Meta employees scheduled to return to the office on March 28th will have to find another place to take their dirty laundry. Facebook’s parent company is cutting its free laundry and dry-cleaning service and pushing back dinnertime to a later hour, reported the New York Times. It’s a change in response to the new hybrid work schedule at Meta, where most employees will still be working from home at least a few days of week. Fewer time in the office equals fewer office perks, or at least that’s the logic of Meta leadership. But for many employees at Facebook, Instagram, Reality Labs and other Meta companies, it’s an unwelcome hassle at what is normally a grueling work environment.

“As we return to the office, we’ve adjusted on-site services and amenities to better reflect the needs of our hybrid workforce,” a Meta spokesperson wrote in a statement to the Times.

Meta will also begin serving dinner at 6:30 pm PT, a full half-hour after the last shuttle departs campus. Meaning that employees will have to choose between a free meal or a free ride home. Decisions, decisions! While some Meta employees interviewed by NYT are unhappy about the change, many others have seen such perks as a ploy to keep employees working long hours. 

Tech companies are famous for providing incredible office perks to compensate for a strenuous workload, such as free meals, laundry, fitness classes, backup childcare and more. But a shift to a hybrid work environment means fewer employees will be in need of these things. To Meta’s credit, the company is fattening up annual employee wellness stipends — from $700 to $3000 per year — to account for the change.

At least for Meta’s Mountain View employees, free, unlimited food was already a thing of the past. After Google and Meta’s free, round-the-clock food service for employees left local businesses in the dust, the city passed an ordinance that banned tech companies from offering unlimited free food. But Facebook’s other Bay Area offices have access to free meals, as well as an unlimited snack larder if you get hungry between mealtimes. According to Eater, Facebook’s Bay Area office routinely stores about $300,000 worth of food in its snack pantry.

The European Commission and UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have launched an antitrust investigation into the advertising deal between Google and Meta (formerly Facebook) codenamed "Jedi Blue." In particular, the organizations are looking into whether the tech giants colluded to hinder competition "in markets for online display advertising." The US Justice Department, backed by several states, is also investigating the deal between the two companies.

As the commission explains, Google provides an ad technology service that auctions off online display advertising space on websites and apps as part of its Open Bidding program. Meanwhile, Meta's Audience Network participates in those kinds of auctions for ad spaces facilitated by Google and rival services. CMA Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli said the organization is "concerned that Google may have teamed up with Meta to put obstacles in the way of competitors who provide important online display advertising services to publishers."

Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, told The Financial Times that the commission suspects there may have been an agreement between the companies to "only to use Google services and not competing services." Vestager also told the publication, however, that the commission is investigating the possibility that Meta was unaware of the agreement's repercussions and that Google acted alone. "We have not concluded yet if it's a Google thing alone or if they were in it together. It's not a given that Meta was conscious of the effects of the deal and that's what we have to investigate," the commissioner said.

In addition to opening a probe into the Jedi Blue deal, the CMA is also scrutinizing Google's conduct as a whole in relation to ad bidding. The watchdog is investigating whether the tech giant abused its dominant position to gain an advantage over competitors offering bidding services. 

Google previously denied that it colluded with Meta in a court filing, and a spokesperson echoed that in a statement sent to Engadget:

"The allegations made about this agreement are false. This is a publicly documented, procompetitive agreement that enables Facebook Audience Network (FAN) to participate in our Open Bidding program, along with dozens of other companies. FAN's involvement is not exclusive and they don't receive advantages that help them win auctions. The goal of this program is to work with a range of ad networks and exchanges to increase demand for publishers’ ad space, which helps those publishers earn more revenue. Facebook’s participation helps that. We're happy to answer any questions the Commission or the CMA have."

A Meta spokesperson also told us that the deal with Google is non-exclusive: 

"Meta's non-exclusive bidding agreement with Google and the similar agreements we have with other bidding platforms, have helped to increase competition for ad placements. These business relationships enable Meta to deliver more value to advertisers and publishers, resulting in better outcomes for all. We will cooperate with both inquiries."

If the CMA finds that the companies had violated competition law, they could be slapped with fines equivalent to 10 percent of their global revenues. As The Financial Times notes, though, the process could take years to complete.

In November, former PlayStation IT security analyst Emma Majo filed a lawsuit against Sony, claiming the company discriminated against women at an institutional level. Majo alleged she was fired because she spoke up about gender bias at the studio, noting she was terminated shortly after submitting a signed statement to management detailing sexism she experienced there. 

Majo later filed the paperwork to turn her case into a class-action lawsuit, and just last month Sony attempted to have the whole thing thrown out, claiming her allegations were too vague to stand up to legal scrutiny. Plus, Sony's lawyers said, no other women were stepping forward with similar claims.

Today, eight additional women joined the lawsuit against Sony. The new plaintiffs are current and former employees, and only one of them has chosen to remain anonymous. One plaintiff, Marie Harrington, worked at Sony for 17 years and eventually became a senior director of program management and chief of staff to senior VP of engineering George Cacciopo.

"When I left Sony, I told the SVP and the Director of HR Rachel Ghadban in the Rancho Bernardo office that the reason I was leaving was systemic sexism against females," Harrington said in a court statement. "The Director of HR simply said, 'I understand.' She did not ask for any more information. I had spoken with the Director of HR many times before about sexism against females."

Harrington claimed women were overlooked for promotions, and said that during annual review sessions, Sony Interactive Entertainment engineering leaders rarely discussed female employees as potential "high performers." She said that in their April 2019 session, only four of the 70 employees under review were women, and while all of the men in this group were marked as high performers, just two of the women were. 

"Further, when two of the females were discussed, managers spent time discussing the fact that they have families," Harrington's statement reads. "Family status was never discussed for any males."

The remaining women shared similar stories in their statements, with the common theme being a lack of opportunity for female employees to advance and systemic favoritism toward male employees. The plaintiffs claimed male leaders at Sony made derogatory comments including, "you just need to marry rich," and, "I find that in general, women can’t take criticism.” 

One plaintiff alleged that while on a work trip to E3, her superior tricked her into having drinks with him at the hotel bar, hit on her even after she declined, and told other male employees that "he was going to try to 'hit that.'" Another plaintiff shared a story about a gender equality meeting at Sony that had a five-person panel, all of them men.

The lawsuit against Sony comes at a time of reckoning for many major video game studios, including Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft and Riot Games. Activision Blizzard is facing a lawsuit and multiple investigations into claims of institutional sexism, sexual harassment and gender discrimination, while Ubisoft has long faced similar allegations from former and current employees. Riot Games paid $100 million in December to settle a class-action lawsuit over workplace sexual harassment and discrimination.

Sony has not yet responded to the latest movement in the class-action lawsuit, though it denies Majo's claims of gender discrimination. The company has requested the lawsuit be dismissed, and that will be decided in a hearing in April.

While not nearly as much of a mess as Texas' energy infrastructure, California's power grid has seen its fair share of brownouts, rolling blackouts, and power outages caused by wildfires caused by PG&E. To help mitigate the economic impact of those disruptions, this summer General Motors and Northern California's energy provider will team up to test out using the automaker's electric vehicles as roving, backup battery packs for the state's power grid. 

The pilot program announced by GM CEO Mary Barra on CNBC Tuesday morning is premised on birectional charging technology, wherein power can both flow from the grid to a vehicle (G2V charging) and from a vehicle back to the grid (V2G), allowing the vehicle to act as an on-demand power source. GM plans to offer this capability as part of its Ultium battery platform on more than a million of its EVs by 2025. Currently the Nissan Leaf and the Nissan e-NV200 offer V2G charging, though Volkswagen announced in 2021 that its ID line will offer it later this year and the the Ford F-150 Lightning will as well. 

This summer's pilot will initially investigate, "the use of bidirectional hardware coupled with software-defined communications protocols that will enable power to flow from a charged EV into a customer’s home, automatically coordinating between the EV, home and PG&E’s electric supply," according to a statement from the companies. Should the initial tests prove fruitful, the program will expand first to a small group of PG&E customers before scaling up to "larger customer trials" by the end of 2022.

"Imagine a future in which there's an EV in every garage that functions as a backup power source whenever it's needed," GM spokesperson Rick Spina said during a press call on Monday.

"We see this expansion as being the catalyst for what could be the most transformative time for for two industries, both utilities and the auto automotive industry" PG&E spokesperson Aaron August added. "This is a huge shift in the way we're thinking about electric vehicles, and personal vehicles overall. Really, it's not just about getting from point A to point B anymore. It's about getting from point A to point B with the ability to provide power."

Technically, like from a hardware standpoint, GM vehicles can provide bidirectional charging as they are currently being sold, Spina noted during the call. The current challenge, and what this pilot program is designed to address, is developing the software and UX infrastructure needed to ensure that PG&E customers can easily use the system day-to-day. "The good news there is, it's nothing different from what's already industry standard for connectors, software protocols," August said. "The industry is moving towards ISO 15118-20."

The length of time that an EV will be able to run the household it's tethered to will depend on a number of factors — from the size of the vehicle's battery to the home's power consumption to the prevailing weather — but August estimates that for an average California home using 20 kWh daily, a fully-charged Chevy Bolt would have enough juice to power the house for around 3 days. This pilot program comes as automakers and utilities alike work out how to most effectively respond to the state's recent directive banning the sale of internal combustion vehicles starting in 2035.

A number of Amazon’s Chinese suppliers are linked to forced Uyghur labor camps from China’s Xinjiang region, according to a new report from the Tech Transparency Project. The organization found that five of Amazon’s suppliers have been directly accused by watchdog groups and journalists of relying on workers from China’s many “reeducation centers”, which it uses to detain Uyghur Muslims, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities. The suppliers produce Amazon devices and Amazon-branded products, such as the Amazon Basics line of home goods and tech accessories.

“The findings raise questions about Amazon’s exposure to China’s repression of minority Uyghurs in Xinjiang—and the extent to which the e-commerce giant is adequately vetting its supplier relationships," wrote the authors of the report. "Amazon says that its suppliers 'must not use forced labor' and that it 'does not tolerate suppliers that traffic workers or in any other way exploit workers by means of threat, force, coercion, abduction, or fraud.' But its supplier list tells a different story.” 

Two of the suppliers named in the report—Luxshare Precision Industry and AcBel Polytech—were also used by Apple, according to an investigation last year from The Information. Both Amazon and Apple have denied working with forced labor suppliers, despite evidence that suggests otherwise.

“Amazon complies with the laws and regulations in all jurisdictions in which it operates, and expects suppliers to adhere to our Supply Chain Standards. We take allegations of human rights abuses seriously, including those related to the use or export of forced labor. Whenever we find or receive proof of forced labor, we take action,” Amazon spokesperson Erika Reynoso said in a statement to NBC.

The Australian Institute of Strategic Policies found that many major global brands deployed forced labor from China, including Adidas, Gap, H&M, Microsoft, Nike, Sony, Victoria’s Secret and Zara. Amnesty International estimates that China is currently holding roughly 1 million prisoners in internment camps, where they are reportedly forced to renounce their religion and subject to hard labor in factories. The camps are mostly in the Western China region of Xinjiang, and have been in place since 2017.

Both the US and the EU imposed sanctions on China in 2021, barring any imports from Xinjiang until businesses can prove that they no longer use forced labor. But the report found that many Amazon-branded products are still produced in the Xinjiang region. For example, the report found that a couple of towel brands still listed on Amazon advertise using “China-long staple cotton” from the Xinjiang region.

“Amazon’s continued use of companies with well-documented ties to forced labor in Xinjiang cast doubt on the tech giant’s stated intolerance of human rights abuses in its supply chain,” wrote the report’s authors.

Rivian is quickly backtracking on its steep EV price hikes. The Vergereports Rivian has reversed the price increases for R1T pickup and R1S SUV pre-order customers. Anyone who ordered one of the vehicles before March 1st will pay the original prices, and those who cancelled orders in response can reinstate their orders without affecting their prices or delivery timing. Orders for affected configurations made from March 1st onward will still cost more.

Company chief RJ Scaringe said the higher prices "broke the trust" of customers, and that the automaker didn't properly communicate the reasons for the hikes. While the new prices were meant to reflect higher manufacturing costs (hence maintaining prices for new buyers), Rivian "wrongly" applied those increases to existing customers, according to Scaringe. It also incorrectly presumed customers wouldn't mind buying the lower-end dual-motor and standard battery models if the quad-motor option was suddenly too expensive.

The price change angered more than a few customers. Quad-motor buyers faced prices between $12,000 to $20,000 above what they'd expected. Some accused Rivian of bait-and-switch tactics, while others cancelled (or threatened to cancel) orders in response. Tesla, a key competitor, has historically honored pre-order prices regardless of any changes between the order and delivery.

The incident is poorly timed, at least. Rivian is still in the early stages of ramping up R1T deliveries, and has yet to fulfill R1S orders. The automaker's reputation is still young and delicate — it risks driving business to Tesla, Ford and others with comparable EVs. While reversing the price hike will likely be painful to Rivian, it might be worthwhile if it fosters goodwill and leads to more sales in the long run. 

Toyota has reportedly halted vehicle production at all its plants in Japan following a cyberattack against a major supplier, Nikkei has reported. "Due to a system failure at a domestic supplier (Kojima Industries Corporation), we have decided to suspend the operation of 28 lines at 14 plants in Japan on Tuesday, March 1st," Toyota wrote on its global website. 

Kojima supplies both exterior and interior parts, including components used in its air-conditioning system and steering wheel. The parts weren't affected but Kojima was reportedly unable to communicate with Toyota or monitor production. The issue affected Toyota's "just in time" manufacturing system that requires parts be delivered just before they're installed so they don't have to be stocked. 

Toyota didn't mention a cyberattack on its website, but Kojima confirmed the issue. "It is true that we have been hit by some kind of cyberattack. We are still confirming the damage and we are hurrying to respond, with the top priority of resuming Toyota's production system as soon as possible," a Kojima official told Nikkei. 

Two other Toyota partners were reportedly hit, including truck manufacturer Hino Motors and Daihatsu Motor. The origins of the cyberattack, type of malware and other details have not been revealed. Toyota didn't say when it expects to restart the manufacturing lines, but the Japanese government is reportedly involved in the investigation. 

Valve says it’s willing to work with Microsoft to bring PC Game Pass to Steam. “I don’t think it’s something that we think we need to do ourselves, building a subscription service at this time,” Valve CEO Gabe Newell told PC Gamer in a recent interview. “But for their customers it’s clearly a popular option, and we’d be more than happy to work with them to get that on Steam.”

Newell’s subsequent comments suggest PC Game Pass won’t come to Steam anytime soon, but that the two companies have had discussions about the possibility. “We’ve talked to people there quite a bit about that topic,” he said. “If your customers want it, then you should figure out how to make it happen. That’s where we’re at.”

While PC Game Pass may never come to Steam there’s at least precedent for Microsoft to follow. In the summer of 2020, publisher Electronic Arts made EA Play, its subscription service, available on Steam. It's worth noting, as The Verge points out, not every EA Play tier is available through the marketplace, and Valve's 30 percent cut of sales could be a contentious issue in any negotiations between itself and Microsoft. For what it's worth, Microsoft has also expressed an interest in getting Steam onto the Windows 11 app store. Last June, Microsoft’s Panos Panay said Valve would be “very welcome” on the marketplace.

The UK government is introducing a bill that will require Facebook, Google and other tech platforms to verify the identities of users. The measure is part of the government's Online Safety Bill announced last year and is ostensibly designed to help users block anonymous trolls online. 

“Tech firms have a responsibility to stop anonymous trolls polluting their platforms,” said UK digital Minister Nadine Dorries in a statement. “People will now have more control over who can contact them and be able to stop the tidal wave of hate served up to them by rogue algorithms.”

Tech firms would need to decide how to carry out the checks when users create social media accounts. Some options proposed by the government include facial recognition via profile pictures, two-factor authentication and government-issued ID. The UK's media regulator Ofcom would be in charge of laying out the rules. 

Tech firms have a responsibility to stop anonymous trolls polluting their platforms.

The government has also proposed measures that would force companies to filter out "legal but harmful" material. That would allow parents, for instance, to apply settings stopping their kids from receiving search results about certain topics, or putting "sensitivity screens" over them. 

Tech firms in violation could face fines of up to 10 percent of their global annual revenues, which could be in the billions with companies like Google and Facebook. The government could also block services from being accessed in the UK under the proposed rules, which would need to be approved by parliament to become law.  

“We are reviewing the details of the new proposed duties,” a Twitter spokesperson told CNBC. “Our focus remains on a safe internet for all — whether or not someone is able to or chooses to verify themselves.” It add that it sees anonymity as “a vital tool for speaking out in oppressive regimes."

The UK government said it would introduce online safety rules back in 2018, and the idea has gained impetus following recent racial abuse of Black England soccer players by anonymous trolls. On top of that, a petition in favor of the idea has gained nearly 700,000 signatures. However, critics of identity verification have said that anonymity can help protect LGBTQ+ and other oppressed minorities, whistleblowers and critics of oppressive regimes. 

Google delayed its employees' return to office a few times over the past year, but it looks like the tech giant is truly gearing up to welcome workers back this time. According to CNBC, the company is easing some of its COVID-related mandates as part of those efforts, including relaxing its vaccine requirements for employees. 

CNBCreported back in December that Google will place employees who don't comply with its vaccine mandate by January 18th on leave unless they secure a valid medical or religious exemption. The report also said that those employees will eventually be fired if they continue refusing to be inoculated against the virus. Google spokesperson Lora Lee Erickson told the news organization that the company dropped the requirement last month, though they refused to discuss the reason behind the decision. 

Based on an email from Google Real Estate and Workplace Services VP David Radcliffe that CNBC has obtained, the company is also dropping its testing requirements that also applied to vaccinated employees. It's lifting its mask and social distancing requirements for vaccinated employees, with the exception of its offices in Santa Clara County where its Mountain View headquarters are located, as well. That said, unvaccinated employees must still be approved to work in offices, and they'll still have to wear masks and get regularly tested if they're coming in. 

On top of easing up its COVID mandates, Google is also reopening its amenities for employees, including its fitness centers with massages, full shuttle service, more places to eat, as well as lounges and music rooms. Erickson told CNBC:

"We're giving employees who welcome the chance to come into the office the option to do that wherever we safely can, while allowing those who aren't ready to keep working from home. Based on current conditions in the Bay Area, we're pleased that our employees who choose to come in now have the ability to access more onsite spaces and services to work and connect with colleagues."

Google still doesn't have an exact date for its return to office, but Radcliffe's note reportedly said that the company will begin its 30-day transition to its hybrid work week plan if conditions continue to improve. Under the plan, employees will be required to physically come into the company's offices at least thrice a week.