Saturday, February 27, 2021
Germany Latest News
  • Sports
  • USA
  • Asia
  • Health
  • Life Style
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Latin America
  • Africa
  • Europe
No Result
View All Result
Germany Latest News
Home Tech

Silicon Valley is going all out to fight coronavirus. Thats a risky move.

admin by admin
March 19, 2020
in Tech
0
Silicon Valley is going all out to fight coronavirus. Thats a risky move.
0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Related posts

Google halts Play Store ‘review bombing’ by GameStop traders

Google halts Play Store ‘review bombing’ by GameStop traders

January 31, 2021
WhatsApp extends ‘confusing’ update deadline

WhatsApp extends ‘confusing’ update deadline

January 16, 2021

Digital Politics is a column about the global intersection of technology and the world of politics.

The race to contain the coronavirus is turning the world on its head — even for Big Tech.

For years, Facebook, Google, Uber and other tech giants dismissed claims they needed to do more to police their global empires. Social networks said there were technical limits to how they could moderate online content. So-called gig-economy companies — those that rely on independent contractors, not direct employees — said they would not offer these workers wide-ranging employment benefits. Online advertisers said there was only so much they could do to stop tricksters from manipulating their digital platforms to make a profit.

Yet amid the coronavirus pandemic, those claims are falling like dominoes.

Since early March, Facebook has aggressively deleted reams of misinformation from its networks, mostly generated by normal users and not state-backed groups, while clamping down on people selling medical face masks and other products, often at hiked-up prices, on its platforms.

Google removed thousands of videos on YouTube, its video-streaming service, that spread false reports and remedies about the coronavirus.

The likes of Uber and Amazon, which rely heavily on contractors to deliver goods, announced plans to offer employees and independent workers alike paid sick leave — even as Uber challenges such rights in court.

Google removed thousands of videos on YouTube, its video-streaming service, that spread false reports and remedies about the coronavirus. Across the globe, videos about the coronavirus also carried a message underneath that encouraged viewers to seek advice from official government sources. Google also deleted apps from its online store that had tried to profit from the global crisis. And it prioritized official sources in peoples online search results — steps that showed how far — and how quickly — the search giant could go to police its digital offerings.

“The good thing about coronavirus is that weve seen more movement from online platforms than ever before,” said Claire Wardle, a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy Schools Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, who has tracked the spread of misinformation across elections from Brazil to India.

This push — in the name of combating COVID-19 — follows years of regulatory browbeating of these companies to do more to police their digital services. Only recently has Big Tech woken up to this fact (following decades of pushing against any forms of new legislation), leading to a mad dash to lobby policymakers worldwide over the types of rules needed to thwart the spread of misinformation and to give employment rights to gig-economy workers.

Uber has announced plans to offer paid sick leave to both employees and independent workers | Loan Silvestre/AFP via Getty Images

It also shows the willingness of the tech industry — just like other parts of the global economy — to do its part in combating a pandemic that, so far, has infected almost 175,000 people across every continent, excluding the Antarctic, leaving more than 6,500 dead.

But the sudden about-turn — often on hot-button issues that had been red lines for the industry only months ago — is startling. It shows that what had really been holding these companies back was not technical limits or a desire to give independent contractors more work flexibility.

It was, above all, a willingness to act. And thats something that firms like Facebook, Google and Amazon are going to find difficult to roll back on.

When the current global crisis calms down, regulators from Brussels, Washington and elsewhere will start asking tough questions about why tech giants cant take similar steps to police large amounts of online content or provide greater employment benefits for the grRead More – Source

politico

Previous Post

Brussels in talks with Netflix about reducing internet congestion

Next Post

Coronavirus is forcing people to work from home. Will it break the internet?

Next Post
Coronavirus is forcing people to work from home. Will it break the internet?

Coronavirus is forcing people to work from home. Will it break the internet?

RECOMMENDED NEWS

Spiky ice spires may stud the equator of Jupiters moon Europa

2 years ago
HK singer-actor Alex Fong raises $1.37 million after 45km swim round Hong Kong Island

HK singer-actor Alex Fong raises $1.37 million after 45km swim round Hong Kong Island

1 year ago
Restrictions leave US travelers high and dry

Restrictions leave US travelers high and dry

8 months ago
Facebook Greetings feature lets you ‘poke’ your friends in five brand new ways

Facebook Greetings feature lets you ‘poke’ your friends in five brand new ways

3 years ago

FOLLOW US

  • 81 Followers
  • 106k Subscribers

BROWSE BY CATEGORIES

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Health
  • latest news
  • Latin America
  • Life Style
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • USA

BROWSE BY TOPICS

2018 League Balinese Culture Bali United Budget Travel Champions League Chopper Bike Doctor Terawan Istana Negara Market Stories National Exam Pope Francis may mediate Gulf Crisis Solution Visit Bali
No Result
View All Result

Recent Posts

  • Google halts Play Store ‘review bombing’ by GameStop traders
  • Germany bans entry from the UK, Ireland, Brazil, Portugal and South Africa over COVID-19 variants
  • Biden warns of growing cost of delay on economic coronavirus aid plan
  • Nasa’s Perseverance rover is bearing down on Mars
  • India protests: Internet cut to hunger-striking farmers in Delhi

Categories

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Health
  • latest news
  • Latin America
  • Life Style
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • USA

Tags

2018 League Balinese Culture Bali United Budget Travel Champions League Chopper Bike Doctor Terawan Istana Negara Market Stories National Exam Pope Francis may mediate Gulf Crisis Solution Visit Bali
German Constitutional Court upholds ban on anti-lockdown protest
latest news

German Constitutional Court upholds ban on anti-lockdown protest

by admin
December 6, 2020
0

An anti-lockdown group had filed an urgent court appeal hoping to allow 20,000 people to gather in Bremen. Despite the...

Read more

Recent News

  • Google halts Play Store ‘review bombing’ by GameStop traders
  • Germany bans entry from the UK, Ireland, Brazil, Portugal and South Africa over COVID-19 variants
  • Biden warns of growing cost of delay on economic coronavirus aid plan

Category

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Health
  • latest news
  • Latin America
  • Life Style
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • USA

Recent News

Google halts Play Store ‘review bombing’ by GameStop traders

Google halts Play Store ‘review bombing’ by GameStop traders

January 31, 2021
Germany bans entry from the UK, Ireland, Brazil, Portugal and South Africa over COVID-19 variants

Germany bans entry from the UK, Ireland, Brazil, Portugal and South Africa over COVID-19 variants

January 31, 2021
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact

© 2021 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Sports

© 2021 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.