Against an environment of social anxiety and national pride, Europe has been trying to limit the reach and influence of American tech giants, enacting privacy regulations and launching antitrust investigations. Now, the European Commission is contemplating rules that would require some of these U.S. companies to carry — and even fund — local content in various local markets. That would impact Netflix, Amazon Prime and HBO among others, which would be required to allot 20 percent of local content to European-made content. Continue reading EU Pushes for U.S. Tech Companies to Invest in Local Content

Digital platforms Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft and Periscope are implementing new ways to fight some of the worst misdeeds of the Internet: hate speech, pornography, graphic and gratuitous violence, threats and trolling. To do so, they are relying on a new range of solutions mainly but not entirely fueled by artificial intelligence. In recent months, all these Internet companies have been the target of lawsuits and harsh criticism for their inability to remove such content in a timely fashion. Continue reading Tech Firms Test AI Solutions to Combat Inappropriate Content

The Dish HopperGO, originally announced at CES, is now shipping, and early reviews deem it a good device for specific uses. About half the size of a smartphone, the tiny device is basically a 64GB USB drive with built-in wireless access that connects to the user’s Dish Hopper 3 or Hopper 2 and offers a capacity of up to 100 hours of TV. The user can unplug the device and then watch four hours on one charge through the Dish Anywhere app. The device’s interface consists of an “on” button and a USB port. Continue reading Dish Ships HopperGO, Mobile Video Solution for Hopper Users

Netflix had been fighting to stream two movies produced by Relativity Media ahead of their planned theatrical releases, but a judge on Friday issued an order preventing Netflix from doing so. According to Judge Michael Wiles of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, an early release of the comedy “Masterminds” and horror film “The Disappointments Room” could be “devastating” for Relativity, the studio he recently released from chapter 11. Ruling in favor of Netflix “would threaten the bankruptcy process… with devastating consequences to the plan and distributions” to creditors, the judge said. Continue reading Judge Rules Against Netflix Bid to Offer Relativity Films Early

Facebook and Microsoft have partnered on Marea, a project to build a new fiber optic cable that will run for 4,000 miles under the Atlantic Ocean between Virginia and Spain. Telefónica SA, a Spanish Internet service provider, joins them in the project. The fiber link, composed of eight pairs of strands, will be the highest capacity link across the Atlantic. Marea, the Spanish word for tide, is just the latest such project that Microsoft, Facebook, Alphabet, and Amazon have invested in to lower costs of moving massive amounts of data. Continue reading Facebook, Microsoft, Telefónica Partner on Trans-Atlantic Link

According to a Pew Research study, 62 percent of U.S. adults now get their news from social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Reddit. Atop the list is Facebook, reaching about 44 percent of the population, while Twitter and YouTube hold second place. The study found that the social media sites with the most growth to their news audiences since 2013 include Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Pew also found that 20-30 percent of users across the top five social platforms still get additional news from local and nightly network television. Continue reading New Study Points to Increase in Social Media as News Source

Internet giants such as Google and Facebook rely on advertising revenue to finance their various endeavors. However, that business model is now being threatened by ad-blocking software. According to a report from PageFair and Priori Data, about 20 percent of smartphone users (nearly 420 million people worldwide) now block ads when browsing online via their mobile devices. The latest figures represent a 90 percent annual increase. While the use of ad-blocking software conserves data and loads websites faster, it “is costing the global advertising industry billions of dollars a year in lost revenue,” reports The New York Times. Continue reading Ad-Blocking Now Costing Advertisers Billions in Lost Revenue

European officials have proposed new rules for video streaming companies as part of an effort to regulate online services for the region’s 500 million consumers. Part of that effort would be to require streaming companies to not only carry a certain amount of local content, but to chip in to pay for its development, as do national broadcasters. The goal, say officials, is to boost the region’s local economies. Apple, Facebook and Netflix, which dominate the European online space, would be the U.S. companies most impacted. Continue reading New European Proposals Outline Video Streaming Regulations

Today’s open-source software startups are trying a new tack to gain adoption, after the first generation mainly failed to successfully launch. That first generation sold services to support technology widely available on the Internet, but very few of them — Red Hat, with its $2 billion in annual revenue is one exception — were able to scale up. The new approach involves providing free software to users, followed by proprietary products that work with that software; VC firm Accel Partners is now funding some of these companies. Continue reading Open-Source Startups and VCs Craft a New Model for Success

Samsung announced it is partnering with SK Telecom to build a LoRaWAN network to cover all of South Korea, claiming it would be the world’s first nationwide network for the Internet of Things. The IoT network rolls out in Daegu next month and will be available throughout the country by the middle of this year. LoRaWAN (which means “long-range wide-area network”) was already used to build a citywide IoT network in Amsterdam. “LoRaWAN represents an attempt to standardize LPWAN (low-power wide-area networks),” explains TechCrunch, “which are meant to offer a cheaper and more power-efficient alternative to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular networks for the Internet of Things.” Continue reading Samsung, SK Telecom to Build First Nationwide Network for IoT

Turner and WME|IMG’s new gaming league ELeague, which began showing “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” competitions via online video streaming service Twitch, will now debut the winning teams this Friday at 10 p.m. on national cable TV channel TBS. This is the latest attempt to bring eSports to TV, including one by DirecTV, which failed to gain traction. The trick to make it succeed is to translate eSports “online sensibility” to television, bringing some of its 214 million 18-to-25 year old viewers along for the ride. Continue reading ELeague Broadcasts Gaming Competitions on TBS and Twitch

Twitter’s acquisition of the rights for “Thursday Night Football” shows that a social media platform can compete with traditional broadcasters for the highest value of all TV rights deals. Although it’s not clear whether the deal indicates that more non-traditional deals are in the offing, one thing is certain: because sports organizations want viewers to be able access their events on any device at any time, they lead other content owners in figuring out what the new viewing ecosystem might look like. Continue reading What Twitter’s NFL Deal Means For Live Sports on TV, Online

Storage is quickly becoming a crucial area of interest, as data grows exponentially. The world’s one billion cell phones already generate 18 exabytes (1 billion gigabytes) of data monthly and, as the Internet of Things places sensors in everything from automobiles to homes, the data output is estimated to soar into the zettabytes. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are a focus to find ways to help manage huge amounts of data. New ways to store data are imperative, and some practical advances are being made. Continue reading As Data Surges to Zettabytes, Need for Better Storage Urgent

Google has just built its own chip as part of its efforts to speed up artificial intelligence developments. The company revealed that this is just the first of many chips it plans to develop and build. At the same time, an increasing number of businesses are migrating to the cloud, lessening the need for servers that rely on chips to function. That’s led some to believe that Google and other Internet titans that follow its lead will impact the future of the chip industry, particularly such stalwarts as Intel and Nvidia. Continue reading Google Develops its Own Chip to Speed Up Machine Learning

Facebook is now expanding its reach into video by selling video ads for other companies, getting an as-of-yet-undisclosed cut of the revenue. Facebook says it will sell and place both “in-stream” and “in-article” video ads on websites and apps, such as those run by Daily Mail, Mashable and USA Today Sports Media Group. Marketers are willing to pay higher prices for video ads than other forms of advertising, making this a compelling sector and one where Facebook can compete with Google for video ad dollars. Continue reading Facebook Sells Video Advertising for Third Party Sites, Apps