Connected newsletter: Big Tech faces further probes as Binance’s founder is sentenced

Connected at the Business Post is your source for the news that matters in technology and innovation, all told from an Irish perspective

Charlie Taylor
May 3, 2024

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EDITOR'S NOTE

There may have been many onlookers wondering whether recent legislation introduced by the European Union to tame Big Tech is going to make a difference. Judging by recent events, it would seem as though it very much is.

Meta and Apple were the latest companies to feel the impact of the new legislation this week. The European Commission opened two formal investigations into Facebook and Instagram on Tuesday under the Digital Services Act as it seeks to discover if Meta, the parent of both platforms, is complying with its disinformation obligations.

Apple meanwhile got caught by the Digital Markets Act, which is designed to curb the powers of market-dominant tech companies, or “gatekeepers” in the sector, and prevent them from exercising monopolistic power in the market. The iPad has been added to a list of products and services that comes under the act’s scope. The decision is a big loss for Apple, which will have to adapt its operating system to meet a swathe of new obligations and prohibitions, including allowing iPad users to download apps from beyond Apple’s confines as well as being able to uninstall apps preloaded onto devices.

Staying with Big Tech, Amazon reported mixed results earlier this week with its cloud subsidiary AWS performing strongly. However, the rest of the business fell short of market expectations. Also reporting a first quarter update this week was Huawei, whose profit rose for the fourth consecutive quarter as it continues to steal market share from Apple in its home market.

In one of the biggest news stories of the week, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was ordered to spend four months in prison for failures that allowed cybercriminals and terrorist groups to freely trade on the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Despite the case, Zhao has held onto his personal fortune. His wealth ballooned by $25 billion as the crypto industry recovered last year and he is currently ranked as the 42nd richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

OpenAI, which has come under fire for using news articles and other material from publishers to train ChatGPT, has signed a licensing deal with the Financial Times to use its content. The company has also recently cut deals with Germany’s Axel Springer, French paper Le Monde and Spanish media conglomerate Prisa. However, it is still being accused of abusing copyright laws by a number of publishers, including the New York Times.

In case you missed it, we published our annual ‘30 under 30’ ranking of the bright young stars of Ireland’s tech scene this week.

Finally, in a new weekly update, we are giving you the lowdown on the best tech jobs currently available locally, and on the biggest movers and shakers. If you want to be included, then email topjobs@businesspost.ie