Techmeme
December 22, 2020, 4:30 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Draft lawsuit filed by ten US states last week says Facebook and Google agreed to “cooperate and assist one another” against possible antitrust action  —  Draft lawsuit quotes Facebook's Sandberg saying Google pact was a ‘big deal strategically’
Washington Post:
Sources: in the early stages of US antitrust investigations, Facebook offered to help others build a social networking competitor using its network and code  —  The company ramped up its lobbying, hired high-powered lawyers and launched a slew of internal initiatives as the government prepared to sue …
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Ripple CEO says the SEC will file a suit over the alleged sale of unlicensed securities and calls it a parting shot by the Trump administration  —  Ripple, one of the most important companies in the cryptocurrency industry, said Monday evening that the Securities and Exchange Commission …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Three VPNs popular with criminals and active for over a decade have had their servers and web domains seized by law enforcement from US, Germany, France, others  —  The three VPN services provided safe haven for cybercriminals to carry out ransomware attacks, web skimming operations, spearphishing, and account takeovers.
Alex Gallagher / NME:
The COVID-19 relief bill passed by Congress includes the Felony Streaming Bill, which makes illegal streaming for profit a felony, with up to 10 years jail time  —  Targeting illegal for-profit streaming providers, not individual users  —  The US Congress has passed a COVID-19 stimulus bill …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal:
Investigation details Amazon's campaigns over the years to steamroll rivals and partners, including those on its marketplace, sometimes with Bezos' involvement  —  CEO Jeff Bezos still runs the e-commerce giant with the drive of a startup trying to survive, and that strand of its corporate DNA is becoming a liability
Shoshana Wodinsky / Gizmodo:
Analysis: of the 60 biggest brands that paused Facebook ads in 2020, only ~10 continue to do so, and some of those have kept spending using other Facebook tools  —  This past summer, dozens of major brands pulled their ad dollars from Facebook in a protest of the company's handling of the hate speech and disinformation.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook's small advertisers say that the company's inflexible account blocking tools and lack of customer assistance is hurting their businesses  —  - Marketers find ads still running after losing account access  — Social network's automated tools ‘not perfect,’ company says
Jennifer Epstein / Bloomberg:
Biden transition team says Twitter told it current followers of @POTUS won't carry over to Biden, whose @POTUS account will start at zero, a reversal from 2017  —  - Followers were transfered to Trump from Obama in 2017  — First lady, press secretary accounts also reset to zero
Electronic Frontier Foundation:
The US government's proposal for crypto exchanges to collect identity data from users with self-hosted crypto wallets will expand the US' financial surveillance  —  One of the most important aspects of cryptocurrencies from a civil liberties perspective is that they can provide privacy protections for their users.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Group of 19 security firms and tech companies including Microsoft and McAfee form Ransomware Task Force to develop a standard framework to deal with ransomware  —  The newly-founded Ransomware Task Force will work to put together a standard framework for dealing with ransomware attacks.
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon says it will delay a planned raise in merchant fees for storing and shipping items until June 2021 in the US, EU, and Japan  —  - Largest online retailer to hold fees steady in U.S., EU, Japan  — UPS, FedEx had already announced shipping price increases
Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal:
SEC approves NYSE's plan to let companies raise capital and issue new shares via direct listings, potentially helping startups save on bank fees  —  Proposal lets companies raise capital through direct listings  —  The Securities and Exchange Commission will allow companies …
More: BloombergTweets: @skupor, @bgurley, @bgurley, @bgurley, and @bgurley
Raphael Satter / Reuters:
Microsoft, Alphabet, Cisco, LinkedIn, GitHub, VMware, and the Internet Association file an amicus brief in support of WhatsApp in the WhatsApp v. NSO Group case  —  (Reuters) - Tech giants Microsoft, Alphabet , Cisco, and VMware on Monday joined Facebook's legal battle against hacking company NSO …
Simon Parkin / New Yorker:
Q&A with Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto on what excites him about his work, his strengths and weaknesses as a boss, avoiding abuse of power, ambitions, more  —  The legendary designer on rejecting violence in games, trying to be a good boss, and building Nintendo's Disneyland.
New York Times:

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