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Qatar Based Al-Jazeera Network Shutsdown in America

12Apr By AnkitaNo Comments

BUSINESS

Qatar Based Al-Jazeera Network Shutsdown in America

Al-Jazeera America, which couldn't attract an audience to another cable news network in the United States, signs off tonight following a three-hour live farewell designed to highlight its work since a 2013 launch. The farewell begins at 6 pm (local time) and will be repeated immediately before Al-Jazeera America goes dark. Local cable and satellite operators will decide what replaces the channel in their markets. The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network announced in January that it was shutting down the US-based offshoot, calling it an economic decision. Backed by a deep-pocketed parent company, Al-Jazeera America began with lofty goals of offering serious-minded news and won some awards for its work. But when few people watched and oil prices plummeted, there was a limit to how much t...

White House Declines To Support Encryption Legislation – Sources

7Apr By reutersNo Comments

USA

White House Declines To Support Encryption Legislation – Sources

The White House is declining to offer public support for draft legislation that would empower judges to require technology companies such as Apple Inc to help law enforcement crack encrypted data, sources familiar with the discussions said. The decision all but assures that the years-long political impasse over encryption will continue even in the wake of the high-profile effort by the Department of Justice to force Apple to break into an iPhone used by a gunman in last December's shootings in San Bernardino, California. President Obama suggested in remarks last month that he had come around to the view that law enforcement agencies needed to have a way to gain access to encrypted information on smartphones. But the administration remains deeply divided on the issue, the sources s...

The End of Superpower: Internet Set to Cut Off US Oversight Role

14Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

USA

The End of Superpower: Internet Set to Cut Off US Oversight Role

A plan to end a key US government oversight role on the Internet is on track for completion this year, the head of the online address gatekeeper said, in a symbolic move towards asserting the independence of the web. While the transition will not change how the Internet works, it would help reassure users, businesses and governments about its integrity, according to Fadi Chehade, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Chehade told AFP the transition plan being prepared since early 2014 will be delivered to the US government in February, and that it could take place on September 30, a year later than originally planned. If the US government approves the plan, "then the contract between ICANN and the US government which is set ...

White House, Silicon Valley to hold summit on militants’ social media use: Report

8Jan By reutersNo Comments

USA

White House, Silicon Valley to hold summit on militants’ social media use: Report

Senior White House officials and U.S. intelligence and law enforcement figures will meet with Silicon Valley executives on Friday to discuss how to counter the use of social media by militant groups, sources familiar with the meeting said on Thursday. In an escalation of pressure on technology firms to do more to combat online propaganda from groups such as Islamic State, the meeting follows attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, that underscored the role played by social media companies such as Twitter Inc, Alphabet Inc's YouTube and Facebook Inc. Invited participants include White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, presidential counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, National Intelligence Director James Clapper an...

26Dec By AdityaNo Comments

CHINA

China says tech firms have nothing to fear from anti-terror law

Beijing/Reuters- Technology companies have nothing to fear from China's new anti-terror law which aims to prevent and probe terror activities and does not affect their copyright, China's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, rebuffing U.S. criticism as unwarranted. The draft anti-terrorism law has caused concern in Western capitals as it could require technology firms to install "back doors" in products or to hand over sensitive information such as encryption keys to the government. The law is currently having another reading at the latest session of the standing committee for China's largely rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress, which ends on Sunday. This week, the U.S. State Department said it had expressed "serious concerns" to China about the law which would d...