Trump tackles telecoms market with MVNO Following ventures in social media and cryptocurrency, President Donald Trump has launched a new telecoms company, aiming to take on the likes of AT&T and Verizon. The Trump Organization has announced plans to launch Trump Mobile, which will offer mobile tariffs at $47.45 a month through an MVNO service […]
Trump tackles telecoms market with MVNO
Following ventures in social media and cryptocurrency, President Donald Trump has launched a new telecoms company, aiming to take on the likes of AT&T and Verizon.
The Trump Organization has announced plans to launch Trump Mobile, which will offer mobile tariffs at $47.45 a month through an MVNO service supported by Liberty.
Trump claims the service will offer 5G connectivity provided by three major US operators – AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile – and plans will offer telehealth services and free international calling to more than 100 countries.
“Trump Mobile is going to change the game, we’re building on the movement to put America first, and we will deliver the highest levels of quality and service,” said Donald Trump Jr, executive vice-president of the Trump Organization.
The company, which is managed by Trump’s sons, also unveiled a gold-coloured device for $499 that will be released in August and “built in the United States”, though details about who is building the handset or how it will run remain vague at this point.
WhatsApp to start showing more adverts in messaging app
WhatsApp has unveiled plans to launching three new ad features in a global roll-out across its platform.
The messaging app said it use the country, city and language of the user, as well as how they interact with other ads and which channels they follow, to drive suggested content. However, it said the ads will not feature in private chats or use data taken from the content of messages, which are encrypted.
WhatsApp-owner Meta said users who link their account to its other services, including Facebook and Instagram, will receive more personalised advertising.
Businesses with channels will also be able to choose to promote ads in the Updates section to attract new followers and charge a subscription to access extra content.
UK watchdog fines 23andMe for ‘profoundly damaging’ data breach
The UK data watchdog has fined DNA testing firm 23andMe £2.31 million over a 2023 data breach that saw thousands of accounts and personal data leaked.
The Information Commissioner’s Office ruled that the company – which has since filed for bankruptcy – had failed in its duty to put adequate measures in place to secure sensitive user data.
Users were targeted during an attack where hackers used “credential stuffing” to exploit passwords leaked in previous breaches to gain access to more than 14,000 individual accounts.
UK data watchdog settles on £7.5m fine for Clearview AI
The criminals downloaded information relating to about 6.9 million people linked as possible relations to users on the site, plus the personal data belonging to 155,592 UK residents, the ICO report revealed.
Disney strikes back at Midjourney over copyrighted content
Disney and Universal have filed a high-profile lawsuit against image-generation startup Midjourney, alleging unauthorised use of icons from franchises like Star Wars and Marvel to train AI models.
Disney and subsidiaries including Marvel, Lucasfilm, Twentieth Century Fox has partnered with rival Universal to file a suit at US District Court of the Central District of California alleging that the AI image generator has been “generating endless unauthorized copies” of their respective IP.
The suit marks the first time a major Hollywood studio has sued an AI firm over its IP and could set a significant precedent in the ongoing dispute over how AI models are trained.
US to delay TikTok ‘sell-or-shutdown’ ban…again
The US government looks set to offer a further reprieve to TikTok after a spokesperson said President Trump doesn’t want the social media app to go dark, despite its owners failing to find a buyer in the last 90 days.
Trump had previously offered a 90-day delay to a 2024 Biden era law that would have forced TikTok-owner ByteDance to shut the service down in the US after it failed to find a buyer.
The deadline for TikTok to divest to a local company was 19 January.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that President Trump intends to “sign an additional Executive Order this week to keep TikTok up and running.”
