CNN – Social Media/Technology

By Diksha Madhok, CNN Business WhatsApp blocked 2 million accounts of Indian users in a month to prevent harmful behavior, the company said in its first ever compliance report published under the country’s strict new information technology rules. Under the new rules, which came into effect in May, social media companies have to publish a

By Diksha Madhok, CNN Business This is turning out to be a landmark week for Indian startups. Digital payments firm Paytm is planning to raise as much as 166 billion rupees ($2.2 billion) in an initial public offering in Mumbai, according to a draft prospectus filed on Friday. This comes just two days after food

By Laura He, CNN Business Xiaomi has surpassed Apple to become the world’s second biggest smartphone maker for the first time ever, according to market research firm Canalys. The Chinese company took 17% of worldwide smartphone shipments for the second quarter of 2021, behind Samsung’s 19%, Canalys said in a report published on Thursday. Compared

By Brian Fung, CNN Business Facebook said Thursday it has disrupted a group of Iranian hackers who created fake social media profiles and sent targeted, malicious links to victims in an attempt to spy on Western defense contractors and military personnel. The campaign has apparent links to the Iranian government. The hackers ran a sophisticated

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business The mystery bidder who put up a whopping $28 million for an 11-minute joy ride to the edge of space alongside Jeff Bezos will not make the trip, Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin announced Thursday. Blue Origin said in a press release that the person, who asked to remain anonymous

By Chris Isidore, CNN Business The US Consumer Product Safety Commission says Amazon is selling hazardous products to its customers. The federal safety watchdog is suing Amazon to stop. Among the products cited in the suit are carbon monoxide detectors that fail to alarm, numerous children’s pajamas that could catch fire and nearly 400,000 hair

By Sara Ashley O’Brien, CNN Business Shared rides were a key part of how the founders of Uber and Lyft envisioned disrupting transportation. Back in 2014, the companies raced each other to be first to announce their carpooling options, with the promise of creating a more efficient service that’s also more affordable for riders. Then

By Diksha Madhok, CNN Business Twitter is under enormous pressure in India this year. But even before the country rolled out strict new rules for tech firms, the company was hit by a wave of requests from the government to remove content or provide user data. Indian authorities submitted more requests for account information from

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business Most major social media platforms have tried a version of Snapchat’s Stories, but Twitter is the first to admit its experiment with disappearing content failed. The company announced Wednesday that it will kill off Fleets, its disappearing posts product, on August 3 — less than a year after introducing it

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business Your smartphone breaks. The repair costs too much money. So you give up and buy a new device. That this happens so often is no coincidence. Many big device manufacturers have increasingly designed products to make them difficult to repair without specialized equipment and instructions — and have limited the

By Brian Fung, CNN Business Facebook said Wednesday that recently appointed Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan should recuse herself from all future decision-making about the agency’s lawsuit to break up the social media company. In a formal petition before the FTC, Facebook alleged that Khan’s work investigating Big Tech on behalf of the House

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson have a combined net worth of $400 billion, roughly the size of the GDP of the entire nation of Ireland. And all three men have decided to put vast sums of their wealth into chasing their space travel dreams, creating a modern space

By Chris Isidore, CNN Business Billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos are ready start offering trips to outer space. But only other billionaires — or perhaps millionaires — need apply. If you’re a space enthusiast without six figures of disposable income to spend on a trip to go where few tourists have gone before, you’ll

By Michelle Toh, CNN Business Shein, a fast fashion website that has emerged as a fierce competitor to Zara, is making its return to India — indirectly, at least — after being swept up in a crackdown on Chinese tech companies last year. The Chinese company’s platform was banished from the country as part of

By Diksha Madhok, CNN Business India’s biggest tech IPO is here. Food delivery startup Zomato is looking to raise almost $1.3 billion this week in an initial public offering in Mumbai, the company said in a recent regulatory filing. That would set a new record for the biggest technology offering in India, according to data

By Brian Fung, Zachary Cohen and Geneva Sands, CNN Business REvil, the ransomware gang that attacked meat supplier JBS Foods this spring and a major IT software vendor this month, has mysteriously vanished from the internet, according to cybersecurity experts tracking the group. Websites and other infrastructure belonging to the cybercriminal gang, which is believed

By Brian Fung and Clare Sebastian, CNN Business The most critical moment in a ransomware negotiation usually comes long before the victim and the hackers discuss a price. By the time the two sides start talking, the hackers have already gained significant control of a company’s network, most likely securing access to sensitive account data,

By Charles Riley and Saskya Vandoorne, CNN Business France’s antitrust regulator has fined Google nearly $600 million and given the company two months to come up with proposals on how to pay publishers for their content or face more punishment. The regulator said in a statement on Tuesday that Google had disregarded several injunctions related

By Michelle Toh, CNN Business Chinese regulators have cleared the way for Tencent to take complete control of Sogou, a major search engine that could help the tech firm take on market leader Baidu. The approval is a welcome blessing from Chinese regulators who have been cracking down hard recently on internet giants, shaking the

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business Microsoft on Monday announced that it’s buying cybersecurity firm RiskIQ to help companies better protect themselves as ransomware and other cyber attacks become increasingly disruptive. Microsoft said the acquisition will help its customers address the unique risks created by remote work and relying on cloud computing amid “the increasing sophistication

By Diksha Madhok, CNN Business Indians on Twitter — from top politicians to business executives — are celebrating one of the women who flew to the edge of space along with Richard Branson. Sirisha Bandla, who is the vice president of government affairs and research operations at Virgin Galactic, roared into the sky over New

By Laura He, CNN Business China’s crackdown on Big Tech just keeps growing. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) — the country’s powerful internet watchdog — this weekend proposed that any company with data on more than one million users must seek the agency’s approval before listing its shares overseas. It also proposed companies must

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business Richard Branson became the first person to ride into space aboard a rocket he helped fund. The supersonic space plane developed by his company, Virgin Galactic, roared into the sky over New Mexico early Sunday, carrying Branson and three fellow crewmembers. Branson -— along with Virgin Galactic employees Beth Moses,

By Diksha Madhok, CNN Business Twitter is going through an extraordinarily tough year in India. But the company’s response to the turmoil has left even some people who would like to be on its side baffled. Silicon Valley’s biggest tech firms have been locked in a tense stand-off with India over strict new information technology

By Michelle Toh, CNN Business Woz is throwing his weight behind the “right to repair” movement. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, known in the tech world by his nickname, spoke out on the issue during a recent appearance on Cameo, a website that lets fans pay celebrities for video messages. In a post to Louis Rossmann,

By Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN Business Microsoft’s latest security vulnerability could have a lingering impact both on consumers and businesses at a time when many around the world are already on high alert for disruptive cyber attacks. Researchers at security firm Sangfor recently found a Windows vulnerability, called PrintNightmare, that could allow hackers to remotely

By Sara Ashley O’Brien, CNN Business Instacart has tapped one of the top female executives from Facebook to be its next CEO ahead of a possible Wall Street debut. Fidji Simo, who served most recently as a vice president and head of the Facebook App, will replace Instacart’s cofounder Apoorva Mehta as chief executive of

By Rishi Iyengar, CNN Business An incident takes place. Law enforcement investigates. A culprit is identified, apprehended and prosecuted. That’s typically how we think of addressing a crime. But as some ransomware victims may now be discovering, that process is much more complicated when the criminal is on another continent and the crime takes place

By Laura He, CNN Business China is not slowing down with its historic tech crackdown. After hitting at ride-hailing company Didi once the firm went public in the United States, Chinese regulators this week piled even more pressure on the country’s tech champions. Authorities announced a slew of anti-monopoly fines on Wednesday, as well as

By Brian Fung, CNN Business Dozens of states have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google that zeroes in on its app store practices. The suit alleges that Google abused its dominance in the mobile ecosystem to favor its own Google Play Store, reducing competition in the process. The suit also takes aim at the fees

By Matt McFarland, CNN Business Fort Lauderdale, Florida plans to strike a deal with Elon Musk‘s The Boring Company to build a tunnel between its downtown and the beach. The Boring Company would offer rides in Teslas to hundreds of people a day for $5-8 per person, the city’s leaders have said before. A similar

By Clare Duffy and Brian Fung, CNN Business Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday filed proposed class-action lawsuits targeting Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter and its CEO Jack Dorsey, as well as YouTube and its parent company’s CEO Sundar Pichai, in a Hail Mary move after being removed from their platforms. Courts

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business Richard Branson will take a rocket-powered space plane on a 2,400 mile-per-hour ride to the edge of space this weekend. That’s if everything goes according to plan. And there’s plenty that could go wrong. The rocket motor could fail to light up. The cabin could lose pressure and threaten the

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business Microsoft is urging Windows users to immediately install an update after security researchers found a serious vulnerability in the operating system. The security flaw, known as PrintNightmare, affects the Windows Print Spooler service. Researchers at cybersecurity company Sangfor accidentally published a how-to guide for exploiting it. The researchers tweeted in

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business Businesses and governments around the world are scrambling to understand yet another major ransomware attack that hit over the weekend, which could potentially cost tens of millions of dollars and affect more than 1,000 other companies. Hackers hit a range of IT management companies and compromised their corporate clients by

By Diksha Madhok, CNN Business Twitter is in uncharted waters in one of its largest markets. The social media company no longer has immunity over content posted on its platform by third parties in India, according to a court filing submitted Monday by the Indian government. The court has yet to weigh in on the

By Ellie Kaufman and Zachary Cohen, CNN The Department of Defense is canceling a controversial $10 billion cloud computing contract that had been awarded to Microsoft over Amazon under the Trump administration. The department announced Tuesday that it is canceling the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract that was previously awarded to Microsoft. It will

By Rishi Iyengar, CNN Business A ransomware attack on a single software vendor may have impacted as many as 1,500 businesses around the world, in the latest example of cyber criminals crippling computer systems and demanding millions of dollars to restore them. The list of high-profile ransomware attacks grows longer and more alarming by the

By Michelle Toh, CNN Business Changes to Hong Kong’s data protection laws could force some companies to stop providing services in the city, according to an industry group that represents some of the world’s top tech firms. The prospect of a retreat from Hong Kong was floated in a letter released publicly this week by

By Alex Marquardt, CNN Business Software vendor Kaseya says that between 800 and 1,500 businesses have been compromised by the recent ransomware attack that has ricocheted around the world. Kaseya said in a statement on Monday that approximately 50 of its direct customers were breached in the attack that began to unfold on Friday. But

By Laura He, CNN Business Just one day after ride-hailing giant Didi was banned from app stores in China, authorities have started investigating three other major technology services, citing concerns about national data security. The companies under investigation recently went public in the US stock market, even though geopolitical tensions between the two countries remain

By Sam Fossum and Arlette Saenz, CNN Business The White House on Sunday urged companies who believe their systems were compromised in the ransomware attack that targeted software vendor Kaseya to immediately report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center. “Since Friday, the United States Government has been working across the interagency to assess the

By Alexis Benveniste, CNN Business Didi, China’s largest ride-hailing service, continues to fall into deeper trouble with Chinese regulators. The Cyberspace Administration of China on Sunday banned Didi from app stores after saying it posed a cybersecurity risk for customers. “Didi Chuxing app is found to have severely violated the laws by illegally collecting and

by Brian Fung, CNN Business US cyber officials are tracking a major new ransomware attack by the same group that hit meat supplier JBS Foods this spring. This time, the REvil malware hit a wide range of IT management companies and compromised hundreds of their corporate clients. The cybercriminal gang, which is believed to operate

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business Richard Branson, the British billionaire and entrepreneur, announced late Thursday that he would attempt to go to space on July 11, just nine days before the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, will make his own spaceflight. But even as he effectively cut ahead of Bezos, Branson dismissed the notion of

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business Richard Branson, the British billionaire and entrepreneur, announced late Thursday that he would attempt to go to space on July 11, just nine days before the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, will make his own spaceflight. But even as he effectively cut ahead of Bezos, Branson dismissed the notion of

By Brian Fung, CNN Business The Federal Trade Commission said Friday it has sued and settled with the technology giant Broadcom over allegations that the company sought to monopolize the supply of semiconductor chips. According to the complaint, Broadcom entered into exclusive anti-competitive deals with its business customers — including television and internet service providers

By Brian Fung, CNN Business The Federal Trade Commission said Friday it has sued and settled with the technology giant Broadcom over allegations that the company sought to monopolize the supply of semiconductor chips. According to the complaint, Broadcom entered into exclusive anti-competitive deals with its business customers — including television and internet service providers

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business The scourge of obnoxious robocalls has resumed after a brief dip during the early months of the pandemic. But a new prevention program developed by the Federal Communications Commission — which officially went into effect this week — could begin to offer some relief later this year. The program, called

By Jackie Wattles and Rachel Crane, CNN Business British billionaire Richard Branson plans to beat fellow billionaire and rival Jeff Bezos to space. Branson’s company, Virgin Galactic, made a surprise announcement Thursday that he will attempt to fly in Virgin’s rocket-powered plane on July 11 — nine days before Bezos’s planned July 20th launch. The

British billionaire Richard Branson plans to beat fellow billionaire and rival Jeff Bezos to space. Branson’s company, Virgin Galactic, made a surprise announcement that he will attempt to fly in Virgin’s rocket-powered plane on July 11 — nine days before Bezos’s planned July 20th launch.

By Oliver Darcy, CNN Business Some Facebook users in the United States are being served a prompt that asks if they are worried that someone they know might be becoming an extremist. Others are being notified that they may have been exposed to extremist content. It is all part of a test the social media

Some Facebook users in the United States are being served a prompt that asks if they are worried that someone they know might be becoming an extremist. Others are being notified that they may have been exposed to extremist content.

By Jackie Wattles and Rachel Crane, CNN Business British billionaire Richard Branson plans to beat fellow billionaire and rival Jeff Bezos to space. Branson’s company, Virgin Galactic, made a surprise announcement Thursday that he will attempt to fly in Virgin’s rocket-powered plan on July 11 — nine days before Bezos’s planned July 20th launch. The

By Brian Fung, CNN Business For years, the US antitrust enforcers at the Federal Trade Commission have pledged only to go after companies that have harmed consumers. Now, under its new chair Lina Khan, the FTC is expanding its approach in a move that could make it easier to go after tech companies like Amazon

By Brian Fung, CNN Business For years, the US antitrust enforcers at the Federal Trade Commission have pledged only to go after companies that have harmed consumers. Now, under its new chair Lina Khan, the FTC is expanding its approach in a move that could make it easier to go after tech companies like Amazon

By Oliver Darcy, CNN Business Some Facebook users in the United States are being served a prompt that asks if they are worried that someone they know might be becoming an extremist. Others are being notified that they may have been exposed to extremist content. It is all part of a test the social media

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business After a half-century of waiting, Wally Funk — who trained for NASA’s Mercury program but was denied the opportunity to go to space — is finally getting her time amongst the stars. She’s been selected by the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, to accompany him, his brother, and an as-yet

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business Pinterest on Thursday announced that it will ban all advertisements related to weight loss from its platform in an effort to prevent content that could encourage unhealthy or disordered eating habits. The bookmarking site said it will also prohibit ads with language or images that promote or disparage certain body

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business Pinterest on Thursday announced that it will ban all advertisements related to weight loss from its platform in an effort to prevent content that could encourage unhealthy or disordered eating habits. The bookmarking site said it will also prohibit ads with language or images that promote or disparage certain body

Jeff Bezos has announced that he and his brother will be on board his company Blue Origin’s first crewed mission to space. The capsule known as New Shepard is set to launch on July 20th.

Wally Funk is an American aviator who trained to become an astronaut in the 1960s, but the NASA program was scrubbed. Roughly six decades later, Funk’s dream of going to space is finally going to come true.

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business After a half-century of waiting, Wally Funk — who trained for NASA’s Mercury program but was denied the opportunity to go to space — is finally getting her time amongst the stars. She’s been selected by the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, to accompany him, his brother, and an as-yet

By Brian Fung, CNN Business A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a new Florida law regulating how social media companies can moderate content, saying hours before the law was set to take effect that the legislation violates the First Amendment and contradicts federal law. The preliminary injunction is a victory for Silicon Valley and

By Brian Fung, CNN Business A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a new Florida law regulating how social media companies can moderate content, saying hours before the law was set to take effect that the legislation violates the First Amendment and contradicts federal law. The preliminary injunction is a victory for Silicon Valley and

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried 88 satellites into orbit in one fell swoop on Wednesday, marking the company’s second dedicated rideshare mission. The rocket took off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 3:31 pm ET and flew southward along the east coast as it hurtled toward space.

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried 88 satellites into orbit in one fell swoop on Wednesday, marking the company’s second dedicated rideshare mission. The rocket took off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 3:31 pm ET and flew southward along the east coast as it hurtled toward space.

By Brian Fung, CNN Business Amazon has formally requested that newly appointed Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan be recused from all Amazon-related antitrust cases before the agency. The e-commerce giant filed a petition to the FTC on Wednesday suggesting that Khan — an outspoken tech critic who has played a key role in driving

By Brian Fung, CNN Business Amazon has formally requested that newly appointed Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan be recused from all Amazon-related antitrust cases before the agency. The e-commerce giant filed a petition to the FTC on Wednesday suggesting that Khan — an outspoken tech critic who has played a key role in driving

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business A 70-foot rocket blasted off from beneath the wing of a Boeing 747 over the Pacific Ocean Wednesday, marking the second successful orbital flight for rocket startup Virgin Orbit. The plane, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, took off from California Wednesday just before 7 am PT, and about an hour later, the

By Rachel Metz, CNN Business As George Floyd’s death sparked protests in cities across the country, six federal agencies turned to facial-recognition software in an effort to identify people in images of the civil unrest, according to a new report from a government agency. The agencies used facial recognition software from May to August of

By Rachel Metz, CNN Business As George Floyd’s death sparked protests in cities across the country, six federal agencies turned to facial-recognition software in an effort to identify people in images of the civil unrest, according to a new report from a government agency. The agencies used facial recognition software from May to August of

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business A 70-foot rocket blasted off from beneath the wing of a Boeing 747 over the Pacific Ocean Wednesday, marking the second successful orbital flight for rocket startup Virgin Orbit. The plane, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, took off from California Wednesday just before 7 am PT, and about an hour later, the

By Moira Ritter, CNN Business The US Justice Department has filed additional charges against the hacker accused of illegally accessing more than 100 million Capital One customers’ accounts and credit card applications in 2019. Paige Thompson, a former Amazon engineer, now faces six counts of computer fraud and abuse, one count of access device fraud

By Moira Ritter, CNN Business The US Justice Department has filed additional charges against the hacker accused of illegally accessing more than 100 million Capital One customers’ accounts and credit card applications in 2019. Paige Thompson, a former Amazon engineer, now faces six counts of computer fraud and abuse, one count of access device fraud

By Brian Fung, CNN A group of international law enforcement agencies have taken down DoubleVPN, a virtual private networking service allegedly used by ransomware gangs to hide their online tracks, in a coordinated operation aimed at disrupting cyber criminals. The VPN service was shut down on Tuesday as officials from the US, Canada, and several