Tech Roundup: Iran Crypto Mining Ban, Microsoft Next-Gen Windows & More

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

• Amazon's advertising revenue continues to grow, becoming 2.4 times larger than Snap, Twitter, Roku and Pinterest combined, as it generates US$ 22.4 billion in ad revenue in the past 12 months.
• Microsoft debuts Microsoft 365 updates, including tools for developers to offer deeper integration with Teams by building extensions into chats, channels, and meetings; expands message extensions to Outlook web, and launches a preview of Azure Confidential Ledger service, its new Blockchain-based secure ledger, as it teases a "next generation of Windows" with major UI changes.
• Amazon faces fresh antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. after the District of Columbia accuses the retail giant's practices have unfairly raised prices for consumers and suppressed innovation; alleges that agreements that stop third-party sellers from offering lower prices elsewhere on the internet violate antitrust laws.
• Amazon has used the so-called most-favored-nation clause in its contracts with third-party sellers, who account for most of the sales volume on Amazon. The clause requires sellers not to offer their products at a lower price on any other website, even their own.
• Facebook to reduce the distribution of all posts in News Feed from an individual's Facebook account if they repeatedly share misinformation and notify users if they like a page that's been found to spread false claims, adding it will no longer take down posts that claim COVID-19 was man-made, following renewed debate about the origins of the virus; rolls out new feature to its flagship app and Instagram that lets users hide Like counts across all posts and to hide their own public Like counts from others, and launches a new shopping section in Instagram called Drops, helping users find limited supply products.
• It's important to note that the underlying metrics that power Instagram aren't changing. Users will still be able to view how many Likes their own posts are getting, even if they've hidden those numbers from others.
• PayPal to add third-party wallet transfer support, allowing users to send bitcoin to PayPal and Venmo users as well as to Coinbase and other crypto wallets.

• Amazon to acquire film and TV company MGM for US$ 8.45 billion, making it the retail giant's second-largest acquisition since it paid US$ 13.7 billion for Whole Foods in 2017; gives Amazon ownership over a library of content that's reported to consist of around 4,000 films and 17,000 hours of TV, as companies attempt to beef up their catalogue to better compete with Netflix and Disney. (The development comes at a time of consolidation in the entertainment industry. AT&T recently spun out its media business WarnerMedia — which includes Warner Bros., HBO, DC Comics, and CNN — to merge it with TV company Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery.)
• Twitter enables users to join Clubhouse-like Spaces via desktop and mobile web browsers, test out the new transcription design, and set reminders to join a scheduled Space. (Users however can't host rooms on the web just yet.)
• Iran bans cryptocurrency mining until September 22 after a series of power blackouts across major cities amid growing concerns about the digital asset's energy usage.
• Live social audio platform Clubhouse hits 1 million downloads on Android days after becoming globally available.
• Carmaker Tesla announces plans to store all data generated from cars in China in a new data center located in the country, months after the Chinese government restricted the use of Tesla cars by military personnel and the staff of some state-owned companies.
• The move also comes after China's Cyberspace Administration published draft rules that would legally require automative companies to obtain their customers' permission to collect personal data and only transmit the information to servers located outside its borders if they had passed a security assessment conducted by cybersecurity regulators.
• Chinese handset maker Xiaomi says it shipped 49.4 million smartphones globally in the first quarter of 2021 for a 14.1% market share in the smartphone market, putting it behind Samsung and Apple.
• Google officially begins rolling out its cross-platform Fuchsia OS to first-gen Nest Hubs as an update, effectively replacing Cast OS.
• Europe antitrust regulator, the European Commission, to reportedly open a formal probe into Facebook to investigate if the company is undermining competition in the online classifieds market, making it the fifth major company to face heightened scrutiny in the E.U. after Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Google.