Techmeme
December 9, 2020, 9:50 PM

Top News

Federal Trade Commission:
FTC, in coalition with 46 state AGs, plus Guam and DC, sues Facebook, alleging Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions were used to stifle competition  —  Agency challenges Facebook's multi-year course of unlawful conduct  —  The Federal Trade Commission today sued Facebook …
More: New York Times, Federal Trade Commission, NBC News, CNBC, Ars Technica, The Verge, Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed News, CNET, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, The Register, ZDNet, CNET, Slate, OneZero , Politico, Fortune, AdExchanger, Tom's Hardware, Protocol, Gizmodo, International Business Times, Thurrott, TechCrunch, Forrester, ABC News, Washington Post, SiliconANGLE, Business Insider, Reclaim The Net, Platformer, MIT Technology Review, Light Reading, SlashGear, PC Gamer, Ubergizmo, Forbes, Social Media Today, IGN, Politico, Axios, MSPoweruser, 9to5Mac, The Next Web, BBC, Tom's Guide, iDownloadBlog.com, Mashable, GeekWire, Road to VR, iMore, Neowin, Bloomberg, Axios, Business Insider, Bloomberg, and The Logic
NY State Attorney General:
New York AG Letitia James leads a coalition of 48 AGs in suing Facebook, alleging the company uses a “buy or bury” approach toward its competitors  —  AG James Leads Bipartisan Coalition of 48 Attorneys General Charging Anticompetitive Conduct  —  Facebook Thwarted Competition, Reduced Consumer Privacy for Profits
The Verge:
FTC's antitrust lawsuit against Facebook seeks to unwind Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions, force Facebook to seek approval for future acquisitions, and more  —  New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the lawsuit on Wednesday  —  On Wednesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced …
Jennifer Newstead / About Facebook:
Facebook responds to the FTC and state AGs, saying the lawsuits they've brought forth are “revisionist history” and their antitrust case is unprecedented  —  Billions of people use Facebook's products every day.  To earn their time and attention, we compete fiercely against many other services across the world.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Ina Fried / Axios:
Internal memo: Sundar Pichai apologizes over the handling of AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru's departure and says he will investigate  —  Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized Wednesday for the company's handling of the departure of AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru and said he would investigate …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Microsoft says its cloud gaming service, as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, will come to iOS via web browser in spring of 2021  —  Microsoft has confirmed that Xbox cloud gaming is coming to iOS in 2021.  In a new blog post today, the company says that cloud gaming as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate …
YouTube Official Blog:
YouTube says it will remove any content published from today that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the 2020 US Presidential election outcome  —  Over the past weeks and months, we've seen people coming to YouTube to learn more about where and how to vote or learning more about a candidate or an issue.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
WhatsApp says that Apple's new privacy labels are anti-competitive; Apple responds by confirming its own apps will include the “nutrition labels”  —  Facebook's global messaging service WhatsApp is protesting Apple's requirement that app owners submit information about the user data …
Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:
Apple and Google to ban mobile apps that use location trackers from data broker X-Mode, after it was revealed X-Mode provided data to US government contractors  —  After the data broker came under scrutiny for national-security work, tech giants tell app developers to remove trackers or lose access to their operating systems
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
DoorDash closes at $189.51, up 85% from its $102 pricing, after popping to $182 as the shares began trading, giving a valuation of $60.2B  —  - Shares of DoorDash, a leading food delivery app, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.  — The stock began trading at $182 per share and closed at $189.51.
Kellen Browning / New York Times:
Twitch unveils new guidelines to crack down on hateful conduct and sexual harassment, following a yearlong review, which take effect in January  —  The livestreaming site announced new guidelines after contending with claims that its streamers were too easily abused.
D. M. Moore / Polygon:
AT&T has agreed to sell Japanese anime streaming service Crunchyroll to Sony's Funimation Global Group for $1.18B  —  The move consolidates the anime industry in a major way  —  On Wednesday, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. announced that AT&T and WarnerMedia agreed to sell Crunchyroll to Funimation.
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Squire, which develops software for barbershops, raises $59M Series C led by Iconiq Capital at a $250M valuation, just months after raising a $34M Series B  —  Squire, a startup that sells software to barbershops, has raised $59 million in a round led by Iconiq Capital.
Nicole Lee / Engadget:
Amazon begins rolling out a new Fire TV UI with user profiles, a simpler design, and more  —  Back when Amazon announced its latest Fire TV products — namely, the third-generation Fire TV Stick ($40) and the Fire TV Stick Lite ($30) — it also said it was going to roll out a new Fire TV interface this year.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Parallel Domain, which is developing a synthetic data generation tool for accelerating the development of computer vision tech, raises $11M Series A  —  Parallel Domain, a startup developing a synthetic data generation platform for AI and machine learning applications, today emerged from stealth with $11 million in funding.
Sasha Lekach / Mashable:
Uber says it is rolling out Uber Connect, its same-day, no-contact local package delivery service introduced in April, to 2,400+ new cities and towns in the US  —  Back in April, Uber was scrambling to provide something for its users who were no longer ordering ride-shares because, well, many of us were stuck at home.

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Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

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