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The video-sharing platform YouTube on Tuesday said it would block access inside Hong Kong to 32 links featuring the protest anthem "Glory to Hong Kong" in compliance with a court injunction that provoked strong criticism from rights groups. The Hong Kong government has deemed the song, which was sung widely at anti-government protests in 2019, to be a danger to security in the semi-autonomous Chinese region. In approving the government's application to ban the song, Hong Kong's Court of Appeal agreed it could be "weaponized" and used to incite secession. What did YouTube say?
YouTube said that although it was complying with the recent injunction by the court, it was concerned that such moves could damage the city's reputation as a reliable place to do business. "We are disappointed by the Court's decision but are complying with its removal order," YouTube said in a statement. "We'll continue to consider our options for an appeal, to promote access to information," it said, adding that it shared the concerns of human rights groups that the ban undermined freedom of expression. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Commercial blocks of more than 100 seconds in the YouTube app on the TV are no longer an exception.
Partly because of these advertisements, Google's parent company, Alphabet, has had an exceptionally good quarter that exceeds analysts' expectations. Alphabet's revenues increased by 15 percent to 80.5 billion dollars (75 billion euros). Profit rose to $23.7 billion. The stock is likely to rise later today on the stock market. It seems that because of these good figures later today when trading starts on the stock exchange, the company will be worth more than 2 trillion dollars for the first time. Investors are not only enthusiastic about the increased income. The announcement that the company will pay out part of its profits, dividends, to shareholders for the first time is also doing well. The company will pay out more than 2 billion euros in the first quarter. Earlier this year, Facebook's parent company Meta also decided to pay dividends to shareholders. Advertisements By far the most money is earned from advertising with Google services. Video platform YouTube saw its revenues rise relatively fastest, by more than 20 percent. At the end of last year, the company announced that commercial breaks on TV apps would become longer. On the other hand, a new commercial block is less likely to appear. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Google fires anti-Israel employees4/19/2024 Google has fired 28 workers who protested against the company’s ties with the Israeli government amid the war in Gaza.
The US tech giant claimed that defiant employees were disrupting the normal work process. “Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to the media on Wednesday. “After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety.” According to tech publication the Verge, a group of employees occupied the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in Sunnyvale, California on Tuesday, while another group staged a nearly eight-hour sit-in in the common area of the company’s office in New York. Disgruntled workers also demonstrated outside several Google campuses. The activist group behind the demonstrations – No Tech for Apartheid – described the firings as illegal and “retaliatory.” They claimed that the sit-ins “did not damage property or threaten other workers,” and had “received an overwhelmingly positive response and shows of support” from colleagues. Some employees have been publicly speaking out since 2021 against Project Nimbus, a large cloud computing contract Google and Amazon signed with the Israeli government. Time magazine reported this month that Israel’s Defence Ministry has a security entry point to Google Cloud and its AI services. The Israeli military’s ties with big tech have faced additional scrutiny after +972 Magazine and news website Local Call cited intelligence sources in early April as saying that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) is using a secret AI program called Lavender to identify human targets during the war with Hamas in Gaza. Although the IDF stated that such programs are “merely tools for analysis” and that it does not rely on AI to pick targets for strikes, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” by the report. Multiple human rights groups have accused the IDF of indiscriminately killing civilians in Gaza, where nearly 34,000 Palestinians have died since October 7, according to local authorities. The Israeli army admitted to accidentally killing seven foreign humanitarian workers during April 1 drone strikes on an aid convoy. The IDF cited misidentification and other errors as causes of the tragedy, and said that it had dismissed two senior officers involved in the strikes. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Google lays off Employees4/18/2024 Alphabet-owned Google is laying off an unspecified number of employees, a company spokesperson said on Wednesday, marking the latest cuts at the technology giant as it cracks down on costs.
The Google spokesperson said the layoffs are not company-wide and that affected employees will be able to apply for internal roles, but did not specify the number of employees impacted nor the teams involved. A small percentage of the impacted roles will move to hubs the company is investing in, including India, Chicago, Atlanta and Dublin. The layoffs follow a slew of job cuts across Google, and the tech and media industry this year, adding to fears that layoffs may continue as companies grapple with economic uncertainty. "Throughout the second half of 2023 and into 2024, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, remove layers and align their resources to their biggest product priorities," the spokesperson added. Employees across several of Google' teams in its real estate and finance departments have been affected, according to a Business Insider report on Wednesday. The finance teams affected include Google's treasury, business services, and revenue cash operations, it added. Google's finance chief, Ruth Porat, sent an email to staff saying the restructuring includes expanding growth to Bangalore, Mexico City, and Dublin, according to the Business Insider report. Google let go of hundreds of workers across multiple teams in January including its engineering, hardware and assistant teams as the company ramps up investment and builds its artificial intelligence offerings. Company CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly told employees at the start of the year to expect more job cuts. - The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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