Tech Digest daily roundup: Twitter agrees to comply with EU laws on fake news
Twitter has agreed to comply with tough new EU laws on fake news, Russian propaganda and online crime after a team of officials from the European Commission entered its headquarters to stress test its capacity to operate legally in Europe. The move came just weeks after Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, quit the bloc’s voluntary code of practice on disinformation. In the first exercise of its kind, EU officials were allowed into the company’s headquarters on Thursday to carry out a mock exercise with Twitter staff. The Guardian
Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are “absolutely dead serious” about fighting each other in a cage match, the boss of UFC has said. The tech billionaires used their respective social media platforms, Instagram and Twitter, this week to talk up their battle-readiness – and both have apparently since spoken to mixed martial arts supremo Dana White. Speaking to TMZ Live, the UFC promoter and president said a Zuckerberg vs Musk fight would even eclipse the revenue and viewership amassed by a 2017 boxing spectacle between Floyd Mayweather and Colin McGregor. Sky News
Meta has said it will begin to restrict news on its platforms to Canadian consumers after parliament passed a controversial online news bill. The bill forces big platforms to compensate news publishers for content posted on their sites. Meta and Google have both already been testing limiting access to news to some Canadians. In 2021, Australian users were blocked from sharing or viewing news on Facebook in response to a similar law. Canada’s Online News Act lays out rules requiring platforms to negotiate commercial deals and pay news organisations for their content. BBC
TV viewers will be able to “game” streaming services and binge-watch shows for free under new laws aimed at clamping down on tech giants, Disney has warned. New rules proposed by the Government would force streaming companies to give customers a 14-day cooling-off period during which they can cancel their subscription without charge. But Disney said this would allow people to sign up to a streaming service and binge-watch programmes free of charge, before repeating the process with other providers. Telegraph
Apple’s Vision Pro goggles won’t be available until next year, though registered developers can now explore the iGiant’s tools for making apps for the virtual-reality headset. On Wednesday, the tech titan released Xcode 15 beta 2, which includes the visionOS software development kit (SDK), a 3D content design tool called Reality Composer Pro, and a visionOS simulator. VisionOS being the operating system powering the ski-mask-like Vision Pro gadget. Together, these tools give software developers a way to begin creating and testing augmented-reality apps. The Register
The NFC Forum, which is responsible for keeping NFC connections streamlined and up-to-date, has laid out its plans to make NFC payments and wireless charging faster and easier over the next five years. NFC payments currently support wireless connections of up to 5mm, requiring you to touch your smartphone to a POS terminal when paying for items. This defeats the purpose of contactless transactions, and the NFC Forum wants to fix that by increasing the transmission range of NFC connections by up to six times. Android Central
