Techmeme
January 16, 2021, 5:20 PM

Top News

New York Times:
How a group of Dorsey's lieutenants overcame his reluctance to ban Trump's account when it became clear Trump was using his Twitter presence to incite violence  —  Jack Dorsey, the chief executive, had reservations about locking the president's account.  But the calls for violence that his tweets provoked were too overwhelming.
Nellie Bowles / New York Times:
Interviews with more than two dozen tech execs and workers who have left San Francisco for other parts of the US over the last year amid a rise in remote work  —  As a tech era draws to an end, more workers and companies are packing up.  What comes next?  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The Bay Area struck a hard bargain with its tech workers.
Heather Knight / San Francisco Chronicle:
Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson calls out tech leaders for bailing on SF and being rude about it as they leave, says he is staying and working to make the city better  —  There are plenty of ways to leave a party.  —  You can quietly say your thanks and goodbyes and be on your way.  You can stay a while to help clean up.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
WhatsApp to delay new privacy policy by three months following widespread confusion over whether the policy would mandate data sharing with Facebook  —  The new update will now go out on May 15th  —  WhatsApp on Friday announced a three-month delay of a new privacy policy originally slated …
Alex Pasternack / Fast Company:
A look at the raging debate inside Wikipedia, where neutrality is prized above all, on what to call the attack on the Capitol  —  On the afternoon of January 6, as a giant crowd began to swarm the U.S. Capitol, Jason Moore, a 36-year-old digital strategist, was at home in Portland, Oregon, switching between CNN and MSNBC.
Tom Roston / OneZero :
BuzzFeed News:
Facebook says it is temporarily banning ads for gun accessories and military gear through next week's inauguration “out of an abundance of caution”  —  Following complaints from Senators and employees, Facebook on Saturday said it was temporarily halting ads for gun accessories …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Parler is not down due to a single company but because the market chose not to do business with it because it's toxic, which is the nature of a free market  —  I've delayed writing deeper thoughts on the total deplatforming of Parler, in part because there was so much else happening …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Galaxy Buds Pro review: good sound quality, voice detect feature is nice, but the touch controls are finicky and some features only work with Samsung devices  —  They don't win at any one thing, but they strike a great mix in terms of sound quality, ANC, and comfort
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
More than 20 current and former CD Projekt staff say development of Cyberpunk 2077 was marred by unchecked ambition, poor planning, and technical shortcomings  —  CD Projekt SA Chief Executive Officer Marcin Iwiński made a public mea culpa this week about the disastrous rollout of the video game Cyberpunk 2077 in December.
Bloomberg:
Miami PD says it is using facial recognition tech from Clearview AI to identify Capitol rioters, raising concerns among civil liberty and privacy advocates  —  - Citizens and police sift online trove to find Capitol mob  — Facial recognition software used by one police department

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
Building a more inclusive web experience: Our journey toward better accessibility  —  Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)Technology has the power to connect, empower, and transform lives, but only if it's built for all.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

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More News

Wall Street Journal:
Tom Warren / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
The Information:
Lauren Feiner / CNBC: