Tech Roundup: Ofcom Age Checks, TikTok to RedNote & More

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

• ByteDance-owned TikTok goes dark in the U.S. on January 19, 2025, unless the government provides a "definitive statement" to critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, as the Supreme Court rules unanimously to uphold a law requiring that ByteDance sell TikTok or see it be effectively blocked in the country due to national security reasons. (It's worth noting that when India enacted a similar ban on TikTok in June 2020, it did not seem to call for deletion of app data that had already been captured and stored. This also meant that TikTok still has access to Indian users' data.)
• Microsoft says it will not support Microsoft Office apps on Windows 10 once its support period ends on October 14, 2025; quietly kills its attempt to spoof Google Search when users searched for its rival on Bing.
• Google says it has partnered with the Associated Press to deliver a feed of real-time information to enhance the usefulness of results displayed in the Gemini app; comes as Mistral announces a content deal with the Agence France-Presse to improve answer accuracy in Le Chat, marking the French AI startup's first such partnership.
• Microsoft's LinkedIn launches free AI-based offerings, including a Jobs Match tool for job seekers to offer advice on whether a particular opportunity is worth applying and a recruitment AI agent for small businesses to help devise and triage job applications.
• Chinese drone maker DJI says it will no longer stop drones from flying over airports, power plants, wildfires and government buildings in the U.S.; says the update is not politically motivated and follows similar changes made in Europe last year.
• Google makes all its Gemini features for Workspace apps free, after charging US$ 20 or US$ 30 per user per month, but increases the prices of all its Workspace plans; Microsoft bundles its AI-powered Office features into Microsoft 365 Personal and Home subscriptions for an extra US$ 3 per month.
• Microsoft relaunches its free Copilot for businesses as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, offering pay-as-you-go AI agents and using OpenAI's GPT-4o to answer queries; begins testing AI-powered search in Windows to easily find documents, photos and settings.
• Meta takes on Google's AudioPaLM with a new AI model called SeamlessM4T that enables direct translation of speech from 101 different languages to speech in one of 36 other languages.
• OpenAI begins piloting a feature that lets new ChatGPT users in India and the U.S. sign up with only a phone number; teams up with Retro Biosciences to develop GPT-4b micro, an AI model that it says can engineer proteins capable of turning regular cells into stem cells.
• Telegram shuts down the Z-Library and Anna's Archive channels over copyright infringement.
• India's Jio Platforms, which has over 450 million users, partners with Polygon Labs to integrate Web3 and blockchain services into its apps and services.
• Amazon agrees to acquire Indian buy now pay later (BNPL) startup Axio, deepening its push into financial services in one of its fastest-growing markets.
• Apple disables notification summaries for apps in the News & Entertainment category in iOS 18.3 beta and makes other changes to summaries, including using italicised text, after the feature was criticised for inaccurately summarised content.
• Chinese app RedNote (aka Xiaohongshu) scrambles to hide U.S. users' posts from Chinese users after Beijing raises concerns about politically sensitive English-language posts, as the app rises to popularity ahead of an imminent TikTok ban in the country; also rushes to hire English-speaking moderators to help manage the unexpected influx of English videos and posts on the platform.
• The TikTok blockade has had the unintended consequence of users migrating to other Chinese alternatives, rather than Instagram and YouTube, likely posing a fresh challenge for lawmakers concerned about foreign influence or interference via social media. That said, some new users on RedNote are encountering Chinese-style censorship for the first time.
• The U.K. media watchdog Ofcom imposes robust age checks on porn sites to prevent children from accessing them, requiring such services to introduce age checks by July 2025 at the latest, which could include open banking, photo ID matching, facial age estimation, mobile network operator age checks, credit card checks, digital identity services and email-based age estimation.
• Google tells E.U. lawmakers that it does not intend to add fact checks to search results and YouTube videos or use them in ranking or removing content, despite requirements imposed by the bloc's Code of Practice on Disinformation.
• Meta says it will be forced to "roll back or pause" some features in India due to an antitrust directive that banned its WhatsApp messaging service from sharing user data with Meta for advertising purposes; says it will curb its ability to offer users personalised ads on Facebook and Instagram, and that it impact's WhatsApp's ability to remain commercially viable.
• Tech trade groups NetChoice and TechNet sue the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) effort to treat payment apps and digital wallets like Apple Pay as banks, describing it as an "unlawful power grab"; claims the actions "create unnecessary roadblocks for businesses striving to meet consumer needs and set the stage for increased prices and reduced options."
• Meta's Threads internally prototypes the ability to add music to posts, mirroring a similar feature in Instagram; Instagram adds a new tab in the Reels feed that displays videos that a user's friends have liked or added commentary and lets users upload Reels that are up to 3 minutes long, as the photo-oriented social media platform says profile grids will display content as rectangles instead of squares as part of a new change.
• Google begins requiring users to turn on JavaScript to use Google Search in order to "better protect" the service against malicious activity, such as bots and spam.
• Apple launches its dedicated Apple Store app in India, allowing customers to purchase products and receive personalised shopping recommendations.
• The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) refers a complaint against Snap to the Justice Department, alleging Snapchat's My AI chatbot poses "risks and harms to young users," and fines Genshin Impact maker Cognosphere US$ 20 million to settle claims that it deceived players about the cost of winning prizes and mishandled kids' data; says Microsoft's US$ 13 billion investment in OpenAI raises concerns that the company could extend its cloud computing dominance into AI.
• AI search engine Perplexity acquires LinkedIn-like professional social media platform Read.cv as part of an undisclosed deal.
• Apple, Alibaba and Synopsys become the latest members of the Ultra Accelerator Link (UALink) Consortium, joining tech giants like Amazon, Google, Intel, Microsoft and Meta to "establish an open, interoperable standard for high-performance computing connections in scale-up AI environments."
• Google faces new regulatory headache after a group of 18 former European heads of state call on the European Commission to break up Google's advertising tech business, claiming it erodes Europe's media landscape.
• The European Union expands its X probe, asking for internal docs about X's recommendation algorithm, following complaints from German politicians about boosting the far right.
• Google-backed Character.AI tests games on its desktop and mobile web apps to boost engagement for paid subscribers and a limited set of users on its free plan; aims to "build our partner ecosystem with media and entertainment companies and creators, tech companies and platforms, and consumer brands, opening opportunities for Character.AI to drive new experiences, user engagement and revenue growth."