Tech Roundup: Epic Games vs. Apple Trial, Twitter Scroll Purchase & More

[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]

• Privacy-focussed messaging app Signal claims Facebook shut down its ad account over an Instagram ad campaign that highlighted the data Facebook collects from its users to sell ads; says "Facebook is more than willing to sell visibility into people's lives, unless it’s to tell people about how their data is being used."
• Verizon to sell its media assets Yahoo! and AOL to private equity firm Apollo Global Management in a deal worth US$ 5 billion, keeping a 10% stake in the new company, which will be rebranded as just "Yahoo." (Verizon acquired AOL for US$ 4.4 billion in 2015 and Yahoo two years later for US$ 4.5 billion, and Yahoo bought Tumblr for US$ 1.1 billion in 2013, which was later sold to WordPress for less than US$ 3 million in August 2019.)
• More than 30 of Europe's largest banks and credit card processors, including Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit and Santander, form the European Payment Initiative, aiming to compete with a US-dominated "oligopoly" led by PayPal, Mastercard, Visa and Apple.
• Amazon's ad-supported streaming video content reaches more than 120 million users every month, up from 20 million in January 2020, driven by Twitch.
• Twitter acquires Scroll, a $5/month subscription service that removes ads from partner news sites, as it continues to scale its work on building news-oriented products following the purchase of newsletter platform Revue; shuts down Scroll's news aggregator application Nuzzel, with plans to "bring the core elements of Nuzzel directly to Twitter over time." (It wouldn't be surprising if Twitter launches an Apple News+ alternative, with access to ad-free and paywalled content.)
• Epic Games vs. Apple trial begins in the U.S. with the Fortnite maker attacking the App Store's "walled garden", arguing Apple's 30% cut is monopolistic, while calling for opening iOS to allow third-party app stores and to let developers offer direct payment systems; Apple argues 30% is standard practice, adding "Epic wants us to be Android, but we don't want to be."

• Live-audio platform Clubhouse begins testing an Android version of its app in a closed beta, as rival social networking heavy-weights spanning billions of users like Facebook (and Instagram), Twitter, LinkedIn, Spotify, Reddit, Discord, and Telegram collectively jump onto the social audio train in an attempt to court Clubhouse's user base.
• The big question is did Clubhouse wait too long to launch on Android? Even on iOS, the app appears to have reached an inflection point, amassing only a total of 922,000 downloads in April, a sharp downturn from previous months (2 million downloads in January, 9.5 million in February, and 2.7 million in March), suggesting the app is beginning to lose steam.
• Sony to integrate Discord into its PlayStation Network on console and mobile starting early 2022 and invest an undisclosed amount in the platform as part of a new partnership following Discord's failed talks to sell itself to Microsoft.
• Twitter officially opens Spaces, its live audio feature, to anyone with more than 600 followers; details plans for Ticketed Spaces, allowing hosts to set ticket prices and the number of tickets sold, which could let people create exclusive events and monetize their efforts (Twitter will take a small amount of revenue from ticket sales), among other features such as schedule and set reminders for upcoming shows, support for co-hosting and improved live captions.
• Facebook's enterprise collaboration platform Workplace tops 7 million paid subscribers, up 40% in the past year, trailing well behind Microsoft Teams; rolls out new live Q&A experience, and integrations with Microsoft 365 and Google's Workspace (formerly G Suite) calendar apps.
• Chromebook shipments grow 275% year-over-year, with HP, Lenovo, Acer, Samsung and Dell rounding out the top five, driven primarily by the education sector, according to new analysis by Canalys.
• Microsoft to stop bundling Adobe Flash player in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 effective July, months after Adobe officially ceases support for the software in December 2020.