Techmeme
February 21, 2021, 9:00 AM

Top News

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Researchers discover macOS malware dubbed “Silver Sparrow” on at least 30K Macs, which includes a native M1 version and leverages the Installer JavaScript API  —  With no payload, analysts are struggling to learn what this mature malware does.  —  A previously undetected piece …
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:
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Titan, which offers online investment management services to both accredited and unaccredited investors, raises $12.5M Series A led by General Catalyst  —  Titan, a startup that is building a retail investment management platform aimed at millennials, has closed on $12.5 million in a Series …
More: Titan and FinSMEs
Sheldon Chanel / The Guardian:
Facebook's Australia ban is acute for people in places like Fiji, who rely on phone plans with cheap Facebook access as going to news websites costs more data  —  Media experts fear that communities reliant on the site for information will suffer significant impact
Ian Carlos Campbell / The Verge:
Reuters:
Brazil-based Descomplica, which offers online undergraduate courses and test prep for university and civil service entrance exams, raises ~$83M led by SoftBank  —  A group of investors led by Softbank Group has invested 450 million reais ($83 million) in Brazilian test-prep startup Descomplica …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Twitch replaced the audio for Metallica's “For Whom The Bell Tolls” with folk music during the band's BlizzCon livestream, presumably to avoid a DMCA notice  —  The Twitch Gaming stream gave us this beautiful moment  —  Despite its later-than-usual timing and going completely virtual …
Erika Hayasaki / New York Times:
An in-depth look at Amazon's ubiquitous presence in California's Inland Empire, with 16 facilities, as COVID-19 spurs Amazon workers nationwide to organize  —  Covid-19 has cemented the e-commerce giant's hold on the economy — but it has also spurred employees all around the country to organize.
Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
For many services, moderating content has become an existential crisis; some services are even establishing rules that pre-empt the need for costly moderation  —  Content moderation rules used to be a question of taste.  Now, they can determine a service's prospects for survival.

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More News

Eric Benjamin Seufert / Mobile Dev Memo:
Corey Dickinson / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Shen Lu / Protocol: