Skip to main content

Deck.blue brings a TweetDeck experience to Bluesky users

With over 3 million users and plans to open up more broadly in the months ahead, Bluesky is still establishing itself as an alternative to Twitter/X. However, that hasn’t stopped the developer community from embracing the project and building tools to meet the needs of those fleeing the now Elon Musk-owned social network, formerly known […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TBbEAPF
Post a Comment

Google appears to have disabled Google Translate in parts of China

Google appears to have disabled access to Google Translate in parts of China, redirecting visitors to the Hong Kong domain — which isn’t accessible from the mainland. According to users on Reddit and site archives viewed by TechCrunch, Google swapped the Google Translate interface at translate.google.cn with a generic Google Search page at some point within the last 24 hours.

The change is reportedly impacting the translation features of apps like KOReader, a document viewer, for China-based users, as well as Chrome’s built-in translation functionality. Google hasn’t responded to a request for comment; we’ll update this piece if we hear back.

Google has a long and complicated relationship with the Chinese government. In 2006, the company entered the Chinese market with a version of its search engine that was subject to government censorship rules. But after state-sponsored hacks and government-ordered blocks on Google services in response to YouTube footage showing Chinese security forces beating Tibetans, Google shut down Google Search in the mainland and briefly rerouted searches through its uncensored Hong Kong domain.

Google Translate blocked

The current Google Translate homepage in many parts of China.

Google reportedly explored relaunching Google Search in China in 2018 and 2019 as part of a project code-named Dragonfly, which would’ve censored results and recorded users’ locations as well as their internet browsing histories. But those plans were scuttled following clashes within Google led by the company’s privacy team, according to The Intercept.

In 2020, following the enactment of a national security law in Hong Kong that gave local authorities greatly expanded surveillance powers, Google said it wouldn’t directly respond to data requests from the Hong Kong law enforcement and instead would have them go through a mutual legal assistance treaty with the U.S.

Assuming it’s not a technical issue, the disabling of Google Translate in much of the mainland could be related to the upcoming National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which takes place October 16. The Chinese government has previously blocked Google services around major political events and politically sensitive anniversaries like that of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Google appears to have disabled Google Translate in parts of China by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/vIO6Bke
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sam Altman launches eyeball-scanning Worldcoin to ‘drastically increase economic opportunity’

Worldcoin Foundation, Sam Altman’s crypto startup with the vision to “drastically increase economic opportunity,” has started the rollout of its services in 20 nations. The startup said it’s rolling out its identity technology as well as the token internationally. Individuals can download World App, the startup’s protocol-compatible wallet software and visit an Orb, the startup’s helmet-shaped eyeball-scanning verification device, to receive their World ID. As TechCrunch has previously noted , Worldcoin is perhaps one of the most audacious efforts to bribe the world to embrace their currency. The startup, founded by OpenAI CEO Altman and Alex Blania, wants to put a crypto wallet (and some of their currency) onto every human’s smartphone, but in order to do so they have to build a way to determine whether someone is a unique human. “If successful, we believe Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans for AI online wh...
Post a Comment
Read more

A judge dismissed Phhhoto’s antitrust suit against Meta

A U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York threw out a lawsuit against Meta this week that had been simmering for a year and a half. The suit, filed in late 2021 by now-shuttered social app Phhhoto, alleged that Meta violated federal antitrust law by copying its core features with the Instagram-adjacent video looping app Boomerang . Like Boomerang, which Meta launched in October of 2015 and later integrated into Instagram itself, Phhhoto invited users to share very short GIF-like loops. U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto ultimately granted Meta’s motion to dismiss the complaint due to time-limits imposed by the relevant statutes of limitations. “Phhhoto has failed in its 69-page Amended Complaint of 222 paragraphs to allege sufficient facts that cure the untimeliness of all of its federal claims,” Matsumoto wrote in the opinion, calling the possibility of any amendment to resolve the issue of the lawsuit’s timing “futile.” New antitrust suit from Phhhoto a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Apple releases iOS 16.4 with new emojis, web push notifications, voice isolation for calls & more

Apple today released the iOS 16.4 update to users, which includes a number of new features, like an expanded set of emojis, voice isolation for calls, website push notifications and more. Users can update to the latest version by going to Settings > General > Software Update. While iOS updates often simply patch security holes or tweak smaller settings, those that deliver new emojis or expanded functionality are often more popular with consumers, leading to high demand for the download. That means you may have to wait a bit in order to install the latest update on your device. With iOS 16.4, users are getting 31 new emojis. (The release notes reference “21” new emoji, but this just has to do with how the variations are counted). Among the new additions are a shaking face, the long-awaited pink heart, two pushing hands, a Wi-Fi symbol and others, including various animals and objects. The Unicode consortium approved these emojis last year, and it was announced in February the...
Post a Comment
Read more