Good Noon! This is the tech news you need to know this Wednesday.
- The European Commission opened two simultaneous antitrust investigations into Apple on Tuesday. The probes will center on Apple Pay and the App Store’s terms and conditions.
- Amazon announced it is putting AI cameras in some of its warehouses to see if workers are adhering to social distancing. When employees walk past the cameras, a monitor will use green and red circles to indicate whether workers are standing six feet apart.
- In a leaked document, Amazon employees shared stories of racism and gender discrimination while calling for a new leadership principle on “inclusion.” Members of internal affinity groups and minority employee organizations at Amazon have been circulating a document titled “The case for a 15th leadership principle on inclusion” this month to rally support for the initiative, according to a copy of the document and an email seen by Business Insider.
- Research from Algorithm Watch suggests Instagram’s algorithm systematically boosts seminude pictures. The German nonprofit found posts containing semi-naked women were 54% more likely to appear in the volunteers’ news feeds than other photographs, while topless posts from men were 28% more likely to appear.
- European regulators set a July 20 deadline to decide whether they will allow Google’s Fitbit deal to happen or else it will launch a four-month investigation. In order to clear the deadline, Google might have to offer some concessions around how it will handle Fitbit users’ data.
- Human rights activists banned from Facebook say Mark Zuckerberg’s “free speech” approach to Trump’s posts rings hollow. Facebook said it’s reviewing the activists’ accounts, but that some may have broken its policies against “praise, support, or representation” for terrorist organizations.
- Boston Dynamics’ lifelike Spot robot is now on sale for $75,000. Spot has already been used in hospitals, agriculture, and police work.
- Zynn, the TikTok clone accused of stealing content, was removed from both iOS and Android app stores. Zynn did not respond to a request for comment, but told other outlets that the app was removed from app stores over complaints of “plagiarism.”
- AT&T is laying off 3,400 workers and shutting down at least 250 stores. The job cuts are part of the economic effect of the coronavirus pandemic and the carrier’s efforts to focus on growth areas, AT&T said.
- San Francisco’s District Attorney is suing DoorDash for classifying workers as contractors instead of employees despite the AB5 gig-worker law. The civil lawsuit is one of the latest examples of how California’s AB5 law is upending tech companies’ reliance on the gig economy.