Techmeme
September 23, 2020, 9:10 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Leaked audio recordings and internal posts show Mark Zuckerberg's balancing act, as employees demand a harder line against Trump but users want the opposite  —  In 2020, Facebook would be roiled by a global pandemic, internal protests over racial injustice, a deeply polarizing election …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google rolls out updates to Maps with a layer showing COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, with labels to indicate trends, coming to 220 countries and territories  —  Google today announced an update to Google Maps that will bring a new COVID-19 layer to the service to help you better understand the number of cases in a given area.
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
DOJ, in a rare legislative proposal, asks Congress to adopt a law weakening Section 230, in an effort to hold Facebook, Google, and others liable for content  —  The administration called on state attorneys general to open their own investigation on the same day it unveiled a legislative proposal …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 review: a big change for iPhones, with widgets, better notifications, and useful App Library, while iPad gets a more incremental update  —  It's time to blow up your iPhone's home screen  —  Apple spells out the significance of its new iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 updates right …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
David Yaffe-Bellany / Bloomberg:
ByteDance asks a US court for a preliminary injunction to prevent the US government from banning TikTok from app stores, as Trump's ban looms  —  - Chinese owner ByteDance seeks to block president's U.S. ban  — Keeps legal iron in fire as Oracle, Walmart pact works its way
Bloomberg:
Shopify says two “rogue members” of its support teams stole customer data from over 100 merchants; the company is working with the FBI to investigate  —  - Emails, names, addresses, order details may have been exposed  — E-commerce platform is working with FBI on investigation
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Twitter says it will begin testing audio DMs soon, after introducing support for audio in tweets, starting in Brazil  —  Shout into my DMs  —  After rolling out audio tweets for iOS in June, Twitter is now experimenting with the idea of letting people record and send voice messages through direct messages.
Bloomberg:
Sources detail what went wrong at Magic Leap, which raised $3.5B and failed to build its much-hyped AR headset, with most blame placed on founder Rony Abovitz  —  The augmented reality startup was undone by profligate spending and its own hype.  Investors finally lost patience when the pandemic struck.
Crystal Tse / Bloomberg:
GoodRx, a price comparison service for prescription drugs at pharmacies, closes up 50%+ after its IPO, raising $1.14B and valuing the company at $19.4B  —  GoodRx Holdings Inc., which operates a telemedicine site and platform to track drug prices, rose as much as 50% in its trading debut …
Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg:
SEC filing: Peter Thiel and Richard Li have created a SPAC called Bridgetown Holdings Ltd., targeting SE Asia investment, and are seeking to raise $575M via IPO  —  - Bridgetown also backed by Richard Li's Pacific Century  — SPAC aims to raise $575 million, according to filing
More: Axios
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Samsung unveils its Galaxy S20 FE, with a 6.5-inch display, Snapdragon 865, 120Hz refresh rate, starting at $699 for sub-6GHz model or $749 for mmWave 5G model  —  The ‘Fan Edition’ will be available October 2nd  —  Samsung already makes three different kinds of Galaxy S20 phones: a regular, a Plus, and an Ultra.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Instagram updates Reels with longer videos, an extended timer, and better editing tools, after reports the TikTok competitor is failing to gain traction  —  Instagram is today rolling out a few changes to its TikTok competitor, Reels, after early reviews of the feature criticized its design …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Nick Clegg denies Facebook could pull out of EU over data transfer ban, saying legal action is “to send a signal” that the ban could be a disaster for the EU  —  Facebook's head of global policy has denied the tech giant could close its service to Europeans if local regulators order …
Sarah Jeong / OneZero:
Q&A with Casey Newton on leaving The Verge to start a newsletter on Substack called Platformer, after many years as The Verge's Silicon Valley editor  —  Sarah Jeong talks to Newton about the details of his deal, subscription journalism, and the magic of email

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