Big Tech dragged into online war
Big Tech is being dragged into the information war between Russia and the west as pressure over monitoring and censoring content on the events in Ukraine intensifies.
Meta-owned Facebook and Google’s YouTube are among those facing calls from the EU to remove content from Russia Today, Sputnik and other Kremlin-backed outlets in an effort to throttle pro-Russia propaganda. Attempts by the same companies to remove misinformation and employ fact checks have been met with accusations of censorship from Russia, which has begun restricting access to Facebook in the country and levelling threats to do the same to YouTube.
Efforts by the Russian censors to stop mentions of a “war” in the traditional media have been outgunned by a huge wave of posts by Ukrainians on social networks, according to our reporters in Moscow and Kyiv.
Meanwhile, as part of sanctions, Washington has announced export controls on semiconductor technology that are intended to isolate Russia from the world’s tech economy and stymie its military capabilities, while allowing ordinary citizens in the country to still buy mobile phones, dishwashers and laptops.
In the online conflict, where hacking attacks are expected on businesses and networks around the globe, companies are clamouring for help from cyber security providers. Reuven Aronashvili, who helped create the Israeli army’s “Red Team” unit, and now runs a cyber security company called CYE, said corporations were flooding his company with requests. “We are seeing a very significant increase — just in the last 48 hours, we’ve seen almost a 10-fold increase in demand.”
The world’s largest carmaker Toyota appears to be an early victim. On Monday, it said it would shut down all of its plants across Japan and the factories of two subsidiaries Hino and Daihatsu after a suspected cyber attack on one of its largest parts suppliers.
Senior Japanese officials told the Financial Times they feared leading companies were now targets for reprisals after the government joined other G7 industrial nations in applying tougher sanctions against Russia.
The Internet of (Five) Things
1. World’s largest SWF opposes Apple pay
Norway’s oil fund is voting against Apple’s pay policies, including $99mn in salary and bonuses for chief executive Tim Cook, part of a growing shareholder backlash against remuneration at the tech giant.
2. Work surveillance on the rise
Staff surveillance is at risk of “spinning out of control”, Britain’s largest federation of trade unions has warned. About 60 per cent of employees reported being subject to some form of tech surveillance and monitoring, in a survey by the TUC published on Monday — up from 53 per cent the previous year.
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3. Buy now, profits later
Losses at Swedish “buy now, pay later” group Klarna soared last year, as its rapid growth into new markets drove up credit defaults. The fintech on Monday reported net losses of SKr4.5bn ($470mn) for the fourth quarter, compared with SKr755mn a year earlier. Elsewhere, Zip, Australia’s largest BNPL company, has acquired one its biggest rivals, Sezzle, for A$491mn ($355mn),
4. Britain’s post-Brexit post-GDPR
Four years ago, UK businesses were scrambling to overhaul the way they collected workers’ personal information before the General Data Protection Regulation came into force, in May 2018. Now, business leaders wonder if they will have to rip up the rule books again — as a result of the British government’s plans for an independent, post-Brexit, data regime, writes Kate Beioley.
5. Chinese rivals capture Korean game makers’ flag
Pressure from Chinese rivals has wiped $20bn off the market value of South Korea’s top game companies, with the developer of global hit PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds leading the slump. The poor performance of new releases has prompted Korean game makers to shift their focus to “play-to-earn” games with digital coins and non-fungible tokens to generate revenue. Meanwhile, two UK video game industry veterans have called for Britain to invest more in homegrown talent and prevent the loss of further UK-based companies to foreign buyers.
Tech week ahead
Look out for a raft of 5G and smartphone announcements this week from Mobile World Congress, taking place Monday to Thursday in Barcelona. It’s the first such show since before the pandemic — both the 2020 and 2021 events were cancelled because of Covid-19 lockdowns.
Monday: There are earnings reports after the market close in New York from PC and printer maker HP Inc, business software provider Workday and video conferencing company Zoom.
Tuesday: Spreading religion in China via cyber space without a licence will be banned from March 1 under Beijing’s new “Measures for the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services”. A new law regulating the use of algorithms also comes into effect. This will allow users to switch off algorithmic recommendations on apps and see or delete the keywords the algorithms use to target them. In earnings, Chinese search company Baidu and business software company Salesforce.com report.
Wednesday: Cloud company Snowflake reports, along with food delivery service Just Eat Takeaway.
Thursday: Another food delivery outfit, Asia’s Grab, has earnings, along with wireless chipmaker Broadcom, which is expected to report a 3 per cent rise in quarterly revenues to $7.61bn.
Tech tools — Realme’s 5-minute wonder
On the opening day of Mobile World Congress, China’s Realme has unveiled what it claims is the world’s fastest charging smartphone. The GT NEO3 has 150W charging and can bring a battery to 50 per cent in just five minutes. It’s part of “the world’s first 100W — 200W smart devices charging architecture — UltraDart Charging Architecture (UDCA) “, says Realme. There were other phone announcements at its debut presentation at MWC, which you can watch here, but there are no specifics on prices or release dates yet.