The popular online search engines run by Google Inc and Yahoo Inc are banning ads from online casinos, reacting to a federal crackdown on Internet gambling.
Mountain View, California-based Google expects to drop all casino ads by the end of this month. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo is phasing out the ads in its US market, but allowing them to continue in 14 countries where the company operates Web sites.
Yahoo's decision also affects Microsoft Corp's MSN site, whose search engine depends on a Yahoo subsidiary, Overture Services, for its online casino ads.
Google and Yahoo are imposing the ban as federal authorities increase pressure on the media to stop "aiding and abetting" offshore Internet casinos that have been illegally accepting bets in the US.
The push recently prompted broadcast giants Clear Channel Communications and Infinity Broadcasting to stop broadcasting the ads of illegal online casinos.
Overture spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens attributed the casino ban to a "lack of clarity in the current environment" and a desire to conform with its parent company's policies. Yahoo stop-ped accepting banner ads from online casinos in 2002.
Google believes the action will help "provide the best search and advertising experience for its users."
Critics of the ban say it compromises the media's right to distribute information.
The current legal status of Internet gambling in the US is in dispute. Some site operators have been prosecuted under the 1961 Wire Communications Act, which was written to cover sports betting by telephone.
The General Accounting Office has estimated there are 1,800 Internet gambling operations. Virtually all of them are based outside of the US, posing an enforcement problem for US authorities.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS