Retailers are fighting online anonymity to stop stolen goods from being resold on the internet.
Driving the news: CEOs of nearly two dozen retail companies threw their weight today behind legislation aimed at marketplaces like Amazon and eBay in a letter to congressional leaders.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo made waves in Washington when she criticized Europe's planned regulations of tech companies, despite the White House's interests in reining in the sector at home.
Why it matters: The incident reveals the balancing act the Biden administration performs as it weighs talking tough on Big Tech while standing up for U.S. firms abroad.
A workers group for employees of Activision Blizzard started a strike fund today and has begun distributing union authorization cards to the company’s employees.
Why it matters: The A Better ABK organization is no longer just hinting at trying to form what would become the first major video game developer union in the U.S. They’re doing it.
Today's cars typically lose value as soon as they leave the dealership. But with regular software updates, it's possible your next car might keep more of its value over time.
The big picture: A new generation of digital-age car buyers wants to update their vehicles as seamlessly as their smartphones, adding features and services that weren't available at the time of purchase.
A #StopAsianHate tweet was the most retweeted in 2021, Twitter said on Thursday. The post, from K-pop group BTS, generated nearly 1 million retweets.
Why it matters: The tweet, published on March 29, came a few weeks after a 21-year-old white man shot and killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women, in Georgia.
Italy's antitrust regulator fined Amazon $1.3 billion on Thursday, claiming an investigation unveiled that it abused its dominant position in the market by favoring third-party sellers that used its logistics services.
Why it matters: It comes amid a wave of antitrust law enforcement by European nations against Big Tech companies.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri testified before Senate lawmakers Wednesday and was pressed on the app's impacts on young children and teens.
Why it matters: Legislation to protect kids online is one area Congress has shown it's willing to regulate, as Axios previously reported. Wednesday's back-and-forth gave momentum to lawmakers eager to make more rules for social media platforms and how children and teens can use them.
Medical schools are experimenting with virtual and augmented reality technologies to help doctors-in-training practice their skills.
Why it matters: Replacing actors pretending to be patients with holographic videos that can be generated anywhere can make the hands-on part of medical education cheaper and more flexible.
We're not the Wild West— but give us clearer rules of the road: This was the message to Congress from the heads of six cryptocurrency companies on Wednesday.
Why it matters: Never before have crypto executives been hauled to Washington like this. It was the highest-profile attempt by the industry to plead its case.
Why it matters: Apple can breathe a sigh of relief while its lawyers argue the case in coming months, knowing it does not have to open iOS to alternative in-app payment methods, as the trial court judge had ordered, until the appeal is resolved, Axios' Scott Rosenberg writes.
A current Blizzard employee and her prominent lawyer held a press conference outside of Blizzard’s Irvine, Calif. headquarters Wednesday, detailing harassment allegations and calling for a victims fund “in excess of $100 million.”
Why it matters: It was another first in the Activision Blizzard workplace abuse scandal, which has already seen some of the game industry’s most significant and unprecedented laboractions.
Buf, a Toronto-based startup focused on improving protocol buffers, tells Axios that it has raised over $93 million in funding since being founded last year.
Why it matters: The company is working to change how machines and computers communicate with one another, automating away a lot of API implementation work. Or, put more simply, it wants to help give engineers some of their time back.
The head of Instagram called for the creation of an industry body to develop best practices for protecting youngsters online during his first appearance before Congress, as Big Tech faces blowback from lawmakers over tech's harms to children.
Why it matters: Republicans and Democrats have found common ground in grilling tech companies on how their products harm children, especially after revelations in The Wall Street Journal about Instagram's potential harm to the mental health of teen girls.
Roku and Google have agreed to a multi-year extension for both YouTube and YouTube TV apps to be distributed on Roku.
Why it matters: Roku's deal with Google to distribute YouTube was set to expire this month. Without a deal, YouTube would've been removed from Roku's channel store, creating a big competitive disadvantage, especially during the holiday season.
