Tag Archives: bans

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS, Google Play and third-party Android app stores in China grew 19% in 2021 to reach $170 billion. Downloads of apps… Source link

Topline Dozens of apps—including Muslim prayer apps, a speed-trap alert app and a QR-code reader—were removed from the Google Play Store around March 25 after researchers found they included software for secretly collecting user data that was developed by a company with ties to U.S. security agencies, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The Google Play Store reportedly included dozens of apps that secretly harvested user data on behalf … [+] of a Panama-based… Source link

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced Tuesday the U.S. will ban all Russian oil imports, toughening the toll on Russia’s economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine, but he acknowledged it will bring costs to Americans, particularly at the gas pump. The action follows pleas by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to U.S. and Western officials to cut off the imports, which had been a glaring omission in the massive sanctions put in place on Russia over the invasion…. Source link

China will not permit ticket sales to any individuals at the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games, a move Olympic officials say is designed to prevent COVID-19 spread within the country. The decision, which comes weeks before thousands of international athletes and officials are slated to arrive in China for the Olympics, is a sharp departure from previous plans to allow Chinese citizens into the events. Chinese Olympic officials had decided in September that no international visitors would… Source link

Twitter isn’t shying away from banning more high-profile US politicians. As The New York Times reports, the social network has permanently banned Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account after a fifth “strike” for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. Her official account is still active as of this writing because it hasn’t run afoul of Twitter’s rules. It’s not clear what immediately precipitated the ban. Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough said only that the company… Source link

The company said on Wednesday that it will stop ads running “during an election campaign period or a silence period” in the run-up to the vote. Google considers election ads as any paid posts that “either promote or oppose a political party or the candidacy of a person or party” running for public office. The ban will run from February 8 up to election day on May 9, when President Rodrigo Duterte will run for election to the senate as he completes his six-year term. He is barred from seeking… Source link

Profiting from climate change denial just got a little bit more difficult. The Google ads team announced yesterday it will “prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.” The policy changes apply to Google advertisers, publishers that run Google ads and YouTube creators. Google LLC plans to implement the new rules next month, when world leaders are planning to attend a United Nations… Source link

Google said it will no longer display advertisements on YouTube videos and other content that promote inaccurate claims about climate change. The decision, by the company’s ads team, means that it will no longer permit websites or YouTube creators to earn advertising money via Google for content that “contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.” And it will not allow ads that promote such views from appearing. “In recent years,… Source link

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has opened investigations in five states regarding the prohibitions of universal indoor masking. Chief state school officers in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah received letters today from the OCR questioning the states’ decisions to not mandate masks in schools. The Education Department maintains that mask-mandate bans discriminate against students with disabilities who are at heightened risk for severe… Source link

Google has banned a company that sold Android users’ location data for COVID-19 mapping and other purposes, Motherboard reports. SafeGraph was one of several companies that collected geolocation records through plug-ins in other Android apps, then aggregated it for organizations including The New York Times and Centers for Disease Control. According to Motherboard, Google told developers in June that they had to remove SafeGraph’s software development kit within seven days…. Source link