James Farrell

James Farrell is the former editor-in-chief of Chiang Mai CityNews, where he wrote and managed daily news, features, op-eds and blogs on a diverse range of topics. Prior to this, in the same city of Northern Thailand where he lives, he was the longstanding deputy editor of the monthly magazine Citylife. He has written on culture, politics, travel, tech, business, human rights, for local, national, and international news services and magazines. He has a keen interest in the role technology is playing in the transformation of society, culture and politics, especially in developing nations. This is reflected in his not-so-successful first novel.

Latest from James Farrell

After 14 years, Sheryl Sandberg bids adieu to Meta

APPS - BY JAMES FARRELL - 4 YEARS AGO

Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg announced today that she’s leaving the company she helped turn into a global phenomenon. When Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook, he was just 23 years old, and Sandberg (pictured) was 38. She explained in a Facebook post today that back then Zuckerberg approached her at a party and ...

Lawsuit charges Elon Musk manipulated Twitter stock during his takeover bid

POLICY - BY JAMES FARRELL - 4 YEARS AGO

Twitter Inc. shareholders filed a lawsuit late Wednesday in a federal district court in San Francisco, accusing Elon Musk of manipulating Twitter’s stock price and benefiting from that during his takeover bid. The lawsuit claims that prior to making the bid, Musk (pictured) failed to reveal that he already had a 5% stake in Twitter. ...

Twitter agrees to pay a $150M fine for deceptive ad targeting

POLICY - BY JAMES FARRELL - 4 YEARS AGO

Twitter Inc. settled a lawsuit today with the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, paying a fine that set the social media giant back $150 million. The lawsuit claims that Twitter acted deceptively between 2013 and 2019 when it used users’ phone numbers and emails as a means to target advertising. The information should ...

Walmart is expanding its drone deliveries to reach 4M people in the US

EMERGING TECH - BY JAMES FARRELL - 4 YEARS AGO

Walmart Inc. announced today that it’s ratcheting up drone deliveries in the U.S., opening a slew of new sites from where packages can be taken by air to customers. The retail giant has been promising drone deliveries for several years, but getting the service off the ground, literally, has been a slow process. Late in 2021, ...

Clearview AI hit with fine in the UK for illegally storing images

AI - BY JAMES FARRELL - 4 YEARS AGO

The embattled facial recognition firm Clearview AI Inc. has been fined £7.5 million ($9.4 million) by the U.K.’s privacy watchdog for illegally storing images of people. The company, which has its headquarters in New York City, has faced mounting criticism since its database containing billions of images was breached in 2020. Privacy advocates in the ...

New bipartisan bill could make a big dent in big tech’s ad revenue

POLICY - BY JAMES FARRELL - 4 YEARS AGO

A group of Republican and Democratic senators introduced a bill today that targets the ads business of companies such as Google LLC, Meta Platforms Inc and Amazon.com Inc. “The Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act” introduced by senators Ken Buck (R-Colorado), Burgess Owens (R-Utah), Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island), and Matt Gaetz ...

Senators are asking the FTC to investigate a facial recognition firm for deceiving Americans

POLICY - BY JAMES FARRELL - 4 YEARS AGO

Yet another company that creates facial recognition software is now under the spotlight, as four Democratic senators asked the Federal Trade Commission today to investigate the Virginia-based American online identity network company ID.me. Just last week, Clearview AI Inc. reached a settlement in court and agreed to stop selling its facial recognition technology. Such technology ...

Apple now says its plan to have a three-day week at the office is indefinitely postponed

POLICY - BY JAMES FARRELL - 4 YEARS AGO

Apple Inc. sent a memo today to its corporate headquarters in San Francisco saying most of the staff will now not be asked to attend the office for three days a week, citing a rise in COVID-19 cases as the reason. The original plan was to have staff go into the office on Mondays, Tuesdays ...

Elon Musk puts Twitter bid into further doubt on question over fake accounts

APPS - BY JAMES FARRELL - 4 YEARS AGO

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk cast further doubt today about his $44 billion offer to buy Twitter Inc., saying fake accounts may change how much he’s willing to bid. Since Musk made that offer in April this year, there has been no shortage of drama. As a self-confessed free speech “absolutist,” Musk has stoked ...

Top execs leave Twitter as CEO announces a hiring freeze

POLICY - BY JAMES FARRELL - 4 YEARS AGO

Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Parag Agrawal announced some big changes today in an email to staff, a shake-up that will see two main employees leave the company. Consumer product leader Kayvon Beykpour has been fired, or in his own words asked to leave the company after being told Twitter wants to go in a “different ...