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

Pundits weigh in on Facebook’s Australian news outage

Following Facebook Inc.’s decision to block users from viewing or sharing Australian news, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he won’t back down from implementing the new media law, a decision that has drawn criticism as well as plaudits. This morning Australians woke up to find that they were unable to read Facebook pages of ...

YouTube soon will launch Shorts, its version of TikTok, in the US

TikTok is about to get some stiff competition: Google LLC-owned YouTube announced today that it will release “Shorts” in the U.S. in the coming weeks. “Every year, increasing numbers of people come to YouTube to launch their own channel,” the company said in blog post that listed a slew of YouTube updates. “But we know ...

France calls for EU to give countries more power to punish big tech

France is reportedly pushing to expand regulations that would give European Union member states more power to punish large tech companies’ bad behavior. The changes France wants to see concern the Digital Services Act, proposed legislation that was designed to reduce anticompetitive behavior by tech companies and provide more online protections for consumers. If companies are ...

Microsoft thinks the US should embrace Australia’s proposed media code

The U.S and other countries should start making tech companies pay media outlets for the content they use, Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith (pictured), wrote in a blog post today. In December last year, the Australian government announced it was introducing what it called “world-first” legislation that would force companies such as Google LLC and ...

Facebook will now start reducing the amount of political content in the News Feed

Facebook Inc. announced today that it will go ahead with a previously considered plan to reduce the amount of political content people see on the platform. Talking on the quarterly earnings call late last month, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said that although he doesn’t want to ban politics-related talk on Facebook, he wants to “turn ...

Remote work is the future, according to Salesforce

The traditional 9-to-5 workday is “dead,” according to an article published by Salesforce.com Inc. today, as the company announced drastic changes to how its workers will fill their days going forward. The company said that early on during the pandemic and the attendant lockdowns it surveyed staff to see how they were getting along working ...

Facebook will now ban all vaccination misinformation

Facebook Inc. said it will ban all dubious information regarding vaccines, whether related to COVID-19 vaccines or any others, starting today. For years now the company has responded to criticism that it has done enough to stamp out anti-vaccination content. In March 2019, Facebook promised to promote authoritative information about vaccines while banning ads containing ...

Amazon criticized for spying over AI cameras in its vans

Amazon.com Inc. is taking some heat after it was revealed that it has begun installing artificial intelligence cameras in its delivery vans. The reason for the cameras – designed by San Diego-based startup Netradyne – is to improve safety, so any mistakes that drivers make are recorded. If drivers get drowsy at the wheel, speed, ...

Apple reportedly closing a deal with Hyundai-Kia to build the first ‘Apple Car’

Apple Inc. is reportedly closing in on a deal to make a fully autonomous vehicle with Hyundai Motor Group and its affiliate Kia Corp. Reports of an Apple car, or iCar, go back to 2015, although it was first thought the vehicle would be semi-autonomous. Then in late 2019, it was reported that Apple had ...

Wikipedia introduces global code of conduct to combat harassment and misinformation

In an effort to make the website more reliable and a better place to work, the Wikimedia Foundation announced today that it has introduced a “first of its kind” global code of conduct. As the world’s largest online encyclopedia, the English version alone contains some 6,241,247 articles and receives on average 597 new articles every ...