Techmeme
February 20, 2021, 3:15 PM

Top News

Shen Lu / Protocol:
An ex-ByteDance employee recounts the inner workings of the company's complex content moderation system and the role of China's internet censorship policies  —  This is the story of Li An, a pseudonymous former employee at ByteDance, as told to Protocol's Shen Lu.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Margaret Mitchell, co-lead of Google's Ethical AI team, says she has been fired; Google says an employee conduct review confirmed multiple policy violations  —  Margaret Mitchell, the co-lead of Google's Ethical AI team, says that the company has fired her following an investigation into her use of corporate email.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Report: Google's AI Chief Jeff Dean apologizes in an email after Timnit Gebru's exit, saying his team should have managed the situation “with more sensitivity”  —  Google told employees Friday it has wrapped up its investigation into the ouster of prominent AI researcher Timnit Gebru.
Ian Carlos Campbell / The Verge:
App Annie: Australian Broadcasting Corporation's news app was briefly the most downloaded app on the AU App Store after Facebook's news ban and is now second  —  Readers may be going directly to the source  —  The Australian Broadcast Company's ABC News app shot to the top of Apple's App Store charts …
Eric Benjamin Seufert / Mobile Dev Memo:
Apple's app tracking transparency pushes publishers like Zynga to acquire or build their own ad tech, creating first party walled gardens that Apple can't touch  —  , Apple is diminishing the ability for advertising to be personalized by limiting the use of third-party data for that purpose.
Corey Dickinson / Bloomberg:
As Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Uber, Amazon, and others play larger roles in OpenStreetMap, hobbyists fear private sector will overshadow their work  —  What do Lyft, Facebook, the International Red Cross, the U.N., the government of Nepal and Pokémon Go have in common?
Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World:
Interview with founder of Koo, a microblogging service for regional language speakers in India that recently passed 3M users, fueled in large part by Modi's BJP  —  Aprameya Radhakrishna made Koo for local-language speakers.  Overnight, Hindu nationalists drove its success.  —  • BANGALORE, INDIA
Financial Times:
US video streaming giants are finding it more challenging to cash in on India, amid outcries over edgy content and difficulties in convincing consumers to pay  —  Netflix, Amazon and Disney tackle greater scrutiny from censors as they engage in a fierce pricing war
Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal:
Dave Gershgorn / OneZero :
AI researchers doubt the efficacy and ethics of emotion recognition tech, as studies show facial expressions match a person's emotions only 20%-30% of the time  —  People's facial expressions line up with their emotions less than half the time  —  OneZero's General Intelligence is a roundup …

Sponsor Posts

Microsoft:
6 AI Trends to Watch in 2025  —  Explore insight from Microsoft on key AI advancements that will shape our work and daily lives in the coming year.
Genesys:
The Levels of Experience Orchestration  —  What's your vision for the future of customer experience?  See how AI can transform your business - and take you to the next level.
Zoho:
Declutter your organizational storage with ease  —  Data takes up storage space, whether it's on your desk or in your digital workspace.  Over time, unnecessary files, videos, and documents from past projects pile up …
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Tue. 01/21 - TikTok Lives?
The day's tech news, every day. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:15 PM ET, February 20, 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

Levi Sumagaysay / MarketWatch:
Dan Primack / Axios:

Earlier Picks

Rich Stanton / PC Gamer:
Wolfie Zhao / The Block:
Bloomberg:
Ryan Browne / CNBC: