Love it or hate it, fast fashion is here to stay. Once relegated to the budget-to-median priced stores category, fast fashion exploded in a major way thanks to online shopping . Fueled by constant trend chasing with a caveat for affordable clothing, fast fashion is a billion dollar industry , having earned $106.42 billion in 2022 alone. Experts expect it to reach $133.43 billion by 2026. While there are plenty of valid criticisms regarding the ethical and ecological implications of this retail segment, every year more brands pop up trying to cash in on the endless demand for cheap yet stylish digs. Most people point to more budget brands like Shein or Forever21, but even Swedish staple H&M and Spanish retailer Zara are included when discussing this category. But in the last year, an upstart by the name of Temu has taken the industry by storm and is quickly positioning itself as a potential competitor thanks to dirt cheap pricing and an endless string of available discounts. But how...

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have taken the world by storm over the past year and continue to be a driving force across all industries. However, people are still scratching their heads, puzzled, wondering what exactly is an NFT. Black Tech Green Money’s Will Lucas aims to give some answers to the lingering questions behind the latest crypto craze during an episode of the podcast. Lucas compares the moment behind the NFT craze to that of when the Internet was first introduced to the world. While it has seemingly changed our lives for the better, there weren’t always people on board who understood the newfound concept — yet here we are. “The truth is we are in a moment, and by that moment what I mean is that some years ago when the Internet was really in its upward trajectory that [caused] people to leave things like the AOL CDs that would come in the mail and starting to use more things that were Internet-driven like web-based browsers and things like Google, Yahoo, etc.,” shared...

Meta’s (formerly Facebook) Head of Network Investments Emerging Markets Aaron Russell has worked for the tech giant for nearly seven years. In his current role, he manages and helps develop strategic partnerships to address and create solutions for the connectivity barriers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Russell is on a mission to better connect the world to faster and reliable internet. “Connecting the world is really one of the fundamental challenges of our generation. And that’s an idea that we really embrace,” Aaron Russell told AfroTech. “We work with partners to develop innovative technologies around the world that help some of the biggest connectivity challenges and solving them, and together we’re bringing more people online to a faster internet.” Russell and Meta think Internet connectivity issues can be solved by tapping into subsea cables. But what are those? Subsea cables are fiber optic cables that are laid in the ocean and connect two or more landing points. Ships drop these...

Bridging the digital divide amongst underserved communities is essential to giving everyone in the nation equal access to critical communications networks. According to Verizon’s latest initiative, the telecommunications company has created a way to make reliable, high-speed internet more accessible to those in underserved communities who meet financial assistance requirements through Verizon Fios Forward. A news release shares the Fios Forward program was first offered to new customers back in April 2020, and generates much faster and more equipped internet services, unlike traditional home Internet assistance programs. It also offers eligible customers a discounted rate for faster internet service. The goal of the program is to rid customers of unreliable internet providers who limit their access to quality home internet, which often lacks speed and the capacity to handle more than one user’s demands. This has become an increased issue over the last year due to many citizens...

Thanks to poor federal regulations, it’s up to each individual state to protect their residents’ data. Recently, Maine’s State Senate passed a landmark bill that will look out for people’s internet privacy. Your internet service providers (ISPs) have a lot more information on you than you might think. Your internet history (including the sites you visit, how often, location data, etc.) can tell a lot about you as an individual. Maine’s new bill — LD 946 —now requires that ISPs get people’s consent before selling or offering access to their private data. In a blog post , the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Maine noted: “The personal information ISPs collect and sell is increasingly being used by advertisers to discriminate against certain communities. Advertisers and data brokers are increasingly using data to decide what prices to advertise to someone, the content they should steer them to, and even the types of loans to offer them.” Although this bill is important, it’s not...