Spain’s second biggest beer maker Damm halted output at its main brewery outside Barcelona after a cyberattack hit its computer systems earlier this week, a spokesperson said on Friday.

The attack hit the brewery on Tuesday night and for a few hours the plant in El Prat de Llobregat, which produces 7 million hectolitres of beer a year, was “entirely paralyzed”, Olga Vidal, Damm’s head of communications, told Reuters on Friday.

“IT services made possible a partial resumption of production and we expect to operate at 100 percent in the coming hours,” she said.

She declined to say whether a ransom was demanded of the company or if the maker of Estrella Damm lager had paid anything to the hackers behind the attack.

She wouldn’t confirm whether the company had notified the police and local police declined to comment.

Damm bottles several other beer brands besides its iconic Estrella Damm and has honored all deliveries to bars, restaurants, and supermarkets thanks to existing stocks, Vidal said.

Several high-profile cyberattacks in the past year, including the Colonial Pipeline hack, which caused panic buying of fuel across the eastern US in May, have jolted governments and companies into reviewing their security policies.

A European Union report released in October found the COVID-19 pandemic and rise of home working had created opportunities for cyber-criminals to flourish and led to a proliferation of so-called hackers for hire.

Last month, the Autonomous University of Barcelona was hit by a ransomware attack, while earlier this year hackers knocked out several services at Spain’s employment agency.

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Glen de Vries, Who Flew Into Space With William Shatner Aboard Blue Origin, Dies in Plane Crash

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Chinese shoppers spent $139.1 billion during this year’s annual Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza, breaking last year’s record even though spending slowed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Alibaba tallied CNY 540.3 billion ($84.5 billion) in spending over the festival that spanned November 1 to November 11, the company said Thursday, a growth of 14 percent compared to a nearly 93 percent increase last year.

Rival JD.com reported CNY 349.1 billion ($54.6 billion) in transactions this year, from October 31 to November 11, about a 28 percent increase compared to 32 percent growth in 2020.

The slowdown in growth for the world’s largest online shopping festival, which typically ends on November 11, comes amid reduced marketing hype and a crackdown on the technology industry.

Singles’ Day has been viewed as the largest online marketing event of the year. In previous years, the festival was heavily advertised for weeks ahead of time with brands and merchants offering deep discounts to attract consumers looking for bargains.

But shoppers say deep discounts of what is also called “Double Eleven” are now a thing of the past and experts are predicting lower sales as the economy slows.

This year, Alibaba, the e-commerce platform that pioneered the online shopping festival more than a decade ago, decided not to showcase a running tally of its real-time gross merchandise volume (GMV) — defined as the amount of transactions racked up across its platform — on its site for the shopping festival, taking on a more muted tone compared to previous years of glitzy marketing campaigns.

Chinese regulators have cracked down on technology companies, investigating giants like Alibaba and food delivery firm Meituan over alleged anti-competitive practices.

Earlier this year, Alibaba was fined a record $2.8 billion for violating antitrust rules. Ahead of Singles’ Day, Alibaba, rival JD.com and Meituan were among companies asked to curb excessive marketing text messages sent to consumers during the festival.

Last week, 16 e-commerce platform operators — some of which are linked to Alibaba and Meituan — were also summoned by regulators in the southern province of Guangdong and warned over “unfair competition.”

Platforms are also reining in the marketing hype to align themselves with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s calls for “common prosperity,” which includes curbing excess and advocating for more equitable distribution of wealth and resources.

“The decision not to publish a live GMV tally suggests China’s major e-commerce platforms believe this consumption display is incongruent with current ‘common prosperity’ themes,” said Michael Norris, research strategy manager at the Shanghai-based consultancy AgencyChina.

“While not publishing a live GMV tally may appease local sensibilities, without careful management, it may spook foreign investors who are already concerned about Alibaba’s growth prospects,” he said.

Online retailer JD.com also did not publicly stream a running tally of sales this year. But it did hold a media event Thursday, where a counter showed that as of 2 pm local time shoppers had spent over $48 billion.

Although it was common to see consumers take advantage of deep discounts in past Singles’ Day festivals to stock up on daily necessities, consumption habits have changed.

Demand is weaker amid the uncertainties brought on by the pandemic, and Singles Day is now competing with other e-commerce festivals throughout the year.

“2021 is a year of troubled times. There is the pandemic and various disasters, economic growth is slow and the stock market is not performing well,” said Hua Wei, a Beijing resident.

“These make people a little bit panicked. After all, you have a stronger sense of security if you hold onto your money,” she said. “I think people are also more rational now when it comes to consumption.”

Another shopper, Jiang Chen, said that he held back on impulse shopping this year, buying only what he needed.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to waste time and energy in order to save a little money, so the things I buy are what I need,” he said, such as snacks and fruit.

Jiang seemed happy with a lower-key approach to the festival.

“I hope that there will be less exaggerated publicity and hype in future (Singles’ Day) sales, and that the discounts will be bigger,” he said.

Meng Xiaolu, a sales manager who lives in the eastern province of Zhejiang, said she spent most of her shopping budget for this month on Singles Day sales of cosmetics and clothes.

“Because of the pandemic, I’m not able to travel and take vacations, so all I can do is find some joy in online shopping,” she said. “I think shopping on Double Eleven has become a habit for young people.”

The post Singles’ Day: Chinese Shoppers Spend $139 Billion During Festivities, Breaking Last Year’s Record appeared first on Technology News.

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk disclosed a sale of additional 639,737 shares of the electric-car maker, regulatory filings showed on Friday, after offloading about $5 billion (roughly Rs. 37,211 crore) worth of stock following a poll of his followers on Twitter.

Musk sold 587,638 shares held by his trust on November 11 in multiple transactions at prices ranging from $1,056.03 (roughly Rs. 78,600) to $1,087.88 (roughly Rs. 80,990), according to one of the filings.

A second filing showed that Musk sold an additional 52,099 shares held by his trust at prices ranging from 1,088.01 (roughly Rs. 80,990) to $1,104.15 (roughly Rs. 82,200).

Musk, the world’s richest person and Tesla’s top shareholder, tweeted last weekend that he would sell 10 percent of his stock if users of the social media platform approved the move. Days after Musk disposed $5 billion of the stock, or 3 percent of his total holdings, the first such move since 2016.

In the first round of share sale, filings showed Musk’s trust sold nearly 3.6 million shares in Tesla, worth around $4 billion (roughly Rs. 29,774 crore), while he also sold another 934,000 shares for $1.1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,188 crore) to cover tax obligations after exercising options to acquire nearly 2.2 million shares.

Prior to the sales, Musk owned about 23 percent stake in Tesla, including stock options.

Musk had previously said that he would have to exercise a large number of stock options in the next three months, which would create a big tax bill. Selling some of his stock could free up funds to pay the taxes.

© Thomson Reuters 2021

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Tesla’s stock declined slightly on Thursday after filings revealed Chief Executive Elon Musk sold about $5 billion (roughly Rs. 37,223 croree) worth of his shares this week following his much-hyped Twitter poll.

The electric-car maker’s stock ended the session down 0.4 percent at $1,063.51 (roughly Rs. 79,100) after tumbling earlier in the week.

Musk’s share sale was his first since 2016 and comes after his weekend poll of Twitter users about offloading 10 percent of his Tesla stake, which comprises most of his estimated $281 billion (roughly Rs. 20,91,964 crore) fortune.

“I don’t think investors are reading in to the news negatively,” said Oliver Pursche, senior vice president and adviser at Wealthspire Advisors in New York. “If you believe in the Tesla story, this should not impact you or change your mind.”

Tesla’s stock is in portfolios utilized by Wealthspire, Pursche said.

Filings showed Musk’s trust sold nearly 3.6 million shares of Tesla, worth around $4 billion (roughly Rs. 29,779 crore), while he also sold another 934,000 shares for $1.1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,189 crore) to cover tax obligations after exercising options to acquire nearly 2.2 million shares.

The sale equates to about 3 percent of Musk’s total holdings. The options-related part of the sale was put in place in September, well before his Twitter poll.

Before the sale, Musk owned a 23 percent stake in Tesla, including stock options. He also owns other companies including SpaceX.

Musk’s move to sell his Tesla shares comes as US Senate Democrats propose taxing the stock holdings of billionaires to help finance President Joe Biden’s social spending plan.

“Elon Musk doesn’t take a salary, he’s paid in big chunks of stock. At some point in time you have to take some of that concentration down,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

“This is not novel. It just gets more attention because it’s such a high market-cap type, attention-grabbing kind of company.”

With nearly 800,000 options, or about 12 percent of Tesla’s open contracts, set to expire at the close of trading on Friday, some analysts have pointed to the potential for additional near-term volatility as investors and options dealers make adjustments to account for expiring positions.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

EV mania

Tesla this week has lost $157 billion (roughly Rs. 11,68,846 crore) in stock market value, more than the combined market capitalizations of Ford and General Motors. At the same time, demand for shares of electric vehicle makers has heated up.

Shares of Rivian jumped 22 percent a day after a stellar market debut that sent the company’s valuation over $100 billion (roughly Rs. 7,44,581 crore). Lucid surged 10 percent.

Underscoring retail investors’ thirst for EV stocks, Rivian, Tesla, and Lucid made up three of the four most-traded stocks on Fidelity’s brokerage website on Thursday, with buy orders outnumbering sell orders.

Wall Street’s biggest institutional investors, including T. Rowe Price and BlackRock, are betting on Rivian to be the next big player in a sector dominated by Tesla, amid mounting pressure on automakers in China and Europe to eliminate vehicle emissions.

“Rivian’s valuation makes it a legitimate option for institutional investors who have previously only had Tesla to play the electric vehicle space,” wrote Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research, in a recent note.

Four former and current Tesla board members, including Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, have filed to sell nearly $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,445 crore) worth of shares since Tesla’s market value surpassed $1 trillion (roughly Rs. 74,45,165 crore) late last month, according to filings and market data.

Tesla’s share price has made staggering gains over recent years and has epitomized the ebullient mood in US markets and the optimism of small-time traders who have helped drive it up 51 percent this year and 1,300 percent from 2020 lows.

© Thomson Reuters 2021

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“My dad doesn’t live with us as he works in Karnataka and my mom wasn’t used to Google Pay and stuff, so I was researching about a solution to make cashless transactions,” the class 10 student told Gadgets 360.

He said that asking for one-time passwords (OTPs) earlier was quite an eyebrow raiser for his parents, but with his dedicated account on FamPay, he doesn’t have to bother them anymore.

Young Indians like Nayak say that cash allowances from their parents are neither convenient nor always feasible. For many parents, prepaid wallets were a good option to give their children more freedom, while allowing them to set limits too. Now, a new wave of fintech platforms are building out full-fledged debit programmes for teenagers, and seeing transactions worth crores each month. But alongside the increase in the number and value of transactions taking place through these platforms, the growth of apps being an ultimate financial source for kids is also raising concerns.

The ultimate customer

Before going for FamPay, Nayak used to make transactions using the cash he was getting from his parents in the form of pocket money. He also often used debit cards from his parents for placing online orders. But the ease of getting his own card has increased Nayak’s spending (online and offline) to Rs. 2,500 a month.

FamPay is just one of the popular new-age banking apps (commonly known as neobanks) in India that are meant for kids and teens. Other popular apps in the category include Junio, launched in May this year by former Paytm executives, and Walrus, which was launched in 2019.

Junio allows parents to load money to their kids’ prepaid card using its mobile app
Photo Credit: Junio

Sourojyoti Barman is another one of the active users of FamPay. Barman (17) signed up on the app in January with the sole purpose of having his own card for making transactions instead of relying on the solutions opted by his parents.

Just like Nayak, Barman is spending about Rs. 2,500 on a monthly basis through FamPay. He, however, noticed that his overall spendings declined from Rs. 3,000 a month that he had prior to getting the FamPay card because he receives limited money in this account, unlike the unlimited access he used to get from the Google Pay account of his father.

New-age platforms vs traditional banks

In the first quarter of 2021, FamPay reached 13,50,142 registered users and 38,44,609 transactions, the company said. Junio, on the other hand, said it handled 6,50,000 transactions worth Rs. 30 crores since launch through a user base of over 2,50,000 users. Junio also said that it processed 2,00,000 transactions worth Rs. 10 crores just in October.

As traditional banks don’t allow teens to have their standalone bank accounts sans a parent or guardian, platforms including FamPay and Junio try to fill in that gap. As such, you don’t need your parents’ consent to create an account, nor do they need to have their own account with these apps, nor are documents such as birth certificates asked for.

All you have to do is to download the app on a device, verify your phone number, and register by filing personal information, such as their full name and complete address. Once the registration form is filled on the dedicated app, the platforms have a know-your-customer (KYC) requirement that the parents need to complete by uploading a government issued ID card.

The apps also charge a fee to sign up. FamPay charges a one-time fee of Rs. 299 for its regular card, or Rs. 599 for the premium card. The main difference is rewards and tie-ups like Zomato Pro, and personalisation of the card.

FamPay offers two distinct prepaid card options to kids
Photo Credit: FamPay

Junio, on the other hand, has a single Rs. 99 signup fee. The company adds that in return of the signup fee, users get a scratch card, which has cashback up to Rs.1,000.

These apps also give parents the ability to keep an eye on the spendings of their children through dedicated analytics and dashboards. At the same time, parents can stop any transactions from their end or receive notifications for every new payment their kids make through the app.

Although apps including FamPay and Junio are designed to be a platform for teenagers, they don’t want to remain a solution only until their customers become adults. The aim of these new players is to emerge as the one-stop banking solution for these teens once they complete their adolescence phase.

“If we open a bank account, if we are happy with it, we don’t go and change,” said Shankar Nath, Co-Founder of Junio. “So, we want to become that and catching children at the age of 12–13 and making a relationship with them through our app is what we are looking after.”

Key differences between traditional banks and fintech apps for kids

Concerns over targeting minors

David Monahan, Campaign Manager for Boston, Massachusetts-based kids-focussed watchdog group Fairplay, noted that prepaid cards targeting children raised important concerns about the sensitive data that companies were compiling about kids’ spending habits and whom they were sharing it.

When asked about data sharing, which is also suggested in the privacy policy listed on the company’s site, Junio said that it did not share user data with any third parties.

FamPay, on the other hand, said that it takes user consent for data sharing.

“As part of our co-branding arrangement with our banking partner and other allied services, we are required to share KYC and other data to enable the bank and ancillary service providers to authenticate users in order for them to commence transactions on our platform. We have processes in place to ensure consent is obtained for such data sharing once the user becomes a part of our ecosystem only,” the company said.

Monahan also stated that under the guise of promoting financial literacy, these platforms were actually designed to get even younger children in the habit of making purchases without regard to whether they could afford or need things.

“They’re also building brand loyalty for certain banks and brands when children are young and impressionable,” he added.

Kazim Rizvi, Founding Director of public-policy think-tank The Dialogue, agrees with the concerns raised by Monahan and pointed out that these teen platforms were also collecting biometric data of minors that required a higher degree of protection.

“These apps aim at sub-18-year-olds and their parents. This raises questions on valid consent, to the usage of services and the financial system broadly. It goes without saying that such an endeavour inevitably collects swathes of data,” he said.

Some market experts also believe that regulatory control needs to be in place as minors are considered as the target audience by these platforms, but the Reserve Bank of India doesn’t have any specific norms for these young customers.

However, Raghav Aggarwal, a Principal Consultant who analyses fintech strategy and deals engagements at PwC, in his personal capacity, told Gadgets 360 that regulating these platforms and recognising them as an individual bank would involve a lot of capital requirements.

“As soon as you recognise an institution as an individual bank there are a lot more compliances, there are a lot more capital requirements which kind of come into the picture, which would block a lot of capital or would require expensive capital from these neobanks, and instead of channeling into let’s say the innovation, technology, customer acquisition, they would have to park that money in form of in form of compliances,” he said.

Aiming to become teens’ bank for life

For Fintech apps, the goal isn’t just to play a part in the lives of kids, but to become a part of their continuing lives.

“That is why we call ourselves FamPay and not just a teenage payments app,” said Kush Taneja, Co-Founder of FamPay. “We want to stay with them, we want to include them in the entire financial ecosystem, and we want to grow with them.”

Ankit Gera, Co-Founder of Junio, told Gadgets 360 that one of the ongoing developments was to give credit on UPI through the app.

“Because kirana stores in your neighbourhood may not have a swipe machine. So, we are building a feature where you can scan and pay. We are about to give credits on that payment mode because those are like small payments of 100 rupees,” he said.

Junio is also planning to eventually offer college, education, and personal loans that would be given to users when they attain the age of 18. In the short-run, the company is in talks with fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands to run various offers on its platform.

What is attracting kids?

Nath of Junio told Gadgets 360 that he and his partner Gera took Greenlight (a popular app in the US) as a reference model for their app.

“Children nowadays are the CTO of the household, almost because they’re, in many cases, far more savvy than their parents digitally,” said Nath, who formerly worked as Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President at Paytm. “So our entire approach was essentially motivated by the fact that if a child is transacting digitally, he or she should be having his own payment instruments, under supervision, of course.”

While Google Pay and PhonePe compete with huge cashbacks and rewards to get people to sign up, the team at FamPay said that kids aren’t looking for the same kind of offers.

“Kids don’t come to our platform for rewards,” said FamPay’s Taneja. “When they pick something, they don’t pick because of the reward, they pick because they feel that emotional connection, the brand value, the value prop and that aesthetic are much more higher than just rewards.”

FamPay also offers the ability to let teenage consumers communicate with customer agents on its platform using GIFs, memes, even voice notes. There are doodles on FamPay’s FamCard Me to give a personalised feel to young customers.

FamCard Me lets kids have doodles on their prepaid cards to get a personalised feel
Photo Credit: FamPay

“What happens is once teens get a card, they want to flash it out,” explained Taneja. “They want to showcase it to their friends, they want to put it on Instagram, and they want to get that feeling.”

FamPay is in plans to bring fantasy characters on its cards to bolster personalisation. Taneja indicated the fantasy characters could be from Disney and may come at the cost of FamCoins. The customers we talked to are more interested in making payments without OTPs than customising their cards, though.

“You could really get creative with FamCard Me and have seen great designs, but for the Rs. 600, I don’t think I would take that,” said Nayak. “If they would give some discount I may reconsider.”

The post Fintech for Teens Sees Transactions Worth Crores a Month on New-Age Banking Apps appeared first on Technology News.

WhatsApp is reportedly rolling out “My Contacts Except…” privacy feature, allowing users to control who can see their information on WhatsApp. The instant messaging app is also releasing a new interface for Contact Info and Group Info for specific Android beta testers, as per a separate report. This interface was previously only available when viewing Business Info. Separately, Android beta users are also getting an updated Disappearing Messages feature. This feature allows users to choose among 24 hours, seven days, and 90 days ephemeral durations as default message timer for disappearing chats. Thirdly, WhatsApp has made an improvement to its multi-device feature.

The “My Contacts Except…” option is being introduced with WhatsApp beta for Android 2.21.23.14 update, as per WhatsApp features tracker WABetaInfo. This feature allows users to choose who can see their information such as “Last Seen” status, profile photo, and “About” description on WhatsApp. This will be a fourth option along with Everyone, My Contacts, and Nobody on the Last Seen settings menu. Users have to select the contacts who they don’t wish to share information with from the “My Contacts Except…” option. The contacts not selected here will continue to be able to see all information as they did earlier. Additionally, if a user disables their Last Seen for specific contacts, they won’t be able to see their Last Seen status either. This rule for Last Seen does not apply to About and Profile Photo.

As per another report by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp beta for Android 2.21.23.13 update is bringing a host of new features for beta testers. The first is the release of a new interface for Contact Info which was released with WhatsApp beta for Android 2.21.23.12. WhatsApp is said to be rolling out the new UI for more beta testers in the latest update. The report says users may also start seeing the new interface for Group Info.

Additionally, the Disappearing Messages feature which allows users to choose among 24 hours, seven days, and 90 days of ephemeral durations. The change was previously available for beta testers on iOS, and is now available for Android testers. Introduced by the Meta-owned app last year, the feature offered an option to automatically make a particular message disappear after seven days. The update now offers choices in time duration to automatically make messages vanish on WhatsApp.

The latest rollout also brings tweaks in the multi-device update. WABetaInfo tweeted that after the multi-device beta update, WhatsApp will not send notifications about security code changes when the linked device list is changed. Security codes are used to verify that the calls and the messages which a user sends to that chat are end-to-end encrypted. These codes are unique to each chat, WhatsApp says.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on Twitter, Facebook, and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Sourabh Kulesh is a Chief Sub Editor at Gadgets 360. He has worked in a national daily newspaper, a news agency, a magazine and now writing technology news online. He has knowledge on a wide gamut of topics related to cybersecurity, enterprise and consumer technology. Write to sourabhk@ndtv.com or get in touch on Twitter through his handle @KuleshSourabh.
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Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen ‘Extremely Concerned’ by Metaverse

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New Zealand film director Peter Jackson on Wednesday announced the sale of his Oscar-winning Weta Digital special effects business to a US software firm intent on using it to develop the virtual-reality “metaverse”.

San Francisco-based Unity Software said the $1.6 billion (roughly Rs. 11,896 crore) acquisition would “shape the future of the metaverse”, an immersive 3D version of the internet tipped to transform workplaces and online interactions.

The firm said Weta’s technology — used in blockbusters such as “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “Avatar” — would allow its subscribers to create their own ultra-realistic corner of a virtual world.

“We are thrilled to democratise these industry-leading tools and bring the genius of Sir Peter Jackson and Weta’s amazing engineering talent to life for artists everywhere,” Unity president John Riccitiello said in a statement.

Under the deal, Unity takes over Wellington-based Weta Digital’s technology and engineering assets while Jackson retains majority ownership of a standalone film effects company called WetaFX.

Jackson said the opportunity to use Weta’s ground-breaking programmes was a “game-changer” for those working in creative industries.

“Together, Unity and Weta Digital can create a pathway for any artist, from any industry, to be able to leverage these incredibly creative and powerful tools,” he said.

The metaverse is expected to develop into an online platform that makes virtual experiences — such as chatting with a friend or attending a concert — feel face-to-face.

It grabbed headlines last month when Facebook changed its parent company name to Meta to reflect founder Mark Zuckerberg’s commitment to the concept.

Zuckerberg’s firm has announced plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to build the metaverse, but other tech players are also scrambling to stake a claim in the online world.

The technology might, for example, allow someone to don virtual reality glasses that make it feel as if they’re face-to-face with a friend — when in fact they are thousands of miles apart and connected via the internet.

“The metaverse has the potential to help unlock access to new creative, social, and economic opportunities. And Europeans will be shaping it right from the start,” Facebook said in a blog post.

Zuckerberg predicted in July that Facebook will transition from “primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company” over the next five years.

Facebook bought Oculus, a company that makes virtual reality headsets, for $2 billion (roughly Rs. 14,870 crore) in 2014 and has since been developing Horizon, a digital world where people can interact using VR technology.

The post Peter Jackson Sells Oscar-Winning Special Effects Firm Weta Digital in $1.6-Billion ‘Metaverse’ Deal appeared first on Technology News.

US tech giants Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft — collectively dubbed GAFAM — have been accused of not paying enough taxes, stifling competition, stealing media content and threatening democracy by spreading fake news.

As a European Union court rules Wednesday on a EUR 2.4-billion (roughly Rs. 20,666 crore) anti-trust fine on Google, we look at how the bloc has tried to regulate Big Tech.

Nobbling competition

The digital giants are regularly criticised for dominating the market by elbowing out rivals.

The EU has slapped a total EUR 8.25 billion (roughly Rs. 71,041 crore) in fines on Google for abusing its dominant market position across several of its products.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg will rule Wednesday on Google’s challenge to a 2.4-billion-euro fine imposed by the EU Commission in 2017 for abusing its power over its rivals in online shopping.

Microsoft was fined EUR 561 million (roughly Rs. 4,831 crore) by the EU in 2013 for imposing its search engine Internet Explorer on users of Windows 7.

Amazon, Apple, and Facebook are also the targets of EU probes for possible violations of competition rules.

The EU has also unveiled plans for mammoth fines of up to 10 percent of their sales on tech firms that break competition rules, that could even lead to them being broken up.

Taxation

Germany, France, Italy, and Spain won a major victory in June when the Group of Seven (G7) agreed to a minimum global corporate tax rate of at least 15 percent mainly aimed at the tech giants.

For years they have paid little or no tax through complex tax avoidance schemes.

In one of the most notorious cases, the European Commission in 2016 found that Ireland granted “illegal tax benefits to Apple” and ordered the company to pay EUR 13 billion (roughly Rs. 1,19,444 crore) plus interest to the Irish taxpayer.

After a EU court later ruled in favour of Apple, the Commission turned to the European Court of Justice to appeal.

The following year, Amazon was told to pay back EUR 250 million (roughly Rs. 2,153 crore) to Luxembourg over similar abuses there.

Personal data

Tech giants are regularly criticised over how they gather and use personal data.

The EU has led the charge to rein them in with its 2018 General Data Protection Regulation, which has since become an international reference.

They must ask for consent when they collect personal information and may no longer use data collected from several sources to profile users against their will.

Amazon was fined EUR 746 million (roughly Rs. 6,424 crore) in July by Luxembourg authorities for flouting the EU’s data protection rules.

After having fined Twitter nearly EUR half a million (roughly Rs. 4.3 crore), the Irish regular opened a probe into Facebook in April after the personal data of 530 million users was pirated.

France has also fined Google and Amazon a total of EUR 135 million (roughly Rs. 1,162 crore) for breaking rules on computer cookies.

Fake news and hate speech

Social networks are often accused of failing to rein in misinformation and hate speech.

The European Parliament and member states agreed to force platforms to remove terrorist content, and to do so within one hour.

EU rules now also forbid using algorithms to spread false information and hate speech, which some major platforms are suspected of doing to increase ad revenue.

Paying for content

GAFAM are accused by media outlets of making money from journalistic content without sharing the revenue.

To tackle this an EU law in 2019 created a form of copyright called “neighbouring rights” that would allow outlets to demand compensation for use of their content.

After initial resistance, Google signed agreements to pay for content with several French newspapers last year, a world first.

However, it did not stop the company being fined EUR half-a-billion (roughly Rs. 4,306 crore) by France’s competition authority in July for failing to negotiate “in good faith” with news organisations. Google has appealed.

The post Europe vs GAFAM: How the Battle Against Big Tech Unfolded So Far appeared first on Technology News.

Europe’s draft rules requiring tech firms to do more to tackle illegal online content could become a global gold standard for a safer online world if they are beefed up, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told EU lawmakers on Monday.

Haugen, a former Facebook employee who worked as a product manager on the company’s civic misinformation team, has accused the social media giant of repeatedly prioritising profit over clamping down on hate speech and misinformation.

Her testimony to a European Parliament committee comes after stops in London, Lisbon, and Berlin, and at a time when EU lawmakers are debating whether to firm up the Digital Services Act (DSA) proposed by EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.

“The Digital Services Act that is now before this Parliament has the potential to be a global gold standard,” Haugen said.

“It can inspire other countries, including my own, to pursue new rules that would safeguard our democracies but the law has to be strong and its enforcement firm. Otherwise, we will lose this once in a generation opportunity to align the future of technology and democracy,” she told EU lawmakers.

Haugen said the DSA should be expanded to include online content that violates a platform’s terms and conditions, and should force platforms to take responsibility for risks beyond the spread of illegal content such as election manipulation and disinformation about the harms of mental health.

Haugen said news media content should not be excluded from the rules because disinformation campaigns could still game the system by exploiting digital platforms used by publishers.

In a blog post ahead of the EU hearing, Facebook rejected Haugen’s claims that it prioritises profits over user safety.

“Contrary to recent claims about our company, we’ve always had the commercial incentive to remove harmful content from our platform,” Monika Bickert, vice president of content policy, wrote in the blog.

She said Facebook would spend more than $5 billion (roughly Rs. 37,020 crore) this year on safety and security.

EU industry chief Thierry Breton, who met Haugen earlier on Monday, criticised the increased lobbying by technology companies over the draft rules and urged lawmakers fighting over the scope of the DSA to step up their deliberations.

“Speed is everything. We need the DSA/DMA package adopted in the first half of 2022,” he said after the meeting.

The DMA, or Digital Markets Act, is the EU’s other planned landmark legislation which sets out the do’s and don’ts for global technology companies.

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Representatives from EU countries have agreed that the European Commission will be the sole enforcer of new tech rules, with a limited role for national antitrust watchdogs instead of the wider powers sought for them, officials said on Monday.

EU ministers will formally ratify the agreement on November 25 as part of the bloc’s common position ahead of negotiations with EU lawmakers and the Commission on the draft rules known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) before they can become law.

The DMA, proposed by EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager last year, aim to curb the powers of Alphabet unit Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon with a list of dos and don’ts.

German and French antitrust watchdogs and their counterparts in the other 25 EU countries in a joint letter in June argued for a bigger role in enforcing the DMA and cited their expertise in digital cases.

“The Commission is the sole authority empowered to enforce this Regulation,” said an EU document agreed by a working group of the EU Council and seen by Reuters.

“In order to support the Commission, member states may empower competent authorities enforcing competition rules to conduct investigative measures into possible infringements of obligations for gatekeepers,” the document said.

It said the EU executive shall have full discretion to decide whether to open an investigation.

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