Chinese Citizens Will Soon Need to Scan Their Face Before They Can Access Internet Services or Get a New Phone Number – This Week in Tech – 10/13/2019
Chinese Citizens Will Soon Need to Scan Their Face Before They Can Access Internet Services or Get a New Phone Number
Chinese citizens will soon have to start using facial identification in order to sign up for internet services or get a new mobile number…
Blizzard’s Hong Kong Screw-Up Is Officially an International Incident
The company’s communities are in chaos and US senators are taking notice, following the suspension of a pro ‘Hearthstone’ player who declared support for Hong Kong’s protest movement…
Apple Is Getting Slammed by Both Republicans and Democrats for Pulling an App Used by Hong Kong Protesters to Monitor Police Activity
Apple drew harsh criticism from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress on Thursday after the tech giant decided to pull an app from the App Store that was being used by protesters in Hong Kong…
Rwanda Just Released the First Smartphone Made Entirely in Africa
Rwanda’s Mara Group has grand ambitions. The company hopes to help turn Rwanda into a regional tech hub, and it just got one step closer to completing that mission. This week, the company released two smartphones, earning Mara Group the title of the first smartphone manufacturer in Africa…
‘Collapse OS’ Is an Open Source Operating System for the Post-Apocalypse
Between nuclear weapons, climate disaster, and tech bros’ unbridled thirst for control over our lives, it sure does feel like the end is approaching “nigh” status…
Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay All Quit Facebook’s Libra in One Day
Facebook’s embattled Libra project suffered a major blow on Friday as four payment processors—Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, and Mercado Pago—withdrew from participation in the Libra Association, the Geneva-based group Facebook created to develop the virtual currency. eBay also announced its resignation Friday. eBay’s former subsidiary, PayPal, quit the group last week…
Court Says FCC’s ‘Unhinged’ Net Neutrality Repeal Can’t Stop State Laws
The FCC’s repeal of net neutrality rules has been significantly weakened by a federal appeals court, which ruled that the Commission could not preempt state laws like those pending in California. And although the repeal largely survived otherwise, one judge called the logic on which it is based “unhinged from the realities of modern broadband service.”…