The FCC is ready to officially repeal net neutrality this April, Snapchat takes a huge market value hit after Kylie Jenner says she isn’t using the app anymore, and MIT has succeeded in creating plants that could double as a light source.
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From LinkedIn – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced yesterday that it will officially be repealing net neutrality on April 23rd. While broadband companies have said that they do not plan to block, slow down, or prioritize web traffic after the repeal goes into effect, the FCC’s repeal of the Obama-era net neutrality rules will allow them to do so. The only caveat is that those companies will have to disclose to users how they handle web traffic, which the Federal Trade Commission would then police if there are any violations. But the fight to save net neutrality isn’t over just yet. Democrats hope to pass a special congressional vote to block the repeal, and a coalition of 20 state attorneys and several advocacy groups are in the process of challenging the FCC in court.
From Google Trends – If it wasn’t already obvious, Snapchat was just taught a lesson on the enormous influence wielded by the Kardashian/Jenner family. After Kylie Jenner sent out a tweet saying that she doesn’t open the app anymore to her 24.5 million followers, Snap’s stock took a tumble in the stock market, with shares sinking by as much as 7.2 per cent Thursday.
sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.
— Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018
This resulted in a loss of 1.3 billion dollars in market value. It’s been a rough week for Snapchat on Wall Street, with Citigroup downgrading the stock on Tuesday in response to the blow back the app has received for its recent redesign.
And from Reddit – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one step closer to creating living plant lights. Engineers have succeeded in creating bioluminescent plants by injecting specialized nanoparticles into the leaves of a watercress plant that caused it to give off a dim light for about four hours. While so far the plants are only emitting a light equivalent to the glow of a firefly, down the road we could eventually get to a point where plant lights could provide enough light to illuminate a room, or even replace street lights.
That’s what’s trending today. Hashtag Trending is produced by IT World Canada. Today’s episode is brought to you by SAS, the world leader in advanced analytics and Official Analytics Partner of the Canadian Olympic Team.