Africa
Mobile money transactions fall in Ghana
The value of mobile money transactions in April fell by 3% after government passed the e-levy, the Bank of Ghana has reported. This comes despite a rise in mobile money accounts from 49.9m to 50.2 million.
Egypt’s Esaal secures $1.7 in seed round
Egyptian healthtech startup Esaal has secured $1.7m in seed funding. The 2018-founded startup will use the funds to advance services across the MENA region, it was reported.
54Ggene signs MoU with Senegal’s National Academy of Sciences and Technology
54gene has signed an MoU with the National Academy of Sciences and Technology in Senegal. The healthtech firm will establish SEN-GENOME, a genomic database of Senegal’s population.
Europe
Watchdog investigates Google over dominance
The UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) is probing Google over its dominance in the online market. The CMA wants to know if the tech giant is favouring its own products in Google searches.
UK fines Clearview AI over privacy charges
UK’s privacy watchdog has fined Clearview AI for illegally storing images of UK residents. The Information Commissioner’s Office has slapped a £7.5m fine on the company, demanding illegal images be deleted.
NI police illegally shared data with foreign law enforcement
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) illegally shared personal data of 152 persons with United States law enforcement. The Information Commissioner’s Office is investigating the case.
The Americas
Canada to ban China’s top two telecommunications companies
Canada says it will ban Huawei and ZTE from its 5G phone networks. Canada claims the move will boost the country’s internet infrastructure and improve security; Huawei considers the move political.
WhatsApp is launching business chat feature
Meta has announced that it will launch a business chat feature for WhatsApp Business. The new feature will allow small businesses to communicate with their customers free of charge.
New bill to stop US companies from accepting digital yuan
US Senators are proposing a new bill that will bar tech giants from hosting apps that accept digital yuan as payment. They fear the apps will allow China to spy on US citizens.
Asia
Airbnb to quit China
Airbnb has set out plans to quit China as lockdown directives continues to impair tourism. The company will remove all listings by summer from a country contributing only 1% of Airbnb’s global revenue.
Iran allegedly offered bribes to Instagram moderators
Iran allegedly offered to bribe Instagram’s Persian language content moderators to remove accounts belonging to journalists and activists. Iran’s intelligence service allegedly offered up to $10,700 in bribes.
India’s SpiceJet suffers ransomware attack
Ransomware attackers targeted India’s SpiceJet airline on Tuesday, leaving passengers stranded after boarding. The airline announced it has since rectified the situation.
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