substances in vaccines. Russia said it was considering retaliating against German media and also accused YouTube of "unprecedented information aggression" after the company's move against the RT channels. The row crea...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: AT&T mandates COVID-19 vaccination for union-represented employees AT&T Inc has said it would require its union-represented employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before entering their work location, following a similar mandate for its management employees last month. The US wireless carrier, one the largest employers of union-represented workers, said the Communications Workers of America (CWA)-linked employees must be fully vaccinated by Feb. 1, 2022. CWA represents more than 150,000 employees at AT&T . Other major companies including Facebook Inc, Google and Microsoft Corp have also mandated vaccinations for employees as the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus drives up infections in the United States. Some companies have also been working to incentivize employees to get vaccinated through bonuses and other benefits. Earlier this month, Tyson Foods Inc , the bigg...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Why your website should be optimized for voice search (and how to do it) In 2021, it’s as if we’re permanently attached to our mobile devices. In fact, smartphone usage soared to new heights last year. But that doesn’t mean we’re always giving our thumbs a workout. While typing and texting are still prevalent, these aren’t the only communication options we have. Phone calls may not be preferable for many young people, but we’re still using the spoken word to express ourselves through technology. Voice-powered searches have emerged as a convenient way for mobile users to access the information they need with even less effort than before. Let’s take a closer look at what makes these searches so unique, why they’re an important consideration for your business, and how to make sure your site can be found online. WHAT IS VOICE SEARCH? First of all, what exactly is a voice search? Voice-powered technol...