It was another super-busy week in the tech world. Instagram announced adding new TikTok-like features, while WhatsApp rolled out a ‘fun’ playback feature plus voice notes speed control.
On the online Palestinian cause front, Activists slammed Google for displaying search results that suggest Palestinian Kuffiyeh a symbol of terrorism. Amazon employees call for Jeff Bezos to acknowledge the plight of the Palestinian People.
From apps launches and updates to video games and consoles, here’s the list of all that you might have missed!
Google Slammed For Displaying Search Results That Suggest Palestinian Kuffiyeh a Symbol of Terrorism
The world’s most popular search engine, Google, is facing public backlash for linking the Palestinian traditional headdress, dubbed in Arabic as Kuffiyeh, with terrorism!
A TikTok user, has shared a video asking other users to google ‘what do terrorists wear on their heads?’ bring out images of Arabs wearing Kuffiyehs or putting it around their necks.
Amazon Employees Demand Jeff Bezos to Acknowledge the Plight of the Palestinian People
Following Alphabet’s Google worker union steps, more than 500 Amazon employees have sent an internal letter to Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy urging solidarity with Palestinians.
The letter read: “As Amazonians, we believe it is our moral responsibility to stand in solidarity with and speak out on behalf of the millions of Palestinians who, for decades, have not only been dispossessed of their voices and victimhood but, in essence, their humanity,”.
The workers called on Amazon to cut off ties with the Israeli occupation and to ‘terminate business contracts with organizations that they allege violate human rights, including the Israeli Defense Forces’.
“We ask Amazon leadership to acknowledge the continued assault upon Palestinians’ basic human rights under and illegal occupation, as evidenced and witnessed by the United Nations and human rights organizations, without using language that implies a power symmetry or situational equivalency, which minimizes and misrepresents the disruption, destruction, and death that has disproportionately been inflicted upon the Palestinians in recent days and over several decades,” the letter read.
Instagram Tests New ‘Audio’ Tab
Facebook’s Instagram is adding a new ‘audio’ tab; another TikTok-like feature. This new feature will make it easier for users to find and discover music tracks and now appears to some users under the “Explore” section.
It’s worth mentioning that this feature first appeared on TikTok as users can use the search option to write keywords that help them find a suitable music track.
On a side note, IG is also is testing adding upload options in the desktop version of the app.
WhatsApp Rolls out Playback Speed Toggle for Voice Messages
The Facebook-owned messaging app, WhatsApp, has added a new ‘fun’ playback feature that allows users to adjust the speed of voice messages as much as 2x using the native controls.
📝 WhatsApp beta for Android 2.21.6.11: what’s new?
WhatsApp is working on 3 different playback speeds for voice messages, with a nice UI!
The feature is under development and it will be available later for iOS and Android beta builds.More details: https://t.co/pO1GAVIL8l pic.twitter.com/it4MlwCIyB
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) March 18, 2021
This feature is only available for WhatsApp for iPhone version 2.21.100, WhatsApp Web, and desktop users, but it is coming also to Android.
In addition to this update, WhatsApp is suing the Indian government over lawmaking private messages ‘traceable’, The New York Times reported. While WhatsApp claims that they don’t read the users’ messages, Monte Carlo reported that ‘journalists in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip confirmed that their WhatsApp accounts were closed, and among them was a team affiliated with the Qatari Al-Jazeera network, which later announced that its team’s accounts had been reactivated after a complaint submitted to Facebook, the owner of the WhatsApp application’.
Upcoming Video Games, Updates
- PUBG Mobile back to India under the brand name Battlegrounds Mobile India.
- ‘Gotham Knights’ Batman game Delayed to 2022
- Marvel’s Avengers [PS5] available until Monday, July 5, 2021
- Borderlands 3 [PS5] available until Wednesday, September 29, 2021
- Resident Evil’s Jill, Leon and Nemesis are coming to ‘Dead by Daylight’
- ‘Horizon Forbidden West’: Discover the Forbidden West in our next State of Play
