Techmeme
May 7, 2021, 5:20 AM

Top News

Esther Crawford / Twitter:
Twitter introduces Tip Jar, allowing everyone using Twitter in English to send tips, and a limited group, including journalists and experts, to accept tips  —  We $ee you - sharing your PayPal link after your Tweet goes viral, adding your $Cashtag to your profile so people can support your work …
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
NY AG's office says fake comments, including 8.5M funded by largest US ISPs, accounted for ~18M of the 22M+ net neutrality comments received by the FCC in 2017  —  The New York attorney general's office released a new report detailing the effort  —  The New York attorney general's office issued …
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Google says it will start verifying users with 2FA enabled using a prompt on their phones, and will soon start automatically enabling 2FA for all users  —  The company is making some changes to encourage more people to adopt a key digital security mechanism.  —  Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Luisa Beltran / Barron's Online:
Bill.com, a cloud-based payments service for SMBs, has agreed to acquire expense management software provider Divvy for $2.5B in cash and stock  —  The fintech Bill.com is buying Divvy, an expense reporting start-up, for $2.5 billion.  —  The deal, announced Thursday, calls for Bill.com …
The Information:
Inside Zuckerberg's plan to repair Facebook's image, including whimsical jokes on his Page, more media appearances, and discussing product more than policy  —  During a companywide Q&A with Facebook employees last Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg turned to a question about a recent uptick …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Court docs show Apple offered Hulu and some other “whitelisted developers” special access to App Store APIs, like the cancel/refund API  —  Today is the fourth day of the Epic Games v. Apple legal battle, and documents shared in the trial continue to give us insight into the App Store and Apple's business practices.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Google Play will add an App Store-like safety section starting next year, requiring apps to show details about the data they collect and other privacy info  —  In a new safety section  —  Starting next year, apps on Google Play will show details about what data they collect …
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Square beats in Q1 with revenue of $5.06B, up 266% YoY, with $3.5B in bitcoin revenue, up 11x YoY, gross profit of $964M, up 79% YoY, with $495M from Cash App  —  - The company reported a profit per share of 41 cents vs. 16 cents per share expected in a Refinitiv survey of analysts.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Bitski, which builds custom NFT storefronts for brands and creators, raises $19M Series A led by a16z and others including Jay-Z, MrBeast, and Serena Williams  —  Bitski, an SF-based startup that builds custom NFT storefronts for brands and creators, is banking on the latter, and they have new investors betting the same.
Tom Simonite / Wired:
How AI Dungeon, a text adventure game that uses the GPT-3 text generator, can create sex scenes involving children, and why attempts to stop it aren't working  —  The game touted its use of the GPT-3 text generator.  Then the algorithm started to generate disturbing stories, including sex scenes involving children.
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
Q&A: Facebook Oversight Board director Thomas Hughes on upholding Trump's ban, why the Board isn't a PR stunt, Facebook refusing to answer its questions, more  —  Following months of speculation, Facebook's Oversight Board issued a quasi-decision Wednesday in the case of former President Donald Trump's account.
Liam Tung / ZDNet:
Microsoft announces a new pledge for EU commercial users of Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365, allowing them to store most of their data in the EU by 2022  —  EU business data stored in Microsoft cloud can almost stop flowing to the US by 2022, but customers might need to pay more for the capability.
Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
Drivers say Amazon's US delivery companies are ordering them to turn off an app called Mentor that is designed to prevent accidents by monitoring speed  —  Drivers say they're being asked to quietly disable a driver safety system partway through their shifts.  —  Lauren Kaori Gurley
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Manufacturers are rolling out a patch for a vulnerability in Qualcomm chips that affects high-end Android devices from Google, Samsung, LG, Xiaomi, and OnePlus  —  Higher-end devices made by Google, Samsung, LG, Xiaomi, and OnePlus are affected.  —  Makers of high-end Android devices …
Protocol:
Netflix is surveying users about their interest in features such as podcasts and user-generated playlists of shows and music, for a project called N-Plus  —  In a survey, Netflix is asking users how they would feel about a “future online space” called N-Plus.  —  Custom TV show playlists?
Amy Feldman / Forbes:
Material Bank, which runs an online marketplace for architectural and design sample materials, raises $100M Series C at a ~$1B valuation led by General Catalyst  —  Adam Sandow spent the past few decades building a portfolio of publications, including Interior Design, Luxe and Metropolis.

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