Techmeme
January 17, 2021, 10:30 PM

Top News

Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
GitHub apologizes to the employee it has fired for using the term “Nazis” on Jan. 6 and offers him his job back, says the company's head of HR has resigned  —  The company is offering the employee his job back  —  GitHub is admitting that a Jewish employee was fired in error and is offering him his job back.
Washington Post:
Dating apps like Tinder and Bumble are banning users identified in photos from the Capitol riot, and some users are relaying incriminating evidence to the FBI  —  Bumble, Tinder and others are freezing out rioters with help from law enforcement — and, in some cases, their own photos.
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
Reuters:
Sources: in a flurry of parting actions against China, Trump's admin has notified Huawei suppliers including Intel that it's revoking licenses to sell to Huawei  —  NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration notified Huawei suppliers, including chipmaker Intel …
New York Times:
A look at the incentives, like guaranteed auction win percentages, that Facebook got from Google in the ad partnership that is now a focus of an antitrust suit  —  Facebook was going to compete with Google for some advertising sales but backed away from the plan after the companies cut a preferential deal, according to court documents.
Jason Snell / Six Colors:
Due to Apple's security limitations and additional work required, few developers are bothering to port Chrome extensions to Safari, despite WebExtensions API  —  At WWDC 2020, Apple announced it was going to support Chrome-style browser extensions (the WebExtensions API) in Safari.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
DuckDuckGo surpassed 100M daily search queries for the first time on Jan. 11; since August 2020, the search engine began seeing over 2B search queries per month  —  DuckDuckGo reaches historic milestone in a week when both Signal and Telegram saw a huge influx of new users.
Wall Street Journal:
Surging demand for laptops and 5G chips, alongside a boom in car sales, is fueling chip shortages and pushing prices higher, with older chips affected the most  —  Surging appetite for 5G smartphones, rebounding car sales squeeze semiconductor makers  —  Semiconductor companies are asking …
FinSMEs:
Frankfurt, Germany-based CLARK, which searches for the best insurance rates for its users, raises €69M Series C led by Tencent  —  Clark, a Frankfurt, Germany-based digital insurance manager, raised €69m in Series ​C funding.  —  The round was led by Tencent with participation …
Alex Danco:
A critique of Canada's tech startup ecosystem, whose growth is being held back by the mindset of angel investors, the government's SR&ED tax credits, and more  —  Toronto is not the next great startup scene.  Neither is Waterloo, or Vancouver, or anywhere in Canada.  —  I'm sorry that I have to write this.
Miriam Berger / Washington Post:
Iran blames legal and illegal crypto mining for massive blackouts in the country, shuts down a large, licensed Chinese-Iranian mining operation  —  Massive blackouts and smog have hit cities across Iran.  It's a toxic mix as the country, already under economic duress and suffocating U.S. sanctions …
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.
Nellie Bowles / New York Times:

Sponsor Posts

Termina:
AI Powered Diligence at Scale  —  VCs and founders deploy Termina AI Scans on >12% of all known series A+ deals to uncover hidden risks and opportunities.  Explore how you too can invest and build better companies with AI.
Zoho:
Set it, forget it, and stop worrying about form availability!  —  Let's say you have a booking form that you only want to be available during business hours, or you're hosting an event with a specific registration period …
SBS Comms:
Expect Better: SBS Comms  —  The media landscape is changing fast, so don't be slow — out with the old, in with the new.  SBS helps tech companies like GitHub, Cloudflare, Flexport, Ramp and more modernize comms and secure impactful results.
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.

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
The creator of WordPress opens up about becoming an internet villain, why he's taking a stand, and the future of open source | Matt Mullenweg (founder and CEO, Automattic)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
BG2 Pod:
Grok 3, AI Memory & Voice, China, DOGE, Public Market Pull Back
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 10/28 - GPT-4.5
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Invest Like the Best:
Doug Leone - Lessons from a Titan
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Understanding Elon Musk's polarizing ascent in the MAGA movement
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:30 PM ET, January 17, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Washington Post:
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Nick Statt / The Verge: