Techmeme
December 6, 2020, 9:25 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Source: investors in at least two mature Sequoia funds to see 11X returns on paper, after fees, and another is showing 8X returns, despite the pandemic  —  About a week before the coronavirus was declared a pandemic, one of the world's leading venture capital firms issued a dire prophecy.
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
How Biden's digital campaign, largely focused on positive, authentic messaging and “Facebook moms”, defeated Trump's “Death Star” digital operation  —  The campaign's empathetic digital strategy held up surprisingly well against President Trump's passionate digital following.
Jane Lytvynenko / BuzzFeed News:
This year disinformation about the pandemic, BLM protests, and the election divided the US, with the “Plandemic” as a case study of social networks' failures  —  Disinformation and its fallout have defined 2020, the year of the infodemic.  Month after month, self-serving social media companies …
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou / Bloomberg:
TikTok videos offering dubious financial advice are drawing millions of views, as young people increasingly turn to the app as a source of financial literacy  —  Buy several credit cards with different due dates.  Max out spending on the first one, use another to pay it off …
Kanishka Singh / Reuters:
Google says it pulled some Chrome extensions of IAC, the holding company behind services like Vimeo, for policy violations and is reviewing enforcement options  —  (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google said on Sunday it has removed a number of browser extensions of online conglomerate IAC/InterActive Corp for …
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
OnlyFans says it will generate $2B+ in sales in 2020, now has 85M users, is adding around 500K users a day, and is paying out $200M+ a month to its 1M+ creators  —  As Cardi B prepared the release for her new song “WAP,” she checked off all the usual components of her promotional plan …
Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian:
1,200+ Google employees and 1,500+ academic, industry, and civil supporters have signed a petition condemning the termination of AI scientist Timnit Gebru  —  More than 1,500 researchers also sign letter after Black expert on ethics says Google tried to suppress her research on bias
Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review:
Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review:
A growing number of civil lawyers in the US are developing litigation strategies to push back against automated systems that deny the poor basic services  —  A growing group of lawyers are uncovering, navigating, and fighting the automated systems that deny the poor housing, jobs, and basic services.
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Some police departments in California and Georgia have started using autonomous drones this year to track vehicles and people, raising civil rights questions  —  In one Southern California city, flying drones with artificial intelligence are aiding investigations while presenting new civil rights questions.

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Featured Podcasts

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Decoder with Nilay Patel:
How Trump's tariffs actually work on the ground
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Imposter syndrome is due for a rebrand
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How to make money in Washington, with Punchbowl's Jake Sherman
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Earlier Picks

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Bloomberg: