Here are the top trending stories from the world of technology. Stories that we feel every tech enthusiast should keep a tab on.
1)
Elon Musk claims Apple has withheld advertising on Twitter
Twitter’s owner and billionaire Elon Musk tweeted that Apple has abruptly withheld advertising on Twitter. Musk openly criticized Apple for withholding advertising, tweeting that “do (Apple) they hate free speech in America” and also tagged CEO Tim Cook in his tweet. However, Apple has so far not confirmed that it has stopped advertising on Twitter. Apple happens to be one of the top advertisement spender on Twitter hence its withdrawal would certainly have an adverse impact on Twitter’s revenue. Since Elon Musk’s chaotic takeover of Twitter many big companies have temporarily suspended advertising on the microblogging platform, fearing that Musk’s takeover will lead to the growth of hate speech and fake news on Twitter. General Motors, Audi, Volkswagen and Pizer are some of the top companies that have pulled off advertising on Twitter
2)
Another Crypto company ‘BlockFi’ files for Bankruptcy
A leading crypto lender BlockFi announced on Monday that it has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, becoming the latest crypto company to go bust followin g the FTX debacle. BlockFi said in its filing that it had exposure to FTX liquidity crisis, eventually pushing the former towards bankruptcy. BlockFi claimed that FTX US and its subsidiary firm Almeda Research owed $275 Mn to the company. Along with BlockFi, many other small crypto companies have declared bankrupt due to the adverse impact triggered by the FTX collapse. Crypto experts and critics have termed FTX collapse as the Lehman Brother moment for the crypto industry, arguing that the debacle of the Sam Bankman Fried’s company will have a long term impact on the crypto industry.
3)
WhatsApp Denies Data Breach Report
Instant messaging giant and Meta owned platform WhatsApp has flatly denied the new reports that contact information of 500 WhatsApp users has been leaked online and put on sale on internet. WhatsApp claimed that the news report published in the news portal CyberNews was based on unsubstantiated screenshot and there was no evidence to suggest that WhatsApp’s data has been hacked. On Sunday, an article published in CyberNews claimed that an anonymous hacker has put on sale the contact information of 500 Mn WhatsApp users on sale on a popular community hacking group. These 500 Mn users reportedly hailed from various countries including the US, Germany, Italy, Spain and India.
4)
Dailyhunt’s parent company lays 150 employees
VerSe Innovation, parent company of popular news aggregator Dailyhunt and maker of short video app Josh, has announced that its has laid of 150 employees. The laid off employees constitute nearly 5% of VerSe Innovation’s total workforce. The company cited tough external condition due to the ongoing economic recession as the primary reason for opting for layoff. Both Dailyhunt and Josh are unicorns and is backed by some of the biggest companies including Microsoft and Google. As the global economy turns southwards, several high profile startups have resorted to layoffs. This includes the likes of Byju’s, Unacademy, Udaan, ChargeBee, Vedantu and many other startups.
5)
Cred acquires SaaS lending startup CreditVidya
Kunal Shah led company Cred has acquired Hyderabad based SaaS lending startup CreditVidya to consolidate its financial lending vertical. Cred has not disclosed the financial terms of the deal but confirmed that it is a stock and cash deal. CreditVidya basically provides SDKs to fintech firms that they can integrate into their Android apps and collect content driven data from users. The 1 year old CreditVidya had last raised $10 Mn in its last funding round at valuation of $30 Mn.