Techmeme
August 5, 2021, 12:35 PM

Top News

Gilad Edelman / Wired:
Mozilla's analysis says Facebook's justifications for cutting off access to researchers running NYU's Ad Observatory project “simply do not hold water”  —  The company says privacy concerns forced it to block access for a team of academics.  Whose privacy, exactly?
Bloomberg:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Nintendo misses in Q1 with $1.09B operating profit, down 17.3% YoY, on $2.94B revenue, down 9.9% YoY, as Switch sales decline by 21.7% YoY to 4.45M units  —  It was not exactly a normal quarter this time in 2020  —  Nintendo has released its earnings for the April-June quarter …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Scammers are abusing Instagram's protections against self-harm and impersonation to purposefully target and ban Instagram accounts, some charging $60 per ban  —  An underground industry is abusing Instagram's mechanisms for removing self-injury and impersonating content to censor and harass people.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok says it is testing TikTok Stories; source says Stories are available in a handful of markets outside the US  —  Twitter may have shut down its Stories features known as Fleets, but the Stories format will continue to invade other social platforms.  TikTok today confirmed it's piloting …
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Google refreshes its Nest lineup, including its video doorbell and indoor-only camera, with a unified design language and lower prices  —  A whole new lineup of cameras for Nest smart homes  —  Google has announced a new line of home security cameras and a video doorbell under its Nest brand.
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Ethereum's “London” hard fork has been activated, with changes to how transaction fees are calculated to decrease volatility, among other fixes  —  - Ethereum's “London” hard fork has just activated, and it's a major change.  — One of the changes alters the way transaction fees …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple is reportedly considering using on-device hashing algorithms to match photos with known child abuse material, a potentially problematic practice  —  Apple is reportedly set to announce new photo identification features that will use hashing algorithms to match the content of photos …
Michael McSweeney / The Block:
Senators Lummis, Wyden, Toomey propose amendment to infrastructure bill excluding crypto developers, miners, node operators, others from the “broker” definition  —  A trio of U.S. senators is proposing a legislative exclusion for crypto companies, including miners and software developers …
Michael del Castillo / Forbes:
Cryptocurrency analytics firm Messari raises $21M Series A led by Point72 Ventures with Kraken Ventures, Gemini Frontier Fund, and Coinbase among investors  —  Point72 Ventures,, the venture capital firm of billionaire Steve Cohen, whose unconventional style helped inspire the hit television show Billions …
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Apple places female engineering program manager on administrative leave after she tweeted about sexism in the office  —  Ashley Gjøvik says the employee relations team implied she should stay off Slack pending an ongoing investigation  —  Apple has placed senior engineering program …
Robert McMillan / Wall Street Journal:
DHS unveils the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative to combat ransomware and cyberattacks, in partnership with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others  —  Creation of the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative follows high-profile cyberattacks on critical U.S. infrastructure
More: CNBC
Chris McGreal / The Guardian:
Report: 25 oil and gas organizations spent $9.5M+ on 25K+ Facebook ads in 2020, seen 431M+ times, potentially undermining Facebook's ban on oil and gas misinfo  —  Thinktank InfluenceMap accuses petroleum giants of gaming Facebook to promote oil and gas as part of climate-crisis solution
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Amazon delays its return to offices from September 3 to January 3, 2022  —  Amazon told employees Thursday that it will delay its timeline for returning to regular work in the office until early next year.  —  The new date: Jan. 3, 2022.  Previously, Amazon had expected employees …
More: The Seattle Times, Protocol, Insider, and CNBCTweets: @eproThanks:@johnhcook
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Indian startup MindTickle, which offers tools to improve sales staff, raises $100M Series E led by SoftBank at a $1.2B valuation, bringing total raised to $281M  —  So-called sales readiness technology provider MindTickle Inc. is running with the unicorns today after landing a $100 million Series E round of funding.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
ReversingLabs, a 12-year-old Cambridge, MA-based supply chain cybersecurity company, raises $56M Series B funding led by Crosspoint Capital Partners  —  All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now.  Watch now.  —  ReversingLabs, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based …

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Earlier Picks

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Tom Warren / The Verge: