Vercel, formerly known as ZEIT, raises $21M Series A led by Accel and CRV for its front-end developer suite built on open source Next.js — Vercel's $21 million in funding could go a long way toward improving front-end development. — Cloud companies have thrived by making complicated …
Google says it is gradually rolling out a “Hey Google” feature that lets users adjust the listening sensitivity of Assistant devices in detecting the command — No, Google, I wasn't talking to you — Google is starting to “roll out gradually” a feature allowing …
Facebook has agreed to block access to certain anti-government content to users in Vietnam, following months of having its services throttled there, reportedly by state-owned telecoms.
Reuters, citing sources within the company, reported that Vietnam requested earlier in the year that Facebook restrict a variety of content it deemed illegal, such as posts critical of the government. When the social network balked, the country used its control over local internet providers to slow Facebook traffic to unusable levels.
An explanation at the time that the slowdown was owing to maintenance of undersea cables likely did not convince many, since it was specific to Facebook (and related properties Messenger and Instagram).
All things being equal, Facebook has shown in the past that it would prefer to keep discourse open. But all things are not equal and in this case millions of users were unable to access its services — and consequently, it must be said, unable to be advertised to.
The slowdown lasted some 7 weeks, from mid-February to early April, when Facebook conceded to the government’s demands.
One Reuters source said that “once we committed to restricting more content… the servers were turned back online by the telecommunications operators.”
Facebook offered the following statement confirming general, though not specific, aspects of the story reported by Reuters:
The Vietnamese government has instructed us to restrict access to content which it has deemed to be illegal in Vietnam. We believe freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, and work hard to protect and defend this important civil liberty around the world. However, we have taken this action to ensure our services remain available and usable for millions of people in Vietnam, who rely on them every day.
Facebook is no stranger to government requests both to restrict and to hand over data. Although the company inspects these requests and sometimes challenges them, it’s Facebook’s stated policy to comply with local law — even if that means (as it often does) complicity with government censorship practices.
The justification usually offered (as here) is that people in a country with such restrictions are better served with an incomplete set of Facebook’s communications tools rather than none at all.
Facebook invests $5.7B in Jio for a 9.99% stake, making it the largest minority shareholder in the subsidiary of India's most valued firm, Reliance Industries — Facebook has enjoyed unparalleled reach in India for more than a decade. But as China's fast-growing ByteDance emerges …
Enlarge / Small Business Administrator Jovita Carranza is flanked by Donald Trump and Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin on April 2, 2020. (credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Almost 8,000 business owners who applied for a loan from the Small Business Administration may have had their personal information exposed to other applicants, the SBA admitted on Tuesday.
The breach relates to a long-standing SBA program called Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL). It has traditionally been used to aid owners whose businesses are disrupted by hurricanes, tornadoes, or other disasters. It was recently expanded by Congress in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. In addition to loans, the law authorized grants of up to $10,000 that don't need to be paid back.
The EIDL program is separate from the larger Paycheck Protection Program that was also part of the CARES Act. The SBA says that PPP applicants were not affected by the breach.
Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Facebook says it's investing $5.7B into Reliance Jio, as part of its commitment to India, making it the largest minority shareholder of Reliance Industries — The Kabir family's textile factory in Delhi has operated since 1969. Now they use Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to reach new customers.
Sources: Vietnamese state-telcos took Facebook's local servers offline, slowing traffic, until the company agreed to increase censorship of “anti-state” posts — HANOI (Reuters) - Facebook's local servers in Vietnam were taken offline early this year, slowing local traffic …
Facebook has enjoyed unparalleled reach in India for more than a decade. But as China’s fast-growing ByteDance emerges as a formidable competitor in what has become the world’s second largest internet market, the American giant has found the horse it wants to bet on.
Facebook announced today it has invested $5.7 billion in India’s Reliance Jio telecom operator with more than 350 million subscribers. As part of the deal, Facebook will now become the largest minority shareholder in Jio, which is a subsidiary of India’s largest industrial house Reliance Industries.
The social giant said it will focus on collaborating with Jio to create “new ways for people and businesses to operate more effectively in the growing digital economy.”
David Fischer, Chief Revenue Officer, and Ajit Mohan, VP and Managing Director, India said one example of such collaboration could be bringing together JioMart, Jio’s small business initiative, with the power of WhatsApp. “We can enable people to connect with businesses, shop and ultimately purchase products in a seamless mobile experience,” they said.
More to follow…
Porsche is producing three variants of its all-electric Taycan sports sedan with base prices that range from a skosh over $105,000 to $185,000.
Now, it seems the automaker is preparing to introduce a cheaper rear-wheel-drive version, according to an interview in Car Magazine with Porsche R&D chief Michael Steiner. This newer version, which will join the Taycan Turbo S, Taycan Turbo and 4S, will have a smaller battery and be sold in markets like China that don’t need all-wheel drive, Steiner said.
Porsche wouldn’t provide any specific details to TechCrunch about this mystery fourth variant of the Taycan. The German automaker said it doesn’t talk about future products, before adding that its “electrification initiative will not stop with just three Taycan variants.”
After years and more than $1 billion in initial investment, Porsche introduced in September two variants of its first all-electric vehicle — the Taycan Turbo S and Taycan Turbo, with base prices of $185,000 and $150,900, respectively.
The company revealed just seven weeks later the Taycan 4S, a third version of its all-electric vehicle.
All the Taycans, including the 4S, have the same chassis and suspension, permanent magnet synchronous motors and other bits. The 4S is lighter, cheaper and slightly slower than the high-end versions.
The standard 4S is, so far, the cheapest Taycan available, with a base price of at $105,250, including a delivery fee. The standard 4S comes with a 79.2 kWh battery pack and a pair of electric motors that produce 482 horsepower (360 kW). With the launch control engaged, the horsepower jumps to 562.
There’s also a performance-battery-plus version of the 4S that adds $6,580 to the base price and comes with a 93.4 kWh battery and dual electric motors that can produce up to 563 hp (420 kW). Both of the 4S models have a top speed of 155 miles per hour and can travel from 0 to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds.
Sources: Expedia is in advanced talks to sell a stake to Silver Lake and Apollo Global Management in a deal likely to total about $1B — Deal expected to hand private-equity firms board representation, sources say — Expedia Group Inc. is in advanced talks to sell a stake …
A new federal aid package designed to provide economic businesses still immobilized by the coronavirus just passed in the Senate.
The $484 billion in total aid passed after two weeks of negotiations between Republicans, who wanted to press additional small business funding forward without much reevaluation, and Democrats, who were eventually able to secure additional relief measures beyond the small business funding at the heart of the bill.
The focal point of the new legislation is the $310 billion it will allocate to the Paycheck Protection Program, a key feature of the first relief package. That program was beset by problems from the outset, with a huge portion of small business owners failing to secure the forgivable loans through banks even with prompt applications in the program’s earliest moments.
Within a few days of going live, it became clear the application process was plagued by issues and its massive $349 billion pool of funds had already dried up. Some small business owners also reported that they couldn’t find a bank to accept their application, as some banks prioritized existing customers.
Among those issue: Some of the money was sucked dry by entities that a program for small businesses probably shouldn’t be helping out to begin with. Remarkably, even hedge funds, major restaurant chains and Harvard University cashed in on the loans under the existing terms, while most owners of actually small businesses were left high and dry.
Companies with fewer than 500 employees were eligible for the loans, which become forgivable if the money is put toward payroll by hiring back or retaining employees. The maximum loan under the PPP is 2.5 times a company’s average monthly payroll, up to $10 million.
Out of the new $321 billion, $60 billion will go to smaller lenders who can provide loans to small businesses that might not qualify at major banks. Other measures Democrats secured in the new legislation include an additional $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for a national COVID-10 testing strategy.
The bill does not include any funding for a vote by mail system—federal funds that some Democratic lawmakers and a bipartisan group of state election officials views as essential for conducting safe voting this fall.
The latest relief bill, which President Trump has signaled he will sign, will now move to the House where it is expected to pass on Thursday.
Enlarge / Dr. Jane Goodall walking with local villagers and staff members of TACARE, one of the many programs of the Jane Goodall Institute. (credit: Michael Haertlein/National Geographic)
A few years ago, National Geographic released a beautifully filmed biopic called Jane on famed primatologist Jane Goodall. The film helped explain how someone with no scientific experience ended up in Africa studying chimpanzees in the hope it would shed light on the origins of human behavior. But, despite a compelling story and restored archival footage, Jane seemed incomplete. While it told the story of how Goodall ended up both a scientist and a public figure, the scenes of her in the present day (to the extent pre-2017 resembles the present day) show that she's left her research behind to become an advocate for conservation.
How she went from the researcher shown in Jane to the head of an international non-profit was left as an exercise to the viewer to figure out. So, I was excited to see that National Geographic had a follow-up documentary, Jane Goodall: The Hope, in the works. What follows is part review and part interview with Goodall.
For me, the hope was that The Hope would trace how Goodall managed the transition from researcher to international environmental advocate. Instead, the film simply gives a picture of what her life is like today, moving among her projects and following her hectic travel schedule. In that sense, the two documentaries act more like bookends on her career.
Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Jon Keegan / Sherwood News : A case study of the amount and kinds of ads in 12 shows on the ad-supported tiers of Netflix, Peacock, Disne...
