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Reddit blackout: What is the reason?

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After Reddit announced on May 31 that there would be a certain amount to be paid by the third-party application, the communities of the platform are protesting with a 48-hour blackout from June 12 (today) by going private, citing fears of going out of the business.  

Going private means anyone outside the community will not be able to see their posts.

Responding to the announcement, the community outlined three demands focused on Reddit’s application programming interface (API), accessibility for blind people, and access to content that’s deemed not suitable for work (NSFW).

Reddit is one of the 20 most popular social platforms founded in 2005.

Thousands of subreddits are participating in the blackout protest, according to a Reddit post, ranging by size from 5,000 users to more than 40 million users.

Forums such as r/todayilearned, r/funny and r/gaming, with more than 30 million subscribers apiece, have signed up to join, while others with 1 million plus members, including r/iPhone and r/unexpected, went already private on the strike call.

Cumulatively, it makes more than 2.6 billion subscribers and more than 28,000 moderators.

According to a BBC report, the participating subreddits are going private and won’t be accessible during the blackout.

The changes will introduce huge charges for “premium access”, effectively killing off popular third-party Reddit apps such as Apollo, which lets users browse the site with a customisable interface.

Such apps would need to charge about $5 a user per month simply to pay the new fees to Reddit, Apollo’s sole developer, Christian Selig estimated.

But the Reddit conflict has another cause which is between the social network and AI companies such as ChatGPT creator OpenAI, which have used huge data from the service to train their systems.

“The Reddit corpus of data is really valuable,” Steve Huffman, founder and chief executive of Reddit, told the New York Times in April.

“But we don’t need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.”

In a group statement, the moderators of the thousands of subreddits that were joining the protest said: “On June 12th, many subreddits will be going dark to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed since many moderators aren’t able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app.” 

The statement also added: “This isn’t something any of us do lightly: we do what we do because we love Reddit, and we truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what we love.”

By uniting in this way, moderators hope to exert pressure on Reddit’s administration to reconsider the new charges and address their concerns.

The blackout signifies the importance of third-party apps in enhancing the Reddit user experience and providing additional features not found in the official app. 

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Google Makes The Decision To Boost Investments And Back The Government’s Youth Skills Training Initiative

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 Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif was visited in Islamabad by a four-person Google delegation led by Mr. Scott Beaumont, President of the APAC area.

Pakistan’s digital economy is about to undergo a revolutionary change, according to the prime minister, who greeted the team. Speaking on the government’s intentions to reach the goal of US$ 25 billion in exports over the next five years, the prime minister revealed that funding will be used for youth training, IT infrastructure upgrades, and regulatory environment enhancements. Pakistan’s economy is being fully digitalised, he remarked. In his attempts, he stressed the need of working together with a tech behemoth like Google.

The Prime Minister praised Google for pioneering projects that have dramatically enhanced the lives of thousands of Pakistanis in recent years, as well as for its involvement in propelling the country’s digital economy closer to reality. Noting with satisfaction that Google has helped Pakistani young land about a million jobs in 2023 alone, the Prime Minister emphasised that this is a testament to both Google’s dedication to upskilling and empowering Pakistan’s youth and Pakistan’s potential in the digital marketplace.

Informing the Prime Minister of its future involvement intentions, Mr. Scott stated that Google has made the decision to support the government’s youth skill-training initiatives and to expand its investment footprint in Pakistan. He went on to say that for a values-driven digital firm like Google, the growing economy and the sizeable youth population are crucial for optimising the economic benefits of technology. He restated that Pakistan’s IT industry will undergo a revolution when five lac Chromebooks are produced there by 2026.

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Google launches the ability to install multiple apps at once through the Play Store.

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Android users now have the ability to install or update many apps or games at once in the Play Store thanks to a feature introduced by tech giant Google.

Even if Android users downloaded or tried to update several apps or games at once, the prior capability would only process one app at a time.

In the Google Play Store, users can now download or manually update up to three apps or games at once, according to a GSMArena report.

with order to assist Android users with updating or installing multiple apps at once, Google is reportedly already starting to roll out the new feature in a few select locations, including India.

The feature will process three apps at once while sending the fourth to pending when customers install or manually update programs.

When configuring new phones or recovering from a backup, this feature is said to save a tonne of time.

It should be mentioned that Apple has long since permitted customers to download and install up to three iOS apps at once from the App Store.

According to GSMArena, the function is really available on a few cell phones in some regions, even though Google has not formally confirmed when it will appear or whether it will work with any particular handset.

Google started releasing a new AI-powered feature for Android phones a few weeks ago that locks users out of their data to prevent hackers from accessing it.

According to a Forbes story, cellphones running Android 10 or later will soon be able to use the function, which incorporates artificial intelligence.

The anti-theft feature known as “theft detection lock” is currently being rolled out to certain users, according to Mishaal Rahman, who frequently updates his followers on the most recent OS changes on X.

A restricted group of customers who registered for the beta program in Brazil are now receiving theft detection locks, according to Rahman’s post.

Rehman claims that Google Play Services will be used to provide the AI-powered feature to all Android 10 devices.

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Encouraging the IT Sector: Federal Government To Create Nationwide Network Of IT Parks

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Modern Information Technology Parks will be dotted around the nation by a network established by the federal government.

The goal of the program is to give young professionals a springboard to carry out their creative ideas and support the economy of the country.

The Ministry of Information Technology claims that these parks will increase exports and the IT industry while creating jobs for IT specialists.

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