The AI-powered defense company founded by tech iconoclast Palmer Luckey has landed a $450 million round of investment that values the startup at $4.6 billion just four years in. In April, reports suggested that the company was on the hunt for fresh investment and headed for a valuation between four and five billion, up from […]
Chaos and crisis are sisters, and none more so than when you dial for emergency help. A call to 911 in the United States (and urgent numbers globally) spins off a number of additional calls to emergency response teams, ambulances, hospitals and other actors who need to coordinate action to save your life. Theoretically, everyone […]
Climate change is intensifying across the globe, and one of the most challenging cases is Japan. In addition to lying on a major fault, the archipelago is increasingly inundated from rising sea levels that make the country more prone to disasters. A decade ago, the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami dealt billions of dollars in damage, […]
Facebook made a few noteworthy changes to its misinformation policies this week, including the news that the company will now allow claims that COVID was created by humans — a theory that contradicts the previously prevailing assumption that humans picked up the virus naturally from animals. “In light of ongoing investigations into the origin of […]
Google, Facebook, Telegram, LinkedIn and Tiger Global-backed Indian startups ShareChat and Koo have either fully or partially complied with the South Asian nation’s new IT rules, according to two people familiar with the matter and a government note obtained by TechCrunch. India’s new IT rules, unveiled in February this year, require firms to appoint and […]
Twitter called the recent visit by police to its Indian offices a form of intimidation and said it was concerned by some of the requirements in New Delhi’s new IT rules. Speaking for the first time since a special squad of Delhi police made a surprise visit to two of its offices on Monday, Twitter […]
India said on Wednesday that WhatsApp’s lawsuit challenging the new local IT rules is an “unfortunate last moment” attempt to prevent new regulations from going into effect in “a clear act of defiance,” and said the Facebook-owned service hadn’t raised any specific objection about the traceability requirement in writing in more than two and a half years. […]
India has asked social media firms to provide an update on whether they have complied with its new IT rules “as soon as possible” and “preferably today” even as the new regulations are being legally challenged by WhatsApp. In a letter to “significant social media intermediaries” — which New Delhi defines as social media firms with […]
The handling of user data in China has become a delicate matter for foreign tech companies operating in the country. Apple’s move to store the data of its Chinese customers in servers managed by a Chinese state-owned cloud service has stoked controversy in the West over the years. A recent New York Times investigation found […]
WhatsApp has sued the Indian government challenging new regulations that could allow authorities to make people’s private messages “traceable,” and conduct mass surveillance. The Facebook-owned instant messaging service, which identifies India as its biggest market by users, said it filed the lawsuit in the High Court of Delhi on Wednesday. It said New Delhi’s “traceability” […]