Techmeme
June 9, 2021, 9:30 PM

Top News

Associated Press:
Fastly, which was hit by a major outage on Tuesday, says the problem was caused by a bug that was triggered by a customer configuring their service  —  LONDON (AP) — Fastly, the company hit by a major outage that caused many of the world's top websites to go offline briefly this week …
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Biden signs an EO revoking the Trump-era bans on TikTok and WeChat and says his commerce secretary will investigate any risks to national security and privacy  —  But the apps still aren't out of hot water  —  President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday revoking the Trump-era bans on TikTok and WeChat.
Jacob Bunge / Wall Street Journal:
JBS says it paid an $11M ransom in bitcoin to resolve an attack last week; the payment was made after most plants were operational to avoid further disruption  —  Meat supplier's U.S. chief says firm paid cybercriminals in bitcoin to avoid more disruptions  —  JBS USA Holdings Inc. paid …
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Several macOS Monterey features will not come to Intel Macs, like Live Text within photos, FaceTime's Portrait mode, and unlimited, on-device keyboard dictation  —  While there are many great new features in macOS Monterey, several of them are not available on Intel-based Macs, according to Apple.
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Sources: Facebook is planning to launch its first smartwatch, featuring a detachable display with two cameras and a heart rate monitor, next summer  —  A detachable display with cameras for capturing video without your phone  —  Facebook is taking a novel approach to its first smartwatch …
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
El Salvador becomes the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender after lawmakers voted by a “supermajority” in favor of its new Bitcoin Law  —  - El Salvador's has become the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.  — Lawmakers in the South American country's Congress voted …
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Founders of Fanhouse, an OnlyFans-like platform, say Apple is demanding they start paying “30% of creator earnings” by August or be removed from the App Store  —  Fanhouse wants to keep sending 90 percent of payments to creators  —  Apple is clashing with the platform Fanhouse …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
In an email to podcasters, Apple says Podcasts Subscriptions will launch globally on June 15, after postponing a planned launch in May  —  After a month-long delay  —  After some major hiccups and a delay, Apple Podcasts says it's launching in-app subscriptions next week.
Megan Graham / CNBC:
Facebook says global ads chief Carolyn Everson is leaving after more than a decade; Everson was a liaison to big marketers during major controversies  —  - Facebook global ads chief Carolyn Everson is departing the company.  — Facebook is an advertising giant that is expected to command nearly …
Stephen Shankland / CNET:
Google is building a subsea cable called Firmina, after a Brazilian abolitionist, to handle data surge between US, Brazil, and Argentina, due to launch by 2023  —  Google is building a new subsea cable to get your megabits from Boston to Buenos Aires and back.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Mark Zuckerberg says all employees can request to work remotely full-time if their job allows, office-based staff will need to be in 50%+ of the time, and more  —  - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announce that the company will allow all full-time employees to work from home if their jobs can be done remotely.
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Instagram's Adam Mosseri says Facebook plans to help creators avoid Apple's 30% cut by “facilitating transactions that happen in other places”  —  - Facebook is setting its sight on the creator economy, hoping to allow millions of people to make a living off its family of apps.
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
Many young TikTok stars describe burning out as they struggle with mental health and the algorithm's volatility, years after waves of burnout on other platforms  —  Many people who have found fame on TikTok are struggling with mental health issues.  —  Lately, it's been hard for Jack Innanen …
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
In its June batch of patches, Microsoft announced fixes for 50 flaws, including seven zero-days, six of which have been exploited in the wild  —  Today is Microsoft's June 2021 Patch Tuesday, and with it comes fixes for seven zero-day vulnerabilities and a total of 50 flaws, so Windows admins will be scrambling to get devices secured.
Nikki Sun / Nikkei Asia:
A vicious cycle of surveillance and overwork is leading to extreme mental stress and fatigue, pushing China's tech workers to the limit and causing backlash  —  A vicious cycle of monitoring and overwork is fueling productivity — and backlash  —  HONG KONG — Andy Wang …
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Solana Labs, which wants to develop a blockchain that is faster and cheaper than Ethereum, raises $314.15M in a private token sale led by a16z and Polychain  —  Quick Take  — Solana Labs has raised $314.15 million in a private token sale round.  — The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Polychain Capital.
Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
Data analytics startup Amplitude raises $150M led by Sequoia Capital at a $4B valuation, up from $1B last year  —  - Company expects to go public, possibly via direct listing  — $150 million in new financing led by Sequoia Capital  —  Data analytics startup Amplitude reached a valuation of $4 billion in a new funding round.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Metadata for Apple's WWDC keynote YouTube video includes terms such as “m1x” and “M1X MacBook Pro”  —  And it could have launched at WWDC, after all  —  Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote came and went this year without a new MacBook Pro — but it looks like that wasn't the original intent!
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Jakarta-based BukuWarung, which offers digital payments and a Shopify-like e-commerce platform for SMBs, raises $60M Series A led by Valar and Goodwater Capital  —  BukuWarung, a fintech focused on Indonesia's micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), announced today it has raised …
Tom Simonite / Wired:
An inside look at how Google's Ethical AI team fell apart following the contentious departure of Timnit Gebru and then Margaret Mitchell  —  She was a star engineer who warned that messy AI can spread racism.  Google brought her in.  Then it forced her out.  Can Big Tech take criticism from within?

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