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Contractual workers protest at Meta HQ against layoffs

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As Meta (formerly Facebook) begins to steadily reduce headcount growth, hundreds of contractual workers organised a protest at the company’s headquarters in the US, asking for responsible, fair contracts from the Mark Zuckerberg-led company.

Over 100 service workers from various unions marched on the Meta campus amid layoffs of contractual employees, reports Almanac News.

“The demonstration brought together cafeteria workers, janitors, shuttle drivers and more to fight for the rights of workers deemed essential in a post-pandemic environment,” the report mentioned.

In the march on the campus last week that went largely unnoticed, workers demanded fair contracts from Meta and its subcontractor, Canon Business. The alleged Canon Business had pushed back against workers unionising.

“Over the last several years, and let’s be true about this, forever, tech has been thriving on the backs of all of us,” Maria Noel Fernandez, campaign director of Silicon Valley Rising, was quoted as saying.

As Big Tech companies lay off employees and freeze new hirings, Meta Founder and CEO Zuckerberg has said that the company’s plan is to steadily reduce headcount growth over the next year.

Admitting that the social network has entered an economic downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising business, Zuckerberg said that many “teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas inside the company”.

“I want to give our leaders the ability to decide within their teams where to double down, where to backfill attrition and where to restructure teams while minimising thrash to the long-term initiatives,” he during the company’s latest quarterly earnings call.

South Bay Labor Council Executive Officer Jean Cohen said that what Facebook can do the least is to “make sure that they come to the table to bargain fairly, to make sure that everybody is treated with respect and dignity and has a voice on the job”.

A Meta spokesperson said that it fully recognises the right of employees to organise and encourage vendors to continue to work collaboratively.

“Many of our vendors’ employees are represented by organised labour. We’re proud that we’ve partnered with vendors to create and maintain thousands of good-paying, union jobs with industry-leading compensation packages and will continue to do so,” the company spokesperson added.

Facebook reported a 1 per cent drop in revenue to $28.8 billion in the June quarter (Q2). Overall, Meta’s profit fell 36 per cent to $6.7 billion in the quarter.

Several Big Tech firms like Microsoft, Google, Snap, Twitter, Spotify and others have either shrunk their workforce or reduced/frozen hiring for the rest of the year.

National News

Important news for Jio Airtel, Vi and BSNL users, rules changing from November 1

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Important news for Jio Airtel, Vi and BSNL users, rules changing from November 1

Technology Desk, New Delhi: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is continuously working to curb spam and fake calls. A few days ago, new telecom rules were implemented, which were brought by the government body with the aim of curbing fake and spam calls. New rules are being implemented again from November 1. After which there will be more strictness on such calls.

TRAI has asked all telecom companies to implement message traceability. However, telecom companies have objected to this and said that doing so will affect their work.

New rules will be implemented

New telecom rules are being implemented from November 1. According to which it will be mandatory for all telecom companies to implement message traceability. By doing this, it will be easy to trace fake and spam callers. TRAI clearly said that the traceability of transactional and service messages sent by banks, e-commerce platforms and other financial institutions should be implemented compulsorily. So that the spam calls coming to the customers can be curbed.

What is message traceability?

Message traceability is a method with the help of which it is easy to trace fake and fake callers and they are blocked even before the call comes. After this, the call will become more secure than before and they can be monitored better. There are many other things that will be corrected after the message traceability rules are implemented.

Jio-Airtel and Vi’s tension increased
TRAI has made it clear that new telecom rules are coming into effect from November 1, but all the major telecom companies have expressed concern over this. They said that the implementation of message traceability will make their work difficult and many things will be affected by it.

According to a report, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has sought some time from TRAI to implement the new rules. Telecom companies said, “Instead of implementing these rules in a hurry, we want them to be implemented step by step.” Behind doing this, telecom companies say that many telemarketers and many major institutions are not ready to follow the new rule.

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Tech

Huawei launches world’s first smartphone with triple foldable display, here’s how much it costs

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Companies have been teasing its tri-fold smartphone design for a while now. However, Huawei has managed to beat everyone to the race by launching the world’s first foldable smartphone with triple foldable display. Dubbed Mate XT, the smartphone features a 10.2-inch display that can fold three times to fit in a regular phone-like form factor.

How much the phone costs

Huawei has launched the phone in China at 19999 yuan or $2800 which roughly translates to Rs 2,35,000. The phone comes in two other configurations – 16GB + 512GB and 16GB + 1TB that are priced at 21999 yuan and 23999 yuan respectively.

The phone has launched only in China and will start shipping starting September 20.

Huawei Mate XT: Features

The Huawei Mate XT features a 10.3-inch foldable OLED display, providing a large screen area when fully unfolded. It is powered by a 5600mAh battery with support for 66-watt fast charging.

The smartphone comes with a triple-camera setup, including a 50-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens, and a 12-megapixel periscope lens, offering 5.5x optical zoom.

The triple-foldable design allows the device to fold into a Z-shape using two hinges, creating three distinct display areas. Users can partially unfold the screen.

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National News

Passport Seva Portal To Be Shut From Today: Technical Maintenance Work From August 29-September 2, All Appointments Rescheduled

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Individuals gearing up to travel and perhaps even relocate will have to wait for some days, as the Passport Seva Portal, India’s official website processing passport-related exercises, will be down from August 29 to September 2.

According to the website, the portal, “Passport Seva portal will be down for technical maintenance from 29th August 2024, Thursday 20:00 hrs IST to 2nd September, Monday 06:00 hrs IST.”

The pop notification on the government website said, “System will not be available during this period for citizens and for all MEA/RPO/BOI/ISP/DoP/Police Authorities. The already booked appointments for 30th August 2024 will be suitably rescheduled and informed to applicants.”

This therefore would mean that all the existing appointments will in all probability be rescheduled.

The Passport Seva Portal X account posted the notifications on August 25. It also reposted posts from Regional Passport Offices.

According to the External Affairs Ministry, “The External Affairs Ministry said this is a routine procedure. “For rescheduling of appointments, we always have contingency plans. The maintenance activity for a public centric service (like Passport Seva Kendras) is always planned in advance so that no inconvenience is meted out to public. So rescheduling an appointment will not be a challenge,” a source from the ministry has said.”

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