Techmeme
January 28, 2021, 2:40 PM

Top News

Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC:
Jordan Pearson / VICE:
According to a pop-up on Robinhood's app homepage, 56% of its users own at least some GameStop stock  —  With the market in chaos, even Robinhood has now turned on retail investors pumping dark horse stocks.  —  Jordan Pearson  —  Robinhood, the fee-free investment app that has helped Redditors …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
r/WallStreetBets was made private by moderators for about an hour, but is back online; Discord banned r/WallStreetBets' server, claiming hate speech violations  —  It went dark for nearly an hour  —  The r/WallStreetBets subreddit's own moderators made it private for a little less than an hour …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
The Information:
Sources: Facebook is preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple for forcing developers to abide by App Store rules that Apple's own apps don't have to follow  —  A long-simmering public dispute between Facebook and Apple has neared a boiling point.  With the aid of outside legal counsel …
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac:
Tim Cook tells EU data protection conference that valuing engagement over privacy leads to “polarization” and “violence” and such businesses need reform  —  Speaking at the EU data protection conference CPDP today, Tim Cook gave the opening keynote with his talk entitled …
Megan Graham / CNBC:
Dylan Byers / NBC News:
Facebook's Oversight Board issues first-ever rulings, which Facebook said it will abide by, overturning four out of the five cases it reviewed  —  Facebook's Oversight Board on Thursday issued its first round of decisions, overturning several of the company's decisions to remove posts …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Facebook adds opt-in biometric fingerprint, face, or iris scan authentication for WhatsApp on desktop or web  —  WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned popular messaging app with more than 2 billion users, has been getting a lot of heat and losing users in recent weeks after announcing (and then delaying) changes to how it uses your data.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
IDC says Apple has shipped 90.1M iPhones in Q1, the largest number of shipments in a single quarter since IDC started tracking smartphones  —  - The iPhone is booming: Sales were up 17% year-over-year to a whopping $65.6 billion in a single quarter.  — Research firm IDC estimates …
Apple:
TechCrunch:
Apple says its App Tracking Transparency feature, which will be enabled by default, will roll out with iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and tvOS 14 updates in early spring  —  Apple has shared a few more details about its much-discussed privacy changes in iOS 14.  The company first announced at WWDC …
Danny Palmer / ZDNet:
Europol, the FBI, and other law enforcement agencies worldwide have seized control of malware botnet Emotet's infrastructure and disrupted it from the inside  —  Europol and FBI among agencies that have taken control of the botnet infrastructure used by cyber criminals behind some of the most prolific malware and ransomware attacks.
Bijan Stephen / The Verge:
YouTube is testing the ability to make short clips, from 5 to 60 seconds, of livestreams or videos, starting today on desktop and Android devices  —  Another standard live-streaming feature makes its way over to the online video giant  —  YouTube is introducing clipping …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: WeWork is in talks to merge with a SPAC at a valuation of around $10B, more than a year after its high-profile failure to launch an IPO  —  A deal could value the company at some $10 billion  —  WeWork is in talks to combine with a special-purpose acquisition company …
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Gowalla, now resurrected as a social AR startup, raises a $4M seed round co-led by Google's venture arm GV and Spark Capital  —  The newly resurrected Gowalla wants to realize its mobile dreams from the early-aughts in an augmented reality world, and they've raised some new funding to make it happen.
Michael McSweeney / The Block:
Coinbase officially announces its intent to become a public company via direct listing  —  Coinbase has made official its plan to go public by way of a direct listing, according to a blog post released Thursday by the U.S.-based crypto exchange.  —  “Coinbase Global, Inc. today announced …
Bloomberg:
SoftBank says it will invest $100M in Miami-based tech companies; PitchBook says the region attracted $1.06B in venture investment last year  —  SoftBank Group Corp. committed $100 million in funding for companies in the Miami area, bolstering a beach-side metropolis that has been aggressively courting …
Facebook:
Facebook reports Q4: $28.1B revenue, up 33% YoY, 1.84B DAUs, up 11% YoY, 2.6B people used a Facebook service daily, up 15% YoY; headcount up 30% YoY to 58,604  —  Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) today reported financial results for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2020.

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Google:
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UiPath:
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Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC: