Shareholders set to vote on policies
TECHNOLOGY
APPLE shareholders are set to vote on whether Apple should change its human-rights policies.
They will be asked whether they want Apple to make a commitment to respect freedom of expression.
Apple removed a mapping app during the Hong Kong protests, leading to criticism that it pandered to Beijing.
Campaign group SumofUs called on Apple to disclose certain human-rights policies in a resolution filed on Sept 9.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected Apple’s appeal to block the resolution this month.
If shareholders vote in favour of the motion, Apple may have to explain its responses to future demands from governments that limit free expression.
Apple will also have to disclose how it forms policies on these issues.
“The motion will mean that Apple has to have policies around free expression, and that these will be available to shareholders,” Sondhya Gupta, a campaign manager at SumOfUs, told the BBC.
“The company will need to report on the policies and the decisions that it has made that fall under them.
“In practice, it means that Apple will need to move to a position of considering whether a decision or action it takes could limit free expression and explain those decisions, rather than taking a decision and observing its impacts after the fact.”
Apple has not commented.
Hong Kong has been problematic for Apple, with the iPhone-maker struggling to appease Beijing and the special administrative region within China.
In October, Apple withdrew from the App Store a crowd-sourced app called HKmap Live that tracked the location of pro-democracy protesters and police.
Some viewed the location app as a way for protesters to stay safe, while others saw it as a way to avoid the police.
Apple said the app “facilitated, enabled or encouraged” activity that was not legal. However, the app is still available on Google’s app store.
Apple never disclosed whether the ban came after a request from Chinese authorities.
SumofUs argues that Apple’s actions have resulted in the persecution of certain ethnicities.
“By complying with the government of China’s regime, Apple is aiding the brutal repression of Uighurs, Tibetans and other rights activists,” said Gupta.
“Our motion would force Apple to stand accountable for the impact of its decisions on the lives of innocent people.”
Analysts from online stockbroker AJ Bell said: “Shareholders tend not to vote in favour of motions like this, mainly because the majority of votes are from institutional investors who have greater access to management and hence are more likely to deal with such questions behind closed doors.”
In May, Amazon shareholders voted down proposals intended to cut sales of the company’s controversial facial-recognition tool and to reduce its carbon output. – BBC
Twitch sued for £2.1bn by Russian firm
RUSSIA’S third-largest internet company is suing streaming service Twitch for 180bn roubles (£2.1bn) over pirate broadcasts of English Premier League games.
Rambler Group alleges its exclusive broadcasting rights were breached by the service more than 36,000 times between August and November.
It is seeking to permanently ban the Amazon-owned platform in Russia.
Twitch’s lawyer has called Rambler’s case “unfounded”.
Russia is the third-largest user of Twitch, which has more than 15 million daily active users worldwide.
Its terms and conditions state users cannot share content without permission from the copyright owners, including films, television programmes and sports matches.
The streaming giant’s lawyer, Julianna Tabastaeva, told Russian-language news website Kommersant Twitch “only provides users with access to the platform and is unable to change the content posted by users, or track possible violations”.
She added the company took “all necessary measures to eliminate the violations, despite not receiving any official notification from Rambler”.
The Moscow City Court will hear the case on Friday.
It has ordered a temporary suspension of English Premier League streams on Twitch pending the outcome.
“Our suit against Twitch is to defend our exclusive rights to broadcast English Premier League matches and we will continue to actively combat pirate broadcasts,” said Mikhail Gershkovich, head of Rambler Group’s sports project, in a statement.
BBC News has contacted Amazon for comment.
Rambler bought exclusive digital distribution rights for the English Premier League in 2019, for three seasons.
It is holding talks with Twitch in the hope of reaching a settlement agreement.
Amazon holds the exclusive rights to a number of Premier League matches in the UK over the next three years.
The company bought Twitch for $970m (£585m) in 2014. –BBC
Google scraps Chrome 79 update
GOOGLE has been forced to halt its latest web browser update on Android after a critical bug was discovered.
A number of users reported experiencing the loss of crucial login data in third-party apps after installing Chrome 79 on their devices.
The tech giant confirmed any app that accesses Chrome via Android’s built-in WebView system could be affected and said it could take a week to resolve.
The update has already been rolled out to 50 per cent of Android users worldwide.
A number of apps rely heavily on WebView, while some – including Twitter Lite, a scaled-down version of the social media platform – are run entirely using the system.
The latest update hasn’t deleted the data, but it has changed its location and rendered it impossible to find.
An outpouring of complaints from users began appearing on Google’s forum after the update went live on Dec 10.
“This is a catastrophe. Our users’ data are being deleted as they receive the update,” said one frustrated developer.
Others complained that their apps had been inundated with overwhelmingly negative reviews on Google’s Play Store after the bug rendered them unusable.
Google said in a statement that it was looking for ways to resolve the issue but said a fix could take up to a week. – BBC
Decade’s 10 most-downloaded apps
FACEBOOK, Instagram and WhatsApp are among the most-downloaded apps of the 2010s.
The 2010s have seen some major changes in the way we interact with the world: We now take rides from strangers via ride-hailing platforms such as Uber and Lyft, we rent other people’s homes through Airbnb and Vrbo instead of booking a hotel. We also play console-quality video games on our phones with Apple Arcade and mobile releases of games such as Call of Duty. You can find one thing at the heart of all of these changes: mobile apps.
In 2019 alone, people worldwide are on track to download a record 120 billion apps across iOS and Android devices — a 5% increase over the year before, according to a Monday report from app analytics firm App Annie. This number only represents new downloads, not reinstalls or app updates, the report noted. Spending on apps is growing even faster, approaching $90 billion worldwide this year — up 15% from last year.
Most of the spending growth was driven by mobile games, photo and video editors and entertainment apps, which is expected to continue into 2020 with the launch of new streaming and subscription services such as Disney Plus, the report said.
Among the most-downloaded apps of the decade, Facebook and its family of apps Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram took the top slots — despite Facebook’s many privacy scandals over the past couple years. Communication and social media apps accounted for seven of the top 10 apps in terms of downloads this decade.
Here are the top 10 most-downloaded apps of the 2010s:
- Facebook Messenger
- WhatsApp Messenger
- Snapchat
- Skype
- TikTok
- UC Browser
- YouTube
The year 2019 itself has seen the steady rise of social video apps like TikTok and Likee. And many of the most-downloaded apps of the year are also the most-downloaded apps of the decade, App Annie found.
Free Fire, PUBG Mobile and Subway Surfers were the most downloaded mobile games this year.
Here are the 10 most-downloaded apps of 2019:
- Facebook Messenger
- WhatsApp Messenger
- TikTok
- SHAREit
- Likee
- Snapchat
- Netflix
- Spotify
– CNET