Tech Roundup: Facebook Extremist Prompt, Robinhood IPO & More

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

• Google updates its Passes API to give developers at healthcare organizations, government agencies, and other organizations authorised by public health authorities the ability to create digital versions of tests and vaccination cards that can then be saved directly on users' Android devices, starting in the U.S.; says it "does not retain a copy of the user's COVID vaccination or test information."
• ByteDance-owned TikTok removes more than 7.26 million accounts of underage users in first quarter of 2021, the first disclosure of such numbers; begins rolling out longer videos of up to three minutes, up from one minute, to all users over the coming weeks, after testing the feature since December.
• Amazon is reportedly discussing forming a "Rebel Alliance" with Slack, Dropbox, Smartsheet and other companies to challenge Microsoft's dominance of the work-productivity app market.
• Around 130 countries, including all G20 nations, agree to a global tax deal, targeting the world's 100 biggest companies and setting minimum corporate rates at 15%; aimed at stopping the likes of Google, Amazon and other corporate giants from stashing their global earnings in low-tax regimes or tax havens like Ireland and Barbados.
• Russia officially signs a law forcing foreign tech companies with a daily audience of over 500,000 users in the country to open offices in the country by 2022, or risk facing advertising bans, as the government moves to strengthen its control of the internet and to reduce their dependence on foreign companies and countries.
• Facebook partners with France-based game developer Ubisoft to bring Assassin's Creed Rebellion, Hungry Shark Evolution and Hungry Dragon to its free cloud gaming service for desktop and Android, as it expands the service to 98% of mainland U.S.

• Stock trading service Robinhood files for long-awaited IPO, with the filing revealing 18 million retail clients with US$ 80 billion in customer assets after rapid growth, generating a net income of US$ 7.45 million on net revenue of US$ 959 million in 2020.
• Facebook, Google, Twitter and TikTok sign up to pledge led by WWWF, to overhaul their moderation systems to tackle the abuse of women on their platforms; new Facebook test prompt asks users if "some you know is becoming an extremist," while another notifies users who "may have been exposed to harmful extremist content recently" as part of a broader effort by Facebook to fight extremism on the social media network.
• Twitter tests new features, including a way to tweet only to a group of trusted friends as well as the ability to tweet under different personas, which it calls "Facets," giving users' followers the option to choose whether they wanted to follow all their tweets, or only those about the "facet" they're interested in; experiments with "a new label design with more context to help you better understand why a Tweet may be misleading."
• Interest-based social network Pinterest updates its ad policies to prohibit ads containing weight loss language and imagery in an effort to prevent content that could encourage unhealthy or disordered eating habits.
• Google, Facebook, Alibaba, ByteDance, and Amazon claimed 46% of global ad revenues in 2020, generating ad sales of US$ 296 billion, according to a report from GroupM.