Author: Francis Muli

TikTok interim CEO, Vanessa Pappas has reached out to Instagram and Facebook, asking them to publicly join their challenge and litigation following the announcement of a ban order by the Trump administration. The order, served Friday morning, prohibits TikTok from transactions in the US effective September 20.This means that US citizens will no longer be able to download the TikTok app. According to the order, served by the Department of Commerce, TikTok will continue operating in the country only for people who already have the app, but effective tomorrow, new users will no longer be able to download TikTok as…

TikTok is considering hiring Kenvin Systrom , founder and former CEO of Instagram, as its Chief Executive Officer. This follows the former CEO, Kevin Mayer’s  resignation last month. Mayer resigned amid a looming ban on TikTok by the Trump administration. If Systrom takes up the position, this would put him in direct competition with his former boss, Mark Zuckerberg. However, a lot of people consider the move highly unlikely based on Systrom stint at Instagram. Many people consider him as one who would most likely take up a position that would build something from the ground up, as opposed to…

Western countries are petitioning tech companies to stop advertising targeted at children. In an open letter signed by children’s rights advocates, MPs and academics, they said that behavioural advertising undermines privacy and puts the youngsters under unfair marketing pressure. The letter was addressed to Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook. “The fact that ad-tech companies hold 72 million data points on a child by the time they turn 13 shows the extent of disregard for these laws, and the extraordinary surveillance to which children are subjected,” the letter reads. Read: KFCB Partners With Google And Code IP To Protect Children…

Troubled chain retailer Tuskys Supermarket has announced that it has received Ksh500 million capital injection, part of Ksh2 billion from a Mauritius-based investor. In a statement by Tuskys CEO Dan Gthua, the retailer said that part of the amount, Ksh321 million, will be used to pay landlords, staff, and suppliers. “We have received the first tranche of the earlier announced Ksh2 billion credit disbursement today. This first tranche disbursed today amounts to Ksh500million and will cover immediate working capital requirements including partial settlements to our staff, suppliers and landlords among others. In particular the first tranche of the suppliers old…

A ransomware attack at Dusseldorf Hospital in Germany left one woman dead. Prosecutors are investigating the case in what is considered to be the first death to be directly linked to a cyber attack. Reports show that the hackers attacked the hospital’s systems and scrambled their data rendering them inoperable. The hospital was therefore unable to receive emergency patients at the facility, forcing them to send the woman to a different facility about 200 miles away. Cologne prosecutors have launched a negligent homicide case against the hackers. According to a report from a German News outlet, the hackers were not…

The winner of Pwani Oil’s ‘Kikwetu Supa Chef’ competition that was held in 2014 is yet to receive her Ksh5 million prize, Kahawa Tungu has learnt. In the competition that was held in conjunction with Mediamax Network Ltd’s K24, the winner, who emerged to be Elizabeth Atieno Obayi, was to receive a Ksh3 million restaurant, a Ksh2 million advertising airtime on K24 and a Ksh500,000 cash prize. Ms Obayi was announced the winner on July 20, 2014, after a three-month competition that was held between April 2014 and June 2014. Court documents in our possession show that Mediamax honoured the…

Zuku Fibre has announced the introduction of the fastest internet speeds on it 500MB Triple Pay package. The company provides home internet, Digital TV and digital telephony to customers in Kenya and East Africa. According to the company, the launch of 500 Mbps Triple Play package will offer a bouquet of three  services for one price. The package comprises internet speeds of 500 Mbps, Digital TV with about 130 local and international tv channels and home telephony with calling rate of Ksh 2/= to other networks in Kenya. Read: Demand For Safaricom Home Data Up 70PC As Kenyans Adapt To…

Zambia’s top Internet Service Provider, Paratus Group, has launched a 100 GB Metro fibre ring. The fibre ring will be used to transmit data with speeds of up to 100GB by using technology that can steadily increase bandwidth over an existing fibre network. Leveraging on Paratus existing broad infrastructure, corporate companies and businesses will be able to boost their speeds as well as get high bandwidth for data hungry apps. The robust connection will also allow businesses efficiency and access to their branches, data centres and cloud services such as Microsoft azure, Google Cloud and Amazon. Read: TunnelBear Offers Zimbabweans…

Facebook has developed a new app to allow small business owners manage their business profiles across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. The app, dubbed Facebook Business Suite, will merge the backend of the profiles on the three apps to allow users receive notifications, alerts and messages from customers on an integrated inbox. The company is also planning to integrate the feature to WhatsApp in the near future. The app will provide a sort of unified platform where small business owners can cross post to both profiles on Instagram and Facebook. Currently, users can cross post by linking the profiles to each…

The latest Apple update, iOS 14, will alert its users when their iPhone microphone or camera are in use. A small orange dot will appear on the iPhone’s display if the microphone is in use and will appear green when the camera is in use. It will be positioned at the top of the display, just next to the signal bars. Apple’s new operating system, which was released this week, will therefore let you know if any of the other apps are spying or listening in on you without your knowledge or consent. Also note that the dot will appear…

Court battles have been the order of the day as Tuskys shareholders, the most significant being siblings, fighting over a plan to sell shares to an external investor to save the chain retailer from collapsing. In the recent developments, one of the significant shareholders Mr Stephen Kamau moved to court and successfully obtained orders allowing Tuskys to fast track a shareholder meeting to approve the injection of new capital This comes a day after auctioneers raided and closed Tuskys Greenspan Mall, over rent arrears amounting to over Ksh30 million. This was the third branch belonging to the troubled retailer to…

The Senate today raised an issue regarding the security of users on the TikTok app. Nominated Senator Falhada Dekow Iman raised the concerns during today’s senate seating claiming that Chinese short video making app paused a threat to data security. According to the senator, TikTok collects information such as the location of the user, internet Protocol (IP) address and type of device. She said the app then accesses critical information such as the age and phone contacts of the user and also accesses their other social media profiles. Senator Falhada said that contrary to what many believe, the app did…

Nokia has partnered with Tizeti to supply LTE technology to the over one million subscribers in Nigeria. The Nokia Airscale base station TDD-LTE and Fastmile Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) gateways will be used to deliver Virtual Private Network (VPN) and internet services to the subscribers. Tizeti is a leading Internet Service Provider in the country and the solution from Nokia will help them deliver robust, high speed internet with the ability to evolve to the much anticipated 5G network once it is rolled out. Nokia says that Tizeti will use their FWA solution to enhance broadband access and provide efficient…

ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru announced plans to have students take at least four subjects online. He was speaking after he appeared before the senate ICT committee to answer questions about the digital literacy programme in the country. Mucheru said there were plans to pilot the project during the Covid-19 pandemic period and adopt it later although he did not give details of the subjects or time period. Mucheru also revealed plans by  the government to provide children with customized devices to be used in digital learning. The project was initially rolled out in March 2016 but had failed to…

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has won a Ksh1.2   billion tax case against Oxygen 8 East Africa Limited. In the case that was before the Tax Appeals Tribunal, Oxygen wanted more time to file an appeal against a tax demand by the KRA amounting to Ksh1,185,596,692. According to the taxman, the amount includes withholding tax that the firm has not submitted between July 2015  to  February  2019. Oxygen had filed a Notice of Appeal against the demand but failed to file a Memorandum of Appeal within the stipulated time. Oxygen said that its managing director was not in the country at the time of…