Hashtag Trending, April 14, 2021 – Salesforce’s return to the office underway; US senator takes on big tech; Taco Bell store goes fully digital

Salesforce welcomes vaccinated employees back into the office, US senator Josh Hawley wants to ban companies worth over $100 billion from merging or acquiring other companies, and Taco Bell is opening its first fully digital location in Times Square. 

It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Wednesday, April 14 and I’m your host Baneet Braich.

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Salesforce is welcoming those who have been vaccinated back into the office. This makes the cloud-based software one of the first major U.S. corporations to give vaccinated workers preferential treatment over those who have not taken the shot. Vaccinated employees can “volunteer” to be part of 100 or fewer workers to return to each of its offices but they have to have onsite COVID-19 tests twice a week. Back in February, Salesforce said some employees can work remotely through this year while others would be office-based or able to work onsite for a few days a week. [LinkedIn]

US senator proposes banning acquisitions by Big Tech. Josh Hawley wants to ban companies with a market value of $100 billion from acquiring or merging with other companies. from technology

U.S. senator Josh Hawley wants to ban companies with a market value of $100 billion from acquiring or merging with other companies. This would impact giants like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. The antitrust bill references an alleged anti-conservative bias. Hawley says a small group of progressive mega-corporations control the products Americans can buy, the information Americans can receive and the speech Americans can engage in. It also calls attention to how big mergers can chock off competition from smaller players in Silicon Valley. Hawley says antitrust claims should be filed with no debate on the definition of a specific market. He referred to Instagram and Facebook there and also said any merger action by Amazon and Google would also be banned by the bill.

Taco Bell to open first digital-only U.S. location in Times Square from technology

Taco Bell has opened its first fully digital location in the US in Times Square. Now customers will have to place a digital order ahead of their visit or use one of the 10 self-order kiosks inside the restaurant. The change is to prevent employees from becoming overwhelmed in one of its busiest locations. The digital-only model of restaurants is gradually increasing as other restaurant chains, like Starbucks and Chipotle Mexican Grill have joined the transition.

 

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire Newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. I’m Alex Coop, thanks for listening!

 

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada
Baneet Braich
Baneet Braich
Baneet Braich is currently studying journalism and political science at Carleton University. Born and raised in Abbotsford, BC she embraces the media arts as a multimedia content creator from videography, photography, writing news stories, and creating social media content. She loves spontaneous adventures, dance, and the occasional slice of lemon cake.

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