Tech Roundup: Russia's Facebook Blockade, Samsung's Throttling Controversy & More

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

• Reddit bans links to Russian state-controlled media outlets across its platform to tackle misinformation; Facebook and Instagram to block RT and Sputnik in the U.K.; Microsoft and Samsung suspend all new sales of their products and services in Russia (Samsung has a 30% smartphone market share in the country); Snap temporarily turns off Snapchat's "heatmap" feature for Ukraine as a safety measure, as the digital realm becomes a subsidiary battleground between the country and the big tech companies following its invasion of Ukraine.
• Russia completely blocks access to Facebook, Twitter, and foreign news outlets in an attempt to stifle information related to the escalating conflict in Ukraine, as Meta (Facebook), Google, Twitter, and Snapchat pause ads sales in the region.
• Russian technology company Yandex says it's "pausing" its autonomous vehicle and sidewalk robot testing in Ann Arbor (located in the U.S. state of Michigan); Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, to stop supplying the U.S. with its rocket engines, the latest in a series of retaliatory moves from Russia in response to sanctions and condemnation of its war in Ukraine.
• Backbone internet provider Cogent cuts ties with Russian clients, including state-owned telecom Rostelecom, so that it's infrastructure cannot "empower the Russian government to have another tool in their war chest."
• Japanese multinational video game company Nintendo puts its Russian eShop into maintenance mode, locking users in the country out of their digital purchases; comes as gaming companies EA and CD Projekt Red halt sales of their games in Russia and Belarus.
• Popular messaging app Telegram, which has over 500 million active users worldwide, begins blocking Kremlin-backed media outlets in the E.U., including all RT channels, starting for users who signed in with an E.U.-based phone number.
• ByteDance-owned TikTok to start putting labels on videos from "some" state-controlled media outlets as it starts rolling out its new state media policy to combat misinformation on the social video service.
• Samsung to release a software update "so users can control the performance while running game apps," after reports emerged that the Korean electronics giant's Galaxy smartphones are throttling the performance of around 10,000 popular apps via a software called Game Optimizing Service (GOS).
• Apple, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla create a benchmark called Interop 2022 to resolve browser compatibility issues identified by developers in 15 key areas.
• Disney announces new ad-supported tier of its on-demand video streaming service Disney+, which will launch later this year in the U.S. and expand internationally in 2023.
• Microsoft formally completes its US$ 19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance, announced in April 2021, after the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) approves the deal.