Europe’s 5G state-of-play: Interview with Mark Spelman
Mark Spelman is a British expert focused on key 5G challenges like standardisation and cyber-security. His current roles include heads the Thought Leadership at the World Economic Forum and leading the Forum’s initiative on...
European Commissioner slams Turkey’s internet censorship
Turkey's continued block of the internet is both unacceptable and a violation of the democratic principles of the European Convention on Human Rights which protects freedom of speech, according to the Europe Commissioner for Human...
Facebook’s only Dutch fact-checking partner quits over political advertising policies
A partnership between Facebook and the only Netherlands-based fact-checker, Nu.nl, has stopped checking for possible fake news on Facebook, ending a two-and-a-half-year partnership with the social media giant.
"What is the point of fighting fake...
Britain steps up commitment to European Space Agency
The UK is expected to raise its subscription to the European Space Agency.
The British delegation in Seville, Spain, was instructed to raise British government support for the agency, as the UK aims to remain...
Russia moves to ban sales of devices without pre-installed domestic software
Russia has adopted a new law prohibiting the sale of imported "complex electronic" devices unless Russian-made software is pre-installed.
The legislation passed a final vote in the State Duma, Russia's lower house, earlier in November...
Merkel’s Christian Democrats move to exclude Huawei from Germany’s 5G network
Germany's ruling Christian Democrats have backed a motion stipulating that requires 5G suppliers to fulfil a "clearly defined security catalogue that would block the involvement of a "foreign state" during the construction of the...
Tesla receives over 200,000 Cybertruck orders despite launch gaffe
American automotive and energy company Tesla has received more than 200,000 orders for its new Cybertruck, despite a highly publicised, but slightly unsuccessful rollout, company CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday.
Musk, who regularly tweets...
Russian search giant Yandex agrees to Kremlin-run restructuring
Russia's search giant and main news aggregator Yandex has announced that it would corporate in a restructuring that will allow the Kremlin's newly created Public Interest Fund (UIF) to take control of key decisions...
Mounting concerns over Europe’s ‘digital sovereignty’
Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron have independently expressed reservations about Europe’s reliance on American and Chinese for data storage.
Merkel made the point last week that companies outsource data storage to the US...
Russia’s FSB linked to $450 million bitcoin loss
Russia's intelligence service, the FSB, was allegedly involved in the embezzlement of $450 million worth of bitcoins, which went missing from the fund of Russia's World Exchange Services (WEX), a cryptocurrency exchange, in 2018.
A...
Thousands of accounts stolen by hackers as Disney rolls out new streaming service
The start of a highly anticipated streaming service from The Walt Disney Company endured an unsuccessful rollout as thousands of Disney+ user accounts were stolen and put up for sale on the so-called "Dark...
Crans Montana “African Women’s Forum” hosted in Brussels
The city of Brussels hosted on 14 - 16 November the African Women's Forum, organised by the Crans Montana Forum, in association with the New Leaders for Tomorrow.
Important personalities extending beyond the African landscape, took...
Australia takes Google to court over geolocation practices
Australia is taking Google to court over geolocation data-collection practices.
The Australian Consumer Commission (ACC) has filed a lawsuit on allegations that the electronics behemoth mislead the public on how location data are collected, kept...
Cybercrime threats
LIMASSOL, Cyprus – Chinese hackers are launching more sophisticated attacks that are as frequent and technologically savvy as Russian cyber-units, but it’s difficult to identify who is behind these attacks and international cooperation is...
Marseille uses abandoned U-boat base to become a European data-hub
A WW II German U-boat base submarine base in Marseille will become France’s second-biggest data-storage centre after Paris.
The Dutch cloud services firm Interxion plans are investing €140 million to turn the 1943 “Martha Base”...
Microsoft’s EU contracts found to breach GDPR
The European Data Protection Supervisor has expressed serious concerns about Microsoft’s contractual agreements with the EU's institutions, saying they fail to fully comply with the bloc's GDPR, the EU's data protection legislation.
Microsoft has already...
Germany defies US allowing Huawei to bid for 5G projects
German regulators released on Tuesday a set of network security guidelines allowing companies developing 5G infrastructure to engage China’s Huawei.
Huawei will not be excluded explicitly on the basis of the Federal Network Agency guidelines....
EU states divided over OECD’s online taxation plan
The OECD has proposed on Wednesday a global shake-up of corporate online taxation.
The plan would see digital groups such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google pay in the country of operation rather than...
Vestager is ready to reign in Big Tech
The question of Europe's digital transformation has been a key topic for many of last the Commission confirmation hearings. By the end of the process, it was Margrethe Vestager, with the portfolio “A Europe...
Vestager plans second wave of measures against digital monopolies
In her second term as EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is bracing for a second wave of anti-trust measures against US digital monopolies, beginning with chipmaker Broadcom, the Financial Times report.
Emboldened by her authority as...
Regulators take hard line against Facebook’s Libra
Facebook faced the grilling of 26 central bank representatives over its Libra currency plan on Monday; Libra is a virtual currency considered a threat to monetary sovereignty.
Facebook executives representing were questioned by the Bank...
US States initiate anti-trust probe against Google
Google’s dominant market position is now the subject of state investigations after 50 states and territories opened anti-trust probes that are looking at Google’s prominent position in various sectors of the internet economy including...
Online selling VAT fraud could see a Brexit headache for UK’s HMRC
Officials are preparing for an uptick in VAT compliance problems as the UK leaves the European Union. Online platforms like Amazon Marketplace and eBay are already under pressure to make sellers pay their share...
EU plans digital startup investment fund
EU officials have drafted a plan that envisages the creation of a sovereign wealth fund that would invest €100 billion in European digital startups.
The fund is specifically aimed at technological scouting, a move that...
India to be fourth state to land a spacecraft on the moon
India's space agency has launched a lunar mission to the moon’s unexplored south pole on Monday; that makes India the fourth nation to land a spacecraft on the moon after the US, Russia, and...
Brussels to further scrutinise China’s intelligence law on 5G
The European Union must take China's national intelligence law into account when deciding on the construction of 5G networks in Europe, said EU Commissioner for Security, Julian King, on Friday.
The EU is currently working...
Washington to ease restrictions on Huawei’s US suppliers
The U.S. is ready to ease restriction on Huawei, allowing US suppliers to continue trading with the Chinese company, Reuters reported on Monday.
Since May, US authorities have barred Huawei from the US market, a...
The EU, US, and 5G
On 13 June, New Europe took part in a media roundtable on 5G and telecommunications security with Jonathan Fritz, Director for Bilateral and Regional Affairs at the US Department of State’s Office of International...
The 5G development debate
Amid the debate between trans-Atlantic allies and beyond on the security challenges posed to 5G network development by Chinese suppliers, New Europe’s Andrianos Giannou had the chance to exchange views with Damian Collins MP,...
Simon Murphy: The businessman who believes the best AI on the market is Authentic...
In an age where the impact of Artificial Intelligence, robotics and advancing technology are hotly debated topics, the impact of Face2Face relationships is consistently overlooked. Earlier this week, New Europe sat down with Simon...
YouTube bans white supremacist content, removes thousands of channels from platform
YouTube is changing its community guidelines to ban channels and videos promoting white supremacy and discrimination based on age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status, according to the platform’s blog post.
The move...
US moves against intel-linked Chinese tech companies
The US is considering blacklisting the Chinese technology company Hikvision - a world leader in video surveillance products that include artificial intelligence, speech monitoring and genetic testing which broadens the capacity for facial and body...
Google cuts off Huawei
Google has cut off Huawei from using its Android operating system, which could hurt Huawei smartphone sales outside China, as future versions of Huawei smartphones will lose access to popular services such as Google Play...
5G supplier concerns remain issue of transatlantic tension
The Western post-war model of stability and prosperity has been, in realist terms, founded upon the simple tenet that the United States largely underwrote the trans-Atlantic collective security that allowed for trade between the...
Vodafone discovers hidden backdoors in Italy’s Huawei infrastructure
UK telecom giant Vodafone has discovered vulnerabilities in Huawei equipment used for the company's activities in Italy several years ago, news that comes at an inopportune time for the Chinese telecom company’s reputation as...
We need to talk about terms and conditions
Terms of service are generally designed to safeguard a service provider against legal challenges. These terms are not like a memorandum of understanding, trade agreement or a contract established jointly by two more or...
China dominance of 5G seen as a threat by British and American politicians
Conservative UK MP Tom Tugendhat and Republican US Representative Mike Gallagher see China's dominance of 5G as a threat, they write in an opinion article published on April 19, 2019 in The Times.
Tugendhat and Gallagher point...