Axios

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee September 5 on "the company's algorithms and content monitoring," the committee's chairman, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), announced Friday.

Why it matters: Twitter is much smaller than Facebook, but it's President Trump's favorite social-media channel, and it faces criticism not only for its role in spreading Russian-promoted misinformation but also, from conservatives, for what they see as bias against them.

Instagram is testing a new feature that lets college students using the app join their school's community and access a directory of their classmates, aimed at helping them connect with each other, according to CNBC.

Why it matters: Facebook, which owns Instagram, has been packing the photo-sharing app with features to appeal to young users and compete with Snapchat. So it's no surprise to see it experiment with some of Facebook's original features — college student directories — in Instagram. Go deeper: College chat app pulls a page from Facebook

FireEye, a California-based cybersecurity firm, has been credited twice just this week with helping two of the biggest tech companies uncover midterm election threats — and got a stock bump as a result.

Why it matters: While companies like Google and Facebook have the in-house expertise to uncover some malicious activity, third-parties like FireEye are sometimes better equipped to spot malicious activity through their own monitoring.

Amazon has removed downloadable plans for 3D-printed guns from its site, explaining the material violates its content guidelines, CNN reports.

The details: The Seattle-based e-commerce company said it removed the $20 book, "The Liberator Code Book: An Exercise in the Freedom of Speech," which appeared on its website earlier this month. But the author, CJ Awelow, is fighting back claiming that "code is speech," and and explains "proceeds will be used to fight for free speech and the right to bear arms."

Facebook has hired Antonio Lucio, HP's global chief of marketing and communications and a former Visa and PepsiCo executive, as its new chief marketing officer, according to a Facebook post by chief product officer Chris Cox. Facebook's previous CMO, Gary Briggs, left the company in January.

Why it matters: Facebook has had a rough couple of years fighting off a number of controversies, including fake news, election meddling, and improper use of its users' data, so it can surely use the help from a seasoned marketing exec.

Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are giving Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey until the end of Friday to decide whether he will voluntarily testify in front of their committee on Sept. 5, according to a committee source.

Why it matters: Members of Congress have been critical of Twitter and other tech firms over the past week for not sending high-level executives to testify. They argue that this shows the tech companies aren't taking election manipulation and other controversies on their platforms seriously.

The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating Microsoft's business practices of selling software in Hungary earlier this decade, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Why it matters: Aggressive sales tactics are common, but bribery schemes involving middlemen and kickbacks overseas are illegal under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Microsoft is being investigated for these practices in Hungary, as it previously was in five other countries, according to the Journal. Microsoft told the Journal it had conducted its own internal investigation of the matter that led to the firing of four employees, and it was cooperating with authorities.

Google has uncovered a disinformation attack across several of its properties that it has connected to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the company said in a statement Thursday.

Why it matters: Facebook and Twitter announced earlier this week that they have uncovered coordinated disinformation campaigns linked to Iran, but this is the first time any tech firm has said it found a direct link between Iran state media and the attack.

"Do you know what happened at Zoox?" I got that question from nearly a dozen VCs last night, after it was reported that the self-driving unicorn's co-founder and CEO Tim Kentley-Klay had been fired.

The state of play: The inquiries were not only because Zoox raised $500 million just one month ago, but also because Kentley-Klay had gone on a subsequent Twitter rant about how his ouster was "Silicon Valley up to its worst tricks."

Facebook is pulling its Onavo Protect virtual private network (VPN) mobile app after Apple said it violated its data collection policies.

The context: Onavo offers customers a free VPN, which encrypts all communications between two devices, while giving Facebook insight into what apps and services customers use on their device. Bloomberg had warned in June that changes in Apple's policies could be aimed at Onavo.

After years of grudgingly handing over as much as 30% of their mobile revenue to Apple or Google, some app makers and digital service providers are exploring ways to cut out the middlemen.

Among the recent examples: Epic Games is distributing Fortnite for Android outside Google's Play Store. Netflix is testing the removal of the ability to subscribe from within its iOS apps. Spotify, which once offered a discount to iPhone customers who subscribe outside of the app, has discontinued the ability for new subscribers to pay via the app.

Plenty of tech companies are looking for ways to break into health care, but health care executives are focused squarely on just one tech company: Amazon.

The backdrop: Among the new technologies on the horizon, industry leaders have higher expectations for telemedicine than whiz-bang tools like artificial intelligence or blockchain.

NewsGuard Technologies, a new service that uses trained journalists to rate thousands of news and information sites, is launching its first product today: web extensions that let users view vetted, non-partisan trust ratings for news and information websites.

Why it matters: It's the first look at the services to be offered by NewsGuard, co-founded by journalist Steven Brill and former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz. The labels, which have been researched and assigned by journalists, are being placed on the most trafficked news and information websites in the U.S.