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Techmeme
December 18, 2018, 12:05 PM

Top News

Ina Fried / Axios:
NAACP returns a donation from Facebook and calls for a boycott of it after Senate report detailed how Facebook was used to manipulate black voters  —  The NAACP has returned a donation from Facebook and called for a daylong boycott of the social network Tuesday following revelations …
Washington Post:
Bloomberg:
Taylor Lorenz / The Atlantic:
As shilling products has become a sign of success for influencers, up-and-comers on Instagram are posting fake sponsored content to boost their credibility  —  “It's street cred—the more sponsors you have, the more credibility you have."  —  Tapping through Palak Joshi's Instagram Stories recently …
Ry Crist / CNET:
Alexa Guard first impressions: hears sounds and alarms well, but can't contact emergency services, isn't supported by previous-gen Echo and Echo Dot speakers  —  “Alexa, I'm leaving.”  —  “OK — I'll be on guard.”  —  That's the gist of Alexa Guard, a new feature from Amazon that lets …
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Coinbase is rolling out Coinbase Convert, which enables crypto-to-crypto trading for its retail customers via its website and mobile apps, in the coming days  —  Coinbase users can begin trading cryptocurrencies directly with other cryptocurrencies, the exchange startup said Monday.
Kelly Weill / The Daily Beast:
Former far right extremists recall how they were radicalized by YouTube as teenagers because of its algorithm that keeps surfacing extremist content  —  Former extremists say they were sucked in by propaganda as teenagers, thanks to an algorithm's dark side.
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Toronto-based Ada, which helps companies develop their own AI-powered customer service chatbots, raises $14M Series A led by FirstMark Capital  —  Ada, a Canada-based startup that is setting out to help companies develop their own automated customer service tools, has raised CAD$19 million …
More: TechCrunch and BetaKit

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Earlier Picks

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Aliya Ram / Financial Times:
DW.COM:
Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal: