Techmeme
June 19, 2019, 11:45 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Interviews with 12 former and current Facebook content moderators in Tampa, three on the record, describing appalling working conditions and, for some, PTSD  —  At Facebook's worst-performing content moderation site in North America, one contractor has died, and others say they fear for their lives
Washington Post:
Sources: after complaints about privacy practices around children's videos on YouTube, FTC is in late stages of a probe, causing YouTube to rethink its strategy  —  The U.S. government is in the late stages of an investigation into YouTube for its handling of children's videos …
Rob Copeland / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: YouTube is considering far-reaching changes to protect kids, including moving all children's content to the YouTube Kids app and turning off autoplay  —  Executives consider shifting children's content to a separate app, removing auto-play feature in an effort to protect young viewers
Pete Schroeder / Reuters:
Senate panel says it will hold a hearing on Facebook's Libra on July 16; source: David Marcus, who leads Facebook's blockchain efforts, is expected to testify  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will discuss Facebook's proposed cryptocurrency at a July 16 hearing, the panel announced Wednesday.
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
While Facebook's Libra plays at decentralization, it is still entrenched in Facebook, and using it means trusting Facebook, which is a hard sell in 2019  —  Libra isn't as decentralized as a normal cryptocurrency  —  From the beginning, cryptocurrency was about trust.
Brendan Greeley / Financial Times:
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Google rolls out Private Join and Compute, a tool that lets organizations gain insights about other parties' confidential data, as an open source project  —  CERTAIN STUDIES REQUIRE sensitive data sets: the relationship between nutritious school lunch and student health, the effectiveness of salary equity initiatives, and so on.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
London-based Kano, which makes hardware to teach younger people about computing and coding, partners with Microsoft and launches a £300 11.6" touchscreen laptop  —  Kano, the London-based startup that builds hardware designed to teach younger people about computing and coding …
Terry Spencer / Associated Press:
A Florida city council votes to pay $600K ransom to hackers who, over three weeks ago, encrypted city records, disabled its email system, and more  —  FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida city agreed to pay $600,000 in ransom to hackers who took over its computer system …
James Fallows / The Atlantic:
Fresno-based Bitwise Industries, which offers training for developers, raises $27M Series A led by Kapor Capital  —  Four years ago, my wife, Deb, and I wrote about an ambitious and unusual tech startup called Bitwise Industries, in the gritty and long-struggling city of Fresno in California's Central Valley.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Quibi says it has booked more than $100M in ad sales with launch partners including Google, P&G, PepsiCo, Walmart, and Anheuser-Busch, ahead of April 2020 debut  —  Quibi, the ambitious short-form video venture from Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman, has sold $100 million …

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
See how your customer experience priorities compare  —  TELUS Digital surveyed leaders about the tech they're investing in, the KPIs they're tracking and their plans for outsourcing.  Get the results.  No form fill required!
Intel:
Intel Delivers powerful CPUs for AI and Networking  —  With the onset of AI, businesses demand powerful and efficient CPUs.  Explore new Intel Xeon 6 processors, for the broadest set of workloads with leadership performance and lower TCO.
Zoho:
Zoho Sign at Kenya's Digital Trust Forum 2025 organized by Evrotrust and Geda  —  Kenyan businesses and government services are adapting to digital alternatives to explore opportunities in the nation's newly launched ten-year Digital Master Plan.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

The Logan Bartlett Show:
Zach Weinberg (Co-Founder & CEO, Curie.Bio) on The Tariff Trap, Self-Inflicted Recession Risk, and Open AI's Fundraise
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Techmeme Ride Home:
The Nintendo Switch 2
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Trump vs The Media, Round 2, with Sara Fischer
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Spotlight On:
Graphite's Merrill Lutsky on Revolutionizing Code Review for the AI Era
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Invest Like the Best:
Darren Farber - The Business of Defense
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
CEO Matt Bromberg on ending Unity's 'war' against its customers
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:45 PM ET, June 19, 2019.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Christine Biederman / Wired:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: