Techmeme
October 19, 2019, 7:25 PM

Top News

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
A behind-the-scenes account of a cyberattack that disrupted the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics, which was tied to a specific unit of Russia's GRU  —  How digital detectives unraveled the mystery of Olympic Destroyer—and why the next big attack will be even harder to crack.
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
How TikTok is making inroads into US schools, as students create TikTok clubs to riff on the latest memes, and shoot videos on Newton's Laws for extra credit  —  Teens love the app, and now it's getting the stamp of approval with teacher-approved clubs.  Did school just get ... fun?
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Researchers find malware operators are now using steganography techniques to hide malicious code in WAV audio files  —  Steganography malware trend moving from PNG and JPG to WAV files.  —  Two reports published in the last few months show that malware operators are experimenting with using WAV audio files to hide malicious code.
Bloomberg:
Seven US lawmakers, including Wyden, Cruz, Ocasio-Cortez, and Rubio accuse Apple of “censorship of apps” at the “behest of the Chinese government”, in a letter  —  - Cruz, AOC, others ask Apple to reinstate HK map app it pulled  — Apple CEO discussed consumer rights with Chinese regulator
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
MediaLab, a holding company that owns the Whisper app, buys Kik messenger from Kik Interactive, which now focuses on development of Kin cryptocurrency  —  The Kik messaging platform has been bought by MediaLab, a holding company which operates Whisper and a number of other apps, the company announced Friday.
MIT Technology Review:
A game made with a real world dataset of defendants shows the shortcomings of COMPAS, an AI-powered risk assessment tool used in the US criminal legal system  —  The US criminal legal system uses predictive algorithms to try to make the judicial process less biased.  But there's a deeper problem.
New York Times:
Zuckerberg gives a full-throated defense of Facebook as a champion of free expression and defends Facebook policy to opt out of fact-checking political ads  —  In an address at Georgetown University, the Facebook chief executive called for more free speech — not less …
More: Columbia Journalism Review, Axios, The Guardian, Wired, Facebook, Washington Post, 9to5Mac, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, TechSpot, CNET, South China Morning Post, MIT Technology Review, Fortune, Slate, and Inc42 Media
ProPublica:
Inside Intuit's 20-year fight to make it harder to file taxes for free, including a pact with the IRS that kept a US-run service from competing with TurboTax  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up for ProPublica's Big Story newsletter to receive stories …
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
After buying Poloniex in 2018 for $400M, Circle spins it out into Polo Digital Assets, backed by an unnamed Asian firm, says it won't serve US customers anymore  —  Crypto exchange Poloniex is spinning out from its parent firm Circle, the companies announced Friday.

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IDrive:
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Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
Everyone's an engineer now: Inside v0's mission to create a hundred million builders | Guillermo Rauch (founder & CEO of Vercel, creators of v0 and Next.js)
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Why COULDN'T Apple Make An iPhone In The US?
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Derek Thompson (Writer, The Atlantic) and Zach Weinberg (Co-founder & CEO, Curie.Bio) Discuss the Tariff Withdrawal and America's Future
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
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Why DOGE is killing the agency that keeps banks from ripping you off
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
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More News

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Earlier Picks

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Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Otillia Steadman / BuzzFeed News:
Jon Porter / The Verge: