Meng Wanzhou Sues Canada, Microsoft Opens First Azure Datacentres in Africa, and Huawei Sues America

Africa

Cassava Fintech launches money transfer service

Cassava Fintech South Africa has launched a cross border money transfer service, the company announced this week. This will see the company offer services to customers who wish to transfer funds out of South Africa. Cassava Fintech South Africa is a member of the Econet Group, a telecommunications investment group with operations in Africa, Asia, Europe, and America. The cross border transfer service allows customers to open wallets in their own countries and send remittances to these wallets from anywhere in the world.

Microsoft builds first datacentre in Africa

Microsoft has launched its first datacentres in Africa, Biztech Africa has reported. This means Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform will now store data in its new data farms in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The new datacentres are part of Microsoft’s longstanding investments on the continent. “The combination of Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure with the new regions in Africa will create greater economic opportunity for organisations in Africa, accelerate new global investment, and improve access to cloud and internet services,”  Yousef Khalidi, corporate vice president of Microsoft said.

The Americas

Meng Wanzhou sues Canada

Chief Financial Officer of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, has sued Canada for her arrest which was conducted at the behest of America, BBC has reported. Meng was arrested in December in Vancouver over allegations she had breached US sanctions on Iran. The suit was filed on Friday, the same day that Canada initiated formal arrangements to extradite the Huawei chief to America to face criminal charges. Meng has sued Canada, the police, and the border agency for breaches of her civil rights. Meng Wanzhou has denied all wrong-doing while China has labelled the action politically motivated.

Qualcomm launches patent challenge against Apple

Qualcomm Inc has initiated a patent challenge against Apple Inc. ahead of an antitrust lawsuit to be held in April between the two, Reuters has reported. Qualcomm has accused Apple of violating three of its patent in a court in San Diego, seeking millions in damages. Apple has accused Qualcomm of abusing its dominant position as the world’s largest maker of mobile chips, while Qualcomm is accusing Apple of using its patent without permission. The April hearing will bring to a head what has been a two-year long battle between the two companies.

SpaceX rocket fires into space

A SpaceX rocket headed for the International Space Station has blasted into space with an unmanned crew, it has been reported. The flight is part of preparations to send a manned crew to the space station from US soil. After lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, the Crew Dragon Capsule separated from the rocket 11 minutes later, indicating a successful operation amidst cheers.

Man who died with password to crypto-cash cleared wallet before death

QuadrigaCX wallets were cleared before the death of its founder, Gerald Cotten, BBC has reported. Gerald had died in December without revealing the password to crypto-cash accounts worth about $137 million. This was discovered by Ernst & Young who were appointed to investigate ways of recovering crypto-cash belonging to about 115,000 customers. Investigators realised the wallets were cleaned months before Mr Cotten’s death. It also found that the founder had 14 other accounts he used to trade on the QuadrigaCX exchange. Quadriga has been shut down by authorities since Cotten’s death.

Asia

Google rejects Australia’s recommendations on new regulations

Google has rejected Australia’s calls for tougher sanctions and denied it enjoys market power, Reuters is reporting. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had recommended the need for a new regulator to monitor the activities of Google and its opaque search ranking methods. Google has a 94% share of the search market in Australia, the report has said. Google denied such market power, claiming verticals like Amazon, Expedia, and Carsales.com posed stiff competition.

Huawei wants common security standards amidst concerns in the west

Huawei has urged governments and telecoms regulators to formulate common cybersecurity standards that can be applied to all players, it has been reported by Reuters. Ken Hu, Huawwei’s chairman, made the comment in Brussels where the Chinese firm has opened a cybersecurity centre for customers and security analysts to test its source code. “As a whole, the industry lacks a unified set of technical standards for security, as well as systems for verification. This is complicated by globalization of the value chain,” Ken Hu said.

Huawei sues America

Huawei has sued the US government for imposing a ban that bars federal agencies from using its devices, BBC has reported. The Trump administration has restricted the deployment of Huawei devices over security concerns. Huawei defends itself and says it has no relationship with the Chinese government. It is also claiming the US never provided evidence to support the ban on its devices. “The US Congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence to support its restrictions on Huawei products,” Huawei said.

Europe

French internet tax could yield $500 million per year

France could be earning a further $500 million in tax revenue if its proposed 3% tax on internet giants is passed, reports say. France’s Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire, said the tax if passed, would be levied on companies with a digital revenue of at least €25 million in France, and €750 million worldwide. Some of the tech giants who could face the tax include Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook. Le Maire emphasised the need to put a tax on data, which is the asset with the most value in the 21st century.

German court supports Amazon decision to limit paid reviews

A German court has upheld a ruling that allows Amazon to limit the number of paid product reviews, it has been reported. Amazon had brought legal action against a service provider that offered paid reviews to third-party companies in return for a fee or a discount on the product price. Since 2016, Amazon allowed users to include in their reviews the fact that they had been compensated for their reviews through the use of Amazon Vine.

Facebook shuts down UK-based fake news network

Facebook has shutdown over 130 accounts, groups, and pages that were allegedly part of a misinformation network, the BBC reports. The accounts started out innocently, but later changed their names and immediately started spreading fake news on LGBTQ, racism, far-right politics, and even issues between India and Pakistan. Facebook said the pages spread “spread divisive comments on both sides of the political debate in the UK.”