When war destroys the internet economy

By: Itika Sharma Punit and Damilare Dosunmu

28 January 2026 at 03:00

Iran was ranked among the world’s rising startup ecosystems as recently as last year. A year later, it is in the middle of a conflict, and a weeks-long internet shutdown...

A radio signal tower stands behind houses with bullet holes in Omdurman, Sudan.

Six years, two presidents, and one app: TikTok’s U.S. saga explained

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu and Itika Sharma Punit

22 January 2026 at 22:35

China’s ByteDance has struck a deal with a clutch of investors to set up a new U.S.-focused TikTok that complies with the country’s regulatory requirements. ByteDance will retain a 19.9%...

Big Tech is racing to own Africa’s internet

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

21 January 2026 at 05:07

American big tech companies want to become Africa’s next internet providers. Earlier this month, Amazon acquired an operating license to roll out its low-Earth orbit satellite broadband service, Amazon Leo...

A technician installs a Starlink Inc satellite-internet communication system antenna on the roof of a home in Accra, Ghana.

Grok’s biggest danger isn’t what it says — it’s where it lives

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

16 January 2026 at 09:00

I was genuinely impressed the first time Grok replied to me. Elon Musk’s AI tool didn’t sound like a generic chatbot trying to be funny. It sounded like someone I...

Uganda shuts down internet two days before election

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

14 January 2026 at 04:54

Two days before its general elections, Uganda has turned off the internet across the country. The measure is necessary to mitigate the rapid spread of “misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud, and...

TOPSHOT - Residents travel past an electoral billboard supporting Uganda's incumbent president and National Resistance Movement (NRM) presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni, ahead of the 2026 Ugandan general elections, in Kampala on January 10, 2026. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP via Getty Images)

The day the cloud went out

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

5 January 2026 at 06:00

November 18 was supposed to be a routine workday for Rwanda-based entrepreneur Derrick Ikenga. But it turned out to be a nightmare he wasn’t prepared for. Cloudflare, a U.S.-based cloud...

The LinkedIn job scam is global. The hook is local

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

22 December 2025 at 06:00

LinkedIn job scams have become a borderless epidemic, preying on the hopes of desperate job seekers and costing victims across the globe anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $25,000....

As a first-time vibe coder, I wish AI knew when to say no

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

10 December 2025 at 06:00

For the past several months, my social media feed has been flooded with people bragging about spinning up apps and websites over a weekend without any engineering help or coding...

The hidden Kenyan workers training China’s AI models

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu and Tessie Waithira

4 December 2025 at 06:00

It’s 3 a.m. in Nairobi, and Ken’s laptop and phone glow in the dark. On one screen, waves crash against a beach in a video, and on the other, a...

What Trump’s H-1B crackdown means for Big Tech workers

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

23 September 2025 at 02:51

It’s been a turbulent week for the global tech industry. On September 19, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a $100,000 fee for new applicants of H-1B visas, which allow highly...

How Africa’s e-commerce giant is fighting off Shein and Temu

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

25 August 2025 at 05:00

Competition has been steep for Jumia, Africa’s largest e-commerce platform, especially from major Chinese companies like Temu and Shein. Jumia is now using the same playbook its Chinese rivals have...

Francis Dufay, chief executive officer of Jumia Technologies AG.

Big Tech’s “AI for good” spending increases in Africa. So does skepticism

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

18 August 2025 at 05:00

American tech giants have increased spending on artificial intelligence tools designed to resolve some of the world’s most pressing problems. Since 2020, Google has spent $200 million on AI-driven social...

AI and immigration uncertainty threaten Nigeria’s dreams of becoming an outsourcing hot spot

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu and Stephanie Wangari

18 July 2025 at 05:00

As Nigeria bets billions of dollars on becoming the next outsourcing superpower, it is grappling with how artificial intelligence and immigration policies are radically reshaping the industry. The African nation...

Seni Sulyman, right, Andela's country director in Nigeria, and colleagues on a video call at the start-up's offices in Lagos, Nigeria, Sept. 29, 2017. "This is a platform for giving people who want to learn and succeed access and opportunity," says Seni Sulyman, a 32-year-old graduate of Harvard Business School, of the company. (Tom Saater/The New York Times)

Why Big Tech is threatened by a global push for data sovereignty

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

9 July 2025 at 05:00

A battle for data sovereignty is brewing from Africa to Asia. Developing nations are challenging Big Tech’s decades-long hold on global data by demanding that their citizens’ information be stored...

Who is most at risk from the billions of leaked Facebook and Google passwords?

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

25 June 2025 at 05:23

A recent data breach of about 16 billion login credentials is said to have put users of Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Apple at risk of fraud and identity theft. The...

Transsion wheels into Africa’s EV market with same playbook that conquered mobile phones

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

10 June 2025 at 05:00

After conquering Africa’s phones, Transsion wants to own its roads. The Chinese company, which controls about half of Africa’s smartphone market, entered the continent’s electric vehicle race by introducing its...

What Meta’s dispute in Nigeria means for its millions of users

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

7 May 2025 at 03:23

Meta is in trouble in Nigeria. Local authorities have fined Meta $290 million for regulatory breaches, prompting the social media giant to threaten pulling Facebook and Instagram from the country....

How Starlink took over Africa’s largest internet market

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

15 April 2025 at 05:00

In the sprawling electronic market of Lagos’ Computer Village, an item is flying off the shelves: the Starlink kit. These satellite dishes, with their distinctive white faces and plug-and-play simplicity,...

Tesla arrives in Saudi Arabia after Musk’s tumultuous history

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

10 April 2025 at 03:35

Tesla is finally set to debut in Saudi Arabia, years after a dramatic fallout between Riyadh and Elon Musk. The electric vehicle company will open showrooms in Riyadh, Jeddah, and...

What you need to know about Africa’s first AI factory

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

27 March 2025 at 06:24

Africa just scored a major tech coup. On March 24, Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa’s Cassava Technologies announced a partnership with Nvidia to build Africa’s first artificial intelligence factory. This isn’t...

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