Techmeme
December 23, 2019, 6:40 AM

Top News

New York Times:
US officials say ToTok, a chat app gaining popularity around the world, is a spying tool by the government of UAE; Google and Apple have now removed the app  —  ToTok, an Emirati messaging app that has been downloaded to millions of phones, is the latest escalation of a digital arms race.
The Verge:
The 84 biggest flops, fails, and dead dreams of the 2010s, from the Fire phone and Google Glass to the undoing of net neutrality in the US  —  A decade of failures  —  The world never changes quite the way you expect.  But at The Verge, we've had a front-row seat while technology …
Wired:
San Francisco's surveillance law, which banned city agencies from using facial recognition in May, has been amended to allow for Face ID on city-issued iPhones  —  San Francisco quietly amends its municipal surveillance law to allow for Apple's Face ID, though the ban on facial recognition still applies.
Reuters:
US Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices citing a cybersecurity threat, will block devices with the app from the Navy Marine Corps Intranet  —  (Reuters) - Earlier this week the United States Navy banned the social media app TikTok from government-issued mobile devices …
Davey Alba / New York Times:
Facebook and Twitter shut down a network of fake accounts using AI-generated faces to “masquerade” as Americans; Facebook links the network to Epoch Media Group  —  Researchers said the profiles, linked to the Epoch Media Group, used photos generated by artificial intelligence in a preview of an …
New York Times:
Text messages show how the head of DOJ antitrust division Makan Delrahim steered the T-Mobile-Sprint deal and played a crucial role in getting Dish involved  —  Text messages indicate that Makan Delrahim, the head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, worked behind the scenes to help the companies pull off a deal.
The Verge:
Matt Brown / Jalopnik:
California DMV to start approving permits for self-driving delivery vehicles, with and without backup drivers, from Jan. 17, both for testing and commercial use  —  Are you ready to be stuck in traffic behind armies of autonomous delivery robots?  No?  Well good news: if you live in California …
Reuters:
German classifieds group Scout24 agrees to sell its European automotive digital marketplace, AutoScout24, to private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for $3.2B  —  German classifieds group Scout24 said on Tuesday it had agreed to sell AutoScout24 to private equity investor Hellman & Friedman …

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
CIO challenge 6: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
(BNS) How To Know When To Kill Your Startup
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:40 AM ET, December 23, 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

Elias Groll / Wired:
Lisa Kaplan / Lawfare:

Earlier Picks

Sarah Nassauer / Wall Street Journal:
Karen Weise / New York Times: