#digital-regulation

#digital-regulation

China's main internet regulator and censorship authority ordered Apple to remove two very popular gay dating apps its App Store last weekend: Blued, an app with an estimated 56 million users; and Finka, which has 2.7 million users. The apps remain functional Chinese people who've already downloaded them, but their removal is just part of China's ongoing crackdown and censorship campaign against its LGBTQ+ citizens.

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg ( pictured) reportedly met with US President Donald Trump to discuss the threat of digital market taxes against US companies, ahead of the latter's threat to impose tariffs on nations which do not remove such legislation. Bloomberg reported yesterday (28 August) Zuckerberg met with Trump last week to talk about the threat of countries attacking US players by instituting digital rules and taxes against them.

When Mark Zuckerberg cozied up to Donald Trump at the beginning of this year, lots of folks chalked it up to fear. After all, they pointed out, Trump had previously threatened to throw the Meta CEO in jail. More prosaically, the US government that Trump was about to head up again was suing to break up Zuckerberg's company. But as we've pointed out here multiple times, Zuckerberg - and the rest of Big Tech's leaders - aren't just trying to stay off Trump's list of targets.