Techmeme
February 28, 2020, 9:30 PM

Top News

BuzzFeed News:
Apple disables the iOS developer account of Clearview AI for using the Developer Enterprise Program to distribute its app among its reported 2,200+ customers  —  Apple has disabled the iOS application of Clearview AI — the facial recognition company that claims to have amassed a database …
BuzzFeed News:
Sean Endicott / Windows Central:
Microsoft adds productivity features to Cortana, drops consumer skills including music, connected home, and third-party skills in the upcoming Windows 10 update  —  Cortana is converting to a productivity assistant, meaning Cortana skills are on the way out.  —  What you need to know
Nicole Wetsman / The Verge:
Amazon restricts employee travel in US, Google restricts travel to Italy, Iran, Japan, and South Korea as a Google employee in Zurich is diagnosed with COVID-19  —  A Google employee in Switzerland has a confirmed case of the virus  —  Google is preventing employees from traveling to Italy …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook to start rolling out a redesign for Messenger next week that removes the Discover tab, reorients the People tab around Stories, and hides chat bots  —  Chat bots were central to Facebook Messenger's strategy three years ago.  Now they're being hidden from view in the app along with games and businesses.
Dan Primack / Axios:
Bernie Sanders introduces a bill that would tax stock options at vesting, not at exercise, for those making $130K+ and vesting $100K+ worth of stock per year  —  'Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced legislation that would tax nonqualified stock options at vesting …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Elliott Management has taken a “sizable” stake in Twitter, nominated four directors to Twitter's board, and seeks to replace CEO Jack Dorsey  —  - Elliott has nominated four directors for Twitter's board  — Hedge fund has had ‘constructive discussions’ with company
Margaret Harding McGill / Axios:
FCC proposes fines of $91M for T-Mobile, $57M for AT&T, $48M for Verizon, and $12M for Sprint for sharing customers' location information with outside parties  —  The Federal Communications Commission proposed fines totaling more than $200 million against the nation's biggest wireless carriers …
CNN:
Twitter verified the account of a fake candidate for Congress created by a 17-year-old to test its election integrity efforts; the account is now suspended  —  New York (CNN Business)Andrew Walz calls himself a “proven business leader” and a “passionate advocate for students.”
Sarah Tavel:
The competition between GrubHub, DoorDash, Postmates, and UberEats illustrates the importance of expanding supply and focusing on growth over profits  —  In 2011, Grubhub* was one of the most innovative companies in the world.  —  The company had just successfully raised $20 million to expand …
Bloomberg:
TikTok, with 145M US downloads, claims Chipotle-sponsored #boorito hashtag had 3.9B views; Captiv8: hashtag campaigns cost ~$150K, homescreen takeover $50K/day  —  Popular creators are paid to promote hashtags as mobile video app develops more targeting tools for advertisers

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
How EQ plays a defining role in workplace communication  —  What if everyone you worked with had a psychic ability to understand how you're feeling and respond accordingly?  Wouldn't that be great?
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.

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More News

Jeffrey Dastin / Reuters:

Earlier Picks

Varun Mishra / Counterpoint Research:
Maddie Stone / OneZero :
Carli Velocci / Windows Central:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge: