Internet

Fastly network's status after being back to normal

On Tuesday, a lot of websites worldwide suffered malfunctions that led to some parts missing up to being impossible to connect to them. That was due to a serious problem of Fastly, a CDN (Content Delivery Network o Content Distribution Network) supplier, which means a service that normally allows faster access to a website. The problem started when it was night in the USA with consequences all around the world then it was solved about an hour after being recognized at Fastly. The trouble didn’t last long but show how something going bad in the system of a very important Internet operator can have consequences on a lot of websites. In this case, it was a bug introduced in a recent update that was supposed to be discovered before it caused any damage.

Dan Schulman in 2013

PayPal has announced that from 2021 it will support payments through some cryptocurrencies, which in the initial phase will be Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC). To integrate this new management into its systems, for the legal part it obtained a conditional license for cryptocurrencies, the one known as BitLicense, by the New York State Department of Financial Services, and for the technical part it signed an agreement with Paxos, a known provider of cryptocurrency services and products. Initially, this new support will be limited to customers in the USA, but PayPal plans to extend it to other countries later in the year.

BitMEX's home page

The founders of BitMEX, a well-known cryptocurrency trading platform, have been formally charged with violating US anti-money laundering regulations. One of them, Samuel Reed, has already been arrested while Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Gregory Dwyer are wanted. In fact, the allegations are multiple because BitMEX is also accused of operating in the US without the authorization of the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission). In August, BitMEX announced the introduction of its operators’ identity verification procedures, but evidently, it was too little and too late.

TikTok's website home page

The USA government has announced that the social networks TikTok and WeChat will be banned in the USA starting from September 20. It’s another step of President Donald Trump’s administration in the clash with Chinese social media, accused of spying on American citizens. In particular, TikTok’s situation is complicated because in recent days the news of a partnership with Oracle arrived, however, it didn’t satisfy the White House, which demands the social network’s sale to an American company. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce accused the USA of bullying. Behind this clash there’s the problem of controlling user activity, the reason why some American social networks are banned in China.

Screenshot of the new Twitter inactive account policy

Twitter has changed its terms of use and now requires an access at least every 6 months. In the event of prolonged inactivity, the accounts will be removed but this will happen gradually in an operation that could take place over several months. The expiration date to be sure not to end up under Twitter’s axe is December 11 and from that day people who make little use of this service but want to keep their account will have to remember at least to access it. The first protests came in particular regarding profiles of dead people and a new tweet from the support service reported that the elimination will not begin before they have found a solution.