Techmeme
June 23, 2021, 9:25 PM

Top News

Reuters:
John McAfee has died in a Spanish jail cell by suicide according to his lawyer, hours after news that he would be extradited to face federal charges in the US  —  Antivirus creator John McAfee, 75, was found dead in his prison cell in Barcelona after the Spanish high court had authorised …
Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:
In a new report, Apple says letting iOS users sideload apps would undermine privacy protections, complicate parental controls, and potentially expose user data  —  Company says allowing users to download software onto their iPhones without using the App Store jeopardizes protections
Bloomberg:
Two South African brothers who founded crypto investment firm Africrypt vanished with ~69,000 bitcoins, worth $3.6B+, after informing clients of an alleged hack  —  - Lawyers hired by investors piece together funds' disappearance  — Africrypt loss would rank among biggest-ever crypto heists
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Instagram says it will test mixing suggested posts throughout primary feeds, even above posts from people users follow, and adds new controls  —  A priority on algorithm-chosen content  —  Instagram says reception to its “suggested posts” feature has been so positive that it's launching a new test …
Lillian Rizzo / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Peacock had fewer than 10M paid subs as of May; Comcast is considering a deal with ViacomCBS or acquiring Roku as it seeks to become a streaming giant  —  CEO Brian Roberts is out to prove that having content and distribution under one roof can make his cable colossus a winner
Anna Kramer / Protocol:
Profile of Twitter's Machine Learning, Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability team, as Responsible ML becomes one of the company's top priorities in 2021  —  Machine learning engineer Ari Font was worried about the future of Twitter's algorithms.  It was mid-2020, and the leader …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
What to expect from Microsoft's “next generation” Windows event on Thursday: new Windows 11 UI, updated Windows Store, and a focus on productivity and gaming  —  Microsoft's “next generation” of Windows event is taking place later this week, on June 24th at 11AM ET.
Nathaniel Meyersohn / CNN:
Adobe: total US e-commerce sales during Prime Day exceeded $11B; Amazon says Prime Day was the biggest two-day sales period for 3rd party sellers in its history  —  New York (CNN Business)Shoppers aren't showing any signs of getting tired of Amazon Prime Day, even though some sellers …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Snackpass raises $70M Series B led by Craft Ventures at a $400M+ valuation as its social food ordering service surpasses 500k users across 13 college towns  —  While every food delivery company is trying to get an edge on its rivals with discount codes, faster service, and a turn into the realm …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
International coalition of consumer groups, digital and civil rights organizations, and data protection experts call for ban on “surveillance-based advertising”  —  An international coalition of consumer protection, digital and civil rights organizations and data protection experts …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Tim Berners-Lee defends his decision to auction an NFT representing the web's source code, comparing it to the sale of an autographed book or a speaking tour  —  Creator of the world wide web says digital asset is ‘totally aligned with the values of the web’
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Morning Consult poll of 2,000 US voters: 53% at least somewhat support Congress' Big Tech antitrust bills; 44% rank tech regulation as their lowest priority  —  - A new poll commissioned by tech industry-funded group shows 53% of voters favor at least some tech regulation.
Politico:
Tracy Qu / South China Morning Post:
Kuaishou now has 1B monthly active users globally, including users of its Kwai and Snack Video apps, joining rivals ByteDance and Tencent  —  China's No 2 short video-sharing app operator joins rival ByteDance and Tencent as internet platforms with 1 billion monthly active users Kuaishou's tally covers …
More: TechCrunch
Aaron Schaffer / Washington Post:
Breakdown of officials in Biden's administration who have worked at tech giants: Facebook leads with 11 officials, followed by Alphabet at 10 and Microsoft at 8  —  Technology and cybersecurity policy researcher  —  Dozens of top Biden administration officials have professional ties …
David McLaughlin / Bloomberg:
Antitrust experts say the biggest obstacle to Lina Khan's agenda will be a conservative judiciary, which has made it difficult for regulators to win big cases  —  The fiercest foes of America's technology giants cheered when Lina Khan, a professor at Columbia Law School …
Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE:
Anjuna Security, whose Confidential Cloud isolates and encrypts workloads and data to protect against bad actors, raises $30M Series B led by Insight Partners  —  Enterprise enclaves startup Anjuna Security Inc. announced today it has raised $30 million to bring its Confidential Cloud Software Platform …
More: FinSMEs
Margherita Beale / Forbes:
Habi, a Colombia-based residential real estate marketplace with automated pricing tech, raises $100M Series B led by SoftBank Latin America Fund  —  Habi, a real estate startup digitizing home buying and selling for Colombia's middle class, announced Wednesday that it has raised $100 million …

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:
Knowledge management vs. document management  —  Document management is the process of storing and tracking documented information within the organization, while knowledge management is a more broader approach …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Tue. 11/26 - Apple Going Too Thin Again?
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 9:25 PM ET, June 23, 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

Earlier Picks

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Cam Wilson / Crikey:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: