South Korea is fining Facebook for $6M US, France applies a digital tax to the tech giants, and lots of chatter about a potential Slack acquisition.
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Thursday, November 26, and I’m your host Baneet Braich.
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South Korea has Facebook in its crosshairs. South Korea’s information watchdog fined Facebook $6 million USD for passing information of at least 3.3 million South Koreans to other companies without their consent. This is the commission’s first punishment since it was launched in August this year. The personal information that was shared includes users’ names, addresses, dates of birth, work experience, hometowns and relationship statuses.
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France says it will be reaching deeper into the pockets of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google with the introduction of a digital tax. The comes despite the US threatening new tariffs on French imports, and as critics globally demand that American tech multinationals pay up a larger share of their taxes in the countries they operate in. Unexpectedly, there is opposition from the U.S which means this might take a bit to enforce. Trump has said that France can expect punitive duties of 25 per cent on US$1.3 billion worth of French products, including the esteemed cosmetics and handbags.
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And finally, there’s a lot of chatter about a possible mega acquisition. Cloud-based software company Salesforce.com is in talks to acquire the popular workplace messaging app. The bid comes as Slack struggles to capitalize with the remote work shift and competitors like Microsoft Teams. It’s not known what Salesforce would pay for Slack however, Reuters is reporting that a deal could be announced before Slack reports quarterly earnings on Dec. 9.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Baneet Braich, thanks for listening.