📱 Canada Curbs TikTok, Silicon Valley Grows, Australia Limits Teens
Good morning. It’s Thursday, November 07. Today we are covering:
Canada orders shutdown of TikTok's Canadian business, app access to continue
The Rise of Techno-authoritarianism
Australia to legislate social media age limit of 16 - but can't say how platforms will enforce it
Matter 1.4 tries to set the smart home standard back on track
Qualcomm, Arm Results Show Phone Industry Making Uneven Comeback
Let’s dive in
Canada orders shutdown of TikTok's Canadian business, app access to continue
By Ismail Shakil via Reuters
Canada orders TikTok's Canadian business dissolved over national security concerns, but Canadians will still be able to access the app and create content.
Government review found ByteDance's operations in Canada posed security risks, with the decision based on assessments from Canada’s security and intelligence agencies.
TikTok to challenge the shutdown in court, stating the move will impact Canadian jobs, while Canada continues to ban TikTok from government-issued devices for security reasons.
𝕏: After years of demanding cultural payments from Internet platforms, the government is now kicking TikTok the company out of the country, but leaving the app in place. How does that benefit creators or better protect Canadians’ privacy and security? - Michael Geist (@mgeist)
The Rise of Techno-authoritarianism
By Adrienne LaFrance via The Atlantic
Silicon Valley has developed a culture of techno-authoritarianism, where platforms like Facebook, Google, and OpenAI prioritize scale and profit over ethical responsibility, influencing global society without democratic oversight.
Tech giants, under a belief of "if you can build it, you must," often dismiss traditional values, leading to systems that erode privacy and promote manipulation while sidelining public welfare and individual agency.
Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto and Silicon Valley’s unchecked power reflect a push for unrestrained technological acceleration, dismissing caution and ethics, with implications that may harm democratic society and individual freedom.
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Australia to legislate social media age limit of 16 - but can't say how platforms will enforce it
By Josh Butler via The Guardian
Australia is set to enforce a minimum age of 16 for social media access, with penalties for platforms that fail to comply, but has not specified how companies like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok will enforce it.
Age verification technology remains under trial, with options like biometric scanning and government database checks, though privacy and practicality concerns persist.
Meta and other tech companies have raised issues regarding the feasibility of enforcing age limits, pointing to privacy risks and the potential complexity of verifying each user’s age across multiple apps.
𝕏: Thereby forcing all adults to hand over ID to social media platforms ... just one of many consequences of this fucked-up policy choice, @AlboMP @AustralianLabor. Prohibition never works. Education works. Such a regressive move. - Jenny Frecklington-Jones (@JonesHowdareyou)
Matter 1.4 tries to set the smart home standard back on track
By Jennifer Pattison Tuohy via The Verge
Matter 1.4 aims to resolve interoperability issues in smart homes, introducing enhanced multi-admin for seamless control across platforms like Apple Home, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa and enabling devices to operate in multiple ecosystems simultaneously.
The update integrates energy management for devices like heat pumps, home batteries, and solar panels, advancing Matter’s goal of making smart homes more efficient and sustainable.
Matter-certified routers now function as both Wi-Fi and Thread border routers, simplifying smart home infrastructure and encouraging adoption by allowing devices to connect without additional hardware.
Qualcomm, Arm Results Show Phone Industry Making Uneven Comeback
By Ian King via Bloomberg
Qualcomm and Arm earnings reports show a mixed recovery in the smartphone market, with high-end model demand increasing but broader stability still uncertain.
Qualcomm’s upbeat forecast boosted its stock, signaling optimism in phone chip demand, while Arm’s cautious outlook led to a drop in its shares.
Both companies remain heavily reliant on the smartphone sector, reflecting the uneven rebound across the industry.
Trending in AI
Apple iOS 18.2 public beta arrives with new AI features, but some remain waitlisted
Microsoft is bundling its AI-powered Office features into Microsoft 365 subscriptions
Google accidentally leaked a preview of its Jarvis AI that can take over computers
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