Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter and other big tech players are pushing back against Hong Kong’s new data protection law, asking for clarifications in rules that could criminalize publishing personal data. A June 25 letter from the Asia Internet Coalition said the companies might “refrain from investing and offering their services in Hong Kong” but later discussions made clear this is unlikely.
Fast-growing event management platform Hopin is buying Attendify, which provides an “attendee data platform” to support CRM and marketing functions including email campaigns. It’s (at least) the fifth acquisition Hopin has made this year.
Speaking of escape from oppressive regimes, e-commerce vendor Shogun has raised $67.5 million to help companies create alternatives to selling their products through Amazon and other marketplaces. Shogun offers tools to build ecommerce storefronts that connect with platforms including Shopify, Magento and BigCommerce – putting the head in headless, as it were. Shogun has now raised $114.5 million total.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.