Natasha Lomas
TechCrunch
Philippines
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Recent articles by Natasha:
Social media a factor in death of UK schoolgirl, inquest finds
The inquest into the death of British schoolgirl, Molly Russell, has concluded that social media was a factor in her demise. → Read More
Fairphone adds fully refurbished handsets to its modular reuse mix
Ethical consumer electronics mobile maker, Fairphone, is selling a (limited) stock of its 2019 flagship as refurbished, pre-owned handsets. → Read More
Meta urged to pay reparations for Facebook’s role in Rohingya genocide
Meta is facing a fresh call to pay reparations to the Rohingya people for Facebook's role in inciting ethnic violence in Myanmar. → Read More
‘Virtual ward’ startup Doccla gets Series A injection as it eyes AI tools
Health tech Doccla, which sells a remote patient monitoring platform to UK hospitals, has closed a £15 million Series A funding round. → Read More
Bad robot: Europe plans product liability changes to make it easier to sue AIs
The EU will update its product liability laws to tackle the risk of damage caused by AIs, and other issues arising from products like drones and smart devices. → Read More
Meta reports takedowns of influence ops targeting US midterms, Ukraine war
Meta has reported takedowns of two political disinformation networks operating on its social platforms -- originating in China and Russia. → Read More
Italy fires Meta urgent request for info re: election interference measures
Italy's privacy watchdog has sent Facebook an urgent request for info, asking Meta to clarify measures it's taking around Sunday's election. → Read More
Glovo fined $78M for labor breaches in Spain
Spain’s homegrown on-demand delivery app, Glovo — which since the end of last year has been majority owned by Germany’s Delivery Hero — has been fined €79 million (~$79 million) for breaches of labor laws related to the employment classification of couriers, local press reported yesterday. El Pais reported that the record sanction for the […] → Read More
Limbo is tackling obesity with a pair of wearables and decades of physiology
Limbo's subscription weight loss plan uses a biosensing CGM wearable to nudge users towards a keto diet to tackle the obesity crisis. → Read More
Mozilla urges action to unpick platform browser lock-ins
As antitrust regulators around the world dial up scrutiny of platform power, Mozilla has published a piece of research digging into the at times subtle yet always insidious ways operating systems exert influence to keep consumers locked to using their own-brand browsers rather than seeking out and switching to independent options — while simultaneously warning […] → Read More
TikTok takes aim at political grifting and fundraising in latest policy tweaks
TikTok has announced an incoming tightening of its policies around political accounts using its video-sharing platform, such as those belonging to political parties, politicians and governments. The changes look intended to limit, er, political grifting (for want of a better term) — with an incoming ban on use of monetization features (like tipping, gifting and […] → Read More
Europe’s top court chalks up more strikes against bulk data retention
Yet more strikes against general and indiscriminate data retention in the EU: The bloc’s top court has issued a couple of rulings on joined cases today — one related to a German law on telecoms data retention which had been challenged by Deutsche Telekom and ISP SpaceNet; and another finding fault with the French state’s […] → Read More
Advisor to Europe’s top court backs antitrust watchdogs looking at privacy
A non-binding opinion issued today by an influential advisor to the Europe Union’s top court could foreshadow a major regional development at the intersection of privacy and competition regulation — or ‘privacy vs competition’ as it’s sometimes narrowly framed. The opinion follows a referral to the Court of Justice (CJEU) related to an appeal by […] → Read More
UK to change Online Safety Bill limits on ‘legal but harmful’ content for adults
Changes are incoming to draft online safety legislation in the UK which continues to attract controversy over the impact on free speech. The draft Online Safety Bill has already been years in the making but new prime minister Liz Truss signalled earlier this month that she wants “tweaks” to ensure it does not harm freedom […] → Read More
Unsealed docs in Facebook privacy suit offer glimpse of missing app audit
The revelations provide a glimpse into the privacy-free zone Facebook was presiding over when a "sketchy" data company helped itself to millions of users' data. → Read More
Game on for UK’s deeper antitrust probe of Microsoft-Activision
The UK’s competition watchdog has confirmed it will move to an in-depth investigation of the Microsoft-Activision $68.7BN gaming mega-deal, a couple of weeks after it signalled concerns about the proposed acquisition. Earlier this month, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was worried Microsoft could harm rivals in the gaming industry by restricting access […] → Read More
The EU unboxes its plan for smart device security
European Union lawmakers have proposed a new set of product rules to apply to smart devices that’s intended to compel makers of Internet-connected hardware — such as ‘smart’ washing machines or connected toys — to pay fulsome attention to device security. The proposed EU Cyber Resilience Act will introduce mandatory cybersecurity requirements for products that […] → Read More
On cloud platforms and SME antitrust complaints
End-to-end encrypted email provider Tutanota finally got a fix last month from Microsoft for a registration issue that had affected users who were trying to sign up to the tech giant’s cloud-based collaboration platform, Teams, using a Tutanota email address — but only after complaining about the problem publicly. TechCrunch picked up its complaint last […] → Read More
Europe wants to shape the future of virtual worlds with rules and taxes
EU lawmakers are moving in on the metaverse and making it plain that, whatever newfangled virtual world/s and/or immersive social connectivity that tech industry hype involving the term may refer to, these next-gen virtual spaces won’t escape one hard reality: Regulation. There may be a second metaverse certainty too, if the Commission gets its way: […] → Read More
Google fails to overturn EU’s €4BN+ Android antitrust decision
Google’s appeal against a €4.34 billion antitrust fine handed down by the European Union four years ago, after the bloc’s competition regulator found major violations in how it operated its Android mobile OS, has not succeeded in overturning the decision: The EU’s General Court largely confirmed the Commission’s decision in a ruling issued today. It’s […] → Read More