Welcome to #TechAways, where our talented tech team – full of voracious readers – introduces you to our selection of the top stories we’ve read each week. We’re here to help you keep up with the hottest developments in the tech world and their implications for Europe.
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The year is kicking off with a bang and it’s going to be a busy six months with the Bulgarian Presidency taking over files near and dear to our hearts.
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Facebook agrees to expand Brexit investigation [FT]
As voices for a second Brexit referendum grow louder in the UK, Facebook is getting ready. The social media platform just agreed to look into any suspect activity ahead of the 2016 vote and expand its investigation into alleged Russian interference in the Brexit referendum campaign. Things look set to happen fast. Simon Milner, Facebook’s Policy Director, said in a letter to a relevant UK parliamentary committee that investigation “will take a number of weeks to complete”. Will Brexit negotiations and public debates soon have another key element to factor in?
How can media survive without Facebook? [Quartz]
Facebook recently decided to promote personal content over news in an attempt to bring the company closer to its original mission as a driver of personal connections. In the many countries where at least half of the population uses the platform as a news source, users might need to look to other platforms like Twitter or news aggregators as replacement sources. A recent study by the Reuters institute highlights the use of WhatsApp as a news source is now competing with Facebook in countries such Malaysia and Brazil. Without the help of traditional platforms, media publishers may have to find new ways to access their readership.
How FinTech will kill the wallet [TechCrunch]
Curve, a start-up that consolidates all your bank cards into one, is launching for UK consumers. This represents the next step towards FinTech convergence, according to Curve CEO Shachar Bialick. How? By re-bundling various financial products and putting the consumer in control. Curve may ultimately lead consumers to prefer opening smaller accounts in many banks over holding their money in just one or two major banks – and Santander probably got that right. The Spanish ‘too big to fail’ bank is working on a co-branded version of Curve for Santander customers. Bankers and wallet-makers alike must all adapt during the FinTech revolution.
Mind the (skills) gap! [Digital Journal]
A new report from Capgemini Digital Transformation Institute and LinkedIn found that 54% of businesses feel the pressure from the digital skills gap. The two soft digital skills in greatest demand are customer-centricity and passion for learning, while the two hard digital skills most in demand are cybersecurity and cloud computing. With digital skills featuring as a priority for the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council and the European Commission launching new measures to boost digital literacy in Europe, the EU appears strongly committed to closing the gap. But with competition for digital talent set to keep on increasing over the next few years, will these new measures be enough?
In case you haven’t had enough:
- DoorDash Is Now Using Its Algorithm To Deliver Extra Food From Restaurants To Food Banks [FastCompany]
- The Fall of Travis Kalanick Was a Lot Weirder and Darker Than You Though [Bloomberg]
- AI Is Making It Extremely Easy for Students to Cheat [Wired]
- Facebook is using an old drug dealer tactic to keep its users hooked [Quartz]
- Intel Has a Big Problem. It Needs to Act Like It [Bloomberg]
- Letting light through the Great Firewall of China [Financial Times]
- Ginni Rometty on How AI Is Going to Transform Jobs—All of Them [Wall Street Journal]