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TikTok agrees $92 mn deal to settle US privacy lawsuits
San Francisco (AFP) - TikTok has agreed to pay $92 million in a deal to settle a cluster of US class-action lawsuits accusing the video-snippet sharing platform of invading the privacy of young users. A legal filing Friday in federal court in the state of Illinois urged a judge to approve the settlement, which includes TikTok being more transparent about data gathering and better training employees about user privacy. The litigation combined 21 class-action cases taking aim at TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance. "The TikTok app infiltrates its users' devices and extracts a bro...
AFP
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The Week Ahead: Long-term planning in China worth noting for US investors
American investors may be excused for suffering from chronic short-termism. This is a persistent condition reinforced by the financial industrial complex of stock market television, websites and Internet memes. Scouring quarterly financial statements to discern the health and prospects of a company seems quaint and Luddite when an Instagram ice cream photo can cause a multibillion-dollar swing in the market value of a struggling video game retailer. (Yes, this actually happened last week to GameStop shares. No, the GameStop #stonk story is not over.) And while there is plenty of important shor...
Miami Herald
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UN rights chief hails US shift from Trump migration policies
Geneva (AFP) - The UN rights chief on Friday celebrated the shift in the United States under President Joe Biden away from a range of immigration policies introduced under his predecessor Donald Trump. In her annual global overview of the human rights situation around the world, Michelle Bachelet voiced deep concern over violations committed in a wide range of countries, but was upbeat when her attention turned to the United States. Speaking in a video message to the UN Human Rights Council, Bachelet said she welcomed "new steps to end several migration policies that violated the human rights ...
AFP
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Beijing loyalists urge reforms to ensure only ‘patriots’ win in Hong Kong elections
Leading Beijing loyalists have been calling for reforms to Hong Kong’s electoral system across state-run and pro-Beijing media, while local media sources have said that China is mulling changes to the city’s electoral maps, seats and voting system. Their comments came ahead of China’s annual Two Sessions on March 5, where members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the National People’s Conference will meet and discuss major issues on the national agenda. “Hong Kong’s electoral system is not well established and has several loopholes,” Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of t...
Hong Kong Free Press
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Huawei, controversial in the West, is going strong in the Gulf
Dubai (AFP) - Chinese telecoms giant Huawei is enjoying an extended honeymoon with oil-rich Gulf nations, despite being criticised in the United States and Europe as a potential security threat. Arab Gulf countries -- strategic partners of Washington that are seeking to diversify their economies -- are investing heavily in the sector as their appetite for technology grows. Huawei has struggled in recent years in the face of US sanctions, as Washington claims Huawei has close ties to China's military and that Beijing could use its equipment for espionage -- accusations the company denies. Brit...
AFP
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Japanese gardening firm Takasho to open software unit in Philippines
TOKYO, NNA - Japanese gardening company Takasho Co. is planning to set up a subsidiary in the Philippines in August to create garden space designing apps and videos to promote its business. Takasho will take a 99.7 percent stake in Takasho Garden Life Design Lab Phil. Corp. in the province of Bulacan, near Manila, with a capital of 12 million pesos ($247,000), the company said in a news release Monday. To deal with restrictions due to COVID-19, the company is producing videos to help customers imagine garden space designs, including changes in seasons and differences in day and night, while de...
NNA Business News
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Trade agreements could help SE Asia attract big foreign investment again, lead recovery
By Celine Chen SINGAPORE, NNA - The new RCEP free-trade agreement could offer a promising investment boost in post-COVID recovery for countries in the Asia Pacific walloped by the pandemic, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In a report in January, UNCTAD said ASEAN could take advantage of RCEP or the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership to reinvigorate its ability to draw sizable foreign direct investments (FDI) after it plunged by 31 percent to $107 billion last year as flows to its largest recipients in the grouping weakened. The setback con...
NNA Business News
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Taiwan prepares to re-engage positively with China 'post-pandemic'
Taiwan is preparing to re-engage “mutually positive” interactions with China in the “post-pandemic era,” the new Minister of Mainland Affairs stated Tuesday. Chiu Tai-san, 64, made the remark during a news conference held after he took over as chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), a Cabinet-level agency which oversees implementation of Taiwan`s policies toward China. Chiu stated that in the post-Covid-19 era, "cross-strait interaction" with China "definitely will revive.” Chiu said President Tsai Ing-wen had asked him to prepare for “a new situation in cross-strait relations” includi...
DPA
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Plight of Irish businessman trapped in mainland China sounds warning for Hong Kong
Let me introduce you to Mr Richard O’Halloran. Mr O worked for a company called China Aviation Leasing Service (CALS). This company was based in Dublin but owned by a mainland businessman called Min Jiedong. Mr Min got into trouble in his home country over suggestions that he had collected money from China investors and exported it through the usual murky channels to buy an aircraft in Dublin which, it appears, is the only asset of CALS. The plane has been rented out on a long lease to a Finnish airline. Mr Min was eventually prosecuted and jailed. Some influential investors, it seems, wanted ...
Hong Kong Free Press
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Updating Uyghur: The power of online discussions for language preservation
Screenshot from YouTube video of Eliyar Tursun channel explaining how Uyghur is written when using the the Arabic script Languages need to adapt to the modern world to catch-up with new technology and concepts if they want to remain competitive, particularly among younger speakers. This is particularly true for Uyghur, a Turkic language spoken in Western China that is under threat due to targeted discrimination conducted by Chinese authorities in the hope that Chinese may appear more attractive and technology-friendly among Uyghur youth. Uyghur linguists have long been aware of the fact that U...
Global Voices
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