Another working week has come to an end. A lot happened over the last few days, from SpaceX’s launch of NASA astronauts into space, and Google’s postponed OS intro, to hackers taking over a police website in the US. Here is the roundup.
Sony, AirBnB and Google postpone virtual events due to protests
Following the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in the US, African Americans have been protesting against racism in the country. To show support for the cause, Sony, Google, and AirBnB have cancelled major virtual events.
Sony Corp postponed its news conference for the PlayStation 5 game console in a bid to ‘stand back and allow more important voices to be heard.’ The conference had been earlier slated for June 4.
Google was supposed to introduce the Android 11 mobile operating system on June 3, but postponed it. AirBnB’s Chief Executive Officer, Brian Chesky, was to share the visions of the startup concerning Travel in a video message. All three events have been postponed to give the floor to more pressing matters.
MTN postpones 5G launch
MTN will be launching its 5G network in South Africa sometime in June. The launch was supposed to happen on June 1, but the delay in bringing 5G equipment into South Africa has forced the telco to push back the date a bit.
To use the network, 5G-enabled devices will be required. The telco is launching the network with Huawei’s new 5G-enabled P40 and P40 Pro smartphones.
On the 5G network, users will be able to connect more devices to the internet. The speed at which devices connect to the cloud and other remote services will be increased on the network.
Seems Elon Musk ‘goes off’ Twitter every June
Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, is taking a break from Twitter again.
This is not the first time Musk will be going offline. On June 17, 2019, Musk tweeted that he was going off Twitter and deleting his account. He did not delete the account, although he renamed it ‘Daddy dotcom’ for a few hours before he changed it back to ‘Elon Musk’ and became active again.
This was after he was fined $20 million for tweeting about securing funding to take Tesla private. Tesla was also fined $20 million by the SEC for Musk’s illegal announcement of the secured funding.
On Tuesday, June 2, Musk announced again that he is going offline on Twitter. Prior to this tweet, he had been sharing tweets about SpaceX’s successful launch of 2 NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. Has he fallen short again?
‘Anonymous’ hackers hack police website in protest against racism
In addition to the offline protests by black people in the US, hackers affiliating themselves with the ‘Anonymous’ hacking group have claimed responsibility for taking a Minneapolis police website offline.
Around the same time on Twitter, millions of people started following previous Anonymous posters and retweeting posts with the hashtags Black Lives Matter, and either opposed police actions or faulted and criticised US President, Donald Trump.
It is not yet clear what the target of the online insurgence is, or who is driving it. Anonymous has no known leader for representative. It is more of a movement, and a brand that hackers with similar intentions want to identify with.
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