Hashtag Trends Dec 1 – Proposal to use deadly robots passed, DoorDash lays off 1250 employees, Senator accuses Apple of supporting China’s speech suppression policy

San Francisco police are now using lethal robots, DoorDash has laid off 1,250 employees, and a Missouri senator has accused Apple of supporting China’s speech suppression policy.

Welcome to hashtag trending. This is your host, Samira Bulsara, on Thursday, December 1st.

San Francisco police have been given the ability to use potentially lethal remote-controlled robots in emergencies after a debate ended Tuesday with an 8-3 vote, with a majority of supervisors agreeing to further militarize the police force. The two-hour debate was emotional, with each party accusing the other of “reckless incitement to fear,” according to AP News. The proposal was amended to allow the use of these robots only after alternative force or de-escalation tactics were deployed and it was concluded that nothing would work to subdue the suspects.

Delivery service DoorDash laid off 1,250 employees as part of the company’s cost-cutting plan following slow growth and overhiring, CEO Tony Xu said in a message to employees yesterday. The company’s stock, which has seen him down 60% year-to-date, is up 5% on the news. DoorDash joins Amazon, Twitter, Meta and a number of other tech companies that delayed hiring earlier this year as consumer and investor confidence wanes following post-pandemic inflation and interest rate spikes. continue to reduce staff. DoorDash has provided affected employees with 17 weeks of severance pay and healthcare will continue until March 2023, he reports CNBC. For overseas employees and Visa-sponsored employees, the dismissal date is March 1, Xu said, giving employees “as much time as possible to find a new job.”

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley wrote an open letter to Apple’s Tim Cook, accusing Apple of helping China suppress free speech. Apple should cut its dependence on China, bring jobs back to the United States, and should not ban Twitter. because he claimed. The senator presented Cook with a list of questions and his December 6 response deadline. The questions cover the treatment of workers in Apple’s factories in China, China’s looming invasion of Taiwan, Apple’s dependence on China, and Apple’s restrictions on AirDrop in China. Hawley previously said Cook and his Googler Sundar Pichai would be personally responsible for privacy concerns around coronavirus contact tracing.

Called Healthcare Uber, Montreal-based Avvy is the first mobile health company that connects patients with registered practitioners to deliver healthcare services in the safety of their homes, at work, and sometimes in the most convenient locations. care platform. Patients can order home health care services through the company’s app. The company is using technology to ease the strain on health care systems during the peak season of respiratory illness and eliminate challenges in access to care, such as long wait times. The Avvy app is available on Google Play and App Store.

That’s all the tech news trending right now. Hashtag Trending is part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or Google Home Daily Briefing.Be sure to sign up Daily IT Wire Receive our newsletter to receive all the important news directly in your inbox every day. Also, check out the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which airs every Thursday morning. If you have any suggestions or tips, let us know in the comments or email us. Thanks for listening, I’m Samira Bulsara.