Techmeme
May 20, 2021, 7:00 AM

Top News

Echo Wang / Reuters:
Zhang Yiming, co-founder of ByteDance, says he is stepping down as CEO and will be succeeded by another co-founder Rubo Liang, current head of human resources  —  (Reuters) -Zhang Yiming, co-founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, told employees of the Chinese technology giant in a memo …
CNBC:
Bitcoin fell 30% to just over $30K on Wednesday, recovering partially to $38K; Ether, Dogecoin, and others also plunged  —  Galaxy Digital's Novogratz on bitcoin's plunge: These are setbacks for investor base  —  Bitcoin plunged to near $30,000 at one point on Wednesday morning …
Ian Sherr / CNET:
During the Epic trial, Craig Federighi says malware on macOS has reached an “unacceptable” level and the problem is “significantly larger” than iOS  —  Apple's head of software engineering, Craig Federighi, said malware on Macs have hit “unacceptable” levels.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says it is finally retiring Internet Explorer on June 15, 2022, after more than 25 years, in favor of Edge  —  Internet Explorer will no longer be supported in June 2022  —  Microsoft is finally retiring Internet Explorer next year, after more than 25 years.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple announces accessibility features, including background sounds to help maintain focus and calm, AssistiveTouch for Apple Watch, and iPad eye-tracking  —  Apple today announced the upcoming launch of several new accessibility features that are being added to its various products and services.
Rumman Chowdhury / Twitter:
Twitter shares the results from an investigation into bias within the image cropping algorithm it used to employ, finding it favored white people and women  —  In October 2020, we heard feedback from people on Twitter that our image cropping algorithm didn't serve all people equitably.
Rebecca Klar / The Hill:
FTC and six state AGs sue internet service provider Frontier for allegedly providing slower internet speeds than promised to 1.3M DSL customers across 25 states  —  Frontier Communications is accused of misrepresenting internet speeds it advertised and charged for, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday …
Joan E. Solsman / CNET:
WarnerMedia says HBO Max's cheaper, ad-supported tier will cost $10 per month and launch in the first week of June  —  HBO Max's cheaper, ad-supported tier will cost $10 a month and launch in the first week of June, WarnerMedia said Wednesday.  It'll come the week after — possibly just days after …
Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:
Right-wing video platform Rumble says it has raised an undisclosed amount from Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance, and others; sources say Rumble is valued at ~$500M  —  Backing from conservative venture capitalists comes amid push for alternative social-media channels with looser rules on speech
David Cohen / Adweek:
Facebook launches a new Transparency Center, a site for info on its policies to tackle hate speech, says it now removes 97% of hate speech before it's reported  —  Facebook introduced its new Transparency Center Wednesday, billing it as a single destination for information on its integrity and transparency efforts.
Bloomberg:
Squarespace stock closed down ~9% at $43.65, after opening at $48 per share, valuing the company at ~$5.9B, well below its $10B valuation in March  —  - Firm is first major direct listing to close below guide price  — Listing comes on third day of losses on U.S. exchanges
Jeff Stone / CyberScoop:
Federal judge sentences a Russian citizen, extradited to the US in March 2019, to five years in prison for stealing $1.5M in targeted hacks of US tax preparers  —  A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a Russian man to five years in prison for his role in a scheme to use malicious software …
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
Cisco reports Q3 revenue of $12.8B, up 7% YoY, with Security revenue up 13% YoY to $876M and Infrastructure Platforms revenue up 6% YoY to $6.8B; stock down 5%+  —  The company's third quarter results were slightly ahead of market estimates, with growth across categories.
Reuters:
JD.com reports Q1 revenue of $31.57B, up 39% YoY, beating market expectations as COVID-19 boost in domestic e-commerce sector persisted  —  China's JD.com Inc's first-quarter revenue beat Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, as growth remained robust in the domestic e-commerce sector following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bloomberg:
Cloud-based construction software company Procore prices its NYSE IPO at $67 per share, above its target range, raising $634.5M and giving it a $8.5B valuation  —  Procore Technologies Inc., a cloud-based construction software company, priced its shares in an initial public offering above a marketed range to raise $634.5 million.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google is testing a “Follow” button in Chrome for sites that support RSS, with content appearing in the New Tab page, initially with Chrome Canary users  —  Web browsers used to feature feed aggregators, but those built-in capabilities have since been phased out.
Olivia Little / Media Matters for America:
TikTok's recommendation algorithm appears to be promoting anti-LGBTQ videos, some of which encourage targeted anti-trans violence  —  TikTok's recommendation algorithm appears to be circulating blatantly anti-LGBTQ videos, some of which encourage targeted violence.

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
Dynamic prefilling via webhooks in Zoho Forms  —  Ever wish forms could fill themselves out for you?  You're signing up for an event at your office.  You open the form, expecting the usual hassle of filling in every detail.
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
(BNS) The Answering Machine - With Toni Trucks!
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:00 AM ET, May 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

James Vincent / The Verge:
Casey Newton / Platformer:
New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Sheera Frenkel / New York Times:
Collin Eaton / Wall Street Journal:
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Michael Simon / Macworld: