In the early days of Russia's internet, hippies founded the first telecoms venture with Americans, an astrophysicist ran the country's most visited website and providers punished hackers by kneecapping them with baseball bats.

The Chinese government convened top tech companies this week and warned them of consequences if they cut off technology sales to the country, U.S. media reported on Saturday.

U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter once again Sunday to accuse the messaging platform of gagging conservative voices -- a "Giant Mistake!" that he said runs counter to freedom of expression.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday slammed U.S. moves against Chinese tech giant Huawei, which has signed a deal to develop a 5G network in Russia.

Banning Huawei and fellow Chinese equipment maker ZTE from Europe's roll-out of 5G telecom networks would cost EU mobile operators up to 55 billion euros ($62 billion), according to an industry body's internal assessment seen by AFP Friday.

President Xi Jinping said Friday that China was ready to share its expertise, including on 5G technology, with partner countries.

Google said Thursday it was buying data analytics startup Looker in a move aimed at bolstering its cloud services for business.

Uber said Thursday it is readying its first helicopter rides, which will carry passengers between New York's JFK Airport and lower Manhattan.

Chinese artist Badiucao, whose anonymous political satire infuriated Beijing, on Thursday announced a protest campaign against Twitter for what he says is pandering to China, after the platform's refusal to create a special tank man emoji to mark the 30th Tiananmen anniversary.

British mobile phone operator EE on Thursday became the first in the country to launch a high-speed 5G service, but without smartphones from controversial Chinese technology giant Huawei.