Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Friday. Sign up here to get this email in your inbox every morning.
Have an Amazon Alexa device? Listen to this update by searching "Business Insider" in your flash briefing settings.
- Google is threatening to pull out of Australia. The company has threatened to pull search if Australia passes a law that would force it to pay news providers.
- Jack Ma faces more domestic headaches. The Financial Times reported the People's Bank of China drafted new rules that will hurt Alibaba's payments affiliate Ant Group.
- Facebook referred its Trump ban to its oversight board. The board will consider whether Trump's suspension should be indefinite, and claims its decision will be "binding" on Facebook.
- Apple is preparing its first AR headset. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported the device is expected to be a niche product, and a precursor to a more advanced device down the line.
- China wants to build its own GitHub. The code platform faces censorship in China, and the nation has backed domestic alternatives such as Gitee, Rest of World reports.
- Exclusive: Amazon says it didn't ban Parler under employee pressure. The decision was based on Parler's lack of rigid content moderation policies that allowed violent content to appear on the app for weeks, Amazon's spokesperson said.
- Google's new union opposes its probe of an AI ethicist. Union spokespeople hit out after the tech giant confirmed it had suspended the corporate account of Margaret Mitchell, a lead on its ethical AI team, on Wednesday.
- Tim Cook gifted Trump a $6,000 Mac Pro. The former president's executive disclosures provide a window into Trump's assets and liabilities and a snapshot of several gifts he accepted during his time in office.
- A minor is suing Twitter. The plaintiff complained the social media platform declined to remove a sexually explicit video of him at age 13 that was posted by online predators, saying it did not violate its community standards.
- TripActions is now worth $5 billion. The corporate travel startup has raised fresh funding, nearly a year after it was forced to lay off 296 employees and slash its spending.