Tech Roundup: Reddit NFT Avatars, Twitter CoTweets & More

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

• The Irish Data Protection Commission informs its counterparts in Europe that it will block Facebook-owner Meta from sending user data from the region to the U.S., potentially risking the services from being accessible.
• The U.K. government tables amendments to the Online Safety Bill that forces messaging platforms to implement content-scanning technologies to look for child sexual abuse material, in a move that could put it on a collision course with end-to-end encryption (E2EE), and bar social media platforms from arbitrarily removing harmful content until "the publisher has been notified and has received the verdict of any appeal to the platform."
• The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opens an investigation into whether Amazon distorts competition by favouring its own retail business and sellers using its Prime services; also opens probe into Microsoft's proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition, setting a September 1 deadline for its initial decision.
• China's all-purpose WeChat app lets users register two accounts with one phone number in new pilot test in a move aimed at addressing complaints that some firms force employees to use the app for work.
• Glance, owned by Indian ad-tech firm InMobi Group, to partner with carriers to serve media and current affairs content and casual games on Android lock screens in the U.S. within two months.
• Meta open-sources early-stage AI translation tool that works across 200 languages; to stop requiring Facebook IDs to log into Quest VR devices starting in August 2022 and instead roll out "Meta accounts" for new and existing Quest users.
• Twitter tests new feature called CoTweets that allows users to co-author tweets; discloses it removes more than 1 million spam accounts each day (up from 500,000 in mid-May 2022), detailing its efforts to curb harmful automated bots on the platform, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk's deal to acquire the company enters uncertain territory after claims that that "Twitter's figures on spam accounts are not verifiable."
• Reddit launches an NFT-based avatar marketplace with 90 "Collectible Avatars" available for purchase at a fixed price, expanding on support for Ethereum-based NFTs.
• Apple reportedly adding support for virtual cards in Safari to boost security when conducting online transactions, mirroring a move recently adopted by Google in Chrome.