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WhatsApp moves Court against India’s IT rules
WhatsApp and its parent company Meta have moved the Delhi High Court, challenging the Information Technology Rules enacted in 2021 that require social media intermediaries to trace chats and make provisions to identify the first originator of information. A Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan has posted the case to August 14.
During the hearing, the lawyer appearing for WhatsApp noted that the instant messaging platform would exit India if encryption has to be broken. It argues that the requirement was against the privacy of users and the rule was introduced without any consultation. On the other hand, the Central government insisted that there had to be a way for authorities to trace first originators of messages, as part of the IT Rules 2021, in order to ensure social security.
Alphabet revenue grows by 15%
Google parent company, Alphabet has announced its first-ever dividend on Thursday and a $70 billion share buyback after the company reported results that exceeded analyst expectation. The news pleased investors and lifted company stock by nearly 16% in after-hours trading pushing Alphabet’s market cap past $2 trillion. Alphabet’s move follows Meta’s announcement for its own first-ever dividend three months ago which sent company valuation surging by $196 billion the following day. Shareholders will be paid a dividend of 20 cents per share.
Revenue for the Sundar-Pichai led company grew 15% from $69.79 billion compared to a year earlier showing the fastest rate of growth since early 2022. Alphabet also beat expectations for YouTube advertising revenue and cloud revenue.
Microsoft earnings jumped 17%
Microsoft’s revenue rose 17% to $61.9 billion for the March ending quarter on its cloud boost, some significant deals for the platform, and the wide selection of AI accelerators it offered. Earnings per share were $2.94, representing a rise of 20%. “The number of 100 million dollar-plus Azure deals increased over 80% year-over-year, while the number of 10 million dollar-plus deals more than doubled,” CEO Satya Nadella said. Other prominent products like Office, for commercial and consumer, LinkedIn, Intelligent Cloud, Windows, and Xbox content and services added to the rise in earnings. But the company’s devices unit reported a decline in revenue by 17%.
Nadella echoed Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s earlier prediction that AI would change the way the world approached programming.
