Technology

Facebook Inc said on Tuesday it would affix labels to political ads shared by users on their own feeds, closing what critics have said for years was a glaring loophole in the company's election transparency measures.

Alphabet Inc's Google on Wednesday introduced new advertising features intended to help local businesses get more customers and recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Environmental campaigners delivered a 12-foot (3.6-metre) tall mock-up of an Amazon parcel to the French finance ministry on Wednesday to demand that the government rein in the e-commerce giant's expansion in France.

A new U.S. rule regarding China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is a needed "clarification" to help develop standards, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Wednesday, adding that security concerns remain over the telecoms equipment maker.

Contentful, a startup based in Berlin and San Francisco, said on Wednesday it had raised $80 million from investors led by Sapphire Ventures to scale up its content management systems for commercial websites.

For the past seven years, a Munich-based firm called riskmethods has tried to interest companies in buying software that allows them to track all their suppliers in a way that minimizes risks in operating globally spread supply chains.

U.S.-Israeli Pagaya, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to manage institutional money, said on Wednesday it raised $102 million in a private funding round led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC [GIC.UL].

Qualcomm Inc on Tuesday said it is putting 5G technology into chips for smartphones that will sell for as little as $300 and that will come to market in the second half of this year.

The U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday posted a new rule that allows U.S. companies to work with China's Huawei to develop standards for 5G and other cutting-edge technologies, despite restrictions on doing business with the telecommunications equipment maker.

Amazon.com Inc on Tuesday launched an artificial intelligence-based tracking system to enforce social distancing at its offices and warehouses to help reduce any risk of contracting the new coronavirus among its workers.

Facebook on Tuesday removed almost 900 accounts associated with the far-right Proud Boys and American Guard, including those belonging to Proud Boys supporters who marched into a protest zone in Seattle Monday and confronted anti-racist demonstrators.

A fifth-generation (5G) telecoms tender in Brazil should not be contaminated by ideological battles with China and more competition will lead to better prices for consumers, the head of the lower house said on Tuesday.

Italy's top pay-TV operator SKY said on Tuesday it was adding broadband connection to its offering of movies, sport and other content, to boost revenues in the crowded telecoms market.

Germany appealed to the public on Tuesday to download a new smartphone app to help break the chain of coronavirus infections, one of several such apps that European governments hope will revive travel and tourism safely.

Top officials from Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google and Twitter Inc will appear before U.S. lawmakers on Thursday at a hearing on foreign influence and election security, the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee announced on Tuesday.

Europe's biggest technology conference, the Web Summit, will take place in Lisbon in November as planned, its organiser said on Tuesday.

Apple is being investigated by EU antitrust regulators over its App Store and mobile payment system Apple Pay as the bloc turns up the heat on gatekeepers of online platforms on which thousands of companies depend for business.

Germany sought to mobilize the public on Tuesday to download a new smartphone app that seeks to help break the chain of coronavirus infections, one of several such apps in Europe that governments hope will revive travel and tourism.

A coronavirus contact tracing app being introduced in France may not be able to connect with others across the European Union because it stores data centrally, EU Commission vice-president Margrethe Vestager said on Tuesday.

Samsung Electronics should get tax and other incentives from India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh as the South Korean company looks to invest some 53.67 billion rupees ($705.75 million) in a smartphone display manufacturing plant in the state, India's lead investment promotion body said in a letter.