Here are the top trending news from the world of technology. News that we feel every tech enthusiast should keep a tab on.
1)
Meta warns employees ‘no discussion on abortion law’
Mark Zuckerberg’s company Meta has sent an internal memo to all its employees, strictly warning them that it won’t tolerate any discussion on the issue of ‘abortion ban’ in the office premises. The company was forced to issue this memo as there has been a huge hue and cry in the U.S. after the U.S. Supreme Court officially banned abortion in the country. Meta’s top official has cited that the company has zero tolerance for any open conversation on politically sensitive issues. One of the company’s employees has said on LinkedIn that Meta has already started taking down chats & messages around abortion from its internal messaging system.
2)
Instagram is testing a ‘video selfie’ feature for age verification
The days of young teens trying to fool Instagram by falsifying their age may soon well become a thing of the past. That’s because the Meta owned platform is currently testing several features that will help in ascertaining & knowing the precise age of its users. One of the interesting features happens to be a video selfie feature where users will be asked to take a video and Instagram will use facial analytical software for determining the correct age of the users. Remember Instagram has to apply many child safety features for users below 18 years of age. Recently the photo sharing platform had to face stinging criticisms for causing adverse impact on the mental health of teenagers.
3)
TikTok may hit whopping $12Bn revenue this year
The video sharing app TikTok is turning out to be a pretty big player in the online advertising business. After clocking a revenue of nearly $4 Bn in 2021, the marketing firm eMarketer has predicted that TikTok’s revenue is likely to touch mind-boggling $12Bn by end of this year. What’s really interesting, this will be more than the combined revenue of Twitter and Snap. eMarketer has further predicted that going forward TikTok will pose a major threat to even Google & Facebook, which are the two most dominant players in the online advertising space. As a matter of fact, Facebook is already facing heat from TikTok and has already launched a short video feature ‘Instagram Reel’ on its instragram platform.
4)
Nike dumps Russian market over Ukraine issue
Sportswear brand Nike has become the latest American brand to fully exit the Russian market. Nike had already temporarily halted all its operation in Russia in March but it will be only now that it will be officially exiting the Russian market. Russia is currently facing a global boycott from almost all big companies for its ongoing military invasion against Ukraine. Microsoft, Apple, Tesla, McDonalds, Amazon, Google, Starbucks, and a barrage of other big companies have exited Russia over the last few months.
5)
Zomato makes a final push in ’10-minute delivery space’
Zomato’s board has finally approved the acquisition of quick delivery platform Blinkit, which was previously known as Grofers. The publicly listed foodtech platform has acquired Blinkit in an all stock deal for $568 Mn. This marks Zomato’s official entry in the controversial ’10-minute delivery space’ Ever since Zomato unveiled its plan to enter the ’10-minute delivery space’ it has been facing huge criticism and heat. Many have argued that ‘10-minute deliver’ should be banned as it puts the lives of delivery personnel in grave danger. Many high-profile politicians including Congress party’s Karthik Chidambaram have raised this issue in the parliament and have called for immediate ban on the ’10 minute delivery’ program.