European lawmakers have voted in favor of enforcing tech/internet companies to prohibit users from sharing copyrighted content .The new law could also require tech biggies such as Google and Facebook to share revenue with musicians and writers. While skeptics of the proposed reform feel that internet memes and/or Google News could get restricted, supporters of the rule have praised it for potentially leveling the playing field between tech firms on one side and musicians, filmmakers and news publishers on the other. For the rule to get implemented, it must get final approval from the European Commission and EU member states.  

Snapchat is losing yet another top executive. Imran Khan, Snapchat's chief strategy officer, wants to leave the company as indicated by a regulatory filing Monday.The company does not have a  chief operating officer since Emily White left the company in 2015. Snapchat stock fell to a record low last week, and is currently trading in the single digits – compared to its initial offering price of $17 a share last year.

It was revealed that David Marcus, the former head of Facebook’s Messenger platform, was stepping down from his board post at Coinbase to lead the team – a natural choice, as former president of PayPal and overseer of Messenger’s chatbot commerce and peer-to-peer payment functions. There has been minimal additional news – a company spokesperson told TechCrunch that Facebook is “…still in the very early stages [of developing the team] and we are considering a number of different applications for the blockchain.But we don’t have anything else to share at this time.” That has not stopped speculation about what they might work on, however. Some parties believe that Facebook could introduce its own token and cryptocurrency wallet, which people could use to pay for products linked to through Facebook ads or from partnered businesses.

Facebook has chosen Singapore to build its first data center in Asia and will pour $1 billion towards the project. The 11-stories tall facility will  "support hundreds of jobs" in Singapore, according to the company.Facebook already has data centers across the U.S. and Europe and is expected to plan more in Asia.  

Facebook-owned Instagram is adding three new layers of security on its platform. The photo & video-sharing website will now allow users to get more detailed information for checking an account's legitimacy.The information includes location of an account, when the account was started, any username changes in the past year and ads run by the account. This is intended to help users get better clarity on the identity of people they are following. Instagram is also providing users the option to use third-party authenticator apps, such as Google Authenticator, as a way to log in securely. Also, public figures can provide Instagram their user name, full name, and a copy of a legal or business ID to have their accounts tagged as verified. The new security features seem to aim at restoring confidence and trust among users, particularly amidst recent security issues that surfaced on other social media platforms.

Alphabet’s Google is partnering with four Indian banks to expand its financial footprint in India. Google’s  payment app Google Tez in India is being rebranded as Google Pay which will allow Indian customers of the partner banks to get “pre-approved instant loans” and receive the amount in their bank accounts instantly via Google’s platform.Caesar Sengupta, an executive of the company, announced Tuesday that the new service is scheduled to come into operation within the next few weeks. Google is not alone in its plans to penetrate India’s digital financial/payment market.

Trump tweeted that Google search results for ‘Trump News’ are “rigged” against him and that they show mostly “bad” stories about him.He also went ahead and referred to the stories as “Fake New Media”. Google, on the other hand, defended itself by saying that it does not have any political agenda and that its algorithm includes factors such as user experience.

Warren Buffett wants a stake in India’s leading mobile payments company Paytm. Berkshire Hathaway could invest around 25 billion rupees ($360 million) - a deal that would potentially value Paytm at around $10 billion, a source familiar with the deal told CNNMoney on Monday.This is not the first time a U.S.-based firm is taking interest in India’s digital wallet market: last year, Google launched its mobile payment app Tez while Facebook-owned WhatsApp is reportedly exploring a similar platform. Paytm has more than 300 million users, and is milking a fast growing demand for digital payments in India.

Waymo, the self-driving car technology division of Alphabet, has registered a company in Shanghai called Huimo Business Consulting, according to a business registration filing.The Chinese subsidiary has 3.5 million yuan ($508,000) in capital and mentions Waymo as an investor. This means that Waymo might potentially come into direct competition with China’s domestic companies Baidu, Didi Chuxing, Alibaba and Tencent who are also working on developing their own autonomous technology for vehicles.

Facebook announced Wednesday that it has suspended over 400 apps and banned one over concerns about how user data is handled and used by these platforms. Although the tech firm did not find definitive proof of data breach/misuse, it is apparently more vigilant than ever over what it feels are potential red flags.David Stillwell, one of the creators of the app, criticized the ban as "nonsensical and purely for PR reasons.

Facebook ‘s Artificial Intelligence (AI) unit is working to develop a technology that, if successful, can make MRI exams ten times faster. Collaborating with New York University's medical school, Facebook will use machine learning to train an algorithm for identifying  arrangement of bones, muscles, ligaments, and other parts of the human body, and then  feed the information into MRI machines' software – a process that is expected to create MRI images in much less time compared to what it takes at present.NYU is providing an anonymous dataset of 10,000 MRI exams for this project, which includes as many as three million images of knees, brains, and livers.    

The European Commission wants to adopt stricter policies to curb terrorist content on social media. Having had previously asked tech firms (such as Facebook, Twitter and Google) to remove terrorist propaganda within an hour of the content’s posting, the Commission feels that it needs to add stricter measures for enforcing the rules.The new legislation drafted reportedly include penalties to be imposed if a social platform fails to comply with the European Commission’s requirements for removing terrorist content . The proposed legislation would have to be approved by lawmakers and European Union (EU) member countries before it can be implemented. This marks another step by Europe towards increased regulation for tech companies, following EU data protection rules (introduced in May) which posed restrictions on how tech platforms can collect and use personal data.

In a townhall meeting, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai said that he’s not in a rush to launch a search platform in China, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation (as reported by CNN). Earlier reports had indicated that Sundar Pichai was planning to introduce a censored version of Google Search in China - something that raised questions on whether Google was straying from its long-held advocacy of free and open internet, with several of its employees demanding greater transparency on the plan.But recent reports of Pichai’s meeting suggest that although his team might be exploring possibilities of foraying into the Chinese market, they’re not close to launching a search engine.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wants a clean-up of the social networking site. In a CNN interview, Dorsey expressed the need to curb abusive language and hate speech on Twitter, and to create incentives for bolstering “healthy conversation" on the platform.He also emphasized on taking action against fake/suspicious accounts, and on limiting bot networks’ presence on the website. Dorsey indicated that the complete results of these efforts would manifest over the long-term.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) accuses Facebook of discriminating against certain user groups in featuring housing advertisements.The HUD complaint includes accusations of exclusion based on religion, among other things. Facebook responded that "there is no place for discrimination on Facebook; it's strictly prohibited in our policies.

While Apple, Spotify, Facebook, Instagram and others have quickly banned Alex Jones, Twitter is still thinking. Twitter also requested that the names of participants in the meeting should not be disclosed fearing the hate mail to these individuals.We hope that Twitter will quickly move towards meaningful compromise.

Facebook is launching augmented-reality-styled games on its Messenger chat app. Named "Asteroids Attack" and "Don't Smile”, the two new games will juxtapose digital objects over real-life images/videos – a concept earlier popularized by Snapchat followed by Instagram.And now with the new games introduced, Facebook is probably hoping to see the number tick even higher.

But that did not stop the company from registering solid growth in revenues. In the three months ending June, Snapchat’s number of daily users was -2% less compared to the previous quarter.At 188 million daily active users, the social networking platform fell short of analysts' expectations of about 193 million. However, revenues surged +44% on a year-over-year basis to reach $262 million for Snap (parent company of Snapchat), while loss per share was lower than expected.

Large companies take the issue of security of their CEO’s very seriously. To keep Mark Zuckerberg safe will cost about $18 million next year.Believe or not even toilets or smart refrigerators can make home networks vulnerable. However, Mark needs to pay income tax on these additional expenses: these expenses are added to his salary of $1/year.

Google’s Chinese dreams seem to be getting loftier – and more controversial.The tech giant is reportedly planning to launch a search app in China, in a way that complies with the nation’s regulatory standards. According to a report by The Intercept, Alphabet Inc.'s Google is willing to block sensitive websites/search items to be in line with the Chinese government’s censorship, for a search app it wants to introduce in the nation. The move has apparently irked some people who suggest that Google’s offering a censored product goes against the company’s own philosophy.