Tech Roundup: China's Great Firewall, Gmail Security & More

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

• Latest research by academics from Stony Brook University, the University of Massachusetts, University of California, and the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto reveals the full extent of China's Great Firewall; the country's internet censorship system said to block 311,000 domains, with 41,000 domains seemingly by accident, in an analysis of 534 million domains during a nine-month period between April and December 2020.
• The U.S. government announces sweeping directives to counter rising corporate consolidation and foster greater competition across sectors; to closely scrutinise mergers, "especially by dominant Internet platforms, with particular attention to the acquisition of nascent competitors, serial mergers, the accumulation of data, competition by 'free' products, and the effect on user privacy" as part of an overarching effort to rein in anticompetitive behaviour and urges the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to "issue rules against anticompetitive restrictions on using independent repair shops or doing DIY repairs of your own devices and equipment" in a huge win for right to repair efforts.
• The measures aim to address a long-standing problem wherein big tech companies have routinely launched new products for free or at money-losing costs that smaller rivals can't manage without simply going out of business.
• It's also emblematic of a tactic that the tech giants have often employed to quash competitors as they expand their business empires into new markets. By offering a service at a loss in hopes of gaining market share, the laissez-faire approach has emboldened companies to wield free products and below-cost pricing freely as weapons in their quest to conquer new territories.
• Google unveils new Android 12 "Play as you download" feature that lets users play a game from the Play Store before it's fully downloaded; rolls out support for the new Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) standard to all Gmail users as part of an effort to improve email-sender authenticity with the help of verified logos, expands availability of YouTube Shorts to 100 countries (months after debuting the service in 27 countries earlier this March), and announces plans to replace its existing Backup and Sync file syncing desktop service for Google Drive with new streamlined Drive app for Windows and macOS.

• Chipmaker Broadcom is reportedly in talks to buy analytics and business intelligence software provider SAS Institute in a deal valuing worth between US 15 billion and US$ 20 billion.
• Chinese internet giant ByteDance reportedly shelved plans for an IPO in the U.S. or Hong Kong to address security issues following consultations with cyberspace and securities regulators, as the government stiffens enforcement over the country's technology companies since November, with a sweeping antimonopoly crackdown, and new rules to govern data collection and cybersecurity practices.
• Meituan, China's on-demand delivery giant, quietly relaunches its ride-hailing app as Didi Chuxing, the country's dominant player, faces a cybersecurity investigation that bars it from registering new users over data security concerns and could erode its 90% market share.
• Facebook-owned WhatsApp gets hit with fresh complaint in the European Union after the region's consumer organisation, BEUC, raises questions about the company's attempts to force users to accept controversial changes to the messaging platform's terms of use through "persistent, recurrent and intrusive notifications", while also sounding the alarm on "the opacity of the new terms and the fact that WhatsApp has failed to explain in plain and intelligible language the nature of the changes"; Facebook says "the update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook, and does not impact the privacy of your messages with friends or family, wherever they are in the world."
• Walmart's Indian e-commerce conglomerate Flipkart hits a valuation of US$ 37.6 billion ahead of its much anticipated IPO after it raises US$ 3.6 billion in the latest round of funding GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Walmart and Tencent.
• Australia's Federal Court permits Epic Games to sue Apple, reversing a previous ruling that said the two companies had to battle it out in the U.S. first before any legal action could take place in the country.
• Popular multimedia messaging app Snapchat adds new options to give users more control over and context on the ads they see on the platform.