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A new hack on your iPhone can turn it into a foolproof snooping device. But there's a catch - you require a pair of wireless AirPods. First shared by a user on TikTok and then beamed across all social media platforms, the trick lets users turn their iPhones into spying devices by toying with settings already in place.

The trick requires users to access their iPhones' accessibility settings.&nbsp;To do this, one needs to go to control centre settings, then click on the "+" feature. After this, you will be able to see a list of features that are enabled on your phone's control centre.

Then you must connect your wireless AirPods to the iPhone, following which the "Live Listen" option needs to be activated. Once it's enabled, the users will be able to listen in on available broadcasts that are picked up by the phone's microphone and will be beamed directly to AirPods. The person needs to keep their phone close to what they're trying to hear, which can then be easily heard on their AirPods.

What was the feature designed for? 
As opposed to popular belief, the feature is not in place to simply facilitate snooping but allows users with hearing impairments to hear clearly, especially if they don't possess hearing aids of their own. Essentially, the feature enhances audio for people with hearing issues.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/did-apple-force-users-to-buy-new-iphones-359522" hreflang="en">Did Apple force users to buy new iPhones?</a> 
 
For example, if someone with hearing issues wants to focus on what just one person is saying in a crowded setting, they would simply use this feature.&nbsp; 
Even though the feature was created keeping in mind people that require hearing assistance, it can be easily used to spy on people and to listen in on conversations.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/technology/tim-cook-says-apple-buys-one-company-every-month-366032" hreflang="en">Tim Cook says Apple buys one company every month</a> 
 
The trick was first shared by a TikTok user @Brycenor, who was asked a question on the platform - "what's a piece of information that feels like it's illegal to know?". To which he responded by sharing information about the "Live Listen" feature while saying "I don't feel like it should be illegal, but it's shady".

A new hack on your iPhone can turn it into a foolproof snooping device. But there's a catch - you require a pair of wireless AirPods. First shared by a user on TikTok and then beamed across all social media platforms, the trick lets users turn their iPhones into spying devices by toying with settings already in place.

A new hack on your iPhone can turn it into a foolproof snooping device. But there's a catch - you require a pair of wireless AirPods. First shared by a user on TikTok and then beamed across all social media platforms, the trick lets users turn their iPhones into spying devices by toying with settings already in place. The trick requires users to access their iPhones' accessibility settings. To do this, one needs to go to control centre settings, then click on the "+" feature. After this, you will be able to see a list of features that are enabled on your phone's control centre. Then you must connect your wireless AirPods to the iPhone, following which the "Live Listen" option needs to be activated. Once it's enabled, the users will be able to listen in on available broadcasts that are picked up by the phone's microphone and will be beamed directly to AirPods. The person needs to keep their phone close to what they're trying to hear, which can then be easily heard on their AirPods. What was the feature designed for? As opposed to popular belief, the feature is not in place to simply facilitate snooping but allows users with hearing impairments to hear clearly, especially if they don't possess hearing aids of their own. Essentially, the feature enhances audio for people with hearing issues. Also read: Did Apple force users to buy new iPhones? For example, if someone with hearing issues wants to focus on what just one person is saying in a crowded setting, they would simply use this feature. Even though the feature was created keeping in mind people that require hearing assistance, it can be easily used to spy on people and to listen in on conversations. Also read: Tim Cook says Apple buys one company every month The trick was first shared by a TikTok user @Brycenor, who was asked a question on the platform - "what's a piece of information that feels like it's illegal to know?". To which he responded by sharing information about the "Live Listen" feature while saying "I don't feel like it should be illegal, but it's shady".

This iPhone trick lets people snoop on others' private conversations

Many people opposed to vaccination, or anti-vaxxers,&nbsp;find their audience in social media, but now Twitter is deploying human monitors to crack down on disinformation as Covid-19 shots are being rolled out across the world.

The microblogging platform will label&nbsp;tweets that include misleading information about coronavirus vaccines.

Twitter said it has started using human reviewers to assess whether tweets violate its policy against COVID vaccine misinformation. Eventually, the work will be done by a combination of humans and automation, it said.

It will be using a "strike system" to eventually remove accounts that repeatedly violate its rules.

"Through the use of the strike system, we hope to educate people on why certain content breaks our rules so they have the opportunity to further consider their behaviour and their impact on the public conversation," Twitter said in a blog post on Monday.

"We believe the strike system will help to educate the public on our policies and further reduce the spread of potentially harmful and misleading information on Twitter, particularly for repeated moderate and high-severity violations of our rules,"&nbsp;the company said.

Twitter had already banned some COVID-related misinformation in December, including falsehoods about how the virus spreads, whether masks are effective and the risk of infection and death.

People with one violation or strike&nbsp;will see no action. Two strikes will lead to an account being locked for 12 hours. Five or more will get a user permanently banned from Twitter, but users can appeal against the removal.

There is still a great amount of vaccine scepticism in various countries. In Ukraine, for instance,&nbsp;medical facilities reportedly threw&nbsp;out some unused coronavirus vaccines after doctors didn't show up for their inoculation appointments.&nbsp;

(With agency inputs)

Many people opposed to vaccination, or anti-vaxxers, find their audience in social media, but now Twitter is deploying human monitors to crack down on disinformation as Covid-19 shots are being rolled out across the world.

Many people opposed to vaccination, or anti-vaxxers, find their audience in social media, but now Twitter is deploying human monitors to crack down on disinformation as Covid-19 shots are being rolled out across the world. The microblogging platform will label tweets that include misleading information about coronavirus vaccines. Twitter said it has started using human reviewers to assess whether tweets violate its policy against COVID vaccine misinformation. Eventually, the work will be done by a combination of humans and automation, it said. It will be using a "strike system" to eventually remove accounts that repeatedly violate its rules. "Through the use of the strike system, we hope to educate people on why certain content breaks our rules so they have the opportunity to further consider their behaviour and their impact on the public conversation," Twitter said in a blog post on Monday. "We believe the strike system will help to educate the public on our policies and further reduce the spread of potentially harmful and misleading information on Twitter, particularly for repeated moderate and high-severity violations of our rules," the company said. Twitter had already banned some COVID-related misinformation in December, including falsehoods about how the virus spreads, whether masks are effective and the risk of infection and death. People with one violation or strike will see no action. Two strikes will lead to an account being locked for 12 hours. Five or more will get a user permanently banned from Twitter, but users can appeal against the removal. There is still a great amount of vaccine scepticism in various countries. In Ukraine, for instance, medical facilities reportedly threw out some unused coronavirus vaccines after doctors didn't show up for their inoculation appointments. (With agency inputs)

Twitter deploys human monitors to strike down coronavirus vaccine misinformation

If you thought you have had enough of Instagram's 'Reels' features, <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/facebook">Facebook</a> has one more similar concept for you, but with a twist.

The social media giant, Facebook, has launched a new app called BARS that is being dubbed as a 'TikTok look-alike' but with a more concentrated audience and slight change.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/can-we-do-without-big-tech-companies-364919" hreflang="en">Can we do without big tech companies?</a>

Developed by Facebook's New Product Experimentation (NPE) R&amp;D team, the app is currently available only under closed beta testing.

"No formal rap experience required — you can create something great whether you’ve just thought of a dope couplet or have been freestyling for years," BARS Community Manager DJ Iyer said in a blog post.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/the-real-power-of-facebook-364913" hreflang="en">The real power of Facebook</a>

This app will allow users to create and share raps with built-in tools, that will let the users create raps without any formal background or experience of rapping.

While the timeframe and other concepts are similar to TikTok and Instagram's Reels feature, the BARS app is specifically designed for creating content only in rap style, setting it aside from all other short-video platforms.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/facebook-to-launch-smartwatch-with-messaging-fitness-features-363611" hreflang="en">Facebook to launch smartwatch with messaging, fitness features</a>

This app can suggest rhymes using a rhyming dictionary to help the budding rappers with the flow. There are also pre-recorded beats and pre-loaded tools such as Clean, AutoTune, Imaginary Friends, and AM Radio to help record a rap professional-style.

"I know access to high-priced recording studios and production equipment can be limited for aspiring rappers. On top of that, the global pandemic shut down live performances where we often create and share our work," DJ Iyer said. "So, along with a group of aspiring rappers, we've been building BARS: a place for aspiring rappers to create and share their art."

As of now, the app is available in the US App Store only and is available for select iOS users. The app also has a waitlist where people can sign up to use the platform post-release.

If you thought you have had enough of Instagram's 'Reels' features, Facebook has one more similar concept for you, but with a twist. The social media giant, Facebook, has launched a new app called BARS that is being dubbed as a 'TikTok look-alike' but with a more concentrated audience and slight change.

If you thought you have had enough of Instagram's 'Reels' features, Facebook has one more similar concept for you, but with a twist. The social media giant, Facebook, has launched a new app called BARS that is being dubbed as a 'TikTok look-alike' but with a more concentrated audience and slight change. Also read| Can we do without big tech companies? Developed by Facebook's New Product Experimentation (NPE) R&D team, the app is currently available only under closed beta testing. "No formal rap experience required — you can create something great whether you’ve just thought of a dope couplet or have been freestyling for years," BARS Community Manager DJ Iyer said in a blog post. Also read| The real power of Facebook This app will allow users to create and share raps with built-in tools, that will let the users create raps without any formal background or experience of rapping. While the timeframe and other concepts are similar to TikTok and Instagram's Reels feature, the BARS app is specifically designed for creating content only in rap style, setting it aside from all other short-video platforms. Also read| Facebook to launch smartwatch with messaging, fitness features This app can suggest rhymes using a rhyming dictionary to help the budding rappers with the flow. There are also pre-recorded beats and pre-loaded tools such as Clean, AutoTune, Imaginary Friends, and AM Radio to help record a rap professional-style. "I know access to high-priced recording studios and production equipment can be limited for aspiring rappers. On top of that, the global pandemic shut down live performances where we often create and share our work," DJ Iyer said. "So, along with a group of aspiring rappers, we've been building BARS: a place for aspiring rappers to create and share their art." As of now, the app is available in the US App Store only and is available for select iOS users. The app also has a waitlist where people can sign up to use the platform post-release.

TikTok lookalike? Facebook launches new app, BARS, for rappers

Twitter on Thursday announced the launch of a "super follow" feature, which will allow users to charge followers to get&nbsp;exclusive content.

The new feature will let users charge for exclusive, extra material from their followers and can include subscriber-only newsletters, videos, deals and discounts, the social media giant said in an investor presentation on Thursday.&nbsp;

Watch |&nbsp;

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/twitter-cfo-confirms-permanent-ban-against-us-former-president-donald-trump-363029/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

A monthly subscription fee would be charged for access to such content.&nbsp;

Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/sports/twitter-wont-bow-to-pressure-over-abuse-of-premier-league-stars-365005">Twitter won't bow to pressure over abuse of Premier League stars</a>

Users and investors for long have been asking the social media giant to launch a subscription-based model.

Content creators and YouTubers use tools like Patreon, Substack and OnlyFans to collect money from their users.&nbsp;

"Exploring audience funding opportunities like Super Follows will allow creators and publishers to be directly supported by their audience and will incentivize them to continue creating content that their audience loves," Twitter said in a statement.

The feature is yet to be launched, but the company plans to launch it in the coming months.&nbsp;

Twitter will also be launching "Revue" and "Twitter Spaces".

"Twitter Spaces," a feature similar to Clubhouse will allow users to participate in audio conversations.&nbsp;

The feature is in private beta testing, meaning it is yet to be launched for users.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

Twitter on Thursday announced the launch of a "super follow" feature, which will allow users to charge followers to get exclusive content. The new feature will let users charge for exclusive, extra material from their followers and can include subscriber-only newsletters, videos, deals and discounts, the social media giant said in an investor presentation on Thursday.

Twitter on Thursday announced the launch of a "super follow" feature, which will allow users to charge followers to get exclusive content. The new feature will let users charge for exclusive, extra material from their followers and can include subscriber-only newsletters, videos, deals and discounts, the social media giant said in an investor presentation on Thursday. Watch | A monthly subscription fee would be charged for access to such content. Also read | Twitter won't bow to pressure over abuse of Premier League stars Users and investors for long have been asking the social media giant to launch a subscription-based model. Content creators and YouTubers use tools like Patreon, Substack and OnlyFans to collect money from their users. "Exploring audience funding opportunities like Super Follows will allow creators and publishers to be directly supported by their audience and will incentivize them to continue creating content that their audience loves," Twitter said in a statement. The feature is yet to be launched, but the company plans to launch it in the coming months. Twitter will also be launching "Revue" and "Twitter Spaces". "Twitter Spaces," a feature similar to Clubhouse will allow users to participate in audio conversations. The feature is in private beta testing, meaning it is yet to be launched for users.

Twitter announces 'Super Follow' feature that will ask users pay for content

China's Huawei is set to explore a strategic shift as it is planning to make electric vehicles under its own brand and could launch some models this year.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is in talks with state-owned Changan Automobile and other automakers to use their car plants to make its electric vehicles (EVs), according to a report by Reuters.

Huawei is also in discussions with Beijing-backed BAIC Group's BluePark New Energy Technology to manufacture its EVs.

Huawei was placed on a trade blacklist by former US president Donald Trump-led administration over national security concerns. Many industry executives see little chance that blocks on the sale of billions of dollars of US technology and chips to the Chinese company, which has denied wrongdoing, will be reversed by his successor.

A Huawei spokesman has, however, denied the company plans to design EVs or produce Huawei branded vehicles.

"Huawei is not a car manufacturer. However through ICT (information and communications technology), we aim to be a digital car-oriented and new-added components provider, enabling car OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to build better vehicles," the spokesperson said.

But sources say Huawei has started internally designing the EVs and approaching suppliers at home, with the aim of officially launching the project as early as this year.

Richard Yu, head of Huawei's consumer business group who led the company to become one of the world's largest smartphone makers, will reportedly soon shift his focus to EVs.

The EVs will target a mass-market segment.

In the United States, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are also developing auto-related technology or investing in smart-car startups.

According to reports, Huawei has been developing a swathe of technologies for EVs for years including in-car software systems, sensors for automobiles and 5G communications hardware.

The company has also formed partnerships with automakers such as Daimler AG, General Motors Co and SAIC Motor to jointly develop smart auto technologies. It has accelerated hiring of engineers for auto-related technologies since 2018.

Also, reports say Huawei was awarded at least four patents related to EVs this week, including methods for charging between electric vehicles and for checking battery health, according to official Chinese patent records.

China's Huawei is set to explore a strategic shift as it is planning to make electric vehicles under its own brand and could launch some models this year. Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is in talks with state-owned Changan Automobile and other automakers to use their car plants to make its electric vehicles (EVs), according to a report by Reuters.

China's Huawei is set to explore a strategic shift as it is planning to make electric vehicles under its own brand and could launch some models this year. Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is in talks with state-owned Changan Automobile and other automakers to use their car plants to make its electric vehicles (EVs), according to a report by Reuters. Huawei is also in discussions with Beijing-backed BAIC Group's BluePark New Energy Technology to manufacture its EVs. Huawei was placed on a trade blacklist by former US president Donald Trump-led administration over national security concerns. Many industry executives see little chance that blocks on the sale of billions of dollars of US technology and chips to the Chinese company, which has denied wrongdoing, will be reversed by his successor. A Huawei spokesman has, however, denied the company plans to design EVs or produce Huawei branded vehicles. "Huawei is not a car manufacturer. However through ICT (information and communications technology), we aim to be a digital car-oriented and new-added components provider, enabling car OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to build better vehicles," the spokesperson said. But sources say Huawei has started internally designing the EVs and approaching suppliers at home, with the aim of officially launching the project as early as this year. Richard Yu, head of Huawei's consumer business group who led the company to become one of the world's largest smartphone makers, will reportedly soon shift his focus to EVs. The EVs will target a mass-market segment. In the United States, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are also developing auto-related technology or investing in smart-car startups. According to reports, Huawei has been developing a swathe of technologies for EVs for years including in-car software systems, sensors for automobiles and 5G communications hardware. The company has also formed partnerships with automakers such as Daimler AG, General Motors Co and SAIC Motor to jointly develop smart auto technologies. It has accelerated hiring of engineers for auto-related technologies since 2018. Also, reports say Huawei was awarded at least four patents related to EVs this week, including methods for charging between electric vehicles and for checking battery health, according to official Chinese patent records.

China's Huawei plans foray into electric vehicles, report says

Pokemon Go creators said that they have issued "punishments" to over five million players for cheating.

The players have been sanctions across three games: Pokemon Go, Ingress, and Harry Potter Wizards Unite since 2020, Niantic in a blog post said.&nbsp;

"We have made a commitment with all of our players towards promoting fair gameplay...and improving transparency with our players," the post said.&nbsp;

Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/opinions/emergency-meeting-is-among-us-the-new-pokemon-go-336893">'Emergency meeting': Is Among Us the new Pokémon Go?</a>

It also said that over 20 per cent of these punishments are "permanent bans".&nbsp;

On its website, Niantic has put out a list of things that come under cheating, including GPS location spoofing.&nbsp;

By doing this locating spoofing, gamers trick their device's location and then play these games from their own homes rather than going out to the given location.&nbsp;

Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/aarogya-setu-beats-pokemon-go-record-crosses-50-million-downloads-in-13-days-292605">Aarogya Setu beats 'Pokémon GO' record, crosses 50 million downloads in 13 Days</a> 
&nbsp; 
Pokemon Go was made available to play at home due to the coronavirus pandemic last year, but some of these changes have been reversed now.&nbsp;

The company said over 90 per cent of the players stopped cheating after receiving a warning.&nbsp;

"We continue to find the right balance between punishing casual cheaters versus the more egregious ones," Niantic said.&nbsp;

"We are continuously working to combat these cheaters and focus on improving our detection and enforcement, as they have no place in our games."&nbsp;

Pokemon Go creators said that they have issued "punishments" to over five million players for cheating. The players have been sanctions across three games: Pokemon Go, Ingress, and Harry Potter Wizards Unite since 2020, Niantic in a blog post said.

Pokemon Go creators said that they have issued "punishments" to over five million players for cheating. The players have been sanctions across three games: Pokemon Go, Ingress, and Harry Potter Wizards Unite since 2020, Niantic in a blog post said. "We have made a commitment with all of our players towards promoting fair gameplay...and improving transparency with our players," the post said. Also read | 'Emergency meeting': Is Among Us the new Pokémon Go? It also said that over 20 per cent of these punishments are "permanent bans". On its website, Niantic has put out a list of things that come under cheating, including GPS location spoofing. By doing this locating spoofing, gamers trick their device's location and then play these games from their own homes rather than going out to the given location. Also read | Aarogya Setu beats 'Pokémon GO' record, crosses 50 million downloads in 13 Days Pokemon Go was made available to play at home due to the coronavirus pandemic last year, but some of these changes have been reversed now. The company said over 90 per cent of the players stopped cheating after receiving a warning. "We continue to find the right balance between punishing casual cheaters versus the more egregious ones," Niantic said. "We are continuously working to combat these cheaters and focus on improving our detection and enforcement, as they have no place in our games."

Pokemon Go 'punishes' over 5 million players for cheating

A few nights ago, after my weekly trip to the grocery store, I sat in my car glued to Clubhouse, the invitation-only social audio app.

While my ice cream thawed in the trunk, I dropped in on a room where Tom Green, the former MTV shock comedian and star of “Freddy Got Fingered,” was debating the ethics of artificial intelligence with a group of computer scientists and Deadmau5, the famous Canadian DJ.

When that was over, I headed to a room called NYU Girls Roasting Tech Guys. There, I listened to college students playing a dating game in which contestants were given 30 seconds of stage time to try to seduce someone else in the audience.

And after a few rounds of that, I joined a room called the Cotton Club, in which users changed their avatars to black-and-white portraits and pretended to be patrons of a 1920s-style speak-easy, complete with jazz soundtrack.

Two hours later, my ice cream fully liquefied, I emerged from the car with the feeling that I had just experienced something special. It was all fascinating, surprising and a little surreal, like peeking into the windows of interesting strangers’ houses. And it gave me a flashback to a similar euphoria I felt years ago, when celebrities and creative weirdos started showing up on Facebook and Twitter.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Clubhouse recently, and the parallels to the early, hypergrowth days of those earlier-generation social networks are uncanny. The 11-month-old app’s popularity — it has more than 10 million users, and invitations are selling for up to $125 on eBay — has set off a mad dash among investors, who have valued the company at $1 billion. Celebrities including Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey and Joe Rogan have shown up in Clubhouse rooms, adding to the buzz. And the app is spawning competition from Twitter and Facebook, which are experimenting with similar products.

Every successful social network has a life cycle that goes something like: Wow, this app sure is addictive! Look at all the funny and exciting ways people are using it! Oh, look, I can get my news and political commentary here, too! This is going to empower dissidents, promote free speech and topple authoritarian regimes! Hmm, why are trolls and racists getting millions of followers? And where did all these conspiracy theories come from? This platform should really hire some moderators and fix its algorithms. Wow, this place is a cesspool. I’m deleting my account.

What’s remarkable about Clubhouse is that it seems to be experiencing this entire cycle all at once, during its first year of existence.

I started using Clubhouse in the fall. At the time, the app seemed to be dominated by typical early-adopter types — tech workers, venture capitalists, digital marketing gurus — along with a sizable contingent of Black influencers and a number of “heterodox” internet figures who mostly used the platform to complain about the mainstream media and go on tedious rants about cancel culture.

From the start, there were signs that Clubhouse was speed-running the platform life cycle. Weeks after launching, it ran into claims that it was allowing harassment and hate speech to proliferate, including large rooms where speakers allegedly made anti-Semitic comments. The startup scrambled to update its community guidelines and add basic blocking and reporting features, and its founders did the requisite Zuckerbergian apology tour. (“We unequivocally condemn Anti-Blackness, Anti-Semitism, and all other forms of racism, hate speech and abuse on Clubhouse,” read one company blog post in October.)

The company has also faced accusations of mishandling user data, including a Stanford report that found that the company may have routed some data through servers in China, possibly giving the Chinese government access to sensitive user information. (The company pledged to lock down user data and submit to an outside audit of its security practices.) And privacy advocates have balked at the app’s aggressive growth practices, which include asking users to upload their entire contact lists in order to send invitations to others.

“Major privacy &amp;amp; security concerns, lots of data extraction, use of dark patterns, growth without a clear business model. When will we learn?” Elizabeth Renieris, director of the Notre Dame-IBM Tech Ethics Lab, wrote in a tweet this week that compared Clubhouse at this moment to the early days of Facebook.

To be fair, there are some important structural differences between Clubhouse and existing social networks. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, which revolve around central, algorithmically curated feeds, Clubhouse is organized more like Reddit — a cluster of topical rooms, moderated by users, with a central “hallway” where users can browse rooms in progress. Clubhouse rooms disappear after they’re over, and recording a room is against the rules (although it still happens), which means that “going viral,” in the traditional sense, isn’t really possible. Users have to be invited to a room’s “stage” to speak, and moderators can easily boot unruly or disruptive speakers, so there’s less risk of a civilized discussion’s being hijacked by trolls. And Clubhouse doesn’t have ads, which reduces the risk of profit-seeking mischief.

But there are still plenty of similarities. Like other social networks, Clubhouse has a number of “discovery” features and aggressive growth-hacking tactics meant to draw new users deeper into the app, including algorithmic recommendations and personalized push alerts, and a list of suggested users to follow. Those features, combined with Clubhouse’s ability to form private and semiprivate rooms with thousands of people in them, create some of the same bad incentives and opportunities for abuse that have hurt other platforms.

The app’s reputation for lax moderation has also attracted a number of people who have been barred by other social networks, including figures associated with QAnon, Stop the Steal and other extremist groups.

Clubhouse has also become a home for people who are disillusioned with social media censorship and critical of various gatekeepers. Attacking The New York Times in particular has become something of an obsession among Clubhouse addicts for reasons that would take another full column to explain. (A room called, in part, How to Destroy the NYT ran for many hours, drawing thousands of listeners.)

It has also drawn scrutiny from governments. Dissidents in Thailand and Russia have been using the app to discuss government corruption and document human rights abuses. And the Chinese government banned the app this month, presumably after discovering that residents of mainland China were using Clubhouse to have long and free-flowing conversations with people in Taiwan and Hong Kong outside the grasp of censors.

But before I get tagged as a Clubhouse hater, let me sound a note of optimism. I actually like Clubhouse and think its core technological innovation — an easy way to create live, participatory audio experiences — is a genuinely useful one. Most rooms I’ve been in are civil and well-moderated, and if you scroll past the megapopular rooms filled with celebrities and clout-chasers, you can find some truly fascinating stuff.

In the past few weeks, I’ve listened to a Clubhouse room of Black doctors and nurses discussing their experiences of racism in medicine, and a room where a prominent psychologist led a workshop on mourning and grief. I’ve lurked in Korean karaoke contests, heard energy experts debating nuclear power and hosted civilized conversations about the media. The other night, after sampling a few dozen Clubhouse rooms, I fell asleep to the sounds of the lullaby club, a nightly Clubhouse gathering of musicians who sing songs to help one another fall asleep.

The ability to spontaneously drop in and out of rooms like these and toggle between passive listening and active speaking is part of what makes Clubhouse so compelling — and so different from listening to podcasts or attending a Zoom webinar. There’s also a refreshing randomness to Clubhouse that makes it more interesting than social networks where every piece of content is algorithmically tailored to your exact interests. (As Nicholas Quah wrote in Vulture, “There is something that feels alluringly new about being able to slide between various pop-up communities you didn’t intentionally seek out.”)

Granted, a pandemic that traps people inside their homes and starves them of social connection is an ideal environment for introducing a new social app, and Clubhouse may lose some users once they’re vaccinated and go back to IRL socializing.

In addition, Clubhouse, which is invitation-only and currently limited to iOS users, still has the benefit of being small enough to manage. As the app opens its gates wider, it will need to scale its moderation efforts or risk turning into the Parler of audio — a place so lawless that only hyperpartisans and professional grifters want to spend time there.

There is also the looming threat of competition from the giants, which could cut into Clubhouse’s growth. Twitter’s group audio chat feature, Spaces, launched this month, and Facebook is reportedly working on its own Clubhouse-like product.

But I hope Clubhouse survives, if only because it could create a more thoughtful, less outrage-driven alternative to the social networks we’ve been typing into for the last decade and a half.

If the platform can fix its issues and learn from the mistakes made by bigger companies before it, I might be in for a lot more late nights in my car.

A few nights ago, after my weekly trip to the grocery store, I sat in my car glued to Clubhouse, the invitation-only social audio app. While my ice cream thawed in the trunk, I dropped in on a room where Tom Green, the former MTV shock comedian and star of “Freddy Got Fingered,” was debating the ethics of artificial intelligence with a group of computer scientists and Deadmau5, the famous Canadian DJ.

A few nights ago, after my weekly trip to the grocery store, I sat in my car glued to Clubhouse, the invitation-only social audio app. While my ice cream thawed in the trunk, I dropped in on a room where Tom Green, the former MTV shock comedian and star of “Freddy Got Fingered,” was debating the ethics of artificial intelligence with a group of computer scientists and Deadmau5, the famous Canadian DJ. When that was over, I headed to a room called NYU Girls Roasting Tech Guys. There, I listened to college students playing a dating game in which contestants were given 30 seconds of stage time to try to seduce someone else in the audience. And after a few rounds of that, I joined a room called the Cotton Club, in which users changed their avatars to black-and-white portraits and pretended to be patrons of a 1920s-style speak-easy, complete with jazz soundtrack. Two hours later, my ice cream fully liquefied, I emerged from the car with the feeling that I had just experienced something special. It was all fascinating, surprising and a little surreal, like peeking into the windows of interesting strangers’ houses. And it gave me a flashback to a similar euphoria I felt years ago, when celebrities and creative weirdos started showing up on Facebook and Twitter. I’ve been spending a lot of time on Clubhouse recently, and the parallels to the early, hypergrowth days of those earlier-generation social networks are uncanny. The 11-month-old app’s popularity — it has more than 10 million users, and invitations are selling for up to $125 on eBay — has set off a mad dash among investors, who have valued the company at $1 billion. Celebrities including Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey and Joe Rogan have shown up in Clubhouse rooms, adding to the buzz. And the app is spawning competition from Twitter and Facebook, which are experimenting with similar products. Every successful social network has a life cycle that goes something like: Wow, this app sure is addictive! Look at all the funny and exciting ways people are using it! Oh, look, I can get my news and political commentary here, too! This is going to empower dissidents, promote free speech and topple authoritarian regimes! Hmm, why are trolls and racists getting millions of followers? And where did all these conspiracy theories come from? This platform should really hire some moderators and fix its algorithms. Wow, this place is a cesspool. I’m deleting my account. What’s remarkable about Clubhouse is that it seems to be experiencing this entire cycle all at once, during its first year of existence. I started using Clubhouse in the fall. At the time, the app seemed to be dominated by typical early-adopter types — tech workers, venture capitalists, digital marketing gurus — along with a sizable contingent of Black influencers and a number of “heterodox” internet figures who mostly used the platform to complain about the mainstream media and go on tedious rants about cancel culture. From the start, there were signs that Clubhouse was speed-running the platform life cycle. Weeks after launching, it ran into claims that it was allowing harassment and hate speech to proliferate, including large rooms where speakers allegedly made anti-Semitic comments. The startup scrambled to update its community guidelines and add basic blocking and reporting features, and its founders did the requisite Zuckerbergian apology tour. (“We unequivocally condemn Anti-Blackness, Anti-Semitism, and all other forms of racism, hate speech and abuse on Clubhouse,” read one company blog post in October.) The company has also faced accusations of mishandling user data, including a Stanford report that found that the company may have routed some data through servers in China, possibly giving the Chinese government access to sensitive user information. (The company pledged to lock down user data and submit to an outside audit of its security practices.) And privacy advocates have balked at the app’s aggressive growth practices, which include asking users to upload their entire contact lists in order to send invitations to others. “Major privacy &amp; security concerns, lots of data extraction, use of dark patterns, growth without a clear business model. When will we learn?” Elizabeth Renieris, director of the Notre Dame-IBM Tech Ethics Lab, wrote in a tweet this week that compared Clubhouse at this moment to the early days of Facebook. To be fair, there are some important structural differences between Clubhouse and existing social networks. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, which revolve around central, algorithmically curated feeds, Clubhouse is organized more like Reddit — a cluster of topical rooms, moderated by users, with a central “hallway” where users can browse rooms in progress. Clubhouse rooms disappear after they’re over, and recording a room is against the rules (although it still happens), which means that “going viral,” in the traditional sense, isn’t really possible. Users have to be invited to a room’s “stage” to speak, and moderators can easily boot unruly or disruptive speakers, so there’s less risk of a civilized discussion’s being hijacked by trolls. And Clubhouse doesn’t have ads, which reduces the risk of profit-seeking mischief. But there are still plenty of similarities. Like other social networks, Clubhouse has a number of “discovery” features and aggressive growth-hacking tactics meant to draw new users deeper into the app, including algorithmic recommendations and personalized push alerts, and a list of suggested users to follow. Those features, combined with Clubhouse’s ability to form private and semiprivate rooms with thousands of people in them, create some of the same bad incentives and opportunities for abuse that have hurt other platforms. The app’s reputation for lax moderation has also attracted a number of people who have been barred by other social networks, including figures associated with QAnon, Stop the Steal and other extremist groups. Clubhouse has also become a home for people who are disillusioned with social media censorship and critical of various gatekeepers. Attacking The New York Times in particular has become something of an obsession among Clubhouse addicts for reasons that would take another full column to explain. (A room called, in part, How to Destroy the NYT ran for many hours, drawing thousands of listeners.) It has also drawn scrutiny from governments. Dissidents in Thailand and Russia have been using the app to discuss government corruption and document human rights abuses. And the Chinese government banned the app this month, presumably after discovering that residents of mainland China were using Clubhouse to have long and free-flowing conversations with people in Taiwan and Hong Kong outside the grasp of censors. But before I get tagged as a Clubhouse hater, let me sound a note of optimism. I actually like Clubhouse and think its core technological innovation — an easy way to create live, participatory audio experiences — is a genuinely useful one. Most rooms I’ve been in are civil and well-moderated, and if you scroll past the megapopular rooms filled with celebrities and clout-chasers, you can find some truly fascinating stuff. In the past few weeks, I’ve listened to a Clubhouse room of Black doctors and nurses discussing their experiences of racism in medicine, and a room where a prominent psychologist led a workshop on mourning and grief. I’ve lurked in Korean karaoke contests, heard energy experts debating nuclear power and hosted civilized conversations about the media. The other night, after sampling a few dozen Clubhouse rooms, I fell asleep to the sounds of the lullaby club, a nightly Clubhouse gathering of musicians who sing songs to help one another fall asleep. The ability to spontaneously drop in and out of rooms like these and toggle between passive listening and active speaking is part of what makes Clubhouse so compelling — and so different from listening to podcasts or attending a Zoom webinar. There’s also a refreshing randomness to Clubhouse that makes it more interesting than social networks where every piece of content is algorithmically tailored to your exact interests. (As Nicholas Quah wrote in Vulture, “There is something that feels alluringly new about being able to slide between various pop-up communities you didn’t intentionally seek out.”) Granted, a pandemic that traps people inside their homes and starves them of social connection is an ideal environment for introducing a new social app, and Clubhouse may lose some users once they’re vaccinated and go back to IRL socializing. In addition, Clubhouse, which is invitation-only and currently limited to iOS users, still has the benefit of being small enough to manage. As the app opens its gates wider, it will need to scale its moderation efforts or risk turning into the Parler of audio — a place so lawless that only hyperpartisans and professional grifters want to spend time there. There is also the looming threat of competition from the giants, which could cut into Clubhouse’s growth. Twitter’s group audio chat feature, Spaces, launched this month, and Facebook is reportedly working on its own Clubhouse-like product. But I hope Clubhouse survives, if only because it could create a more thoughtful, less outrage-driven alternative to the social networks we’ve been typing into for the last decade and a half. If the platform can fix its issues and learn from the mistakes made by bigger companies before it, I might be in for a lot more late nights in my car.

Can Clubhouse move fast without breaking things?

YouTube on Wednesday announced that it will allow tweens or young teens to open their accounts within guidelines set by their parents to restrict inappropriate content.&nbsp;

"We’ve heard from parents and older children that tweens and teens have different needs, which weren’t being fully met by our products," YouTube's kids and family product management director James Beser was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.&nbsp;

Watch |&nbsp;

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"We are announcing a new choice for parents who have decided their tweens and teens are ready to explore YouTube with a supervised account."

Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/youtube-suspends-donald-trump-from-platform-indefinitely-359653">Youtube suspends Donald Trump from platform indefinitely</a>

Beser said that an early version of such accounts will be released in the coming months and will allow parents to use their google accounts to give their children access to YouTube with content and feature constraints.&nbsp;

The service will have an "explore" option for parental control settings that will have videos considered appropriate for children aged nine and older, for instance, tutorials, gaming videos, music clips, educational and news content.&nbsp;

A second setting will let children see videos that are suitable for people aged 13 and older and will include live streams.&nbsp;

For the majority of the content on the platform, a "most of YouTube" setting will be there, which will block only age-restricted or sensitive topics that are only suitable for adults.&nbsp;

The YouTube official said that the new service is "designed for parents" who want to give their children access to the platform, but with "limits".&nbsp;

"We will use a mix of user input, machine learning and human review to determine which videos are included," Beser said.

"We know that our systems will make mistakes and will continue to evolve over time."

 
&nbsp;

YouTube on Wednesday announced that it will allow tweens or young teens to open their accounts within guidelines set by their parents to restrict inappropriate content.

YouTube on Wednesday announced that it will allow tweens or young teens to open their accounts within guidelines set by their parents to restrict inappropriate content. "We’ve heard from parents and older children that tweens and teens have different needs, which weren’t being fully met by our products," YouTube's kids and family product management director James Beser was quoted as saying by news agency AFP. Watch | "We are announcing a new choice for parents who have decided their tweens and teens are ready to explore YouTube with a supervised account." Also read | Youtube suspends Donald Trump from platform indefinitely Beser said that an early version of such accounts will be released in the coming months and will allow parents to use their google accounts to give their children access to YouTube with content and feature constraints. The service will have an "explore" option for parental control settings that will have videos considered appropriate for children aged nine and older, for instance, tutorials, gaming videos, music clips, educational and news content. A second setting will let children see videos that are suitable for people aged 13 and older and will include live streams. For the majority of the content on the platform, a "most of YouTube" setting will be there, which will block only age-restricted or sensitive topics that are only suitable for adults. The YouTube official said that the new service is "designed for parents" who want to give their children access to the platform, but with "limits". "We will use a mix of user input, machine learning and human review to determine which videos are included," Beser said. "We know that our systems will make mistakes and will continue to evolve over time."

YouTube brings 'tweens-only' accounts with parental controls

Big tech is taking over the world by establishing monopolies. Apple CEO Tim Cook said on Wednesday that it acquires a new company every month.

The acquisition strategy is aimed at offering better services but tech companies are killing competition one sale at a time.

Many lawmakers in recent years have called for laws and regulations to rein in dominant&nbsp;tech&nbsp;companies such as Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google, Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc.

Turi inc. was once a promising artificial intelligence startup in Seattle. The company helped create software that uses machine learning. Its technology was so promising that Apple bought the company and paid&nbsp;a record $200 million for it.

While buying companies is not new for tech giants, the speed at which they are lapping up competitors is alarming.

Apple CEO&nbsp;Tim Cook revealed that they have acquired over 100 companies in nearly six&nbsp;years. This means buying one company every three&nbsp;to four&nbsp;weeks.

This includes the $3 billion takeover of headphone maker Beats and music recognition app Shazam.

Apple isn't the only company that does hostile takeovers. Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp when it threatened its popularity within a span of two years.

Big tech giants are on an acquisition spree. Many acquisitions never even make it to the headlines...

The idea is simple: Eliminate potential rivals, kill innovation and poach talent from smaller companies.

At the centre of this&nbsp;is a big tech monopoly. The last two&nbsp;decades have witnessed the rise of five&nbsp;major global tech giants. These include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft.

Today, these tech giants wield too much power. Each of them monopolistic in their own domain. They exercise enormous power over our digital lives, controlling the way we navigate through the web.

Some are even trying to manipulate the way democracies run while others have taken the privacy of users for granted. The way to restore the power balance is to break up big tech.

Current US antitrust laws allow federal regulators to break up mergers, a&nbsp;move that could promote healthy competition in the market.

For global regulators, breaking up monopolies needs a new legal toolbox. Either way,&nbsp;the idea is to level the playing field and protect the future of the internet.

Big tech is taking over the world by establishing monopolies. Apple CEO Tim Cook said on Wednesday that it acquires a new company every month. The acquisition strategy is aimed at offering better services but tech companies are killing competition one sale at a time.

Big tech is taking over the world by establishing monopolies. Apple CEO Tim Cook said on Wednesday that it acquires a new company every month. The acquisition strategy is aimed at offering better services but tech companies are killing competition one sale at a time. Many lawmakers in recent years have called for laws and regulations to rein in dominant tech companies such as Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google, Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc. Turi inc. was once a promising artificial intelligence startup in Seattle. The company helped create software that uses machine learning. Its technology was so promising that Apple bought the company and paid a record $200 million for it. While buying companies is not new for tech giants, the speed at which they are lapping up competitors is alarming. Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that they have acquired over 100 companies in nearly six years. This means buying one company every three to four weeks. This includes the $3 billion takeover of headphone maker Beats and music recognition app Shazam. Apple isn't the only company that does hostile takeovers. Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp when it threatened its popularity within a span of two years. Big tech giants are on an acquisition spree. Many acquisitions never even make it to the headlines... The idea is simple: Eliminate potential rivals, kill innovation and poach talent from smaller companies. At the centre of this is a big tech monopoly. The last two decades have witnessed the rise of five major global tech giants. These include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft. Today, these tech giants wield too much power. Each of them monopolistic in their own domain. They exercise enormous power over our digital lives, controlling the way we navigate through the web. Some are even trying to manipulate the way democracies run while others have taken the privacy of users for granted. The way to restore the power balance is to break up big tech. Current US antitrust laws allow federal regulators to break up mergers, a move that could promote healthy competition in the market. For global regulators, breaking up monopolies needs a new legal toolbox. Either way, the idea is to level the playing field and protect the future of the internet.

Tim Cook says Apple buys one company every month

After facing backlash from users over the new privacy policy, the American messaging service WhatsApp has come up with a list of details of changes that a user could face after ignoring its terms by the May 15 deadline.

When&nbsp;WhatsApp&nbsp;users began to raise concerns about a new&nbsp;privacy&nbsp;policy being rolled out, members of a Washington pickup soccer group decided to switch their communications to rival messaging platform Signal, ditching the Facebook-owned service.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/elon-musk-asks-people-to-use-signal-app-instead-of-whatsapp-and-facebook-over-privacy-issues-355704">Elon Musk asks people to use Signal app instead of WhatsApp and Facebook over privacy issues</a>

The flap over&nbsp;WhatsApp's&nbsp;privacy&nbsp;policy, described by Facebook as a misunderstanding about efforts to bring businesses onto the platform -- &nbsp;threatens to erode trust in the service which is increasingly important to the leading social network's future.

The California giant last month delayed the implementation of a new policy which critics said could expand data collection from some two billion&nbsp;WhatsApp&nbsp;users around the world.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/whatsapp-updates-privacy-policy-asks-users-to-accept-terms-or-app-will-be-deleted-354815">WhatsApp updates privacy policy, asks users to accept terms or app will be deleted</a>

Even with the delay in place, the policy caused an uproar and prompted a surge in interest in rival messaging services such as Signal and Telegram.

A&nbsp;WhatsApp&nbsp;blog post cited "confusion" over the policy update and maintained that it "does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook."

The update concerns how merchants using&nbsp;WhatsApp&nbsp;to chat with customers can share data with Facebook, which could use the information for targeted ads, according to the social network. The policy will be reviewed and won't be implemented before May 15, according to the company.

WhatsApp has detailed what will happen to users who won`t agree to new privacy changes through a mail which explains that it will slowly ask such users to comply with the new terms in order to have full functionality of the messaging service till its deadline.

"If the user will not accept the terms, for a short time, these users will be able to receive calls and notifications, but will not be able to read or send messages from the app."

Tech Crunch reported that the short time of asking users to comply with the norms would span ahead for a few weeks and for the inactive users, its policy will apply after May 15. Usually, according to the WhatsApp policy, the accounts of inactive users get deleted automatically after 120 days of inactivity.

Tech Crunch quoted, "Since 2016, WhatsApp`s privacy policies have granted the service permission to share with Facebook certain metadata such as user phone numbers and device information. The new terms will allow Facebook and WhatsApp to share payment and transaction data in order to help them better target ads as the social juggernaut broadens its e-commerce offerings and looks to merge its messaging platforms."&nbsp;

New model for Facebook

WhatsApp, acquired in 2014 for some $19 billion -- the largest sale of a venture-backed firm at the time -- is seen as a strategic asset for Facebook as it faces slowing growth for its core social network and looks to expand its offerings for connecting users and businesses.

The controversy comes as Facebook seeks to integrate its "family" of applications with a common technology and provide more ways for people and businesses to connect, while US antitrust enforcers meanwhile press to "unwind" Facebook's acquisition of&nbsp;WhatsApp&nbsp;and Instagram.

&nbsp;

After facing backlash from users over the new privacy policy, the American messaging service WhatsApp has come up with a list of details of changes that a user could face after ignoring its terms by the May 15 deadline.

After facing backlash from users over the new privacy policy, the American messaging service WhatsApp has come up with a list of details of changes that a user could face after ignoring its terms by the May 15 deadline. When WhatsApp users began to raise concerns about a new privacy policy being rolled out, members of a Washington pickup soccer group decided to switch their communications to rival messaging platform Signal, ditching the Facebook-owned service. Also read: Elon Musk asks people to use Signal app instead of WhatsApp and Facebook over privacy issues The flap over WhatsApp's privacy policy, described by Facebook as a misunderstanding about efforts to bring businesses onto the platform -- threatens to erode trust in the service which is increasingly important to the leading social network's future. The California giant last month delayed the implementation of a new policy which critics said could expand data collection from some two billion WhatsApp users around the world. Also read: WhatsApp updates privacy policy, asks users to accept terms or app will be deleted Even with the delay in place, the policy caused an uproar and prompted a surge in interest in rival messaging services such as Signal and Telegram. A WhatsApp blog post cited "confusion" over the policy update and maintained that it "does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook." The update concerns how merchants using WhatsApp to chat with customers can share data with Facebook, which could use the information for targeted ads, according to the social network. The policy will be reviewed and won't be implemented before May 15, according to the company. WhatsApp has detailed what will happen to users who won`t agree to new privacy changes through a mail which explains that it will slowly ask such users to comply with the new terms in order to have full functionality of the messaging service till its deadline. "If the user will not accept the terms, for a short time, these users will be able to receive calls and notifications, but will not be able to read or send messages from the app." Tech Crunch reported that the short time of asking users to comply with the norms would span ahead for a few weeks and for the inactive users, its policy will apply after May 15. Usually, according to the WhatsApp policy, the accounts of inactive users get deleted automatically after 120 days of inactivity. Tech Crunch quoted, "Since 2016, WhatsApp`s privacy policies have granted the service permission to share with Facebook certain metadata such as user phone numbers and device information. The new terms will allow Facebook and WhatsApp to share payment and transaction data in order to help them better target ads as the social juggernaut broadens its e-commerce offerings and looks to merge its messaging platforms." New model for Facebook WhatsApp, acquired in 2014 for some $19 billion -- the largest sale of a venture-backed firm at the time -- is seen as a strategic asset for Facebook as it faces slowing growth for its core social network and looks to expand its offerings for connecting users and businesses. The controversy comes as Facebook seeks to integrate its "family" of applications with a common technology and provide more ways for people and businesses to connect, while US antitrust enforcers meanwhile press to "unwind" Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram.

Here's what users can face after ignoring WhatsApp's new privacy policy

There are&nbsp;only 22 countries in the world&nbsp;the British have not invaded.&nbsp;India too&nbsp;was a British colony between 1858 and 1947.

In 2021,&nbsp;the world is staring at another colonial threat, this time&nbsp;it's from big tech. Many lawmakers in recent years have called for laws and regulations to rein in dominant&nbsp;tech&nbsp;companies such as Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google, Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc.

The big tech&nbsp;has become the&nbsp;new East India Company as it&nbsp;colonising the world.

The East India Company began establishing trading posts in India in the year 1600.

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In 1612, it defeated the Portuguese. Soon it went after local traders&nbsp;and killed their business.

Amazon launched its operations in India in 2013. It began killing brick and mortar businesses due to which some of them moved online but they were quashed by predatory pricing and prefered sellers.

When India announced an investigation into Amazon in January 2020, the company challenged the probe.

Back in the 17th century- the British East India Company had established a monopoly in India. Today, companies like Amazon are doing the same.

Facebook follows the same strategy to kill competitors, establish a monopoly. It&nbsp;has made at least 81 acquisitions since 2005.

When Instagram threatened Facebook's popularity,&nbsp;it was acquired in 2012. Then Facebook started copying&nbsp;Snapchat's features.&nbsp;It did everything to ensure Instagram does not have any major competitor.

Similarly, when&nbsp;WhatsApp&nbsp;posed a challenge,&nbsp;Facebook bought it as well&nbsp;in 2014.

Tech giants regularly acquire start-ups to kill innovation and&nbsp;drain small players by hiring or&nbsp;poaching their talent. Many acquisitions never even make it to the headlines as&nbsp;Google has colonised the online search space.

As per the East India company's playbook, it&nbsp;went after policies after establishing a monopoly.

By the 18th century, the trading company became involved in politics. Its aim was to maintain its trading privilege and expand its wings.

Today, tech giants are doing the same. In the US&nbsp;Amazon is trying to lobby against all its competitors by&nbsp;bidding for billions of dollars worth of government contracts.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has embedded himself in Washington. His $23 million mansion sits not too far from the White House.

In 2019, Amazon spent over $8.1 million on lobbying. This is more than any tech company.

A Bloomberg report claims- amazon has increased its spending on lobbying by over 460 per cent since 2012.

Amazon reportedly paid zero federal tax on its profits in the US&nbsp;In 2018. This was for the second year in a row.

Amazon&nbsp;has been facing increasing scrutiny by Indian regulators, and the latest report provided an inside look at the cat-and-mouse game&nbsp;Amazon&nbsp;has played with India's government, adjusting its corporate structures each time the government imposed new restrictions aimed at protecting small traders.

After the 1757 battle of Plassey- the East India company became very powerful.&nbsp;In 1764, it won the battle of Buxar.&nbsp;Soon it was granted the Diwani of Bengal.&nbsp;

Facebook&nbsp;wiped out pages from Australian state governments and charities as well as from domestic and international news organisations, three days before the launch of a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination programme.

It's dictating terms and bullying and blackmailing elected lawmakers. The company has blocked news and&nbsp;is controlling the reach of the press. Big tech has become that powerful!

Facebook has a history of abusing legal gaps. It came under limelight for the privacy concerns of WhatsApp policies recently.

The only way to ensure that big tech&nbsp;does not re-inflict the damage done by the East India Company is to legislate.

India must regulate big tech, protect home companies and the country's&nbsp;interests offline.

India must learn from its history and ensure that the country isn't left vulnerable to digital colonisation by big tech as it was to British colonisation- by the East India Company.

If in the 1600s India had the spices and raw materials. Today,&nbsp;India has the world's largest online market outside China.

In the 1600s- the Portuguese and the British East India company were betting on India. Today- it's the silicon valley giants.

India must ensure that this time that it emerges as the only winner.

There are only 22 countries in the world the British have not invaded. India too was a British colony between 1858 and 1947. In 2021, the world is staring at another colonial threat, this time it's from big tech.

There are only 22 countries in the world the British have not invaded. India too was a British colony between 1858 and 1947. In 2021, the world is staring at another colonial threat, this time it's from big tech. Many lawmakers in recent years have called for laws and regulations to rein in dominant tech companies such as Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google, Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc. The big tech has become the new East India Company as it colonising the world. The East India Company began establishing trading posts in India in the year 1600. × In 1612, it defeated the Portuguese. Soon it went after local traders and killed their business. Amazon launched its operations in India in 2013. It began killing brick and mortar businesses due to which some of them moved online but they were quashed by predatory pricing and prefered sellers. When India announced an investigation into Amazon in January 2020, the company challenged the probe. Back in the 17th century- the British East India Company had established a monopoly in India. Today, companies like Amazon are doing the same. Facebook follows the same strategy to kill competitors, establish a monopoly. It has made at least 81 acquisitions since 2005. When Instagram threatened Facebook's popularity, it was acquired in 2012. Then Facebook started copying Snapchat's features. It did everything to ensure Instagram does not have any major competitor. Similarly, when WhatsApp posed a challenge, Facebook bought it as well in 2014. Tech giants regularly acquire start-ups to kill innovation and drain small players by hiring or poaching their talent. Many acquisitions never even make it to the headlines as Google has colonised the online search space. As per the East India company's playbook, it went after policies after establishing a monopoly. By the 18th century, the trading company became involved in politics. Its aim was to maintain its trading privilege and expand its wings. Today, tech giants are doing the same. In the US Amazon is trying to lobby against all its competitors by bidding for billions of dollars worth of government contracts. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has embedded himself in Washington. His $23 million mansion sits not too far from the White House. In 2019, Amazon spent over $8.1 million on lobbying. This is more than any tech company. A Bloomberg report claims- amazon has increased its spending on lobbying by over 460 per cent since 2012. Amazon reportedly paid zero federal tax on its profits in the US In 2018. This was for the second year in a row. Amazon has been facing increasing scrutiny by Indian regulators, and the latest report provided an inside look at the cat-and-mouse game Amazon has played with India's government, adjusting its corporate structures each time the government imposed new restrictions aimed at protecting small traders. After the 1757 battle of Plassey- the East India company became very powerful. In 1764, it won the battle of Buxar. Soon it was granted the Diwani of Bengal. Facebook wiped out pages from Australian state governments and charities as well as from domestic and international news organisations, three days before the launch of a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination programme. It's dictating terms and bullying and blackmailing elected lawmakers. The company has blocked news and is controlling the reach of the press. Big tech has become that powerful! Facebook has a history of abusing legal gaps. It came under limelight for the privacy concerns of WhatsApp policies recently. The only way to ensure that big tech does not re-inflict the damage done by the East India Company is to legislate. India must regulate big tech, protect home companies and the country's interests offline. India must learn from its history and ensure that the country isn't left vulnerable to digital colonisation by big tech as it was to British colonisation- by the East India Company. If in the 1600s India had the spices and raw materials. Today, India has the world's largest online market outside China. In the 1600s- the Portuguese and the British East India company were betting on India. Today- it's the silicon valley giants. India must ensure that this time that it emerges as the only winner.

'Digital colonialism': Has big tech become the new East India Company

Facebook said Thursday it would expand its climate information hub and direct its users to experts to debunk myths and hoaxes in the field in a ramped up effort to fight misinformation.

The social media giant said it has added a section to its climate hub that features "facts that debunk common climate myths" and will rely on climate communication experts from the George Mason University, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, and the University of Cambridge.

The information hub is already available in France, Germany, Britain and the United States, and is being expanded to Belgium, Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa and Taiwan.&nbsp;

"Along with expanding the center, we’re improving it. We added a section that features facts that debunk common climate myths," Facebook said.

"We already direct people to the Climate Science Information Center when they search for climate-related terms, and will keep doing that where the center is available. In countries where it isn't, we will soon direct people to the&nbsp;&nbsp;UN Environment Programme, a leading global environmental authority."

Facebook said Thursday it would expand its climate information hub and direct its users to experts to debunk myths and hoaxes in the field in a ramped up effort to fight misinformation.

Facebook said Thursday it would expand its climate information hub and direct its users to experts to debunk myths and hoaxes in the field in a ramped up effort to fight misinformation. The social media giant said it has added a section to its climate hub that features "facts that debunk common climate myths" and will rely on climate communication experts from the George Mason University, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, and the University of Cambridge. The information hub is already available in France, Germany, Britain and the United States, and is being expanded to Belgium, Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa and Taiwan. "Along with expanding the center, we’re improving it. We added a section that features facts that debunk common climate myths," Facebook said. "We already direct people to the Climate Science Information Center when they search for climate-related terms, and will keep doing that where the center is available. In countries where it isn't, we will soon direct people to the UN Environment Programme, a leading global environmental authority."

Facebook to debunk climate change myths in expanded hub

Thai government on Wednesday issued a&nbsp;warning against Clubhouse app after it emerged almost overnight as a platform for discussion of the monarchy.

Digital minister Puttipong Punnakanta said the Thai authorities were watching Clubhouse users, and political groups on the app were distorting information and potentially violating laws.

A large number of Thai users joined Clubhouse in recent days after Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a prominent Japan-based critic of the Thai palace, joined on Friday and started discussing the monarchy.

Clubhouse, launched last year, lets users host audio chats. It has surged in popularity in the past couple of months, especially after Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared on it last month.

"What needs to be spoken will be spoken. It is risky but it must be encouraged, as the more we speak about it the more such discussions become the norm," Pavin, who had gained more than 70,000 followers in his first five days on the app, told Reuters. "These exercises help boost courage."

Youth protests last year focused on demands for reforms to the royal system in Thailand, a subject long considered taboo.Since the protests started, at least 59 people have been summoned or charged under Thailand's "lese majeste" law against insulting or defaming the king.

Audience grows

The Thai government regularly uses a cybercrime law to prosecute critics of the monarchy on national security grounds. It has previously cracked down on such criticisms on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Pavin's audience grew from around 300 on Friday to over 12,000 on Tuesday night, when he discussed King Maha Vajiralongkorn in a room that quickly reached the app's maximum capacity. Other rooms criticising the Thai government and the use of the lese majeste law are also popular, with many exiled critics speaking about their experiences.

The app's quick rise has drawn the attention of other governments in the region. Earlier this month, China blocked access to the app after a brief period when thousands of mainland users joined in discussions often censored in China, including about Xinjiang detention camps and Hong Kong's National Security Law.

Some Hong Kong pro-democracy activists have gained thousands of followers on the app, although users there appear so far to have stopped short of hosting public discussions about reviving protests that might attract Beijing's wrath.

On Wednesday, Indonesia said Clubhouse had yet to register with authorities and could be banned if it failed to comply with local regulations.

Indonesia, which compels tech platforms to register, has already banned Reddit, Vimeo, and scores of pornography sites.

Thai government on Wednesday issued a warning against Clubhouse app after it emerged almost overnight as a platform for discussion of the monarchy. Digital minister Puttipong Punnakanta said the Thai authorities were watching Clubhouse users, and political groups on the app were distorting information and potentially violating laws.

Thai government on Wednesday issued a warning against Clubhouse app after it emerged almost overnight as a platform for discussion of the monarchy. Digital minister Puttipong Punnakanta said the Thai authorities were watching Clubhouse users, and political groups on the app were distorting information and potentially violating laws. A large number of Thai users joined Clubhouse in recent days after Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a prominent Japan-based critic of the Thai palace, joined on Friday and started discussing the monarchy. Clubhouse, launched last year, lets users host audio chats. It has surged in popularity in the past couple of months, especially after Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared on it last month. "What needs to be spoken will be spoken. It is risky but it must be encouraged, as the more we speak about it the more such discussions become the norm," Pavin, who had gained more than 70,000 followers in his first five days on the app, told Reuters. "These exercises help boost courage." Youth protests last year focused on demands for reforms to the royal system in Thailand, a subject long considered taboo.Since the protests started, at least 59 people have been summoned or charged under Thailand's "lese majeste" law against insulting or defaming the king. Audience grows The Thai government regularly uses a cybercrime law to prosecute critics of the monarchy on national security grounds. It has previously cracked down on such criticisms on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Pavin's audience grew from around 300 on Friday to over 12,000 on Tuesday night, when he discussed King Maha Vajiralongkorn in a room that quickly reached the app's maximum capacity. Other rooms criticising the Thai government and the use of the lese majeste law are also popular, with many exiled critics speaking about their experiences. The app's quick rise has drawn the attention of other governments in the region. Earlier this month, China blocked access to the app after a brief period when thousands of mainland users joined in discussions often censored in China, including about Xinjiang detention camps and Hong Kong's National Security Law. Some Hong Kong pro-democracy activists have gained thousands of followers on the app, although users there appear so far to have stopped short of hosting public discussions about reviving protests that might attract Beijing's wrath. On Wednesday, Indonesia said Clubhouse had yet to register with authorities and could be banned if it failed to comply with local regulations. Indonesia, which compels tech platforms to register, has already banned Reddit, Vimeo, and scores of pornography sites.

Thai government issues warning against Clubhouse after it emerges as platform for dissidents

Chinese video-based application TikTok continues to face global scrutiny after the United States and India cracked down on the app for its alleged links with the Chinese government, and for concerns over user data.

Now, the European Union has also issued a warning to TikTok users. On Tuesday, Europe’s consumer campaign group The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) said that the app is breaching the rights of users “on a massive scale”.

In a statement, the organisation claimed that a probe ought to be launched in terms of the app’s “unfair” copyright policy and virtual coins. In addition, the BEUC took into account that the application has no protection mechanisms in place for children and teenagers who may be exposed to harmful content or harmful advertising.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/india-news/bytedance-explores-sale-of-indian-tiktok-assets-to-rival-firm-glance-363395" hreflang="en">ByteDance explores sale of Indian TikTok assets to rival firm Glance</a>

“In just a few years, TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps with millions of users across Europe. But TikTok is letting its users down by breaching their rights," Monique Goyens, the BEUC’s director general, was cited as saying by Bloomberg. In addition, Goyens said that a complaint in this regard has been filed with the European Commission and national consumer-protection authorities.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/after-tiktok-biden-team-seeks-pause-in-litigation-over-wechat-ban-in-us-363085" hreflang="en">After TikTok, Biden team seeks pause in litigation over WeChat ban in US</a> 
 
EU’s data authorities are also investigating TikTok for how the app handles the personal information of children. In 2020, former US President Donald Trump had attempted to ban the application, prompting authorities to look into the safety imbued in the app.

The BEUC claims that the copyright terms of TikTok are unfair for the company has no provision to pay users for the content they upload on the app, and instead the company reserves the right to use the videos as it pleases. In addition, the BEUC raised concerns over TikTok selling coins for virtual presents.

Chinese video-based application TikTok continues to face global scrutiny after the United States and India cracked down on the app for its alleged links with the Chinese government, and for concerns over user data.

Chinese video-based application TikTok continues to face global scrutiny after the United States and India cracked down on the app for its alleged links with the Chinese government, and for concerns over user data. Now, the European Union has also issued a warning to TikTok users. On Tuesday, Europe’s consumer campaign group The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) said that the app is breaching the rights of users “on a massive scale”. In a statement, the organisation claimed that a probe ought to be launched in terms of the app’s “unfair” copyright policy and virtual coins. In addition, the BEUC took into account that the application has no protection mechanisms in place for children and teenagers who may be exposed to harmful content or harmful advertising. Also read: ByteDance explores sale of Indian TikTok assets to rival firm Glance “In just a few years, TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps with millions of users across Europe. But TikTok is letting its users down by breaching their rights," Monique Goyens, the BEUC’s director general, was cited as saying by Bloomberg. In addition, Goyens said that a complaint in this regard has been filed with the European Commission and national consumer-protection authorities. Also read: After TikTok, Biden team seeks pause in litigation over WeChat ban in US EU’s data authorities are also investigating TikTok for how the app handles the personal information of children. In 2020, former US President Donald Trump had attempted to ban the application, prompting authorities to look into the safety imbued in the app. The BEUC claims that the copyright terms of TikTok are unfair for the company has no provision to pay users for the content they upload on the app, and instead the company reserves the right to use the videos as it pleases. In addition, the BEUC raised concerns over TikTok selling coins for virtual presents.

After US and India, EU consumers' group raises concern over TikTok's safety

The Kremlin said on Monday that a proposal by <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> for Russian President Vladimir Putin to join social networking app Clubhouse was interesting, but that it needed to see more details first.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was commenting after Musk tweeted to the Kremlin on Sunday: “Would you like join me for a conversation on Clubhouse?”

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было бы большой честью поговорить с вами
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1360700181658886147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call: "In general, this is of course a very interesting proposal, but we need to understand what is meant, what is being proposed... first we need to check, then we will react."

Putin, a former KGB officer who once described the Internet as a CIA project, has for years styled himself as suspicious of modern technology.

A surprise chat between tech billionaire&nbsp;Elon&nbsp;Musk&nbsp;and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on new audio-based social network Clubhouse&nbsp;propelled the app to the top of the startup charts and sparked a scramble for invitations to the exclusive service.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-asks-russian-president-vladimir-putin-to-join-clubhouse-app-363585">Tesla CEO Elon Musk asks Russian President Vladimir Putin to join Clubhouse app</a>

The app, available only on Apple, thrives on the concept of FOMO,&nbsp;fear of missing out. If you're not online when a conversation happens, you miss it.

Users can walk their dog or cook dinner while listening to talks on financing a start-up or the current state of American education&nbsp;or even tune in while playing trivia games.

Unlike podcasts, everything is live and users can participate&nbsp;as long as they are invited to do so by chat moderators.

Star-studded user base

A&nbsp;Clubhouse&nbsp;chat can be mundane but it can also be transformed into a must-hear event if someone famous shows up. In addition to Zuckerberg's and Musk's recent appearances, comedian Kevin Hart popped up in a chat last spring.

For Musk's appearance with the boss of trading app Robinhood, the maximum capacity of 5,000 people was quickly reached, so secondary overflow "rooms" were opened.

The&nbsp;audio app is reviewing its data protection practices, after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users' data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government.

The Kremlin said on Monday that a proposal by Elon Musk for Russian President Vladimir Putin to join social networking app Clubhouse was interesting, but that it needed to see more details first.

The Kremlin said on Monday that a proposal by Elon Musk for Russian President Vladimir Putin to join social networking app Clubhouse was interesting, but that it needed to see more details first. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was commenting after Musk tweeted to the Kremlin on Sunday: “Would you like join me for a conversation on Clubhouse?” было бы большой честью поговорить с вами — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 13, 2021 × Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call: "In general, this is of course a very interesting proposal, but we need to understand what is meant, what is being proposed... first we need to check, then we will react." Putin, a former KGB officer who once described the Internet as a CIA project, has for years styled himself as suspicious of modern technology. A surprise chat between tech billionaire Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on new audio-based social network Clubhouse propelled the app to the top of the startup charts and sparked a scramble for invitations to the exclusive service. Also read: Tesla CEO Elon Musk asks Russian President Vladimir Putin to join Clubhouse app The app, available only on Apple, thrives on the concept of FOMO, fear of missing out. If you're not online when a conversation happens, you miss it. Users can walk their dog or cook dinner while listening to talks on financing a start-up or the current state of American education or even tune in while playing trivia games. Unlike podcasts, everything is live and users can participate as long as they are invited to do so by chat moderators. Star-studded user base A Clubhouse chat can be mundane but it can also be transformed into a must-hear event if someone famous shows up. In addition to Zuckerberg's and Musk's recent appearances, comedian Kevin Hart popped up in a chat last spring. For Musk's appearance with the boss of trading app Robinhood, the maximum capacity of 5,000 people was quickly reached, so secondary overflow "rooms" were opened. The audio app is reviewing its data protection practices, after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users' data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government.

Kremlin says Musk's idea for Putin to join Clubhouse app interesting, seeks details

Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX satellite internet venture Starlink has started accepting pre-orders for its beta programme.

Users are required to pay $99 as advance amount to book the Starlink satellite internet services which will be shipped ''on a first-come, first-served basis''.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on&nbsp;February 4&nbsp;carrying the 19th batch of 60 broadband satellites for SpaceX's&nbsp;Starlink&nbsp;Network, a planned constellation capable of beaming signals for high-speed internet service from space to paying customers around the globe.

Within eight minutes of liftoff, Falcon 9's main-stage reusable booster rocket flew back to Earth for a successful landing on a barge floating in the Atlantic, completing its fifth trip to space and back.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/elon-musks-spacex-starlink-internet-surprises-users-with-174-mbps-download-speed-340020">Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink internet surprises users with 174 Mbps download speed</a>

SpaceX launched a beta version of its&nbsp;Starlink satellite internet on October 26, and people have been surprised with the current download speed as beta users observed download speed between 160-174 megabits per second.

Beta users were asked to pay a fee of&nbsp;$600 upfront to get the internet which Musk announced as "Better Than Nothing Beta". However, Musk had tried to downplay his hand and said the internet would provide&nbsp;download speeds between 50 to 150 Mbps.

Starlink will be using nearly 900 satellites to beam the internet down to earth. After the users started sharing screenshots of the download speed, SpaceX said they deliberately wanted to "lower your initial expectations" to make sure no disappointment came their way when the users started beta testing.

Many users are now hailing the new internet system, while some have complained about the cost involved in the same. The beta version is available $99 a month but there are additional costs involved which totals to&nbsp;$499 for a kit with a tripod, a WiFi router, and a terminal to connect to Starlink satellites. While some are unhappy with the massive cost, some are saying they will be happy to pay even more if the speed remains either the same or increases, especially now as majority people are working from home.

SpaceX said on Thursday it had 10,000 users on its nascent satellite-based broadband service, dubbed&nbsp;Starlink, which Musk says will provide crucial funding to develop his Starship rocket for missions to the moon and, eventually, Mars.

Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX satellite internet venture Starlink has started accepting pre-orders for its beta programme. Users are required to pay $99 as advance amount to book the Starlink satellite internet services which will be shipped ''on a first-come, first-served basis''.

Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX satellite internet venture Starlink has started accepting pre-orders for its beta programme. Users are required to pay $99 as advance amount to book the Starlink satellite internet services which will be shipped ''on a first-come, first-served basis''. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on February 4 carrying the 19th batch of 60 broadband satellites for SpaceX's Starlink Network, a planned constellation capable of beaming signals for high-speed internet service from space to paying customers around the globe. Within eight minutes of liftoff, Falcon 9's main-stage reusable booster rocket flew back to Earth for a successful landing on a barge floating in the Atlantic, completing its fifth trip to space and back. Also read: Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink internet surprises users with 174 Mbps download speed SpaceX launched a beta version of its Starlink satellite internet on October 26, and people have been surprised with the current download speed as beta users observed download speed between 160-174 megabits per second. Beta users were asked to pay a fee of $600 upfront to get the internet which Musk announced as "Better Than Nothing Beta". However, Musk had tried to downplay his hand and said the internet would provide download speeds between 50 to 150 Mbps. Starlink will be using nearly 900 satellites to beam the internet down to earth. After the users started sharing screenshots of the download speed, SpaceX said they deliberately wanted to "lower your initial expectations" to make sure no disappointment came their way when the users started beta testing. Many users are now hailing the new internet system, while some have complained about the cost involved in the same. The beta version is available $99 a month but there are additional costs involved which totals to $499 for a kit with a tripod, a WiFi router, and a terminal to connect to Starlink satellites. While some are unhappy with the massive cost, some are saying they will be happy to pay even more if the speed remains either the same or increases, especially now as majority people are working from home. SpaceX said on Thursday it had 10,000 users on its nascent satellite-based broadband service, dubbed Starlink, which Musk says will provide crucial funding to develop his Starship rocket for missions to the moon and, eventually, Mars.

Elon Musk's SpaceX starts accepting deposits for Starlink satellite internet service

Social media giant Facebook is secretly working on a smartwatch and is planning to begin its sale from next year, as per a report.

The&nbsp;Android-based smartwatch being prepared by Facebook will include&nbsp;messaging, health, and fitness features.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/apple-ceo-zuckerberg-fires-shots-at-each-other-360198/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

According to The Verge, it is unclear whether Facebook intends for the smartwatch to run Google's Wear Os.

Apart from the upcoming smartwatch, Facebook is also working on building its own operating system for hardware devices and future iterations of the wearable may run that software instead.

The smartwatch would join Facebook's Oculus virtual reality headsets and Portal video chat devices as part of the social network`s growing hardware ecosystem.

The company is also working on branded Ray-Ban smart glasses expected to come out later this year and a separate augmented reality research initiative known as Project Aria, which is part of the company`s broader AR explorations, which it has been working on for some time now.

The social networking company has more than 6,000 employees working on various augmented and virtual reality projects and as part of existing hardware divisions like Oculus and Portal, as well as experimental initiatives under its Facebook Reality Labs division.

The Verge also reported that Facebook took over the neural interface startup CTRL-Labs in 2019. It has expertise in building wireless input mechanisms, including devices that could transmit electrical signals from the brain to computing devices without the need for traditional touchscreen or physical button inputs.

Social media giant Facebook is secretly working on a smartwatch and is planning to begin its sale from next year, as per a report. The Android-based smartwatch being prepared by Facebook will include messaging, health, and fitness features.

Social media giant Facebook is secretly working on a smartwatch and is planning to begin its sale from next year, as per a report. The Android-based smartwatch being prepared by Facebook will include messaging, health, and fitness features. According to The Verge, it is unclear whether Facebook intends for the smartwatch to run Google's Wear Os. Apart from the upcoming smartwatch, Facebook is also working on building its own operating system for hardware devices and future iterations of the wearable may run that software instead. The smartwatch would join Facebook's Oculus virtual reality headsets and Portal video chat devices as part of the social network`s growing hardware ecosystem. The company is also working on branded Ray-Ban smart glasses expected to come out later this year and a separate augmented reality research initiative known as Project Aria, which is part of the company`s broader AR explorations, which it has been working on for some time now. The social networking company has more than 6,000 employees working on various augmented and virtual reality projects and as part of existing hardware divisions like Oculus and Portal, as well as experimental initiatives under its Facebook Reality Labs division. The Verge also reported that Facebook took over the neural interface startup CTRL-Labs in 2019. It has expertise in building wireless input mechanisms, including devices that could transmit electrical signals from the brain to computing devices without the need for traditional touchscreen or physical button inputs.

Facebook to launch smartwatch with messaging, fitness features

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk on Sunday&nbsp;asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to join the audio chat app Clubhouse and have a conversation with him.

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было бы большой честью поговорить с вами
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1360700181658886147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Later on, Musk tweeted in Russian and said it would be a ''great honour'' to talk to Putin. Kremlin did not respond to the tweet by the silicon valley billionaire.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/im-an-alien-musk-says-in-response-to-question-from-cred-founder-kunal-shah-363418" hreflang="en">'I'm an alien': Musk says in response to question from Cred founder Kunal Shah</a>

The tweet triggered a flurry of responses from several Twitter users who expressed their support for the&nbsp;proposal.

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I have an invite if you need one <a href="https://twitter.com/KremlinRussia_E?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KremlinRussia_E</a>
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) <a href="https://twitter.com/jackbutcher/status/1360699664127954958?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2021</a></blockquote>
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A surprise chat between tech billionaire&nbsp;Elon&nbsp;Musk&nbsp;and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on new audio-based social network Clubhouse&nbsp;propelled the app to the top of the startup charts and sparked a scramble for invitations to the exclusive service.

For&nbsp;Musk's appearance with the boss of the trading app Robinhood, the maximum capacity of 5,000 people was quickly reached, so secondary overflow "rooms" were opened.

The interaction between the two entrepreneurs on the platform last week came amid intense interest in the news around Robinhood, the online brokerage caught up in a wild stockmarket battle between retail investors and big Wall Street funds.

Demand for invitations to the less-than-a-year-old service -- members get to invite a limited number of friends during its pre-launch period -- is so hot, a market for them has grown on platforms like Reddit, eBay, and Craigslist.

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk on Sunday asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to join the audio chat app Clubhouse and have a conversation with him. было бы большой честью поговорить с вами — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 13, 2021 × Later on, Musk tweeted in Russian and said it would be a ''great honour'' to talk to Putin.

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk on Sunday asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to join the audio chat app Clubhouse and have a conversation with him. было бы большой честью поговорить с вами — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 13, 2021 × Later on, Musk tweeted in Russian and said it would be a ''great honour'' to talk to Putin. Kremlin did not respond to the tweet by the silicon valley billionaire. Also read: 'I'm an alien': Musk says in response to question from Cred founder Kunal Shah The tweet triggered a flurry of responses from several Twitter users who expressed their support for the proposal. I have an invite if you need one @KremlinRussia_E — Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) February 13, 2021 × A surprise chat between tech billionaire Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on new audio-based social network Clubhouse propelled the app to the top of the startup charts and sparked a scramble for invitations to the exclusive service. For Musk's appearance with the boss of the trading app Robinhood, the maximum capacity of 5,000 people was quickly reached, so secondary overflow "rooms" were opened. The interaction between the two entrepreneurs on the platform last week came amid intense interest in the news around Robinhood, the online brokerage caught up in a wild stockmarket battle between retail investors and big Wall Street funds. Demand for invitations to the less-than-a-year-old service -- members get to invite a limited number of friends during its pre-launch period -- is so hot, a market for them has grown on platforms like Reddit, eBay, and Craigslist.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk asks Russian President Vladimir Putin to join Clubhouse app

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he is an ''alien'' in response to&nbsp;fintech startup&nbsp;Cred&nbsp;Kunal Shah's question regarding how he is running more than four $500-billion companies simultaneously at a relatively young age.

"What I want to really understand how does he do it? How does he manage context switching? How does he design his Org," Shah asked.

In response, the silicon valley billionaire tweeted:&nbsp;"I'm an alien."

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I’m an alien
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1360170735033978880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 12, 2021</a></blockquote>
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The banter between Musk and Shah triggered a slew of memes, with many laughing about the world’s&nbsp;“Worst kept secret.”

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<a href="https://t.co/tJodU1RJAv">https://t.co/tJodU1RJAv</a> <a href="https://t.co/hwQISzWZJM">pic.twitter.com/hwQISzWZJM</a>
— Renata Konkoly 🐢🦔 (@RenataKonkoly) <a href="https://twitter.com/RenataKonkoly/status/1360172300910354433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 12, 2021</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elonmusk</a> 👽 <a href="https://t.co/OcA8fvPn53">pic.twitter.com/OcA8fvPn53</a>
— venus 🧜‍♀️ (@venus47203379) <a href="https://twitter.com/venus47203379/status/1360231596230590469?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 12, 2021</a></blockquote>
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With social media prognostications about Bitcoin or GameStop,&nbsp;Elon&nbsp;Musk&nbsp;has ventured further away from his own businesses and become more like a Wall Street heavyweight who can move markets with just a few words.

Musk, who last month became the richest man in the world on paper thanks to a Tesla stock market boom, has nearly 45 million followers on Twitter.

Swept on by the success of his companies Tesla and SpaceX, as well as by interest in the electric cars and rockets they manufacture, he is considered by many fans to be a visionary, his slightest word enough to sway some investors.&nbsp;

When he changed his Twitter profile to read simply "#bitcoin" on Friday, the cryptocurrency's price temporarily skyrocketed by around 20 per cent.

And the mere mention of the Polish publisher of video game CD Projekt, or the e-commerce platform Shopify or the craft market Etsy -- which apparently delighted&nbsp;Musk&nbsp;with a hand-knitted hat for his dog,&nbsp;caused their stocks to soar.

The business giant, who has expressed his contempt for investors betting on a decline in a company's shares, waded in on the GameStop affair by tweeting a link to the Reddit group WallStreetBets, which helped stock of the video game specialist take off.&nbsp;

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he is an ''alien'' in response to fintech startup Cred Kunal Shah's question regarding how he is running more than four $500-billion companies simultaneously at a relatively young age.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he is an ''alien'' in response to fintech startup Cred Kunal Shah's question regarding how he is running more than four $500-billion companies simultaneously at a relatively young age. "What I want to really understand how does he do it? How does he manage context switching? How does he design his Org," Shah asked. In response, the silicon valley billionaire tweeted: "I'm an alien." I’m an alien — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 12, 2021 × The banter between Musk and Shah triggered a slew of memes, with many laughing about the world’s “Worst kept secret.” https://t.co/tJodU1RJAv pic.twitter.com/hwQISzWZJM — Renata Konkoly 🐢🦔 (@RenataKonkoly) February 12, 2021 × @elonmusk 👽 pic.twitter.com/OcA8fvPn53 — venus 🧜‍♀️ (@venus47203379) February 12, 2021 × With social media prognostications about Bitcoin or GameStop, Elon Musk has ventured further away from his own businesses and become more like a Wall Street heavyweight who can move markets with just a few words. Musk, who last month became the richest man in the world on paper thanks to a Tesla stock market boom, has nearly 45 million followers on Twitter. Swept on by the success of his companies Tesla and SpaceX, as well as by interest in the electric cars and rockets they manufacture, he is considered by many fans to be a visionary, his slightest word enough to sway some investors. When he changed his Twitter profile to read simply "#bitcoin" on Friday, the cryptocurrency's price temporarily skyrocketed by around 20 per cent. And the mere mention of the Polish publisher of video game CD Projekt, or the e-commerce platform Shopify or the craft market Etsy -- which apparently delighted Musk with a hand-knitted hat for his dog, caused their stocks to soar. The business giant, who has expressed his contempt for investors betting on a decline in a company's shares, waded in on the GameStop affair by tweeting a link to the Reddit group WallStreetBets, which helped stock of the video game specialist take off.

'I'm an alien': Musk says in response to question from Cred founder Kunal Shah

US&nbsp;audio app Clubhouse said on Saturday that&nbsp;it is reviewing its data protection practices after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users' data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government.

Clubhouse, the invitation-only audio chat app, exploded in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic when people could not get together in person,&nbsp;but now the once niche platform has far higher goals.

Launched less than a year ago,&nbsp;Clubhouse, which recently encountered a censorship hiccup in China,&nbsp;is looking to establish itself as the standard-bearer for digital audio.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/chinese-users-flocking-to-us-chat-app-clubhouse-to-evade-censors-361942">Chinese users flocking to US chat app Clubhouse to evade censors</a>

Alongside casual conversations about travel and health, users frankly discussed Uighur concentration camps in Xinjiang, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and personal experiences of being interrogated by police.&nbsp;But their access to the app was blocked last week, triggering frustration and fears of government surveillance.

The app said in a response to the study, published by the research group at Stanford University, that while it had opted not to make the app available in China, some people had found a workaround to download the app which meant the conversations they were a part of could be transmitted via Chinese servers.

"With the help of researchers at the Stanford Internet Observatory, we have identified a few areas where we can further strengthen our data protection," the company said in a statement published&nbsp;by the research group on Friday.

"Over the next 72 hours, we are rolling out changes to add additional encryption and blocks to prevent Clubhouse clients from ever transmitting pings to Chinese servers. We also plan to engage an external data security firm to review and validate these changes."

Also read| <a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/clubhouse-the-invite-only-chat-app-that-elon-musk-uses-361479">Clubhouse: The invite-only chat app that Elon Musk uses</a>

Launched in early 2020, the app saw global user numbers soar earlier this month after Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev held a surprise discussion on the platform.

The Stanford Internet Observatory said that it had confirmed that Chinese tech firm Agora Inc supplied back-end infrastructure to Clubhouse, and that Agora would likely have access to users' raw audio, potentially providing access to the Chinese government.

It also said it observed room metadata relayed to servers it believed were hosted in China and audio to servers managed by Chinese entities. It added, however, that it believed the Chinese government would not be able to access the data if the audio was stored in the United States.

US audio app Clubhouse said on Saturday that it is reviewing its data protection practices after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users' data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government.

US audio app Clubhouse said on Saturday that it is reviewing its data protection practices after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users' data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government. Clubhouse, the invitation-only audio chat app, exploded in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic when people could not get together in person, but now the once niche platform has far higher goals. Launched less than a year ago, Clubhouse, which recently encountered a censorship hiccup in China, is looking to establish itself as the standard-bearer for digital audio. Also read: Chinese users flocking to US chat app Clubhouse to evade censors Alongside casual conversations about travel and health, users frankly discussed Uighur concentration camps in Xinjiang, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and personal experiences of being interrogated by police. But their access to the app was blocked last week, triggering frustration and fears of government surveillance. The app said in a response to the study, published by the research group at Stanford University, that while it had opted not to make the app available in China, some people had found a workaround to download the app which meant the conversations they were a part of could be transmitted via Chinese servers. "With the help of researchers at the Stanford Internet Observatory, we have identified a few areas where we can further strengthen our data protection," the company said in a statement published by the research group on Friday. "Over the next 72 hours, we are rolling out changes to add additional encryption and blocks to prevent Clubhouse clients from ever transmitting pings to Chinese servers. We also plan to engage an external data security firm to review and validate these changes." Also read| Clubhouse: The invite-only chat app that Elon Musk uses Launched in early 2020, the app saw global user numbers soar earlier this month after Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev held a surprise discussion on the platform. The Stanford Internet Observatory said that it had confirmed that Chinese tech firm Agora Inc supplied back-end infrastructure to Clubhouse, and that Agora would likely have access to users' raw audio, potentially providing access to the Chinese government. It also said it observed room metadata relayed to servers it believed were hosted in China and audio to servers managed by Chinese entities. It added, however, that it believed the Chinese government would not be able to access the data if the audio was stored in the United States.

Clubhouse is reviewing data protection practices after concerns over security flaws

For some it's a month of love, for others, it's a month of cringe. For some, it's Valentine's, for others, it's Galentine's. Some are planning Covid-safe romantic dates, others are planning to order in pizza with their poison of choice and admire Regé-Jean Page on the latest Netflix sensation, Bridgerton.

Whatever your plan is for this Valentine's Day, a gift will definitely put a smile on your partner's face. And if you're your own Valentine like some of us, it's time to splurge on yourself! Flowers are passé, put some tech in your cart of love. Here are some suggestions for you or your partner.

Love is in the hair!

<img alt="Dyson Corrale" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="d68d3576-2646-4dee-a259-ba77a8a983a9" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/DYSON%20CORRALE.jpg" />

The Dyson Corrale is the pick of the season. It happens to be the only hair straightener with flexing plates to shape and gather hair and applies heat and tension to all the right places. It is an indulgence for Rs 36,900, but your hair will thank you in the long run. If you're gifting it to yourself, rest assured, you'll be styling your hair like a pro for all future dates. The fact that it is cordless means you can multi-task while styling your tresses. So turn down the heat on your hair and turn up the heat elsewhere!

TRACK YOUR STEPS... TO THE FRIDGE 
&nbsp;

<img alt="Apple Watch" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2ff3533c-943c-4899-827f-ee517280654d" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/apple%20watch.JPG" />

I've said it once, I'll say it again. No one has ever been unhappy with an Apple watch (unless they're android loyalists)! But instead of paying an arm and a leg on the top model, in this season of love (and overdue credit card payments), opt for the Apple Watch SE. It comes with the same larger display size as series 6, a fall detection feature, a compass, and noteworthy fitness features. And it is a sliver of a price lesser than the top model and can be yours for Rs 29,900 for the GPS variant.

TREAD ONE

<img alt="Tread One spin cycle" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="6fecbbe4-e7b6-4882-a7c0-36eb5431a698" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Cycle.JPG" />

Disclaimer and warning -- this gift could backfire and lead to fireworks, but not the right kind. Gifting a gym membership, a fitness gadget, or running shoes is often dubbed as a "hint" to shed the lockdown kilos. But it is 2021 and good health and fitness should be more than a Valentine's Day goal! So go for the TREAD ONE, a spin cycle with an HD LCD Screen that integrates various workouts within one product, for all your workout needs. It is the brainchild of an Indian start-up which is another reason to give it a shot. While many of us are outdoor fitness fanatics, some of us are still wary of Covid-19 and would prefer to workout at home, at our convenience. This bike is a big investment though and you can order the same at the price of Rs 59,900.

Sound on, noise off!

<img alt="Sony" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a75526d1-8223-45d9-875d-f6e25ef2c525" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Sony%20WH-1000MX4.JPG" />

If your partner is an audiophile and understands the dynamics of good sound, gift him or her the Sony WH-1000MX4, the company's latest flagship headphones. You will have to put your money where your mouth is with this one since it's priced at Rs 24,990. It comes with improved noise cancellation and 30 hours of playback on a full charge.

Wireless audio for those on the go

<img alt="AKG" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="99a5786b-c8de-445d-8e39-8c1a2a973147" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/samsung%20galaxy%20buds%20pro.JPG" />

For those who love in-ear audio and want to amp up their fitness with some good beats, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro should be on your wishlist. They have active noise cancellation and powerful 2-way speakers with sound by AKG. They're available now for Rs 15,990. The purple colour screams romance so you can't go wrong with these.

A smart speaker to dispel the tension

<img alt="Google Nest Audio" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="fd79a425-0262-4e9e-9ccb-96ccf2153424" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/google%20nest%20audio.JPG" />

Here's some unsolicited relationship advice -- in the middle of an argument, start talking to Alexa or Google and tell the assistant to act as a mediator! Ok, that may not help but a smart speaker is a great investment for a couple in the times of working from home and multi-tasking chores. Google's speakers may suit you better than Alexa-enabled devices if you're an Android loyalist. The Google Nest Audio offers great sound and a holistic smart home experience, priced at Rs 7,999.

For work-from-home couples

<img alt="Amazon fire stick" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e9b122ee-a15b-4ad1-8960-b8fc4720a61f" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/amazon%20fire%20stick.JPG" />

Why should a gift be intended only for your partner's happiness? After all, Valentine's Day is a commercial enterprise for two! So gift your relationship the New Amazon Fire TV stick priced at Rs 3,999. It comes with HDR compatibility and supports Dolby Atmos sound. If you're staying at home, working from home, and arguing at home, what better to dispel the tension than some popcorn and binge-watching? You can stick the Fire TV stick into any TV and make it a smart TV.

Read, discuss, debate

<img alt="Amazon Kindle" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ce7a539b-028f-4b19-9cba-5bc58b67842c" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Amazon%20kindle.JPG" />

Every relationship needs intellectual stimulation and gifting yourself or your partner a Kindle is a great option. The Amazon Kindle is a treat for bookworms at Rs 7,999. It comes with adjustable lighting for outdoor, indoor, day, and night reading. For all those couples quarantined at home in need of some "me-time", this one is a life-saver.

A stand for your daily luxury gadgets

<img alt="iPhone stand" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ca7eaf1d-6930-46ba-a412-87807db6cd5f" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/IPHONE%20STAND.jpg" />

If your partner has a habit of dropping their precious iPhones or Apple Watch, opt for this elegant and steady stand for your precious gadgets from Daily Objects. It's called Halo and it can also be used as a charging dock for your devices. It is priced at Rs 1,499. The company also offers an adjustable laptop or tablet stand for your work-from-home hours. This one is compatible with all laptops and tablets up to 16 inches. It is priced well at Rs 2,999.

Stop fighting over chargers!

<img alt="XP 60" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="5c4ba637-5486-496e-a33f-201b8ddd1639" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/XP%2060%20CHARGER.png" />

We've all been there, quarreling over chargers and plug points -- a hallmark of every long-term relationship! So ditch the arguments this month and opt for the XP 60 from a company called AMX. It claims to charge anything -- from a 90s MP3 player to yet-to-be-launched gadgets. It is available for Rs 1,799.

In the end, Tech conquers all

There are plenty of more tech options to make your partner happy. There's the newly-launched Playstation 5 starting at Rs 39,990 designed to occupy your partner for hours so you can enjoy your Galentine's Day; the Fujifilm Instax Square SQ1 to capture memories and enjoy the feel of tangible photos in a digital age; smart clocks and displays from Google and Lenovo to make your love nest more organised and ofcourse, styling tools for him and her that promise the world.

All I'll say is, be creative, not wasteful, romantic, not cringy. And if you're broadcasting your love on social media, do a spell-check and grammar check!

Happy Valentine's Day!

For some it's a month of love, for others, it's a month of cringe. For some, it's Valentine's, for others, it's Galentine's. Some are planning Covid-safe romantic dates, others are planning to order in pizza with their poison of choice and admire Regé-Jean Page on the latest Netflix sensation, Bridgerton.

For some it's a month of love, for others, it's a month of cringe. For some, it's Valentine's, for others, it's Galentine's. Some are planning Covid-safe romantic dates, others are planning to order in pizza with their poison of choice and admire Regé-Jean Page on the latest Netflix sensation, Bridgerton. Whatever your plan is for this Valentine's Day, a gift will definitely put a smile on your partner's face. And if you're your own Valentine like some of us, it's time to splurge on yourself! Flowers are passé, put some tech in your cart of love. Here are some suggestions for you or your partner. Love is in the hair! The Dyson Corrale is the pick of the season. It happens to be the only hair straightener with flexing plates to shape and gather hair and applies heat and tension to all the right places. It is an indulgence for Rs 36,900, but your hair will thank you in the long run. If you're gifting it to yourself, rest assured, you'll be styling your hair like a pro for all future dates. The fact that it is cordless means you can multi-task while styling your tresses. So turn down the heat on your hair and turn up the heat elsewhere! TRACK YOUR STEPS... TO THE FRIDGE I've said it once, I'll say it again. No one has ever been unhappy with an Apple watch (unless they're android loyalists)! But instead of paying an arm and a leg on the top model, in this season of love (and overdue credit card payments), opt for the Apple Watch SE. It comes with the same larger display size as series 6, a fall detection feature, a compass, and noteworthy fitness features. And it is a sliver of a price lesser than the top model and can be yours for Rs 29,900 for the GPS variant. TREAD ONE Disclaimer and warning -- this gift could backfire and lead to fireworks, but not the right kind. Gifting a gym membership, a fitness gadget, or running shoes is often dubbed as a "hint" to shed the lockdown kilos. But it is 2021 and good health and fitness should be more than a Valentine's Day goal! So go for the TREAD ONE, a spin cycle with an HD LCD Screen that integrates various workouts within one product, for all your workout needs. It is the brainchild of an Indian start-up which is another reason to give it a shot. While many of us are outdoor fitness fanatics, some of us are still wary of Covid-19 and would prefer to workout at home, at our convenience. This bike is a big investment though and you can order the same at the price of Rs 59,900. Sound on, noise off! If your partner is an audiophile and understands the dynamics of good sound, gift him or her the Sony WH-1000MX4, the company's latest flagship headphones. You will have to put your money where your mouth is with this one since it's priced at Rs 24,990. It comes with improved noise cancellation and 30 hours of playback on a full charge. Wireless audio for those on the go For those who love in-ear audio and want to amp up their fitness with some good beats, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro should be on your wishlist. They have active noise cancellation and powerful 2-way speakers with sound by AKG. They're available now for Rs 15,990. The purple colour screams romance so you can't go wrong with these. A smart speaker to dispel the tension Here's some unsolicited relationship advice -- in the middle of an argument, start talking to Alexa or Google and tell the assistant to act as a mediator! Ok, that may not help but a smart speaker is a great investment for a couple in the times of working from home and multi-tasking chores. Google's speakers may suit you better than Alexa-enabled devices if you're an Android loyalist. The Google Nest Audio offers great sound and a holistic smart home experience, priced at Rs 7,999. For work-from-home couples Why should a gift be intended only for your partner's happiness? After all, Valentine's Day is a commercial enterprise for two! So gift your relationship the New Amazon Fire TV stick priced at Rs 3,999. It comes with HDR compatibility and supports Dolby Atmos sound. If you're staying at home, working from home, and arguing at home, what better to dispel the tension than some popcorn and binge-watching? You can stick the Fire TV stick into any TV and make it a smart TV. Read, discuss, debate Every relationship needs intellectual stimulation and gifting yourself or your partner a Kindle is a great option. The Amazon Kindle is a treat for bookworms at Rs 7,999. It comes with adjustable lighting for outdoor, indoor, day, and night reading. For all those couples quarantined at home in need of some "me-time", this one is a life-saver. A stand for your daily luxury gadgets If your partner has a habit of dropping their precious iPhones or Apple Watch, opt for this elegant and steady stand for your precious gadgets from Daily Objects. It's called Halo and it can also be used as a charging dock for your devices. It is priced at Rs 1,499. The company also offers an adjustable laptop or tablet stand for your work-from-home hours. This one is compatible with all laptops and tablets up to 16 inches. It is priced well at Rs 2,999. Stop fighting over chargers! We've all been there, quarreling over chargers and plug points -- a hallmark of every long-term relationship! So ditch the arguments this month and opt for the XP 60 from a company called AMX. It claims to charge anything -- from a 90s MP3 player to yet-to-be-launched gadgets. It is available for Rs 1,799. In the end, Tech conquers all There are plenty of more tech options to make your partner happy. There's the newly-launched Playstation 5 starting at Rs 39,990 designed to occupy your partner for hours so you can enjoy your Galentine's Day; the Fujifilm Instax Square SQ1 to capture memories and enjoy the feel of tangible photos in a digital age; smart clocks and displays from Google and Lenovo to make your love nest more organised and ofcourse, styling tools for him and her that promise the world. All I'll say is, be creative, not wasteful, romantic, not cringy. And if you're broadcasting your love on social media, do a spell-check and grammar check! Happy Valentine's Day!

Month of love or month of cringe?

Indian social-media app Koo is witnessing a surge in popularity, fuelled by politicians and others flocking to it after US&nbsp;rival&nbsp;Twitter&nbsp;Inc refused to follow a government order to block certain content on its platform.

Twitter&nbsp;has locked horns with New Delhi this month over the order to remove more than 1,100 accounts and posts which the government says are spreading misinformation about farmer protests against new agricultural laws.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/more-than-500-accounts-suspended-by-twitter-on-indian-govts-request-362634/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Indian officials last week demanded that Twitter block hundreds of users that have tweeted on demonstrations against proposed new agriculture laws, saying they were a "grave threat to public order".

India slammed international celebrities on Wednesday for making comments in support of protesting farmers as inaccurate and irresponsible and said vested interest groups were trying to build opinion against the country.

US&nbsp;singer&nbsp;Rihanna, climate change activist Greta Thunberg and US&nbsp;lawyer and activist Meena Harris, the niece of Vice-President Kamala Harris, made comments on social media regarding the farmers protest.

"Before rushing to comment on such matters, we would urge that the facts be ascertained, and a proper understanding of the issues at hand be undertaken," the Indian foreign ministry said.

The Electronics and IT ministry&nbsp;tweeted a link to its profile on rival Indian social network platform&nbsp;Koo. Some local personalities including Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal have opened&nbsp;Koo&nbsp;accounts.

Koo said downloads had surged 10-fold in the past two days to over 3 million. Meanwhile, #kooapp was the top&nbsp;Twitter&nbsp;trend in India on Wednesday with nearly 21,000 posts, followed by #BanTwitter.

What is Koo?

Koo is a&nbsp;Twitter-like microblogging platform which allows users to post multimedia content, including audio clips. A text post is restricted to 400 characters and the service supports six Indian languages, including English.

Like&nbsp;Twitter, Koo's logo is a bird, though yellow in colour. It allows users to use hashtags (#) or the "@" symbol for mentions. The app also allows users to 're-koo', Koo's version of a retweet and chat instead of a direct message.

How did it start?

Koo was founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, both MBA, or business management, graduates. The duo are also the founders of Vokal, an audio-video knowledge-sharing platform similar to Quora.

The app was launched in March 2020 and won a government award for driving tech innovation. It raised more than $4 million in funding last week from new and existing investors including venture capital firms Accel and 3one4 Capital.

Who is on Koo?

For years,&nbsp;Twitter&nbsp;has been a major public communication tool for the Indian government. But several ministries and high-profile figures, including Bollywood actors, have also gradually begun using Koo in recent months. The technology ministry and trade minister Piyush Goyal joined this month.

Koo is however still dwarfed by&nbsp;Twitter, which had 17.5 million users in India as of last month, its third-highest user base after the United States and Japan, according to German database firm Statista.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is yet to join Koo, spoke about the app last year in his monthly radio address. "It's called Koo," he said. "In this, we can place our opinion and interact in our mother tongue through text, video or audio."

What its founders say?

The sudden increase in Koo's popularity can be compared in some respects to the surge in the use of digital payments apps in India following a ban on high-value currency notes in late 2016, Koo's co-founder Bidawatka said.

"You could say this is something similar, because a certain event happened and lot of people want to move here... There is a surge at an unexpected time and lots of people are talking about us."

Radhakrishna posted a hiring alert for engineers on LinkedIn on Wednesday.

&nbsp;

Indian social-media app Koo is witnessing a surge in popularity, fuelled by politicians and others flocking to it after US rival Twitter Inc refused to follow a government order to block certain content on its platform.

Indian social-media app Koo is witnessing a surge in popularity, fuelled by politicians and others flocking to it after US rival Twitter Inc refused to follow a government order to block certain content on its platform. Twitter has locked horns with New Delhi this month over the order to remove more than 1,100 accounts and posts which the government says are spreading misinformation about farmer protests against new agricultural laws. Indian officials last week demanded that Twitter block hundreds of users that have tweeted on demonstrations against proposed new agriculture laws, saying they were a "grave threat to public order". India slammed international celebrities on Wednesday for making comments in support of protesting farmers as inaccurate and irresponsible and said vested interest groups were trying to build opinion against the country. US singer Rihanna, climate change activist Greta Thunberg and US lawyer and activist Meena Harris, the niece of Vice-President Kamala Harris, made comments on social media regarding the farmers protest. "Before rushing to comment on such matters, we would urge that the facts be ascertained, and a proper understanding of the issues at hand be undertaken," the Indian foreign ministry said. The Electronics and IT ministry tweeted a link to its profile on rival Indian social network platform Koo. Some local personalities including Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal have opened Koo accounts. Koo said downloads had surged 10-fold in the past two days to over 3 million. Meanwhile, #kooapp was the top Twitter trend in India on Wednesday with nearly 21,000 posts, followed by #BanTwitter. What is Koo? Koo is a Twitter-like microblogging platform which allows users to post multimedia content, including audio clips. A text post is restricted to 400 characters and the service supports six Indian languages, including English. Like Twitter, Koo's logo is a bird, though yellow in colour. It allows users to use hashtags (#) or the "@" symbol for mentions. The app also allows users to 're-koo', Koo's version of a retweet and chat instead of a direct message. How did it start? Koo was founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, both MBA, or business management, graduates. The duo are also the founders of Vokal, an audio-video knowledge-sharing platform similar to Quora. The app was launched in March 2020 and won a government award for driving tech innovation. It raised more than $4 million in funding last week from new and existing investors including venture capital firms Accel and 3one4 Capital. Who is on Koo? For years, Twitter has been a major public communication tool for the Indian government. But several ministries and high-profile figures, including Bollywood actors, have also gradually begun using Koo in recent months. The technology ministry and trade minister Piyush Goyal joined this month. Koo is however still dwarfed by Twitter, which had 17.5 million users in India as of last month, its third-highest user base after the United States and Japan, according to German database firm Statista. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is yet to join Koo, spoke about the app last year in his monthly radio address. "It's called Koo," he said. "In this, we can place our opinion and interact in our mother tongue through text, video or audio." What its founders say? The sudden increase in Koo's popularity can be compared in some respects to the surge in the use of digital payments apps in India following a ban on high-value currency notes in late 2016, Koo's co-founder Bidawatka said. "You could say this is something similar, because a certain event happened and lot of people want to move here... There is a surge at an unexpected time and lots of people are talking about us." Radhakrishna posted a hiring alert for engineers on LinkedIn on Wednesday.

Indian Twitter-like micro-blogging platform Koo witnesses surge in popularity

Mainland China users of the US&nbsp;audio app&nbsp;Clubhouse&nbsp;said they were experiencing internet access disruptions, stoking concerns it had been blocked by China's so-called Great Firewall.

The repression of Muslim Uighurs, the Tiananmen Square crackdown, and S&amp;M hook-ups, nothing was off-limits in the rambunctious, unfiltered chatrooms of Clubhouse before China's censors silenced the conversation.

The&nbsp;Clubhouse&nbsp;app is only available on iOS devices and is unavailable in the local Apple app store in China, but mainland Chinese users had been able to access the app by modifying the location of their app store.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/chinese-users-flocking-to-us-chat-app-clubhouse-to-evade-censors-361942">Chinese users flocking to US chat app Clubhouse to evade censors</a>

For around a week, robust, open discussion on China pinballed across the American audio app, recently lent an air of exclusivity after an endorsement from Elon Musk.

It offered mainland and Chinese-speaking users a rare space to dissect taboos across politics and society, a plurality of voices normally muted inside China by the Communist Party.

Then late on Monday, an error message appeared to Chinese users logging on without a VPN to establish a secure connection, a telltale sign that state censors had got hold of the debate.

Users of China's Twitter-like social media app Weibo began posting&nbsp;screenshots of a message the app displayed when they tried to open it which said a secure connection to the server could not be made.

"Under Xi, the ban was a matter of time," said Lokman Tsui, a communications professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, of the reflex to scrub unregulated social media sharpened under China's President Xi Jinping.

Users took to Clubhouse chatrooms and other social media platforms to lament the block, which closed a brief window for freewheeling exchanges in a country where overseas networks such as Twitter and Facebook have been banned.

Many Western social media apps including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are banned in China, where the local internet is tightly regulated and often censored of content that could undermine the country's ruling Communist Party.

Although Chinese versions of the global platforms have emerged and become part of daily life, Chinese users are aware that content posted on them is monitored and censored.

It is common for social media companies to wipe content considered politically sensitive, including protests and criticism of the government, with users devising measures like screenshots and deliberate typos to skirt censors.

'Living a lie'

On Clubhouse last Saturday, however, more than 1,000 users flocked to a chatroom on the mass incarceration of Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims in China's western Xinjiang region.

Rights groups believe at least one million people are incarcerated in camps in Xinjiang, but Beijing has said they are vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism.

At least three people identifying as Uighurs shared personal stories in the Clubhouse chat and several others said they were Han Chinese who had lived in Xinjiang.

A woman said her views changed after living abroad exposed her to more information on Xinjiang.

"I had only been living in a huge lie," she said.

But some struck a more defensive note, with a man countering that "re-education camps" were necessary.

Moderators allowed time for people to talk in the Chinese-language chatroom without interruption, in a conversation that only ended the following afternoon.

On Monday, more than 2,000 users gathered in another chatroom discussing the bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, a taboo topic in China.

One said the environment was "dangerous for both sides", referring to civilians and authorities, while another called it outdated to claim that students,&nbsp;who participated in the movement -- were easily "brainwashed".

People from Hong Kong and Taiwan also pitched in on, or moderated, China-related topics.

But the frank exchanges were not limited to big politics.

The night after the Xinjiang chat, in another room, gay men swapped explicit stories of booty calls.

Some talked about engaging in unexpected S&amp;M hook-ups, and others shared anecdotes about taking dates home only to be found out by their parents.

But the door soon slammed shut on the unfettered discussion.

The space for free online discussion has "been drastically reduced" since 2013, the year Xi became president, added Emilie Frenkiel, associate professor at Université Paris Est Créteil, who researches political participation and representation in China.

But she added that the chance for open discourse on sensitive topics with other Chinese-speakers like Taiwanese counterparts "even though very risky, is so rare that... many are still willing to seize it".

A search for "Clubhouse invites", previously for sale on a Chinese online marketplace, no longer turns up results.

Since the ban, Chinese speakers returning to the app discussed ways to circumvent the "Great Firewall", and a chatroom ironically praising a pro-Communist Party editor continues defiantly.

But the wider lament was for the end of a precious space for debate which flickered but was never allowed to flare.

"I came here because it did not have speech censorship," one user said.

Mainland China users of the US audio app Clubhouse said they were experiencing internet access disruptions, stoking concerns it had been blocked by China's so-called Great Firewall.

Mainland China users of the US audio app Clubhouse said they were experiencing internet access disruptions, stoking concerns it had been blocked by China's so-called Great Firewall. The repression of Muslim Uighurs, the Tiananmen Square crackdown, and S&M hook-ups, nothing was off-limits in the rambunctious, unfiltered chatrooms of Clubhouse before China's censors silenced the conversation. The Clubhouse app is only available on iOS devices and is unavailable in the local Apple app store in China, but mainland Chinese users had been able to access the app by modifying the location of their app store. Also read: Chinese users flocking to US chat app Clubhouse to evade censors For around a week, robust, open discussion on China pinballed across the American audio app, recently lent an air of exclusivity after an endorsement from Elon Musk. It offered mainland and Chinese-speaking users a rare space to dissect taboos across politics and society, a plurality of voices normally muted inside China by the Communist Party. Then late on Monday, an error message appeared to Chinese users logging on without a VPN to establish a secure connection, a telltale sign that state censors had got hold of the debate. Users of China's Twitter-like social media app Weibo began posting screenshots of a message the app displayed when they tried to open it which said a secure connection to the server could not be made. "Under Xi, the ban was a matter of time," said Lokman Tsui, a communications professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, of the reflex to scrub unregulated social media sharpened under China's President Xi Jinping. Users took to Clubhouse chatrooms and other social media platforms to lament the block, which closed a brief window for freewheeling exchanges in a country where overseas networks such as Twitter and Facebook have been banned. Many Western social media apps including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are banned in China, where the local internet is tightly regulated and often censored of content that could undermine the country's ruling Communist Party. Although Chinese versions of the global platforms have emerged and become part of daily life, Chinese users are aware that content posted on them is monitored and censored. It is common for social media companies to wipe content considered politically sensitive, including protests and criticism of the government, with users devising measures like screenshots and deliberate typos to skirt censors. 'Living a lie' On Clubhouse last Saturday, however, more than 1,000 users flocked to a chatroom on the mass incarceration of Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims in China's western Xinjiang region. Rights groups believe at least one million people are incarcerated in camps in Xinjiang, but Beijing has said they are vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism. At least three people identifying as Uighurs shared personal stories in the Clubhouse chat and several others said they were Han Chinese who had lived in Xinjiang. A woman said her views changed after living abroad exposed her to more information on Xinjiang. "I had only been living in a huge lie," she said. But some struck a more defensive note, with a man countering that "re-education camps" were necessary. Moderators allowed time for people to talk in the Chinese-language chatroom without interruption, in a conversation that only ended the following afternoon. On Monday, more than 2,000 users gathered in another chatroom discussing the bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, a taboo topic in China. One said the environment was "dangerous for both sides", referring to civilians and authorities, while another called it outdated to claim that students, who participated in the movement -- were easily "brainwashed". People from Hong Kong and Taiwan also pitched in on, or moderated, China-related topics. But the frank exchanges were not limited to big politics. The night after the Xinjiang chat, in another room, gay men swapped explicit stories of booty calls. Some talked about engaging in unexpected S&M hook-ups, and others shared anecdotes about taking dates home only to be found out by their parents. But the door soon slammed shut on the unfettered discussion. The space for free online discussion has "been drastically reduced" since 2013, the year Xi became president, added Emilie Frenkiel, associate professor at Université Paris Est Créteil, who researches political participation and representation in China. But she added that the chance for open discourse on sensitive topics with other Chinese-speakers like Taiwanese counterparts "even though very risky, is so rare that... many are still willing to seize it". A search for "Clubhouse invites", previously for sale on a Chinese online marketplace, no longer turns up results. Since the ban, Chinese speakers returning to the app discussed ways to circumvent the "Great Firewall", and a chatroom ironically praising a pro-Communist Party editor continues defiantly. But the wider lament was for the end of a precious space for debate which flickered but was never allowed to flare. "I came here because it did not have speech censorship," one user said.

'Party over': Chinese users of Clubhouse app say experiencing internet access disruptions

Google is phasing out user-tracking "cookies" which allow the web giant to deliver personalised ads.

The downside of employing these cookies has been that they have raised the hackles of privacy defenders. The US internet giant has been hammered by critics over user privacy, and is keenly aware of trends for legislation protecting people's data rights.

Google, only last month, unveiled the results of tests showing an alternative to the longstanding tracking practice, claiming it could improve online privacy while still enabling advertisers to serve up relevant messages.

"This approach effectively hides individuals 'in the crowd' and uses on-device processing to keep a person’s web history private on the browser," Google product manager Chetna Bindra explained in unveiling the system called Federated Learning of Cohorts&nbsp;(FLoC).

She added, "Results indicate that when it comes to generating interest-based audiences,&nbsp;FLoC can provide an effective replacement signal for third-party cookies."

Google plans to begin testing the FLoC approach with advertisers later this year with its Chrome browser.

Talking of privacy issues, some kinds of cookies -- which are text files stored when a user visits a website -- are a convenience for logins and browsing at frequently visited sites.

Anyone who has pulled up a registration page online only to have their name and address automatically entered where required has cookies to thank.&nbsp;But other kinds of cookies, especially the third-party ones, are seen by some as nefarious.

Safari and Firefox browsers have already done away with third-party cookies, but they are still used at the world's most popular browser - Chrome.

And Chrome accounted for 63 per cent of the global browser market last year, according to StatCounter.

Google is phasing out user-tracking "cookies" which allow the web giant to deliver personalised ads. The downside of employing these cookies has been that they have raised the hackles of privacy defenders.

Google is phasing out user-tracking "cookies" which allow the web giant to deliver personalised ads. The downside of employing these cookies has been that they have raised the hackles of privacy defenders. The US internet giant has been hammered by critics over user privacy, and is keenly aware of trends for legislation protecting people's data rights. Google, only last month, unveiled the results of tests showing an alternative to the longstanding tracking practice, claiming it could improve online privacy while still enabling advertisers to serve up relevant messages. "This approach effectively hides individuals 'in the crowd' and uses on-device processing to keep a person’s web history private on the browser," Google product manager Chetna Bindra explained in unveiling the system called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). She added, "Results indicate that when it comes to generating interest-based audiences, FLoC can provide an effective replacement signal for third-party cookies." Google plans to begin testing the FLoC approach with advertisers later this year with its Chrome browser. Talking of privacy issues, some kinds of cookies -- which are text files stored when a user visits a website -- are a convenience for logins and browsing at frequently visited sites. Anyone who has pulled up a registration page online only to have their name and address automatically entered where required has cookies to thank. But other kinds of cookies, especially the third-party ones, are seen by some as nefarious. Safari and Firefox browsers have already done away with third-party cookies, but they are still used at the world's most popular browser - Chrome. And Chrome accounted for 63 per cent of the global browser market last year, according to StatCounter.

Google phases out user-tracking 'cookies'

Private social audio app&nbsp;Clubhouse&nbsp;is attracting masses of new users from mainland China, where the US&nbsp;app remains uncensored by authorities despite flourishing discussions on rights, national identity and other sensitive topics.

Clubhouse&nbsp;built a following among venture capitalists and startup founders gossiping in its audio-only chatrooms following its launch last March as the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world.

Western social media apps including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are banned in China, where the local internet is tightly censored to weed out content that could undermine the ruling communist party.

The&nbsp;Clubhouse&nbsp;app, launched in early 2020, saw explosive growth in user numbers earlier this month after Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev held a surprise discussion on the platform.

Its chat rooms are only accessible via invites from current members, and as of Sunday, invites to the platform were selling for between 50-400 yuan ($7.73 - $69.59) on popular Chinese e-commerce sites.

Reuters directly observed several Chinese-language 'club' conversations where thousands of users listened to wide-ranging audio discussions covering topics including Xinjiang detention camps, Taiwan independence and Hong Kong's National Security Law.

China's cyber authorities have become increasingly strict in recent years, widening the scope of apps, media outlets and social media sites banned in the country.

While&nbsp;Clubhouse&nbsp;remains uncensored, it is only available on iOS devices and is unavailable in the local Apple app store, both major barriers for its widespread use in China.

Mainland Chinese users can access the app by modifying the location of their app store.

It's unclear why the app remains unblocked in China, though some foreign social sites with small Chinese followings manage to operate under the radar of censors, including 8kun, a central hub for QAnon followers.

In one club chat centred on Hong Kong politics, activists, journalists and artists discussed former US&nbsp;president Trump and his support base in the former colony.

Another popular Chinese language club on the site as of Saturday involved a rare open exchange between netizens in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong over heightened political tensions in the region.

The discussion became a hot topic on China's own Twitter-like social media site Weibo on Saturday.

"I don't know how long this environment can last", said one user in a popular Weibo post that was liked over 65,000 times. "But I will definitely remember this moment in Internet history."

Private social audio app Clubhouse is attracting masses of new users from mainland China, where the US app remains uncensored by authorities despite flourishing discussions on rights, national identity and other sensitive topics.

Private social audio app Clubhouse is attracting masses of new users from mainland China, where the US app remains uncensored by authorities despite flourishing discussions on rights, national identity and other sensitive topics. Clubhouse built a following among venture capitalists and startup founders gossiping in its audio-only chatrooms following its launch last March as the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world. Western social media apps including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are banned in China, where the local internet is tightly censored to weed out content that could undermine the ruling communist party. The Clubhouse app, launched in early 2020, saw explosive growth in user numbers earlier this month after Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev held a surprise discussion on the platform. Its chat rooms are only accessible via invites from current members, and as of Sunday, invites to the platform were selling for between 50-400 yuan ($7.73 - $69.59) on popular Chinese e-commerce sites. Reuters directly observed several Chinese-language 'club' conversations where thousands of users listened to wide-ranging audio discussions covering topics including Xinjiang detention camps, Taiwan independence and Hong Kong's National Security Law. China's cyber authorities have become increasingly strict in recent years, widening the scope of apps, media outlets and social media sites banned in the country. While Clubhouse remains uncensored, it is only available on iOS devices and is unavailable in the local Apple app store, both major barriers for its widespread use in China. Mainland Chinese users can access the app by modifying the location of their app store. It's unclear why the app remains unblocked in China, though some foreign social sites with small Chinese followings manage to operate under the radar of censors, including 8kun, a central hub for QAnon followers. In one club chat centred on Hong Kong politics, activists, journalists and artists discussed former US president Trump and his support base in the former colony. Another popular Chinese language club on the site as of Saturday involved a rare open exchange between netizens in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong over heightened political tensions in the region. The discussion became a hot topic on China's own Twitter-like social media site Weibo on Saturday. "I don't know how long this environment can last", said one user in a popular Weibo post that was liked over 65,000 times. "But I will definitely remember this moment in Internet history."

Chinese users flocking to US chat app Clubhouse to evade censors

If anything is invite-only, it naturally gets people crazy as everyone wants to feel exclusive. So this strategy is often used to attract customers. But apparently, Clubhouse isn't one of those apps that aim to gain quick fame. Clubhouse features likes of Elon Musk in its list of users and it is creating quite a buzz.

Clubhouse is the latest craze that may strike bigger markets. It's a social-networking app that is based on audio chat. Users can listen in on interviews, interactions and discussions between interesting people. The conversation rooms are like a conference call but with some people talking and discussing while most others listening in. When the conversation ends, the room is closed.

Clubhouse hit headlines when Tesla CEO Elon Musk used it to hold&nbsp;a conversation with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev recently. Number of those wanting to listen to the interaction was so high that the conversation room maxed out.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/jack-dorsey-likes-tweet-asking-for-emoji-to-complement-farmersprotest-361405">Jack Dorsey likes Tweet asking for emoji to complement #FarmersProtest</a>

The starpower of Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO helped Clubhouse create an unprecedented buzz. As per theconversation [dot] com, Clubhouse app had 2 million users by February 1.

How to get Clubhouse invite?

The app is currently invite-only. Am existing user has to send you an invite in order for you to create account on the app. But before you rush to hunt for a Clubhouse user to get you an invite, know that each user has only two invites which he can use to invite people.

The app is currently valued at USD 1 billion. The makers have given a hint that they would launch the app in wider market, but no date or timeframe has been given as of now.

If anything is invite-only, it naturally gets people crazy as everyone wants to feel exclusive. So this strategy is often used to attract customers. But apparently, Clubhouse isn't one of those apps that aim to gain quick fame.

If anything is invite-only, it naturally gets people crazy as everyone wants to feel exclusive. So this strategy is often used to attract customers. But apparently, Clubhouse isn't one of those apps that aim to gain quick fame. Clubhouse features likes of Elon Musk in its list of users and it is creating quite a buzz. Clubhouse is the latest craze that may strike bigger markets. It's a social-networking app that is based on audio chat. Users can listen in on interviews, interactions and discussions between interesting people. The conversation rooms are like a conference call but with some people talking and discussing while most others listening in. When the conversation ends, the room is closed. Clubhouse hit headlines when Tesla CEO Elon Musk used it to hold a conversation with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev recently. Number of those wanting to listen to the interaction was so high that the conversation room maxed out. Also Read | Jack Dorsey likes Tweet asking for emoji to complement #FarmersProtest The starpower of Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO helped Clubhouse create an unprecedented buzz. As per theconversation [dot] com, Clubhouse app had 2 million users by February 1. How to get Clubhouse invite? The app is currently invite-only. Am existing user has to send you an invite in order for you to create account on the app. But before you rush to hunt for a Clubhouse user to get you an invite, know that each user has only two invites which he can use to invite people. The app is currently valued at USD 1 billion. The makers have given a hint that they would launch the app in wider market, but no date or timeframe has been given as of now.

Clubhouse: The invite-only chat app that Elon Musk uses

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