Techmeme
August 12, 2021, 10:05 PM

Top News

Reuters:
Sources: Apple employees have sent 800+ Slack messages on an internal channel debating the company's plans to scan US iPhones, iPads, and computers for CSAM  —  A backlash over Apple's move to scan U.S. customer phones and computers for child sex abuse images has grown to include employees speaking …
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Reddit raises $410M+ led by Fidelity Investments at a $10B+ valuation, up from $6B six months ago when it raised $250M; the new round could reach ~$700M  —  Reddit, the virtual town square of the consumer internet, has raised a fresh $410 million in funding, valuing it at more than $10 billion, the company said on Thursday.
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
In an internal memo, Amazon drops guidelines that claimed ownership rights to video games made by staff after work hours, following criticism from developers  —  - Memo from Game Studios chief suggests rules were too broad  — Company previously claimed rights to games made outside work
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Nvidia says part of its April keynote was led by a virtual replica of CEO Jensen Huang, created by scanning Huang and then training an AI to mimic his gestures  —  Nvidia pulled off a stunt to promote and showcase its latest technology by digitizing its CEO Jensen Huang in a conference keynote.
Felix Salmon / Axios:
Circle announces intention to become a bank, fully regulated by Federal Reserve, OCC, and FDIC, which could make USDC a de facto central bank digital currency  —  Crypto giant Circle has announced its intention to become a bank, fully regulated by the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the FDIC.
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
UK's CMA says it has provisionally found that Facebook's Giphy acquisition could negatively impact competition, such as by denying competitors access to GIFs  —  The merger of social media giant Facebook and Giphy, the largest provider of GIFs, has run into a roadblock from the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Bloomberg:
Facebook delays its office reopenings in the US until January 2022; Facebook originally hoped for 50% office capacity by September and 100% by October  —  - Company originally planned to have employees back by October  — Facebook will also require vaccinations for U.S. staff members
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok details upcoming protections for users aged 13 to 17, including turning in-app messaging off by default and changes to notifications  —  TikTok today becomes the latest tech company to roll out increased protections for minors on its platform in the wake of increased regulatory scrutiny.
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
A look at community NFT projects like Pudgy Penguins, which have become a new kind of financial and social status symbol on the internet  —  Is this what the metaverse looks like?  —  Earlier this week, I got attacked by penguins.  —  Not real ones, mind you.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Airbnb reports Q2 revenue of $1.34B, up nearly 300% YoY, with Gross Booking Value of $13.4B, up 320% YoY, and net loss of $68M, down 88% YoY  —  - Airbnb beat Wall Street's expectations for revenue and bookings in the second quarter, but the company warned about expected volatility from the Covid delta variant.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Google says it banned location data company SafeGraph in early June, meaning apps using SafeGuard location SDK had to remove it  —  SafeGraph sells smartphone location data to essentially anyone.  Google banned the company in June.  —  Joseph Cox  —  Google has banned SafeGraph …
Maia Szalavitz / Wired:
Researchers say algorithms like NarxCare, which are used to identify a patient's risk of misusing opioids, may be actually worsening the US opioid crisis  —  A sweeping drug addiction risk algorithm has become central to how the US handles the opioid crisis.  It may only be making the crisis worse.
Simon Evans / Reuters:
Lionel Messi's new contract with Paris St Germain includes a “large number” of crypto $PSG Fan Tokens from Socios.com, which let holders vote on minor decisions  —  Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi's transfer to French club Paris St Germain included a payment in cryptocurrency fan tokens …
Nathan Grayson / Washington Post:
Thousands of marginalized streamers implore Twitch to counter “hate raids”, where groups of malicious users fill a streamer's chat with targeted abuse  —  During an Aug. 6 broadcast, the Twitch streamer RekItRaven — who is Black and uses they/them pronouns …
Li Yuan / New York Times:
KrASIA:
XtalPi, which uses AI for drug discovery and development, raises $400M Series D led by OrbiMed and RRJ, at a valuation of over $2B  —  The company provides its AI technology to pharmaceutical companies to enhance R&D for new drugs.  —  AI pharmaceutical company XtalPi secured USD 400 million …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Internal docs: Amazon plans to monitor keyboard strokes and mouse movements of customer service staff to stop rogue workers or hackers accessing customer data  —  An internal document also mentions cases where imposters have stolen Amazon customer data.  —  Joseph Cox
Gael Fashingbauer Cooper / CNET:
Twitter rolls out a web and app redesign, implementing its first proprietary font, called Chirp, high-contrast black and white follow and unfollow buttons, more  —  It's inevitable: Twitter changes Twitter, and Twitter users complain on Twitter.  But does Chirp make you feel like a woodpecker is pounding on your skull?

Sponsor Posts

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:
How to choose the right live chat software for your business  —  In a world where instant communication is the norm, live chat software enables businesses to meet customer expectations with real-time assistance.
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Wed. 11/13 - Amazon Haul
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 10:05 PM ET, August 12, 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

Andrew Deck / Rest of World:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Eric Krebs / Bloomberg:
Li Jin / Li's Newsletter:
Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Bloomberg:
Wolfie Zhao / The Block: