Tech Roundup: Discord Forum Channels, Flo Anonymous Mode & More

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

• Twitter's former security chief and cybersecurity expert Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, reveals the company had agents from China and India on its payroll; accuses the social media firm of misleading the public, lawmakers and regulators stating, "they don't know what data they have, where it lives and where it came from and so, unsurprisingly, they can't protect it."
• The E.U.'s General Court upholds €4.34 billion antitrust fine against Google for abusing its market dominance by forcing Android handset makers to restrict how they sold their devices, including pre-installing Google Search and Chrome apps and preventing the companies from selling devices with forked versions of Android; reduces the fine to €4.1 billion, as it rules "Google imposed unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices and mobile network operators to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine."
• South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) hits Google and Meta with a fine of about US$ 50 million and US$ 22 million for contravening the country’s privacy regulations by failing to seek users' explicit consent before collecting behavioural information for serving personalized ads.
• Google cancels several in-house incubator projects at its Area 120 R&D division, as it pivots to focussing on AI-related initiatives; rolls out Google Play Store app reviews tailored to the device used by default (previously this option had to be explicitly selected).
• Period tracker platform Flo launches 'Anonymous Mode' for iOS devices, allowing people to use the app without having to enter their personal information such as names, email addresses, or other identifiers.
• The U.S. state of California files antitrust lawsuit against Amazon for stifling competition by preventing third-party sellers from offering lower prices on other sites, as the state passes new law requiring web platforms to share moderation rules to monitor hate speech, extremism, harassment, and other objectionable behaviours.
• Google's YouTube to integrate songs saved on YouTube or YouTube Music into Shorts, with users also having an option to save the songs they hear on Shorts to listen to later.
• Canva unveils new products Docs, Websites, Whiteboards, and Data Visualisation, brings background removing to videos, and adds a remote control to Presentations, as it takes on Google and Microsoft's productivity suites.
• Apple seeds iOS 16.1 beta with improved lock screen/home screen customisations, support for Matter IoT accessories, show battery percentage in the status bar of iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 mini, and iPhone 13 mini, revamped screenshot user interface, and the ability to uninstall Wallet app.
• Discord rolls out Reddit-like Forum Channels, designed for asynchronous chat about specific topics, after testing them with some communities since February 2022.
• Zoom is reportedly building email and calendar client, signalling ambitions to expand its business beyond video calling, according to The Information.
• Yahoo acquires The Factual, a company that uses algorithms to rate the credibility of news sources, with an aim to bring The Factual's labels to the hundreds of thousands of articles Yahoo News distributes from thousands of news partners across 15 languages globally.
• The U.S. Commerce Department reaches a cooperative research and development agreement with Google to produce chips that researchers can use to develop new nanotechnology and semiconductor devices.