10 things in tech you need to know today

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1. Parler is back with a new CEO. Mark Meckler, an attorney, political activist, and founder of the Tea Party Patriots, replaced the app's former CEO and co-founder John Matze.
   
   
2. ByteDance is walking away from an Oracle-TikTok deal. A source told the South China Morning Post that the deal was brokered to "entertain demands from the Trump administration," but now that Trump is gone, "the raison d'être of the deal is gone with him."
   
   
3. Google signed a media deal in Australia. Google has signed a multimillion dollar deal with Seven West Media, one of the biggest news publishers in Australia, amid months of wrangling with government officials over its relationship with the media.
   
   
4. New startup Nothing has acquired Essential. Nothing, the smart device startup that OnePlus co-founder and CEO Carl Pei unveiled in late January, has acquired the branding of Andy Rubin's defunct firm Essential, 9to5Google reported on Monday.
   
   
5. The pandemic has caused a global chip shortage. The pandemic led to disruptions in the supply chain and factory closures, and a shortage of chips that existed even before the pandemic hit has only been exacerbated.
   
   
6. India's Supreme Court wants answers from WhatsApp. A case seeks to prevent WhatsApp from implementing a new privacy policy in the country.
   
   
7. France fined Google. Google France and Google Irelandagreed to pay 1.1 million euros after a probe found its hotel results could be misleading.
   
   
8. The Kremlin is open to Clubhouse. The Kremlin says it is considering Elon Musk's offer to chat with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the audio app.
   
   
9. Exclusive: Iconiq Capital wants to launch in Europe. Iconiq manages the wealth of Silicon Valley elites like Mark Zuckerberg, and is seeking its first partner in Europe.
   
   
10. Exclusive: Zego is raising a major funding round. The gig economy insurance startup is in talks to raise $150 million led by DST Global.