All posts tagged "Regulation"

San Francisco (AFP) - Ayman Chaudhary turned her love for reading into a living on TikTok, posting video snippets about books like those banned in schools in ultra-conservative parts of the United States. Now the online platform she relies on to support her family is poised to be banned in what entrepreneurs using TikTok condemn as an attack on their livelihoods. "It's so essential to small businesses and creators; it's my full-time job," the 23-year-old Chicago resident told AFP. "It makes me really worried that I live in a country that would pass bans like these instead of focusing on what's......

Washington (AFP) - Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty Tuesday to US money laundering charges, in a deal that will see the cryptocurrency exchange he founded pay over $4 billion in penalties. "Binance became the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange in part because of the crimes it committed –- now it is paying one of the largest corporate penalties in US history," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. Binance's guilty plea is part of coordinated action including with the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and Office of Foreign Assets......

San Francisco (AFP) - California authorities took a major step forward Thursday in expanding driverless taxi services in San Francisco, giving the green light for operators Waymo and Cruise to compete with ride-share services and cabs. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) heard six hours of public comment before voting three-to-one to let Waymo, a unit of Google-parent Alphabet, and General Motors-owned Cruise essentially run 24-hour robotaxi services in San Francisco. "Today is the first of many steps in bringing AV (autonomous vehicle) transportation services to Californians and......

Washington (AFP) - US authorities announced Friday they were tightening rules on a relatively new gun threat that has become more notable in recent years: converting pistols into more lethal short-barreled rifles. The new regulations target the use of attachable shoulder mounts or braces on guns classified as pistols, which are regulated differently from long guns and the separate category of short-barreled rifles, or those with barrels under 16 inches (40.6 centimeters). Millions of readily convertible "handguns" have been sold in recent years, frequently semi-automatic weapons that, once equ......

By Luc Olinga The U.S. and Europe have begun to impose financial sanctions on Moscow and its banks. Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted a barrage of financial sanctions aimed at isolating and punishing Moscow. President Joe Biden, for example, has limited exports to Russia and imposed sanctions on Russian banks and other state-owned enterprises. But neither the U.S. nor Europe has yet threatened to block Russia's access to the SWIFT system, a consortium financial institutions worldwide use as a crucial communications line for global commerce. If Russia were ever excluded from SWIFT, many won......

San Francisco (AFP) - Texas on Thursday made it illegal for popular social media platforms to ban users "simply based on their political viewpoints." Political conservatives have accused Facebook, Twitter and other social media giants of stifling their voices, providing no evidence to support the claims. Social media platforms have consistently defended themselves against such accusations. Former US president Donald Trump was booted from Facebook and Twitter after a group of his supporters attacked the Capitol in January in an attempt to prevent his rightly elected successor from taking office......