Tech Roundup: Microsoft Office 2021, Samsung One UI Ads & More

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

• China's Ministry of Science and Technology releases its first set of artificial intelligence ethics guidelines, emphasising on empowering users and data control, as well as improving human well-being, promoting fairness and justice, protecting privacy and safety, and raising ethical literacy; says the goal is to "make sure that artificial intelligence is always under the control of humans."
• Facebook announces the ability for users to start cross-app group chats between Messenger and Instagram, in what's a big step forward in the social media giant's ambitions to make its apps work better with each other, as new revelations show that the company knowingly puts its profits over the welfare of its users.
• South Korean Internet service provider SK Broadband sues Netflix over costs for traffic surge from hit shows, following a court ruling in June 2021 that mandated streaming service providers to "reasonably" pay ISPs for network usage.
• The Nigerian government says a four month ban on Twitter will be lifted on condition it is used for "business and positive engagements."
• Video conferencing service Zoom drops its proposed acquisition of cloud-based customer service provider Five9 for US$ 14.7 billion, weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice called for a review on grounds that it might create national security risks given Zoom's ties to China.
• Microsoft-owned LinkedIn blocks the profiles of several U.S. journalists on its Chinese platform, citing "prohibited content"; launches its Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) service in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan, and announces Office 2021 edition for US$ 150 (for Office Home and Student) and US$ 250 (for Office Home and Business) bundling Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Teams, and Outlook for PCs and Macs.

• ByteDance's short-form video app TikTok launches Top Moments, an NFT collection featuring six "culturally significant TikTok videos" from creators.
• Fairphone, a social enterprise company which aims to develop smartphones that are designed and produced with a lower environmental impact, unveils Android 11-based Fairphone 4 with a 6.3-inch LCD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G SoC, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage (upgradeable to 8GB and 256GB), 3,905mAh battery, and five-year warranty, but drops the headphone jack in favour of improved water resistance.
• Multiple Chinese merchants, including Sopownic, Slaouwo, Deyixun, Cstech, Recoo Direct, Angelbliss, and Tudi, file a class-action complaint against Amazon for banning them from the online marketplace over their use of paid aka "incentivised" reviews, seeking "recovery of funds that are being illegally and improperly withheld by Amazon" (to the tune of US$ 568,910) and to "stop any further misappropriation and misuse of funds that are legally and rightfully due to thousands of Amazon sellers and merchants."
• Apple's operating profits from games in the financial year 2019 totalled US$ 8.5 billion, US$ 2 billion more than the combined profits of Sony, Activision, Nintendo and Microsoft.
• Google scraps plans for its mobile-first banking service Plex as part of a redesigned Google Pay experience even prior to its official launch; argues "google" is the most searched term on Bing "by far" followed by "youtube," "facebook," "gmail," and "amazon," as it attempts to the US$ 5 billion antitrust fine from the European Union in July 2018.
• Social audio platform Clubhouse rolls out a new search tool to look for specific people, clubs, live rooms and future events; adds Replay, which lets hosts record a room, alongside a Clips feature that allows participants of public rooms to share 30-seconds audio previews on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, iMessage or WhatsApp.
• South Korean tech giant Samsung officially removes ads from its One UI Android apps for Pay, Weather, and Health, nearly two months after announcing its plans to cease advertising on its apps.