The US Commerce Department has added China’s largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), to its entity list after it determined there an “unacceptable risk” that equipment SMIC received could be used for military purposes, Reuters reported.

The move blocks US computer chip companies from exporting technology to SMIC without an export license. SMIC is the latest major Chinese firm to be put on the entity list; the Trump administration added phone manufacturer Huawei to the list in 2019.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Commerce Department wrote in a letter to the computer chip industry on Friday that exporting products to SMIC would “pose an unacceptable risk of diversion to military end-use in the People’s Republic of China.”

In April, the administration tightened export rules on shipping goods to China. It claims it’s seeking to keep US companies from selling products that could be used to help strengthen the Chinese military.

SMIC told Reuters in a statement that it makes semiconductors and provides services “solely for commercial end-users and end-uses,” and that it has “no relationship with the Chinese military and does not manufacture for any military end-users or end-uses.”

source: TheVerge

Also Read:

TWITTER IS BRINGING ITS ‘READ BEFORE YOU RETWEET’ PROMPT TO ALL USERS

TIKTOK ASKS JUDGE TO BLOCK SEPTEMBER 27TH TRUMP BAN    

CAUGHT IN CHINA-U.S. TRADE WAR, TAIWAN OFFERS SUPPORT TO CHIPMAKERS    

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHILE BUYING A WASHING MACHINE | REVIEWS NEPAL    

8,000+ SMES MOVE ONLINE VIA DARAZ SAHAYATRI PROGRAM    

WHY DOES ONE NEED LIFE INSURANCE?

WHAT MEDICAL DEVICES SHOULD I HAVE AT HOME

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen promised on Thursday to help the island’s key semiconductor industry overcome difficulties and consolidate its leading position, offering support to a sector increasingly caught up in China-U.S. trade tensions.

Companies such as the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, are major suppliers to the likes of Apple Inc and Qualcomm Inc, as well as Chinese firms like Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

In July, TSMC said it had stopped taking new orders from Huawei in May and did not plan to ship wafers after Sept. 15, responding to U.S. curbs on supplying the Chinese company, which the Trump administration views as a security threat.

China, for its part, is trying to nurture tech champions of its own, such as SMIC, its biggest chipmaker, and wean itself off reliance on U.S. suppliers.

Taiwan’s chipmakers were a crucial part of the global supply chain, Tsaid told a meeting of semiconductor company representatives in Taipei, including TSMC Chairman Mark Liu.

“We attach great importance to this strategic industry, and will actively assist the industry in solving problems, to continue to consolidate the advantages of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, and to accelerate transformation and development,” the presidential office cited Tsai as saying.

Turning Taiwan into an advanced semiconductor processing centre is a key government effort, she added.

“The focus of future development includes localisation of material supplies, technology autonomy, localisation of foreign equipment manufacturing, and localisation of advanced assembly equipment.”

The policies will be adopted one by one, to ensure “more abundant technical energy” for the industry and a complete industrial supply chain to enhance its key global role, she added.

Tsai hoped the joint efforts of the government and the private sector would boost the competitiveness of the industry in Taiwan, so that it can be a global bellwether.

On Wednesday, TSMC’s Liu said the deleveraging of China-U.S. supply chains and protectionism on both sides of the Pacific would only drive up costs and limit the flow of ideas.

source: Reuters

Also Read:

DISH HOME AND HIMALMEDIA ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT    

HUSQVARNA SVARTPILEN 250 & VITPILEN 250 LAUNCHED IN NEPAL    

LG WASHING MACHINE PRICE LIST    

REALME C17- SPECS, PRICE AND AVAILABILITY | REVIEWS NEPAL    

BEST FACIAL KITS IN NEPAL | 2020    

DFSK SUV - DASHIAN OFFER 2077    

TYPES OF HAIR APPLIANCES THAT ARE AVAILABLE  

The Justice Department is expected to bring an antitrust action against Google in the coming weeks, focusing on its dominance in online search and whether it was used to stifle competition and hurt consumers, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press Thursday.

The department also is examining Google’s online advertising practices, said the person, who could not discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Antitrust officials at the department briefed state attorneys general Thursday on the planned action against Google, seeking support from states across the country that share concerns about Google’s conduct.

The anticipated lawsuit against Google could be the government’s biggest legal offensive to protect competition since the groundbreaking case against Microsoft almost 20 years ago.

Lawmakers and consumer advocates accuse Google of abusing its dominance in online search and advertising to stifle competition and boost its profits.

Spokespeople for Google, whose parent company is Alphabet Inc., and headquarters is in Mountain View, California, declined comment Thursday.

Google has maintained that although its businesses are large, they are useful and beneficial to consumers. The company says its services face ample competition and have unleashed innovations that help people manage their lives. Most of its services are offered for free in exchange for personal information that helps Google sell its ads.

For over a year, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have pursued sweeping antitrust investigations of big tech companies, looking at whether Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple have hurt competition, stifled innovation or otherwise harmed consumers. And a bipartisan coalition of 50 U.S. states and territories, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, announced a year ago on the steps of the Supreme Court that they were investigating Google’s business practices. They cited “potential monopolistic behavior.”

Now with 40 days to the presidential election, the Justice Department is approaching legal action against Google and soliciting the support of state attorneys general on an issue of rare bipartisan agreement. Support from the states would bolster the Justice Department’s case against Google.

The Trump administration has long had Google in its sights. A top economic adviser to President Donald Trump said two years ago that the White House was considering whether Google searches should be subject to government regulation. Trump himself has often criticized Google, recycling unfounded claims by conservatives that the search giant is biased against conservatives and suppresses their viewpoints, interferes with U.S. elections and prefers working with the Chinese military over the Pentagon.

The company has denied the claims and insists that it never ranks search results to manipulate political views.

Antitrust regulators in Europe have cracked down on Google in recent years by imposing multibillion-dollar fines and ordering changes to its practices. Among other things, the regulators found that Google forced smartphone makers to install Google apps, thereby expanding its reach. Google has since allowed more options for alternative browsers and search apps to European Android phones.

Google controls about 90% of global web searches. Its dominance in online search and advertising enables it to target millions of consumers for their personal data. Google dwarfs other search competitors such as Microsoft’s Bing and Yelp and has faced harsh criticism in the past for favoring its own products over competitors at the top of search results.

Google also owns the leading web browser in Chrome, the world’s largest mobile operating system in Android, the top video site in YouTube and the most popular digital mapping system.

source: AP

Also Read:

THAILAND TAKES FIRST LEGAL ACTION AGAINST FACEBOOK, TWITTER OVER CONTENT    

TIKTOK ASKS JUDGE TO BLOCK SEPTEMBER 27TH TRUMP BAN    

CAUGHT IN CHINA-U.S. TRADE WAR, TAIWAN OFFERS SUPPORT TO CHIPMAKERS    

SAMSUNG’S GALAXY WATCH 3 AND ACTIVE 2 CAN NOW TAKE EKG READINGS IN THE US    

REALME 7- PRICE, SPECS AND AVAILABILITY | REVIEWS NEPAL    

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHILE BUYING A WASHING MACHINE | REVIEWS NEPAL    

8,000+ SMES MOVE ONLINE VIA DARAZ SAHAYATRI PROGRAM    

Twitter says it’s working on bringing its “read the article before you retweet it” prompt to all users “soon.” The company began testing the prompt in June, which shows up when people go to retweet a story they haven’t clicked through to actually read.

Twitter says its motivation is to “help promote informed discussion.” Headlines often don’t tell the whole story and can even be actively misleading. Encouraging people to at least read the article they’re sharing seems like a smart way to promote media literacy and stop some of the knee-jerk reactions that can make misinformation viral.

 

We shouldn't have to say this, but you should read an article before you Tweet it. https://t.co/Apr9vZb2iI

So, we’ve been prompting some people to do exactly that. Here’s what we’ve learned so far. ⤵️

— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) September 24, 2020

 

The company shared some results from its initial test of the feature, which was limited to Twitter users on Android. It says people shown the promptly opened articles 40 percent more often and that the overall proportion of people opening articles before retweeting increased by 33 percent. The company also said that “some people” (a statistically meaningless phrase!) didn’t retweet the article after opening it up.

Twitter says it’s now “working on bringing these prompts to everyone globally soon” and that in the future, the prompt will be smaller once it’s been shown to users once (“because we get that you get it”). This isn’t the only feature of Twitter’s been testing to improve life on its platform. Others include a feature that warns users before they send offensive replies and the option to limit who replies to tweets (which has now been rolled out globally).

Hopefully, all this experimentation is just a warm-up for the next logical step: a warning shown to all users before they tweet anything at all.

Source: TheVerge

Also Read:

TIKTOK ASKS JUDGE TO BLOCK SEPTEMBER 27TH TRUMP BAN    

CAUGHT IN CHINA-U.S. TRADE WAR, TAIWAN OFFERS SUPPORT TO CHIPMAKERS    

SAMSUNG’S GALAXY WATCH 3 AND ACTIVE 2 CAN NOW TAKE EKG READINGS IN THE US    

REALME 7- PRICE, SPECS AND AVAILABILITY | REVIEWS NEPAL    

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHILE BUYING A WASHING MACHINE | REVIEWS NEPAL    

8,000+ SMES MOVE ONLINE VIA DARAZ SAHAYATRI PROGRAM    

WHY DOES ONE NEED LIFE INSURANCE?

WHAT MEDICAL DEVICES SHOULD I HAVE AT HOME