Tech World: Russian ads on Facebook, bitcoin's price rise and more
Channel: UKTN
Date: 02/11/2017

Welcome to Tech World, your quick roundup of some of the top technology news stories from across the globe.

This month, we bring you the latest on the Russian-purchased ads on Facebook, bitcoin's price rise and more.

For this episode’s Hot Topic interview, we spoke to Adrian Baschnonga, global lead telecoms analyst, on 5G and its implications for future tech.

First though, here are your top international stories.

UK MPs and Facebook

UK MPs have told Facebook to hand over evidence of Russian meddling in British politics.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee has demanded that the US tech giant release adverts and pages linked to Russia in the build up to last year’s Brexit referendum and June’s snap general election.

The news comes after Facebook said that fake accounts linked to the Kremlin had purchased more than $100,000 worth of politically infused ads.

Bitcoin rises in value

Bitcoin has been making headlines again this month, after it reached a new high, surpassing the $6,000 mark on 20th October.

As always, speculation around the digital currency’s rise in price has been rife, with many pointing to the potential benefits of holding bitcoin ahead of an upcoming hard fork due to happen this month.

Lyft's $1bn round

In other news, US ride-hailing firm Lyft announced a $1bn investment from a Google-led consortium.

The round was led by CapitalG, formerly known as Google Capital, and took Lyft’s valuation to $11bn in what is being described as a major challenge to Uber in the US.

SoftBank rumours

SoftBank caught everyone’s attention again this month following reports that it was seeking to raise a bigger investment fund.

The firm, which has already raised $93bn, is believed to be in early-stage discussions to raise more cash as it amps up its efforts to invest in technology across the globe.

Weinstein fiasco on Twitter

Twitter landed in hot water after it suspended actress Rose McGowan’s account.

The actress, one of the accusers of disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein, had her account temporarily taken down following a flurry of tweets about various people involved in the scandal.

Some commentators suggested the account had been taken down to silence the actress, but Twitter has instead said it was due to one post, which included a private phone number and as such, violated Twitter’s terms of service.

That’s it for our top global tech news roundup, but keep watching to see this episode’s Hot Topics interview.

We spoke with Adrian Baschonga at EY about 5G and its implications for future tech.  

That’s all for this episode. To get more top tech news straight to your inbox, visit www.uktech.news