Techmeme
February 10, 2021, 4:30 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Facebook says it will test a reduction of political content in News Feed for some users in Canada, Brazil, and Indonesia this week, and the US in coming weeks  —  News feeds will start getting less political content in Canada, Brazil and Indonesia, the social network said, with the change reaching the U.S. in coming weeks.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Twitter says it has suspended 500+ accounts in India for violating rules but has not taken any action on accounts of journalists, activists, and politicians  —  Twitter said on Wednesday it has taken actions on more than 500 accounts and reduced visibility of some hashtags in India …
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Sources: Facebook is building an audio chat product, currently in the earliest stages of development, that is similar to Clubhouse  —  The social network, which has a history of cloning its competitors, has started working on an audio chat product.  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is building …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Ax Sharma / BleepingComputer:
A researcher was able to breach 35+ companies, including Microsoft and Apple, using a software supply chain attack that leveraged an open source ecosystem flaw  —  A researcher managed to breach over 35 major companies' internal systems, including Microsoft, Apple, PayPal, Shopify, Netflix …
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Apple has partnered with TSMC to develop advanced micro OLED displays that are built directly onto wafers, which makes them thin and light  —  IPhone maker works on tech for augmented reality devices at secretive Taiwan lab  —  TAOYUAN, Taiwan — Apple has partnered …
David Yaffe-Bellany / Bloomberg:
Biden administration asks a federal judge to put litigation over Trump's proposed TikTok ban on hold while it undertakes a review  —  The Biden administration asked a federal judge in Washington to put on hold the litigation over a ban on the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok that was pursued by former president Donald Trump.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Europol, working with US, UK, and others, says 10 people have been arrested for allegedly stealing $100M in cryptocurrency from celebrities via SIM-swap attacks  —  Eight men were arrested in England and Scotland as part of an investigation into a series of SIM swapping attacks targeting US celebrities.
Justine Calma / The Verge:
Tesla's $1.5B bitcoin purchase conflicts with its environmental goals, as mining the cryptocurrency consumes massive amounts of energy by design  —  Tesla's banking on a cryptocurrency that's inherently inefficient  —  Tesla just gave bitcoin a big boost that's likely to result …
Financial Times:
Saqib Shah / Engadget:
Google launches Google News Showcase in UK and Argentina, after debuting the service in Australia last week, and says it now has over 450 publications globally  —  Google News Showcase is starting to roll out to more countries worldwide, including the UK and Argentina, on the heels of its Australian launch last week.
Sharon Otterman / New York Times:
How software developers in NY took action to build better websites for scheduling vaccine appointments, after government websites proved to be not user-friendly  —  New Yorkers with tech skills were appalled when they tried to make vaccine appointments for older relatives.  They knew there was a better way.
Bloomberg:
Satya Nadella says social media platforms need clearer laws to help decide whether controversial accounts, like Donald Trump's, have a place on their services  —  U.S. technology companies should be ready to face greater global competition—including from China, Nadella says
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Twitter says it expects expenses growth of 25%+ in 2021, alongside a 20% workforce bump; forecasts user growth to slow to the low double digits after Q1  —  - Twitter's stock was flat in after-hours trading on Tuesday after the company reported its fourth-quarter earnings …
Ben Miller / New York Business Journal:
NYC-based lottery ticket app Jackpocket, available in nine US states, raises $50M Series C, bringing its total raised to $79.6M  —  Jackpocket, the app that lets users play lottery games in nine different states, said it's raised $50 million in Series C funding.
Sky Sports:
Instagram to impose stricter penalties, including removing accounts, to prevent abusive messages in DMs, after racist abuse was directed at footballers  —  Instagram to remove accounts of people who send abusive messages while developing new controls to help reduce the abuse people …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
In iOS 14.5 beta, Maps adds a feature letting US users report accidents, hazards, and speed checks along their route using Siri or CarPlay  —  The iOS 14.5 beta, available to developers and public beta testers, adds a new Apple Maps feature that lets you report accidents, hazards …
Marcella McCarthy / TechCrunch:
SmartHop, which helps interstate truckers make their routes more efficient and lucrative, raises $12M Series A led by USV, bringing its total raised to $16.5M  —  If you are a founder and launched a startup last February of 2020 just before the pandemic hit, then you may have felt like you were living the ultimate business nightmare.
More: FinSMEs and Writing
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Salesforce says “the 9-to-5 workday is dead” and that after the pandemic most staff will work a flex schedule, going into the office 1-3 days per week  —  ‘It no longer makes sense to expect employees to work an eight-hour shift.’  —  Cloud computing company Salesforce is joining …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Nobl9, which helps speed up feature development using software-defined Service Level Objectives, raises $21M Series B led by Battery Ventures and CRV  —  SLAs, SLOs, SLIs.  If there's one thing everybody in the business of managing software development loves, it's acronyms.

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