Techmeme
November 3, 2019, 12:05 AM

Top News

CNN:
Facebook says it will not fact-check ads by UK political parties and candidates running in December election, but will fact-check political groups like Leave.EU  —  Facebook's political ad policy under pressure  —  London and New York (CNN Business)A controversial policy allowing politicians …
Siva Vaidhyanathan / New York Times:
Vetting political ads effectively and consistently at global scale is impossible; Congress should restrict ad targeting to the level of an electoral district  —  It's not about free speech.  —  Siva Vaidhyanathan is a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia.
Will Oremus / OneZero:
Twitter's ban on political and issue ads will let companies advertise things like fossil fuel-based products but ban ads from activists advocating against them  —  The company's feel-good decision is already a mess.  —  Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced on Wednesday that the company …
Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google can make a success of Fitbit if it can be managed as well as the integration of HTC's smartphone team, but it can also end up as a fiasco like Nest  —  The HTC acquisition went well, Nest did not — will this?  —  Google is buying Fitbit and the reasons why are both simple and complicated.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Google to acquire Fitbit at $7.35 per share in cash, valuing the company at about $2.1B  —  - The acquisition pits Alphabet against fellow tech giant Apple in the wearable fitness tracking space.  —  Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks on stage during the annual Google I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, May 8, 2018.
More: The Seattle Times, Fitbit, Inc., The Keyword, The Keyword, New York Times, Towards Data Science, The Verge, Android Central, VentureBeat, Social Media Today, Washington Post, The Next Web, Bloomberg, The Next Web, Mashable, AnandTech, Tech.co, The Register, Techaeris, Phandroid, TalkAndroid.com, Michael Tsai, TechCrunch, The Daily Dot, The Daily Caller, TechSpot, CNET, WebProNews, Daring Fireball, Bloomberg, Ars Technica, Vox, BetaNews, MacRumors, ExtremeTech, AppleInsider, SiliconANGLE, FinSMEs, Newser, New York Times, OnMSFT.com, Digital Trends, Coinspeaker, GeekWire, 9to5Google, Variety, KnowTechie, WinBuzzer, Crunchbase News, Pocketnow, Neowin, Gizchina, Silicon Republic, Voicebot.ai, ZDNet, Cult of Mac, Search Engine Land, Droid Life, Tom's Guide, iDownloadBlog.com, AndroidGuys, Thurrott, XDA Developers, Business Insider, Firstpost Tech, iPhone Hacks, Android Authority, Fast Company, Technology Personalized, Android Police, VentureBeat, and PYMNTS.com
David Ruddock / Android Police:
New York Times:
Trump has integrated Twitter into the very fabric of his administration, and, via more than 11,000 tweets, has reshaped the presidency  —  With a single tweet last fall, Mr. Trump sent his administration into a tailspin.  “I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught …
Darla Mercado / CNBC:
Brian Chesky says Airbnb will ban “party houses” after five people died in a shooting at a Halloween party in a California home rented through the service  —  - Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, tweeted on Saturday that the company would bar “party houses” and step up its efforts against unauthorized parties.
Gaurav Shukla / NDTV Gadgets 360:
Global smartphone shipments in Q3 grew 2% YoY according to Strategy Analytics, while Canalys estimates 1% increase, bucking a two-year downward trend  —  Samsung grabbed the top spot with over 78 million smartphone shipments in Q3 2019.  —  HIGHLIGHTS  —  Global smartphone shipments bucked …
Swati Khandelwal / The Hacker News:
Google releases patch for a Chrome zero-day vulnerability being used in the wild that allows hackers to escape sandbox protections via malicious websites  —  Attention readers, if you are using Chrome on your Windows, Mac, and Linux computers, you need to update your web browsing software immediately …
Elizabeth Schulze / CNBC:
Russia's “sovereign internet” law, which aims to enable disconnecting the country's internet from the rest of the world, went into effect on Friday  —  - The law tightens Moscow's control over the country's internet infrastructure and aims to provide a way for Russia to disconnect its networks from the rest of the world.
Caroline Haskins / BuzzFeed News:
How student surveillance service Gaggle monitors online activities of about 5M US students for “suspicious or harmful content” using AI and human moderators  —  Gaggle monitors the work and communications of almost 5 million students in the US, and schools are paying big money for its services.

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Earlier Picks

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