South Africans Most Online, Huawei Open to EU Supervision, Germany Cracks Down on Facebook

Africa

Vodacom claims data should be cheaper in South Africa

South Africa’s largest cellular network, Vodacom, has said data in South Africa could be cheaper if government released 4G radio spectrum on time. The company said the government’s delay in releasing the 4G radio spectrum on 700 and 800mHz was forcing them to build more towers to expand the 4G network. This increased their input costs, thereby making data more expensive than it should be. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, ICASA, will auction more spectrum by April this year, reports have said.

South Africans spend more time online than Americans

Research by Hootsuite, a social media marketing platform, has discovered that South Africans spent more time online than people in America and Germany, Business Insider reports. The research, Digital in 2019, found a typical South African spent 8 hours and 23 minutes on the internet in a day. The values in the USA and Germany is 6 hours 38 minutes, and 4 hours 37 minutes. South Africans also spent more time browsing the internet on their phones, clocking in 3 and a half hours in a day, compared to the 3 hours and 14 minutes global average.

Europe

GSMA ponders crisis meeting over Huawei

GSMA, the world’s mobile communications industry body, is proposing a discussion over Huawei’s alleged security threat and its implication for the industry. Sources in Brussels say the European Commission is considering a ban on Huawei gadgets from the bloc’s 5G network Reuters reports. GSMA put the matter before members in a proposal that would see Huawei’s position in key matters debated. Many western states, including the USA, are worried that China’s National Intelligence Law forces companies and citizens to cooperate in espionage missions. Despite the dangers, Deutsche Telekom fears removing Huawei from its network would set its 5G roll-out plan by two to three years.

Children’s smartwatch recalled due to data fears

The European Commission has demanded the recall of children’s smartwatches called Enox Safe-Kid-One due to fears they could be contacted by attackers through the devices. The commission claimed the devices posed a serious threat to the children because data transactions were unencrypted. This left the information liable to interception by third-parties. “A malicious user can send commands to any watch making it call another number of his choosing, can communicate with the child wearing the device or locate the child through GPS,” the Commission said. Enox has appealed against the decision, calling it excessive, the BBC reports.

Germany’s antitrust watchdog targets Facebook

Germany’s antitrust watchdog, the Federal Cartel Office, is cracking down on Facebook over its data collection practices. The crackdown comes after a ruling that Facebook was abusing its market dominance to collect data without explicit consent from users. “In future, Facebook will no longer be allowed to force its users to agree to the practically unrestricted collection and assigning of non-Facebook data to their Facebook accounts,” Andreas Mundt, Cartel Chief said. The Office objected to how Facebook acquires data from third-party apps and also how it tracks internet users even when they are not Facebook users. Facebook has promised to appeal the ruling, saying it faced more competition than the watchdog is admitting to.

The Americas

Amazon rejects gender and racial bias in facial recognition software

Amazon has defended itself against claims that its facial-recognition software, Rekognition, has in-built racial and gender bias, the BBC has reported. In a research conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Amazon performed the least among five tools when it came to recognising women with darker complexion. Amazon’s Rekognition had an error rate of 31% when it came to identifying women with dark skin. An earlier review of Oprah’s image using Rekognition and other facial-recognition software suggested that she was 76.5% likely to be a man. In contrast, Rekognition had a 100% success rate recognising light-skinned men. Amazon claims the study didn’t use the latest version of Rekognition.

Twitter beats Wall Street revenue target

Twitter beat expectations to record a 24% increase in fourth quarter revenue, according to a Reuters report. Though Twitter suffered a decline in active users due to a clamp down on fake profiles, the company’s earnings were boosted by an increase in video ads. The social media’s overall revenue stood at $909 million, with $791 coming from advertisement. Non-ad business revenue rose 35% to $117 million. Twitter has said it would stop declaring monthly users after the first quarter of 2019.

Asia

Tencent to invest in Reddit

Tencent is leading a Series D round of funding to raise between $150 million and $300 million for Reddit, a TechCrunch report says. Reddit prides itself as the front page of the internet, but has been banned from China. With its 150,000 Subreddits, Reddit enjoys 330 million active monthly users. Tencent is the biggest gaming company of the world. With China cracking down on gaming addiction though, the company is diversifying in other sectors to maintain income and profits.

Huawei open to EU supervision

Huawei says it is open to supervision by the EU amidst widespread scrutiny of the telecom giant’s association with Beijing, Reuters says. Huawei’s chief representative to the EU, Abraham Liu, will be making this submission. As part of his speech, Liu will reiterate how Huawei devices have not been associated with any security breeches. He will also encourage the EU to treat cybersecurity as a technical issue and not an ideological problem. While the US has toughened its stance on Huawei and other Chinese telecom companies, the French Senate rejected proposals aimed at toughening standards for telecoms devices.