Techmeme
February 12, 2021, 2:20 AM

Top News

Will Oremus / OneZero :
Clubhouse employs an unusually aggressive user onboarding process, pressuring users to upload contacts before ranking those contacts based on total connections  —  The app pressures you to upload your phone's contacts — and makes them visible in surprising ways
William Turton / Bloomberg:
Some Black medical professionals who are voluntarily countering misinfo on Clubhouse about COVID-19 and its vaccine say they have been harassed and bullied  —  - Conspiracies flourish on app including about vaccines and 5G  — 'Hey, I was skeptical too, but here's where I am now'
Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:
Twitter's Spaces is well positioned to challenge Clubhouse as it's intuitive, a logical fit for Twitter, and adds a meaningful new experience to the Twitter app  —  Why Twitter's Clubhouse clone is poised to give the hottest app on the planet a run for its money.  —  I live a simple life with a few steadfast rules.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Google adds some of its Pixel-exclusive photo editing features to Google Photos, but they are paywalled behind Google One  —  Previously Pixel-exclusive features are coming to other devices — for a price  —  Google is adding some of its fancy, Pixel-exclusive editing features …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Microsoft President Brad Smith says the US and other countries should adopt Australia's proposed media rules, which require tech firms to pay for news content  —  Microsoft President Brad Smith told Axios in an interview that the U.S. and other countries should consider adopting media rules …
Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Disney says it now has 94.9M Disney+ subscribers  —  - Disney+ now has more than 94.9 million subscribers.  — Last quarter, the company said its streaming service will have 230 million to 260 million subscribers by 2024.  —  Disney announced Thursday that its streaming platform surpassed 94.9 million subscribers.
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Apple launches its first standalone Apple TV+ AR app, with a For All Mankind backstory and exclusive content for the latest iPad Pro and iPhone 12 Pro models  —  Apple's rumored augmented reality experience for Apple TV+ has arrived in the form of For All Mankind: Time Capsule.
Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
Starting with iOS 14.5, Apple will proxy the Safe Browsing service in Safari through its own servers instead of Google's to protect user data  —  Starting with iOS and iPadOS 14.5, Apple will proxy Google's “Safe Browsing” service used in Safari through its own servers instead of relying …
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Facebook's Oversight Board co-chair says if the project is a success, other platforms and tech companies would be “more than welcome” to work with the board  —  The Facebook Oversight Board has only been operational for a short time, but the nascent project is already looking ahead.
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Twitter changes its position and says it will add labels to the personal accounts of heads of state starting next week  —  It's also adding more specificity to the text in the labels that identify such accounts  —  Beginning next week, Twitter will add labels to the personal accounts …
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Bumble closes up 63.5% on its first day of trading, giving it a valuation of about $13B, after raising $2.15B in its IPO  —  - Shares of Bumble, which operates a dating app under the same name, began trading Thursday.  — The company's stock started trading up nearly 77% at $76 per share.
Jenny Leonard / BloombergQuint:
Biden administration says it is working to address the global chip shortage; Biden is expected to sign an EO directing a supply chain review in the coming weeks  —  (Bloomberg) — The Biden administration is working to address the global semiconductor shortage that has caused auto manufacturers …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Facebook says bullying and harassment takedowns reached 6.3M in Q4 2020, up from 2.8M in Q4 2019, due to increased reviewer capacity and AI improvements  —  It's ramping up moderation after a COVID-19 dip last year  —  On Thursday, Facebook released a new moderation transparency report showing …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Cybersecurity firm Proofpoint filed a countersuit against Facebook after Facebook forced Namecheap to hand over phishing awareness URLs mimicking Facebook URL  —  Facebook's crackdown on lookalike domains last year has touched some of the domains security firm Proofpoint was using for security awareness training exercises.
Adam Tempkin / Bloomberg:
SEC filing: Figure, which uses blockchain to provide loans and is led by Mike Cagney, ex-CEO of SoFi, plans to raise $250M via a SPAC  —  - Ex-Sofi CEO Cagney's blockchain fintech Figure creates SPAC  — Ellington Management has ‘economic interest’ in effort: filing
More: CoinDesk
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
US House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent a letter to Apple raising concerns over reports that App Privacy labels offer “misleading and false information”  —  The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce this week sent a letter to Apple [PDF] inquiring about the accuracy …

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Earlier Picks

Tom Warren / The Verge:
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