Tech Digest daily roundup: Facebook paid consultancy to undermine TikTok

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The chief executive of a political consulting firm has responded to a report alleging Meta paid his company to “undermine” TikTok. Internal emails, apparently seen by the Washington Post, allegedly suggested Targeted Victory’s campaign aimed to show TikTok “as a danger to American children”. Zac Moffatt tweeted that the Post’s report mischaracterised their work and “key points are simply false”. The BBC approached Meta for comment. A spokesperson said: “We believe all platforms, including TikTok, should face a level of scrutiny consistent with their growing success.” BBC

There will be no E3 this year. In a tweet, Will Powers, PR for gaming peripheral manufacturer Razer, said that he received an email stating the digital event was cancelled. IGN initially reported the news, saying they had also independently viewed the email confirming E3’s cancellation. The video game trade show and marketing event was originally scheduled to be held in person this year. However, in January, E3 was once again shifted from an in-person event to an online-only exhibition due to the pandemic. Now, it seems that the digital event has been completely cancelled. The Verge

 

Russian government hackers have been linked to an attack on a satellite communications company at the start of the invasion of Ukraine. Businesses and individuals using routers made by Viasat, an American business that provides broadband-speed satellite internet connections, were knocked offline on 24 February. The same day that Russia‘s armed forces poured into Ukraine, wiper malware inside Viasat customers’ routers was detonated, rendering them effectively useless. Sky News 

The Russian tech giant Yandex has hoisted a for-sale sign over its British grocery delivery business amid concerns over the company’s links to the Kremlin. Yandex, known as Russia’s Google, said it was seeing a “considerable amount of interest” in its Yango Deli business, which operates in London. It is also shutting down the service’s operations in Paris.
Yango Deli launched in London in October last year and allows users to order groceries and hot food and drinks within 15 minutes. It opened with four warehouses in the capital, capable of delivering to 1.4m users, and expanded in late February. The service is the first major foray into the UK from Yandex, which runs Russia’s biggest search engine and taxi-hailing app. Telegraph 

Google Docs has offered autocorrect and grammar check tools for some time now. Now it’s adding more advanced features to help you further enhance your writing style. Google Docs will soon provide various stylistic and writing suggestions in documents to make your writing more concise, inclusive, and dynamic. As you’re typing, you’ll see suggestions for structuring a sentence with an active voice, removing redundant words, and using alternate words to add variety and avoid repetitive words in your documents. In addition, Google Docs can now also detect potentially discriminatory and inappropriate expressions and provide suggestions to make your writing more inclusive for your audience. XDA Developers

 

Chris Price
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