Techmeme
May 24, 2019, 11:25 AM

Top News

Szu Ping Chan / BBC:
Sources: Facebook is planning to launch its own cryptocurrency and a digital payments system in about a dozen countries by Q1 2020  —  Facebook is finalising plans to launch its own crypto-currency next year.  —  It is planning to set up a digital payments system in about a dozen countries by the first quarter of 2020.
Alan Boyle / GeekWire:
SpaceX successfully launches first batch of 60 Starlink satellites of nearly 11,000 planned into a low orbit above Earth to provide global internet connectivity  —  After two postponements, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket executed a mission that dealt out 60 Starlink broadband data satellites in low Earth orbit.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Multiple sources and emails describe how Snap employees used internal tools like SnapLion to access user data several years ago, before Snap restricted access  —  Multiple sources and emails also describe SnapLion, an internal tool used by various departments to access Snapchat user data.
Aislinn Keely / The Block:
AT&T says customers can now pay their mobile bills in cryptocurrency via BitPay  —  Cryptocurrency is taking another step towards the mainstream as mobile carrier AT&T announced it would accept payments in crypto today, according to a release from the company.
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
A distorted video of Speaker Pelosi, in which her speech is made to appear slurred, has 2M+ views on Facebook; YouTube says it has removed uploads of the video  —  Distorted videos of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), altered to make her sound as if she's drunkenly slurring her words …
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Source: Amazon is working on a wearable voice-activated health and wellness device that works with a mobile app and can recognize human emotions  —  - Described as a health product, it would work with a mobile app  — Machines that can understand emotions are a sci-fi staple
Biz Carson / Forbes:
Lime shuffles leadership, with co-founder Brad Bao taking over as CEO from co-founder Toby Sun, who will now focus on R&D; COO Joe Kraus promoted to president  —  Lime cofounder Brad Bao is stepping in as CEO, replacing his cofounder Toby Sun.LIME  —  Scooter startup Lime is shuffling …
More: TechCrunch and CNET
Will Sommer / The Daily Beast:
Twitter permanently bans Brian and Ed Krassenstein, who frequently shared anti-Trump sentiments, alleging they ran fake accounts and purchased fake interactions  —  Ed and Brian Krassenstein are banned for life after ‘operating multiple fake accounts and purchasing account interactions,’ a Twitter spokesman said.
Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed News:
As Twitter tests an increased ad load, users report a higher number of spammy or malicious promoted tweets  —  Twitter is running a test that has increased the number of promoted tweets showing up in people's timelines — and it has resulted in a range of user complaints about their new prevalence …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Instagram says IGTV will now support landscape video, following feedback from creators and users, as the service struggles to gain traction  —  The vertical video experiment is over  —  Instagram is no longer all-in on vertical video.  The company announced today that its longform video offshoot …
Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:
SecurityScorecard report analyzing US political party cyber defenses finds DNC has made improvements following 2016 hacks but still lags behind RNC  —  Personal data leaks, poor protection of logins, and other gaps still leave major parties vulnerable.  —  In a study of US and European …
Ilya Khrennikov / Bloomberg:
Yandex launches a new delivery service that lets users tell a restaurant what to cook, even if not on the menu, initially available in Moscow and St. Petersburg  —  - Yandex expanded to food delivery after 2017 deal with Uber  — App tells a restaurant what to cook even if not on the menu
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Shopify quietly acquired Handshake, an e-commerce platform for B2B wholesale purchasing, source says for less than $100M; Handshake was last valued at ~$54M  —  E-commerce platform Shopify has quietly made an acquisition to continue its expansion of the services and products that merchants can sell and purchase through its platform.
More: PYMNTS.com

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Earlier Picks

Biz Carson / Forbes:
Guy Rosen / Facebook:
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Andrew Webster / The Verge: