Techmeme
February 28, 2021, 10:50 PM

Top News

Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Verizon support advised its users in a now-deleted tweet to “turn on LTE”, which would turn off 5G, to preserve battery life  —  This, despite the carrier's relentless promotion of its 5G network  —  Despite its relentless promotion of 5G phones and the fact that it spent …
Jason Aten / Inc.com:
A look at Clubhouse's privacy flaws: room audio is “temporarily” saved for trust and safety purposes, user accounts or personal data can't be deleted, and more  —  Clubhouse was sort of perfectly made for the pandemic.  People aren't going out, and they're desperately searching for social connections and entertainment.
Patrick McGee / Financial Times:
Skydio raises $171M led by a16z at a valuation of $1B+, the first significant fundraising by a US-based drone maker after China's DJI was blacklisted by the US  —  Placement of DJI on trade blacklist has opened new opportunities for US manufacturers  —  California-based Skydio has become …
Chris Dixon / Andreessen Horowitz:
NFTs are great for creators because they remove intermediaries, enable granular price tiering, and eliminate customer acquisition costs by making users owners  —  In his classic 2008 essay “1000 True Fans,” Kevin Kelly predicted that the internet would transform the economics of creative activities:
Naomi Klein / The Intercept:
Big tech is aiding India's govt-led crackdown on climate activists, from banned social media accounts, to sharing data and allowing state officials' hate speech  —  The bank of cameras that camped outside Delhi's sprawling Tihar jail was the sort of media frenzy you would expect to await …
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
How ACLU and activist Kade Crockford convinced Massachusetts lawmakers to pass a police reform bill banning the use of facial recognition tech in criminal cases  —  Massachusetts is one of the first states to put legislative guardrails around the use of facial recognition technology in criminal investigations.
Mario Gabriele / The Generalist:
How Reddit, at ~$6B arguably one of the most undervalued companies in world, can unlock the next step-change in valuation and protect against niche competitors  —  One of social media's oldest companies is also its most undervalued. … ‍  —  “You ever stop to realize how fragile all this is?”
Will Oremus / OneZero :
Twitter Super Follows and Clubhouse portend a shift from algorithmic, scale-focused, low-attention feeds to low-volume, high-attention relationships with users  —  Products like Clubhouse and Twitter's “Super Follows” offer a new kind of engagement  —  Open Facebook, Instagram, TikTok …
Ben Smith / New York Times:
Profile of Discovery+, which has hit 12M paid subscriptions globally and offers a reality TV-focused catalog with 55K episodes, rivaling Netflix in sheer volume  —  Discovery's new app has taken off largely because viewers love watching people fix houses, tour diners and bicker about their relationships.
Tatiana Cirisano / Billboard:
How platforms like Spotify and tools like Community, Audigent, and Unitea help artists find their superfans and target them for monetization opportunities  —  New tech that allows artists to interact with superfans — and turn their data into dollars — promises to open long-term revenue streams

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More News

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Financial Times:
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Earlier Picks

CNN:
Andrew Liszewski / Gizmodo:
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Wired:
Bloomberg:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: