Techmeme
June 8, 2021, 8:20 PM

Top News

TechCrunch:
Many large websites went down Tuesday, including Amazon, Twitch, BBC, NYT, Spotify, Reddit, and FT, due to an issue at the Fastly CDN, which has now been fixed  —  Countless popular websites including Reddit, Spotify, Twitch, Stack Overflow, GitHub, gov.uk, Hulu, HBO Max, Quora, PayPal …
Adam Mosseri / Instagram:
In the first of a series of blog posts, Instagram explains how it ranks Feed, Stories, Explore, and Reels, and addresses “shadowbanning” accusations  —  It's hard to trust what you don't understand.  We want to do a better job of explaining how Instagram works.
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Facebook and Instagram will now reward influencers with cash bonuses for hitting certain milestones, like selling a set number of badges in an Instagram stream  —  new tools to help its creators earn more money from the platform.  At its first Creator Week event, Mark Zuckerberg introduced …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Apple Music debuts Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio and adds Spatial Audio playlists, says Spatial Audio support is “coming soon” for Android devices  —  Last month, Apple announced it would soon add lossless audio streaming and Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos to its Apple Music subscription at no extra charge.
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
In a huge sting operation, FBI and Australian Federal Police ran an encrypted chat service AN0M for 3+ years to intercept messages between criminals globally  —  The FBI and Australian Federal Police ran an encrypted chat platform and intercepted secret messages between criminal gang members …
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
As Uber and Lyft aim to become profitable this year, it seems like a golden era of VC-subsidized services, from Uber to Bird and MoviePass, is coming to an end  —  The price for Ubers, scooters and Airbnb rentals is going up as tech companies aim for profitability.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Senate passes bill providing $52B for domestic semiconductor manufacturing, a 30% NSF funding bump, and $29B for science directorate; bill now heads to House  —  The funding is on track to meet Biden's chip goals  —  This story is part of a group of stories called
ProPublica:
Leaked IRS data shows how billionaires manage to pay little in income tax; in 2007 and 2011, Jeff Bezos paid zero income tax, and Elon Musk did the same in 2018  —  The Secret IRS Files  —  In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world's richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes.
Jackie Borchardt / The Columbus Dispatch:
Ohio's AG files lawsuit with Delaware County Court alleging that Google's search business is anticompetitive and asks court to declare Google a public utility  —  Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has filed a lawsuit asking a court to declare Google a public utility that should be regulated as such.
Aoife White / Bloomberg:
Google will show more mobile search apps to choose from on new Android phones in Europe and make participation free for search providers  —  - Company will show more mobile search apps and get rid of a fee  — Google has faced criticism over compliance with an EU order
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Adobe launches M1 Mac-native versions of more Creative Cloud apps including Lightroom Classic and Illustrator, claims 80%+ faster performance than Intel Macs  —  Performance should be about twice as fast as an equivalent Intel Mac  —  Adobe is now shipping new versions of more Creative Cloud apps …
Wayne Ma / The Information:
Investigation found 100+ online ads for production line jobs at 30+ companies in Apple's supply chain that contained discriminatory language  —  Some of the companies in China that supply Apple with parts for its devices are willing to use workers from the predominantly Muslim group known as Uyghurs …
Bloomberg:
Under G7's proposed tax rules, tech giants like Facebook and Apple would still be unlikely to shift bases from Ireland, which has perks like a low 12.5% rate  —  - Irish incentives such as tax treaties continue to be a draw  — Tech companies have publicly supported the G7 agreement
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Bitcoin slid 7%+ to $32,936 after US seized most of the Colonial Pipeline ransom and is down ~50% from its all-time high of ~$63K; ether and XRP also fell 7%  —  - Bitcoin accelerated its slide to fall below the $32,000 level late Tuesday morning, according to Coin Metrics data.
Meaghan Tobin / Rest of World:
Facebook says it fixed a proxy error in its Discover app after researchers found it removed images from other websites more frequently than Facebook's services  —  Researchers found the new connectivity app favored Facebook's own products.  The company said it fixed the issue after Rest of World asked about it.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Verbit, which uses AI and thousands of freelancers to provide voice transcription and captioning services, raises $157M Series D at a $1B+ post-money valuation  —  Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021.  —  Verbit today announced the close …
Thomas Grove / Wall Street Journal:
Russia has been pressuring social media platforms like YouTube and Twitter to remove anti-government content and police its critics, and it seems to be working  —  Kremlin uses Twitter and other platforms to advance its goals overseas, but is now trying to prevent its opponents from using the same tools
Hugh Langley / Insider:
Sources: in a major leadership shakeup at Magic Leap, its CTO, COO, and chief patent officer are all set to leave, while its former CMO is being hired back  —  - Magic Leap is losing three of its top executives in a leadership shake-up, Insider has learned.  — The CTO, COO, and chief patent officer will exit.

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