Hashtag Trend July 7 – UK surveys Amazon. Big Tech scoops up Tesla employees. NASA wants to bring a sample of Mars back to Earth

The UK is investigating that Amazon may support its retail business, major high-tech companies are hiring former Tesla employees, and NASA wants to bring Martian soil samples back to Earth. I am.

Here’s all the tech news that’s currently trending. Welcome to Hashtag Trends. It’s Thursday, July 7th. I’m your host, Tom Lee.

UK antitrust watchers are investigating Amazon, which allegedly favors its retail business, compared to other sellers on the Amazon UK marketplace. According to Sky News, this study looks at how the platform uses third-party seller data and the criteria for meeting the Prime label. In addition, the Competition and Markets Authority will consider how Amazon chooses the products to list in the purchase box. These products will appear more prominent. In a previous study, the European Commission investigated Amazon for similar concerns and said the problem was that the company sold its products on its platform and hosted other sellers. An Amazon spokeswoman said the company would cooperate with the investigation.

sauce: Sky news

Leading tech companies are happy to accept dismissed Tesla engineers. In the last 90 days, 450 Tesla employees have left the company. And while many of them joined other electric car companies, more than 100 went to Amazon and Apple. This isn’t the first time Big Tech has attracted Tesla’s talent. Last month, Microsoft, Amazon and others called on disgruntled Tesla employees to join their company. As Tesla CEO Elon Musk returned to a face-to-face work policy, several engineers rushed to board the ship, even before the company announced a layoff.

sauce: Business insider

NASA’s Perseverance Rover has been collecting Martian soil samples since September, and NASA wants to bring them back to Earth. The plan is for the agency to launch another vehicle, take the sample home, drop it somewhere in Utah, and then transport it to a safe facility. These valuable samples provide a very rare opportunity for scientists to look for signs of life on another planet. However, some people are worried that the soil may contain harmful microorganisms because it is not disinfected. Given their concerns, NASA may open up another opportunity for the general public to comment in the near future.

sauce: Phys.org

Japan has raised punishment for online insults. Currently, unpleasant messages can be fined up to $ 2,200 and imprisoned for up to a year. The country hopes that more severe punishment will reduce cyberbullying, which was recently believed to have driven 22-year-old professional wrestler Hana Kimura to suicide. Opponents of the law argued that the penalties would also prevent legitimate criticism of politicians, but emphasized that the Japanese Minister of Justice did not limit freedom of speech.

sauce: Kyodo News

Here’s all the tech news that’s currently trending. Hashtag trends are part of the ITWC podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefing or Google Home daily briefing. Sign up for the Daily IT Wire Newsletter to get all the important news directly in your inbox every day. It also catches the next episode of Hashtag Tendance, a weekly hashtag trend episode in French that drops every Thursday morning. If you have any suggestions or tips, please contact us in the comments or email. Thank you for listening, Tom Lee.