Techmeme
August 8, 2020, 12:20 PM

Top News

Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Trump signs an executive order to block all transactions with ByteDance and WeChat starting Sept. 20, just 5 days after Microsoft's deadline to acquire TikTok  —  Microsoft is currently in talks to acquire the company  —  President Trump has signed a new executive order …
More: The Verge, New York Times, TikTok, CNN, I, Cringely, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, The Guardian, NBC News, The White House, The Guardian, CNET, New York Times, The Verge, Ars Technica, Access Now, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, CNBC, Washington Post, Reuters, BIG by Matt Stoller, The Irish Times, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong Free Press HKFP, Ubergizmo, PYMNTS.com, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Nikkei Asian Review, ExtremeTech, Bloomberg, CCN.com, Social Media Today, Axios, Wired, International Business Times, Android Central, TheStreet, Music Technology Policy, Nikkei Asian Review, Techdirt, Pocketnow, Adweek, Washington Post, Polygon, BBC, Tom's Guide, The Diplomat, Fortune, CNBC, iMore, PCWorld, Business Insider, Morning Brew, The Daily Dot, KnowTechie, Silicon Valley Business …, Politico, Gizmodo, equalocean.com, OnMSFT.com, The Startup, iPhone in Canada Blog, Android Headlines, CoinGeek, Ledger Insights, 9to5Mac, Variety, Financial Times, and Coinspeaker
New York Times:
Intelligence agencies don't see TikTok as a major security issue, see the claimed risks as largely theoretical, and view companies like Huawei as larger threats  —  Even as the White House moves against the Chinese social media app, the intelligence agencies do not see it as a major issue along the lines of Huawei.
Financial Times:
Olivia Solon / NBC News:
Internal docs: Facebook removed “strikes” so that at least 2 conservative pages, from PragerU and Diamond & Silk, dodged penalties under misinformation policies  —  Facebook has allowed conservative news outlets and personalities to repeatedly spread false information without facing …
Steven Levy / Wired:
Interview with Bill Gates on COVID-19, Trump, last week's antitrust meeting, Mark Zuckerberg, misinformation, and the “poison chalice” of the TikTok deal  —  The techie-turned-philanthropist on vaccines, Trump, and why social media is “a poisoned chalice.”
Elamin Abdelmahmoud / BuzzFeed News:
Companies like Facebook and Twitter, which have positioned themselves as the new public square, should absolutely be questioned on their role in cancel culture  —  Last week, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan asked a question at a Congressional hearing that seemed to come out of nowhere.
Steven Levy / Wired:
Interview with Color of Change leader Rashad Robinson on the Facebook ad boycott, meeting with Zuckerberg, working with the company, and more  —  Rashad Robinson, an organizer behind the Stop Hate for Profit boycott, says civil rights groups can't be left to police the company by themselves.
Jackie Snow / Wall Street Journal:
How online sellers, including Amazon and GOAT, are using AI to spot counterfeit goods, with the help of authentication startups like Entrupy  —  When Olivia Matthaei, a consignment store sales clerk, needs to check whether a designer handbag is authentic, she knows the drill.
Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:
US government contractor Anomaly Six collects and sells location data from hundreds of millions of phones globally via an SDK that is embedded in 500+ apps  —  Anomaly Six has ties to military, intelligence agencies and draws location data from more than 500 apps with hundreds of millions of users

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More News

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
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Earlier Picks

New York Times:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: