Natasha Lomas
TechCrunch
Philippines
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Recent articles by Natasha:
Catalan separatists have tooled up with a decentralized app for civil disobedience –
Is our age of ubiquitous smartphones and social media turning into an era of mass civil unrest? Two years after holding an independence referendum and unilaterally declaring independence in defiance of the Spanish state — then failing to gain recognition for la república and being forced to watch political leaders jailed or exiled — Catalonia’s […] → Read More
UK quietly ditches porn age checks in favor of wider online harms rules –
A controversial UK government scheme to introduce mandatary age checks for accessing online pornography has been dropped — for now. Introduction of the measure, which was intended to protect children from accessing inappropriate content online, had already been delayed by several months this year, most recently after a bureaucratic oversight. The reason given for ditching […] → Read More
Europe issues interim antitrust order against Broadcom as probe continues –
Europe has ordered chipmaker Broadcom to stop applying exclusivity clauses in agreements with six of its major customers — imposing so called ‘interim measures’ based on preliminary findings from an ongoing antitrust investigation. The move follows a formal statement of objections issued by the Competition Commission in June. At the time the regulator said it would […] → Read More
Germany says it won’t ban Huawei or any 5G supplier up front –
Germany is resisting US pressure to shut out Chinese tech giant Huawei from its 5G networks — saying it will not ban any supplier for the next-gen mobile networks on an up front basis, per Reuters. “Essentially our approach is as follows: We are not taking a pre-emptive decision to ban any actor, or any company,” […] → Read More
WeWork pulls thousands of phone booths out of service over formaldehyde scare –
WeWork, the co-working empire once valued at $47BN before reality struck plunging the business and its investors into crisis, has another problem to add to its growing pile — one which doesn’t exactly reflect well on its core business of kitting out and maintaining modern working environments. The problem is a safety concern affecting users […] → Read More
UK biotech startup Mogrify injects $16M to get novel cell therapies to market soon –
Cambridge, UK-based biotech startup Mogrify, which is working on systematizing the development of novel cell therapies in areas such as regenerative medicine, has closed an initial $16 million Series A. The raise follows a $4M seed in February — taking its total raised to date to $20M. Put simply, Mogrify’s approach entails analysis of vast […] → Read More
California’s Privacy Act: What you need to know now –
This week California’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, published draft guidance for enforcing the state’s landmark privacy legislation. The draft text of the regulations under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) will undergo a public consultation period, including a number of public hearings, with submissions open until December 6 this year. The CCPA itself will take […] → Read More
Trump gets on Twitch –
The reelection campaign will be livestreamed. US president Donald Trump has joined Amazon-owned livestreaming platform Twitch. Twitch is best known as a social video streaming platform for gamers but does host other content, including politics. The verified DonaldTrump Twitch account, spotted earlier by Reuters, has just one video in the recent broadcast section so far: […] → Read More
New Vector scores $8.5M to plug more users into its open, decentralized messaging Matrix –
New Vector, a European startup founded in 2017 by the creators of an open, decentralized communications standard called Matrix to drive adoption and grow an ecosystem around an alternative messaging protocol for instant messaging and VoIP apps, has raised an $8.5 million Series A funding round. Investors in New Vector’s Series A round include enterprise […] → Read More
European risk report flags 5G security challenges –
European Union Member States have published a joint risk assessment report into 5G technology which highlights increased security risks that will require a new approach to securing telecoms infrastructure. The EU has so far resisted pressure from the U.S. to boycott Chinese tech giant Huawei as a 5G supplier on national security grounds, with individual […] → Read More
China attacks Apple for allowing Hong Kong crowdsourced police activity app –
Apple’s decision to greenlight an app called HKmaps, which is being used by pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong to crowdsource information about street closures and police presence, is attracting the ire of the Chinese government. An article in Chinese state mouthpiece, China Daily, attacks the iPhone maker for reversing an earlier decision not to allow […] → Read More
Europe’s recharged antitrust chief makes her five year pitch to be digital EVP –
Europe’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, set for a dual role in the next Commission, faced three hours of questions from members of four committees in the European Parliament this afternoon, as MEPs got their chance to interrogate her priorities for a broader legislative role that will shape pan-EU digital strategy for the next five years. […] → Read More
Laurel Bowden of VC firm 83North on the European deep tech and startup ecosystems –
London and Tel Aviv based VC firm 83North has closed out its fifth fund at $300 million, as we reported earlier. It last raised a $250 million fund in 2017 and expects to continue the same investment mix, while tracking developments in emerging areas like healthcare AI and autonomous vehicles. In a conversation with general […] → Read More
83North closes $300M fifth fund focused on Europe, Israel –
83North has closed its fifth fund, completing an oversubscribed $300 million raise and bringing its total capital under management to $1.1BN+. The VC firm, which spun out from Silicon Valley giant Greylock Partners in 2015 — and invests in startups in Europe and Israel, out of offices in London and Tel Aviv — last closed […] → Read More
Facebook is being leant on by US, UK, Australia to ditch its end-to-end encryption expansion plan –
Here we go again. Western governments are once again dialling up their attack on end-to-end encryption — calling for either no e2e encryption or backdoored e2e encryption so platforms can be commanded to serve state agents with messaging data in “a readable and usable format”. US attorney general William Barr, acting US homeland security secretary Kevin […] → Read More
Europe’s top court sets new line on policing illegal speech online –
Europe’s top court has set a new line for the policing of illegal speech online. The ruling has implications for how speech is regulated on online platforms — and is likely to feed into wider planned reform of regional rules governing platforms’ liabilities. Per the CJEU decision, platforms such as Facebook can be instructed to […] → Read More
Uber launches a shift-work finder app, Uber Works, starting in Chicago –
What do you do when your current business model is so staggeringly loss-making you’re having to warn investors it may never turn a profit, at the same time as it’s under increasing legal and regulatory attack? One answer might be to pivot. Uber isn’t doing that, exactly. Not yet anyway. But it has just officially […] → Read More
UK privacy ‘class action’ complaint against Google gets unblocked –
The UK Court of Appeal has unanimously overturned a block on a class-action style lawsuit brought on behalf of four million iPhone users against Google — meaning the case can now proceed to be heard. The High Court tossed the suit a year ago on legal grounds. However the claimants sought permission to appeal — and […] → Read More
Twitter and TweetDeck are experiencing partial outages –
It’s not just you, Twitter has gone wobbly again. Users of the social network in Asia and Europe are reporting a range of problems tweeting and viewing certain types of content this morning. Among the problems being reported are not being able to post certain types of content to the site (such as polls and […] → Read More
Elizabeth Warren bites back at Zuckerberg’s leaked threat to K.O. the government –
Presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren has responded publicly to a leaked attack on her by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, saying she won’t be bullied out of taking big tech to task for anticompetitive practices. I'm not afraid to hold Big Tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon accountable. It's time to #BreakUpBigTech: — Elizabeth […] → Read More