Економіка

Technological advances in prosthetics have vastly improved the lives of many U.S. veterans and service members over the past 20 years. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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Ireland on Thursday slapped Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service with a record fine for breaching EU data privacy laws after European regulators demanded the penalty be increased.Ireland’s Data Protection Commission was entrusted with the case because Facebook’s European headquarters are situated in the country.”And following this reassessment the DPC has imposed a fine of 225 million euros ($267 million) on WhatsApp,” the commission said, by far the largest penalty it has ever issued to a company, dwarfing the 450,000-euro fine imposed on Twitter last year. As Ireland hosts the regional headquarters of a number of major tech players such as Apple, Google and Twitter, the DPC has been largely responsible for policing adherence to the EU’s landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) charter.But Ireland has come under pressure for not taking a firm enough line against tech giants, who are generally understood to be drawn to the country by its low corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent.WhatsApp said it would appeal the decision.”We disagree with the decision today” it said in a statement, calling the penalties “entirely disproportionate.”‘Dissuasive fine’The DPC launched the WhatsApp probe in December 2018 to examine whether the messaging app “discharged its GDPR transparency obligations” with regard to telling users how their data would be processed between WhatsApp and other Facebook companies.In an initial finding submitted to other European regulators for approval last December, the DPC proposed imposing a fine of between 30 and 50 million euros, but a number of national regulators rejected the figure, triggering the launch of a dispute resolution process in June.Last month, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) instructed the DPC to increase the fine, with Germany’s regulator leading the calls for the penalty to be higher. The EDPB said that the fine had to “reflect a significant level of non-compliance which impact on all of the processing carried out by WhatsApp” in Ireland.The fine had to be “effective, dissuasive and proportionate,” it said. Hailed as a potent weapon to bring tech titans to heel, the GDPR endowed national watchdogs with cross-border powers and the possibility to impose sizeable fines for data misuse.But Germany’s data protection commissioner, Ulrich Kelber, in March wrote an open letter criticizing the DPC for the “extremely slow” way it handled GDPR complaints.
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Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei says it wants to train up to 3 million African youths to work with cutting-edge digital technology such as artificial intelligence. Already, Nigerian students who took part in a Huawei-sponsored information and communications technology (ICT) competition say the benefits, including possible job placements with the company, are enormous. But experts warn there could be potential negative impacts of China’s growing tech influence in Africa. Computer engineering finalist Muhammad Maihaja is set to graduate from the Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria’s Kaduna state in November.  In 2019, he was part of a team of six from the school who represented Nigeria at the global Huawei ICT competition in Shenzhen, China, where they finished in third place. Huawei introduced the competition to Africa in 2014 to identify and nurture highly skilled ICT professionals — what the company says is part of its expanding talent search in Africa’s tech sector that has benefited some 2,000 African students like Maihaja.   “We have been exposed to devices and technologies we’ve never experienced before. As normal university students, we would not have experienced what we did experience in the competition. So, I’ll say … this has made me much more ICT inclined, so to say,” Maihaja said.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 13 MB540p | 16 MB720p | 28 MB1080p | 64 MBOriginal | 86 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe competition evaluates students’ competence in network and cloud technology. Maihaja and his team’s success in 2019 was a rare achievement for an African team, let alone a first-time participant. The feat inspired many other students like Hamza Atabor who tried out for the next edition in 2020. He and the other Nigerian students this time won the competition.  “I was inspired by, you know, when they talked about their stories, how they won the competition, and also when they were given their prizes and everything. I just felt, OK, this is something to actually make a sacrifice for,” Atabor said.Students like Maihaja and Atabor are meeting Huawei’s set objective, but critics say the company is only a fragment of China’s fast-paced dominance in Africa’s technology landscape. Huawei reportedly accounts for more than 70% of the continent’s telecommunications network. Mohammed Bashir Muazu, a professor of computer engineering at Ahmadu Bello University, says it’s no surprise China is gaining traction in Africa.   “Seeing the level of technological developments in China, I think what is actually happening is inevitable,” Muazu said. Concerns about China’s presence in Africa grew in 2019 after U.S. newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, reported that Huawei had helped Ugandan and Zambian authorities spy on political opponents.   Huawei denied the accusations and declined an interview on the matter. But ICT expert Samuel Adekola says China could use its competitive advantage for selfish gains. “It’s really dangerous. I cannot quantify how much they could do, but whoever has data, you can do a lot of things. You have a lot of information about a group of people, the nation,” Adekola said.As long as China continues to invest in Africa, students like Maihaja and Atabor will learn valuable skills, even though experts say Africa may have to pay a price for relying too heavily on foreign companies. 
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Social media giant Facebook will invest $1.5 million in Argentine media to train journalists and promote online development, a first in Latin America.The agreement signed last week with almost 150 media outlets will allow 3,000 journalists to be trained, while also helping Facebook develop commercial agreements.It’s part of the Facebook Journalism Project that involves collaboration with media all over the world.The three-year Argentine investment aims “to support almost 150 media of every size and region in the country,” Julieta Shamma, Facebook’s head of strategic media partnerships in Latin America, told AFP.The agreement involves commercial commitments with around 30 Argentine outlets including Clarin, La Nacion, Pagina12 and Infobae to attract more links to the Facebook platform.”We’re collaborating with media to try different forms of helping people find news on Facebook and connect with them,” Shamma said.Facebook will offer training in themes such as product development, format experimentation and using statistics, among others.”We believe the digital transformation will create new opportunities for the news ecosystem, offering different possibilities to expand the audience through social and interactive formats, and to monetize content,” Shamma said.Facebook has already invested $600 million worldwide since 2018 to support digital development in the news industry. The Silicon Valley-based company plans to invest another $1 billion in the next three years. 
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