Stories from Abroad

The European Union approved Apple’s planned acquisition of British music discovery app Shazam, saying an EU antitrust investigation showed it would not harm competition in the bloc. The deal, announced in December 2017, would help the iPhone maker better compete with Spotify, the industry leader in music streaming services.

As international agreements come under fire from current politics, it becomes ever more important to investigate the effect of such agreements. The telecommunication sector is of special interest due to its growing importance in the digital age. International law came into play in 1998 when the Agreement on Basic Telecommunications (BTA) entered into force. It demanded far-reaching liberalization reforms and was signed and ratified by 66 countries. A difference-in-differences estimator is used to analyze if the treaty had an impact on investments in telecommunications.

An apparent Iranian influence operation targeting internet users worldwide is significantly bigger than previously identified, encompassing a sprawling network of anonymous websites and social media accounts in 11 different languages. Facebook and other companies recently said that multiple social media accounts and websites were part of an Iranian project to covertly influence public opinion in other countries. A Reuters analysis has identified 10 more sites and dozens of social media accounts across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Ever since its founding 20 years ago in a Silicon Valley garage, Google has proudly and often ostentatiously held itself up as the architect of a new model for corporate virtue. Google, they said, would always put long-term values over short-term financial gain. “Making the world a better place” would be a primary business goal, and Google’s ethical compass could be summed up in a simple and celebrated motto: “Don’t be evil.” Now, Google appears to be changing its mind.

Much has been made of the digital underpinning of many of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals – gender equality, good health, quality education, industry innovation, and smart and sustainable cities – and the need to set ICT sub-targets for them.

From Brazil to Italy to Canada, even the most reluctant carriers are now building, including Deutsche Telekom and British Telecom. Credit Suisse believes that for an incumbent, “The cost of building fibre is less than the cost of not building fibre.” 20% growth is common. Telefónica Spain has passed twenty million premises - over 70% - and continues at two million a year. Telefónica Brazil is going from seven million in 2018 to ten million in 2020. China has 328 million connected and added 5M in the month of June.

The European Commission is drafting new rules designed to rid social media platforms of terrorist content after concluding that a voluntary program wasn't working. It had previously asked tech companies, including Facebook, Twitter and Google, to remove terrorist propaganda within an hour. "With regards to terrorist content, the results have been positive but progress is not sufficient," said a spokesperson for the Commission.

How do you effectively govern a country that’s home to one in five people on the planet, with an increasingly complex economy and society, if you don’t allow public debate, civil activism, and electoral feedback? Hu Jintao, China’s leader from 2002 to 2012, had attempted to solve this problem by permitting a modest democratic thaw, allowing avenues for grievances to reach the ruling class. His successor, Xi Jinping, has reversed that trend.

[Commentary] Corporate concentration in the United States is not only increasing inequality but also undermining competition and consumers’ standard of living. Politically, the commensurate lobbying influence of big tech, big finance and other large conglomerates has created what political scientist Francis Fukuyama calls a “vetocracy” — where vested concerns have amassed the clout to choke off legislative reforms that would diminish their spoils.

The Trump administration's consideration of tariffs on Chinese printed circuit assemblies and connected devices would cost the economy $520.8 million and $2.4 billion annually for the 10 percent and 25 percent tariffs, respectively, according to a new study commissioned by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).