Hashtag Trends Oct. 19 – Kanye West offers to buy Parlor.Amazon Talent Trouble; Meta Selling Giphy

Kanye West wants to buy Parler, Amazon is reportedly struggling to retain employees, and Meta plans to sell Giphy to appease regulatory oversight agencies.

Welcome to hashtag trending. This is your host, Samira Bulsara, on Wednesday, October 19th.

Controversial musician Kanye West has offered to buy social platform Parlor. After being banned from Instagram and Twitter for anti-Semitic messages, West, now known as Ye, said in a press release that he wanted to “express himself freely,” especially when it came to his conservative views. Parler appears interested in the proposal, noting that parent company Parlement Technologies is essentially in an agreement to sell it. The platform emphasized that the acquisition will help build an “irrevocable” ecosystem where all voices are heard.

Amazon appears to be having trouble finding talent. According to internal documents obtained by Engadget, only a third of his new Amazon hires have stayed with the company for more than his 90 days, well above the industry average. Their job terminations are both voluntary and involuntary, such as retirement, dismissal, and termination. However, the key statistic is the regretted turnover rate, or percentage of employees who decide to leave, which is twice his unrepentant turnover rate. In addition to the dire staffing crisis, the document and the internal research paper it is based on accused Amazon of inadequate employee training.

The dispute with video-sharing platform Giphy, which Meta acquired two years ago, is heating up again. The UK competition regulator has ordered the sale of services. The sale would protect millions of social media users and undermine Facebook’s power on social media, according to Watchdog.In October, Meta said it would split Giphy’s business when it was ordered to spin off. He was fined £50m for refusing to provide information. Meta initially appealed the decision, but has now agreed to comply with the order and plans to sell the service.

Americans can finally afford affordable hearing aids for mild to moderate hearing loss. These new hearing aids are available over-the-counter from retailers like Walgreens, CVS and Walmart without a prescription. Improved accessibility is expected to benefit approximately 30 million adults with hearing impairments. This new market shift was made possible in 2017 by a proposal to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to impose stronger regulations on over-the-counter devices. In the past, people with hearing problems had to undergo an expensive medical examination and obtain a prescription to purchase hearing aids.

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 Subscribe to our newsletter to receive all the important news straight to 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.