Tech Roundup: Facebook's TikTok Challenge, YouTube Corrections & More

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

• Germany's Federal Cartel Office, the Bundeskartellamt, launches an antitrust investigation into Apple's anti-tracking technology that requires third-party app developers to ask for permission to track users across other apps; says "Apple's rules have raised the initial suspicion of self-preferencing and/or impediment of other companies," as the company responds that "Privacy has always been at the center of our products and features. At Apple, we believe that a user’s data belongs to them and they should get to decide whether to share their data and with whom."
• Meta's WhatsApp adds the ability for users to transfer their conversation chat history, photos, videos and voice messages from Android to iPhone via Apple's Move to iOS app; rolls out new tools on Instagram and Quest VR headsets that are designed to give parents additional supervision controls.
• Mozilla turns Firefox desktop's Total Cookie Protection on by default, after launching the feature in February 2021 and enabling it in private browsing mode in June 2021.
• Music streamer Spotify announces a Safety Advisory Council to provide non-binding third-party input on issues such as hate speech, disinformation, extremism and online abuse.
• Meta unveils plans to make Facebook more like TikTok as part of a major redesign, including bringing Messenger back into the main app and turn the feed into a "Discovery Engine" by recommending posts from "unconnected" sources across both Facebook and Instagram; comes in the wake of ByteDance-owned social video platform's swiftly rise to prominence, posing a legitimate challenge to Meta's dominance in social media. (It's time to bid goodbye to Snapchatification and say hello to TikTokification!)
• Google launches a corrections feature in YouTube, letting creators add infocards at a relevant timestamp; says YouTube Shorts, its answer to TikTok-like short-form videos, are being watched by over 1.5 billion logged-in users every month, less than two years after its launch. (In comparison, TikTok announced one billion monthly users in September 2021.).
• The E.U.'s General Court sides with Qualcomm over the European Commission's US$ 1.05 billion fine from 2018 for allegedly paying Apple to use only Qualcomm chips.