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Social media platform Reddit has announced that it has started the process to sell its shares on the stock market.

In a confidential filing, it did not reveal how many shares it planned to sell or the price of the shares.

In August, the company said it had raised $700m (£528m) in new funding, valuing it at more than $10bn.

Reddit was at the centre of the so-called “meme stock” phenomenon earlier this year.

“The initial public offering is expected to occur after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions,” Reddit said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Earlier this year, investors flocked to the San Francisco-based firm’s messaging board for tips on trading stocks like US video game retailer GameStop and the AMC cinema chain – known as “meme stocks”, those that gain popularity through sites like Reddit.

Stocks that often became popular were ones that had been heavily bet against by professional investors, such as hedge funds.

As a result some of these shares saw their prices rise and fall sharply in hugely volatile trade.

In August, co-founder and chief executive Steve Huffman told the New York Times that Reddit was “still planning on going public” but didn’t have a firm timeline, adding, “All good companies should go public when they can.”

The following month the company was looking at a valuation of more than $15bn, according to the Reuters newswire.

Reddit, which was founded in 2005, had around 52 million daily users as of August this year.

Earlier this year, the firm said it planned to double its workforce by the end of 2021 to about 1,400 staff.

Reddit’s biggest financial backers include Chinese technology Tencent, Fidelity Investments and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.

Apple has launched an app for competitor Android’s smartphones, which will inform users if there is a tracking device nearby.

Apple’s AirTags are small location trackers that can be attached to items such as keys or bags in case they are lost.

But they could also be used with malicious intent, such as being planted on people without their knowledge.

The new app allows Android users to detect nearby trackers they do not own.

AirTags work by leveraging millions of Apple devices, each of which can detect nearby tags, to create a powerful tracking network.

“These small inexpensive tags can potentially make it very easy for a stalker to hide one in the victim’s car or personal possessions and then be able to track their victim’s whereabouts,” Rachel Horman-Brown, who chairs anti-stalking advocacy service Paladin, told BBC News:

Two months after their release, amid concerns over abuse, Apple introduced a feature where iPhones would notify users if an “unknown AirTag” or other compatible third-party device was detected “moving with you over time”.

And the new Android Tracker Detect app attempts to give Android users some of the safety features Apple has built into its own devices.

The app “looks for item trackers within Bluetooth range that are separated from their owner”, Apple says in its support documentation.

“If you think someone is using an AirTag or another item tracker to track your location, you can scan to try to find it,” it says.

The app also allows users to play a sound on an AirTag to help locate it, if it has been nearby for at least 10 minutes.

AirTags are also made to beep if they are away from the iPhone they are registered to – at a random interval between eight and 24 hours – which can help unaware victims find any intrusive trackers.

The new app also contains instructions on how to remove the battery and disable an AirTag if one is found.

Early reviews for the Android app are mixed, with some users criticising the fact scans have to be initiated manually, rather than automatically detecting nearby tags, so victims have to already suspect they are being tracked.

Others, however, applauded Apple for introducing privacy tools on a rival platform.

A flaw in widely used computer code is prompting 100 new hacking attempts every minute, a security company says.

Check Point said it had seen attempts to exploit the vulnerability on over 40% of corporate networks globally.

One US official said the security flaw, Log4shell, posed a “severe risk”, with companies warning it was being actively used by criminal groups.

Fixes have been issued but need to be implemented. Popular applications and cloud services have been affected.

‘Specific address’
Written in the programming language Java, Log4J, the code containing the flaw, is used by millions of computers running online services.

In the last four months it had been downloaded 84 million times from the largest public repository of open-source Java components, Brian Fox of security company Sonatype, said.

And the ease with which hackers could exploit the vulnerability was, “akin to someone figuring out that mailing a letter into your postbox, with a specific address written on it, allows them to open all your doors in your house”.

Words such as “critical” and “emergency” are often bandied around by cyber-security people when a major flaw is discovered.

But in this crisis, another word has stuck out – “trivial”.

According to Crowdstrike, the weakness everyone is trying to fix is “trivial” to exploit.

Often when a vulnerability is found in a computer system, there is a little bit of time to fix it.

The cyber-criminals have to work out a way to attack and usually only the smartest crews can do so in the first few hours.

But in this case, it is, apparently, very easy.

We do not yet know how many of these attempted attacks are successful – but this incident has the potential to be extremely costly for corporations that become victims.

For the average person, there is not a lot we can do.

Make sure your apps and software are up to date – and send thoughts, prayers and hugs to the IT teams around the world trying to fix this problem.

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Researchers at Chinese technology company Alibaba discovered the flaw last month.

But it gained widespread public attention after being found affecting some sites hosting versions of Minecraft using Java.

Before the flaw was made public, the Apache Software Foundation, which oversees the Log4j code, issued a fix for the problem, rating the problem a “10” – the highest level of seriousness.

Cloudflare chief technology officer John Graham-Cumming told the Verge he had seen two only two other issues of similar severity in the past 10 years.

‘Urgent challenge’
US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Jen Easterly also stressed the urgency of the situation.

“To be clear, this vulnerability poses a severe risk,” she wrote.

It was being widely exploited by hackers and “presents an urgent challenge to network defenders given its broad use”.

Microsoft researchers said they had seen hackers using Log4shell to:

install malicious software that mined crypto-currency
steal passwords and log-ins
extract data from compromised systems

Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba has fired a woman who said a colleague and a client had sexually assaulted her.

The dismissal letter said she had spread falsehoods that had damaged the company’s reputation.

The employee went public with her allegations in August because she said Alibaba had failed to take action. She said the assaults took place during a business trip.

The colleague was then sacked, but a criminal case against him was dropped.

The client is still thought to be under police investigation.

The well-publicised case has highlighted the harassment faced by women in the workplace in China.

The employee told government-backed newspaper Dahe Daily that she was fired late last month. It published a copy of what she said was her termination letter.

The letter said she had spread false information about the assault and about the company not handling the case.

It added this “caused strong social concern and had a bad impact on the company”.

The employee was quoted as saying: “I have not made any mistakes, and certainly will not accept this result, and in the future will use legal means to protect my rights and interests.”

The woman’s lawyer confirmed her dismissal to the New York Times.

Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce firm, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.

What are the allegations?
The woman’s account of the incident was published in an eleven-page document, in which she said the colleague raped her in a hotel room while she was unconscious after a “drunken night”.

It prompted a social media storm on China’s Twitter-like platform, Weibo.

The woman alleged that the colleague, who held a more senior managerial position in the company, coerced her into travelling to the city of Jinan, which is around 900km (560 miles) from Alibaba’s head office in Hangzhou, for a meeting with a client.

She accused her superiors of ordering her to drink alcohol with co-workers during dinner.

She said that on the evening of 27 July the client kissed her. She then recalls waking up in her hotel room the next day without her clothes on and with no memory of the night before.

The woman said she obtained surveillance camera footage that showed the co-worker had gone into her room four times during the evening.

After returning to Hangzhou, the woman said the incident was reported to Alibaba’s human resources (HR) department and senior management and that she had requested the co-worker be fired.

She said that human resources initially agreed to the request but took no further action.

What has the response been?
Alibaba faced fierce public backlash, later firing the co-worker, identified only as Mr Wang. The company said two executives who failed to act on the allegation also resigned.

A memo was issued saying Alibaba was “staunchly opposed to forced drinking culture”.

Alibaba had earlier said the man accused of rape had admitted that “there were intimate acts” while the woman was “inebriated”.

Although Mr Wang’s case will not progress, prosecutors of the court have approved the arrest of the client who allegedly assaulted the victim. He has been identified by his surname Zhang.

Mr Zhang has also reportedly been fired by his company.

The case has divided opinion online. Some social media users posted that the co-worker got away too lightly while others say there wasn’t enough evidence against him.

This latest development is likely to spark similar debates in China, which is grappling with its #MeToo movement.

Meta has released its social virtual reality space, Horizon Worlds, after more than a year in private test mode.

It is the first major such release since Facebook renamed itself Meta and announced its plans to “build the metaverse” of connected digital worlds.

The app lets users build their own mini-games and activities on top of Meta’s base game – similar to Roblox or other creator-focused apps.

There is no way for creators to make money directly from their worlds.

Instead, Meta has put $10m (£7.6m) into a “creator fund” to reward community creators who win competitions. That is different from apps such as Roblox, where creators can sell their games for in-app currency.

Horizon Worlds is, however, free to players using an Oculus Quest 2 headset sold by Meta.

Anyone aged 18 and over can create a legless, floating VR avatar – the same style as Meta is using in its workplace-focused meeting system – and get started.

“Our vision for Horizon Worlds is to bring to life a creator-friendly VR space with best-in-class social world-building tools,” Meta said in its announcement. “And we’ve spent the past year developing those tools and improving them based on creator feedback.”

The creation tools are built directly into the virtual reality game, so players can access them directly without any extra downloads or steps.

Players can fly around their world and place items such as trees or shapes to use as “building blocks” to make a custom digital environment. Then, they can use “scripts” – pre-made snippets of code that affect the world around the player – to set the rules of the game.

Similar ideas have already been implemented by other VR developers – such as Rec Room, which allows players to create their own “rooms” with games to play, or VR Chat, which allows the community to create avatar skins and social environments.

Meta says its take on the format has “thousands of worlds built already” during the invite-only beta.

They include shooting games, river cruises, a magic flying broomstick world, and platforming games, among many other ideas.

The US release of Horizon Worlds comes the day after the announcement that smash hit Among Us is being ported to virtual reality, as well as the surprise release on Friday of a Lady Gaga expansion pack for fan favourite Beat Saber – both announced at the Game Awards on Thursday.

At the same awards ceremony, the VR version of horror-action game Resident Evil 4 – which is exclusive to Meta’s Oculus platform – picked up the accolade for best VR game.

A Canadian man has been accused of co-ordinating ransomware and other cyber-attacks on individuals, businesses and government agencies.

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) announced that 31-year-old Matthew Philbert had been charged with fraud and unauthorised use of computers.

The US State of Alaska has also brought charges against Mr Philbert.

He was arrested on 30 November and remains in police custody awaiting a court date.

The OPP said the arrest was made following a 23-month investigation which involved the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the US FBI and Europol.

At present, the alleged targets of the cyber-attacks have not been disclosed. The OPP said this was to avoid compromising court proceedings.

However, it is alleged that Mr Philbert co-ordinated cyber-attacks using malicious emails with virus-infected attachments.

Another Canadian man was charged in January for allegedly carrying out ransomware attacks linked to the Netwalker gang.

This is the second significant arrest of an alleged ransomware hacker in Canada this year.

Does this mean that Canada is a hotbed for these ransomware groups? No.

But it does highlight that the fight against this pervasive cyber-threat is a global issue.

Many of these crews are run completely remotely, so you never really know who is ultimately pressing the buttons and where they are from.

While evidence points to Russia being the headquarters for many ransomware gangs, it is clear that the lure of riches is not overlooked by criminals in other parts of the world.

Of course, suspects in Canada are investigated, arrested and face a trial to find out if they are guilty.

In Russia, the authorities refuse to acknowledge they have a role to play, and suspected Russian hackers avoid facing prosecution or justice.

The UK will phase out 2G and 3G mobile services by 2033, the government says.

The switch-off date has been agreed with mobile-network operators Vodafone, EE, Virgin Media, O2, and Three.

In July, EE owner BT revealed plans to phase out 3G by 2023, and 2G later in the decade. And many other companies have already begun phasing out technology that support the services.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said the move would help the UK make a smoother transition to faster networks.

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EE aims for 5G coverage everywhere in UK by 2028
She said: “5G technology is already revolutionising people’s lives and businesses – connecting people across the UK with faster mobile data and making businesses more productive.”

The government also promised a funding boost to help future-proof the UK’s mobile networks, ending the country’s over-reliance on a small number of suppliers and making it easier for new equipment-makers to enter the market.

“Today, we are announcing a further £50m to put the UK at the forefront of mobile connectivity and to make sure our telecoms networks are safe and secure now and in the future,” Ms Dorries said.

‘Consumer-protection dimension’
Assembly Research founder Matthew Howett told BBC News the change would probably come sooner than the government’s 2033 deadline.

The switch-off will affect all sorts of older devices, such as 3G-only smartphones.

And it would be crucial for the government to act on behalf of consumers who may be slow to adjusting, Mr Howett said.

“There is an important consumer-protection dimension to all this,” he said.

“You will of course have some people who may still rely on a 2G/3G-enabled handset to make calls in emergencies but also because devices such as smart meters run off the 2G network.

“Involving these stakeholders will be crucial to avoid disruption.”

5G coverage
In July, Amazon warned users some of its older Kindle models would soon be unable to connect to the internet.

“Starting in 2021, some prior generation Kindle e-readers will not be able to connect to the internet using cellular connection through 2G or 3G networks,” the technology giant told its US customers.

Meanwhile, 5G coverage is being expanded across the UK.

In July, EE announced customers would be able to receive 5G “anywhere” in the country by 2028.

Social media giant Weibo has made its Hong Kong stock market debut as Chinese technology firms come under intense pressure at home and abroad.

Weibo’s shares fell by more than 6% in the first few minutes of trading.

The firm joins other major Chinese technology companies, including Alibaba and JD.com, which are listed in both the US and Hong Kong.

It comes just days after Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi said it will move its listing to Hong Kong from the US.

Weibo raised $385m (£290m) from the secondary share listing in Hong Kong.

The company’s US-listed shares have lost around a third of their value in the last six months.

Why is Weibo listing in Hong Kong?
Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing that heightened significantly during the Trump administration show little sign of easing under President Biden.

Chinese companies that have their shares listed in the US have found themselves caught in the middle of the ongoing spat between the world’s two biggest economies.

In recent months, Beijing has increased its oversight of China’s biggest businesses with the technology industry coming under particular scrutiny.

Meanwhile, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finalised rules that would mean US-listed foreign companies can be delisted if their auditors do not comply with requests for information from regulators.

Some Chinese firms are now looking for alternative sources of funding in case they have to take their shares off US stock markets.

“It will be disastrous if all Chinese companies are forced to delist from US exchanges. Despite the intense competition between the two countries, they need, must, and have to be interdependent financially, economically, technologically, socially, and culturally,” Nina Xiang, managing director of China Money Network in Hong Kong said.

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Chinese app giant Didi plans US stock market exit
Weibo shares surge on US debut
Will Weibo follow Didi out of the US?
Last week, ride-hailing giant Didi Global said it it would take its shares off the New York Stock Exchange and move its listing to Hong Kong.

It raised $4.4bn from its US market debut at the end of June, but within days China’s internet regulator ordered online stores not to offer Didi’s app, saying it illegally collected users’ personal data.

Didi’s announcement that it was planning to delist in the US came just hours after the SEC announcement that it was moving ahead with its efforts to remove Chinese firms from US stock exchanges for not complying with new accounting rules.

Didi’s shares have fallen by more than 50% in the five months since they started trading in New York.

Ms Xiang believes Weibo should be safe, for now: “Much depends on if Chinese and American regulators can work through their differences to reach a solution on access to auditing documents.”

What is Weibo?
Weibo is the Chinese word for microblog and the firm is known as the country’s version of Twitter.

It launched in 2009 and now has more than 570m monthly users, compared to Twitter’s 211m users per month.

The company is China’s second biggest social media platform, after technology giant Tencent’s WeChat.

China is the world’s biggest social media market, with more than 900m users.

Major US platforms like Twitter and Facebook are blocked in China, meaning the country offers huge growth potential for domestic social media firms like Weibo.

Uber is to pay $9m (£6.8m) to settle a complaint over its sexual-assault and harassment reporting in California.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) had told Uber to hand over information about assault and harassments – but it did not do so.

At the time, Uber had argued it would be a “shocking violation of privacy” for victims.

The payment – reduced from an initial $59m fine – will help fund passenger-safety promotion, CPUC said.

The settlement between Uber, CPUC, and the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (Rainn) brings to an end a dispute lasting almost two years, over whether Uber should hand over records about reported incidents involving its drivers.

Uber had argued that disclosing such records publicly could be traumatic for those who had been assaulted and might discourage reports in the future – particularly because CPUC was asking for the names of all “witnesses” – which would include those attacked.

Rainn had raised similar concerns about whether the California officials would be able to treat the sensitive information with appropriate care.

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But the CPUC said it only needed the information “under seal” – meaning the details of each individual case would be kept secret. It suggested Uber’s response was an “effort to frustrate commission oversight”.

In December 2020, a year on, CPUC initially fined Uber $59m (£44.5m) for refusing to comply.

But following Uber’s appeal, it agreed this week’s settlement of $9m, as a result of which:

$5m will be spent on “victims of violence and sexual violence”, preferably those who were passengers
$4m will be spent on addressing violence in the “passenger carrier industry”
Uber will pay an extra $150,000 to the California state general fund
Uber will also provide reports to California officials from now on, using “unique identifiers”, rather than names, to protect the identities of individuals. It will also build an “opt-in” process for “survivors” who want to provide more information about what happened to state officials.

In a statement, Uber said it was “glad the full commission has adopted this agreement”, adding: “Most importantly, we can move forward with a solution that preserves the privacy and agency of survivors.”

CPUC said the reduction of the planned $59m fine was, in part, down to months of negotiations where “all parties gain advantages and give concessions”.

The ride-hailing app had been under pressure to disclose details about its safety record, and first published its US-based safety report in December 2019, with a promise to release a further report every two years.

The 2021 edition has not yet been published. But the first report showed that Uber had nearly 6,000 reports of sexual assault in 2017 and 2018 – a number the company pointed out was a tiny fraction of the more than two billion rides it provided in that time.

It is not the only such company facing such issues.

Lyft, another ride-hailing app popular in the US, reported more than 4,000 incidents of sexual assaults between 2017 and 2019 in its first safety report published earlier this year.

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global has announced plans to take its shares off the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and move its listing to Hong Kong.

The firm has come under intense pressure since its US debut in July.

Within days of the initial public offering (IPO) Beijing announced a crackdown on technology companies listing overseas.

Earlier on Thursday the US market watchdog unveiled tough new rules for Chinese firms that list in America.

“Following careful research, the company will immediately start delisting on the New York stock exchange and start preparations for listing in Hong Kong,” the company said on its account on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging network.

In a separate English language statement Didi said its board had approved the move, adding: “The company will organise a shareholders meeting to vote on the above matter at an appropriate time in the future, following necessary procedures.”

At the end of June, Didi – China’s answer to Uber – raised $4.4bn (£3.3bn) in its New York IPO.

However, trading was muted on the first day as investors weighed concerns over tensions between Washington and Beijing, and issues raised by US regulators over some Chinese firms’ financial reports.

Within days China’s internet regulator ordered online stores not to offer Didi’s app, saying it illegally collected users’ personal data.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it was investigating the firm to protect “national security and the public interest”.

In response Didi said in a statement: “The company will strive to rectify any problems, improve its risk prevention awareness and technological capabilities, protect users’ privacy and data security, and continue to provide secure and convenient services to its users.”

Didi also warned that the removal of its app from Chinese stores would have an adverse impact on its revenues.

Like many other Chinese technology companies Didi has also come under pressure from regulators in the US and Europe.

On Thursday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said it had finalised rules that would mean US-listed foreign companies can be delisted if their auditors do not comply with requests for information from regulators.

The law was passed in 2020 after Chinese regulators repeatedly denied requests from US authorities to inspect the the accounts of Chinese firms that list and trade in the US.

Meanwhile in August, a company source told the BBC that it had halted plans to launch in the UK and continental Europe.

It had been planning to roll out services in Western Europe, including major British cities.

Japan’s SoftBank is Didi’s largest single investor with a stake of more than 20%. It is also backed by Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent.

Uber also owns a stake in the firm as a result of Didi taking over Uber China in 2016.

Didi Global shares have lost more than 40% of their value since their US market debut.