LocalNet - Technology

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UK to launch new watchdog next year to police tech giants

LONDON (AP) ??" Britain plans to create a new watchdog to police big tech companies including Google and Facebook to counter their market dominance and prevent them from exploiting consumers and small businesses.

The U.K. government said Friday that it's setting up a "Digital Markets Unit" next year to enforce a new code of conduct governing the behavior of tech giants that dominate the online advertising market.

The Digital Markets Unit, scheduled to launch in April, will oversee a new regulatory regime for tech companies that's aimed at spurring more competition. Read More

South Korean chat room operator gets 40 years for blackmail

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ??" The operator of an online chat room in South Korea was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in prison for blackmailing women, including minors, into filming sexually explicit video and selling them to others.

The Seoul Central District Court convicted Cho Ju-bin, 24, of violating the laws on protecting minors and organizing a criminal ring, court spokesman Kim Yong Chan said.

The court ruled Cho "used various methods to lure and blackmail a large number of victims into making sexually abusive contents and distributed them to many people for an... Read More

Mexico moves to stem unauthorized sharing of sexual images

MEXICO CITY (AP) ??" Activist Olimpia Coral went through an inferno in 2013, when an ex-boyfriend posted sexual images that made the rounds in her conservative town in Mexico. Things got so bad ??" the shaming, the internet bullying ??" that she hid in the trunk of a taxi when going to her grandmother's house a few blocks away.

Seven years later, she has a proposed federal law named after her. Mexico's Senate has approved hefty prison time for the filming or distribution of sexually explicit images without a person's consent or through deceit.

Supporters of "Olimpia's... Read More

Q&A: Will Twitter, Facebook crack down on Trump?

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ??" For the past four years, President Donald Trump has enjoyed the special status of a world leader on Twitter and Facebook, even as he used his perch atop the social media pyramid to peddle misinformation and hurl abuse at his critics.

While regular users could have faced being suspended or even booted from the platforms, Trump's misleading proclamations and personal attacks have thus far only garnered warning labels.

But could his loose leash on the platforms be yanked on Jan. 20 when his successor, Joe Biden, is inaugurated?

Here are... Read More

The pandemic is changing Hollywood, maybe forever

NEW YORK (AP) ??" "No New 'Movies' Till Influenza Ends" blared a New York Times headline on Oct. 10, 1918, while the deadly second wave of the Spanish Flu was unfolding.

A century later, during another pandemic, movies ??" quotes no longer necessary ??" are again facing a critical juncture. But it's not because new films haven't been coming out. By streaming service, video-on-demand, virtual theater or actual theater, a steady diet of films have been released under COVID-19 every week. The Times has reviewed more than 460 new movies since mid-March.

Yet until recently... Read More