Techmeme
September 29, 2021, 7:50 PM

Top News

Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post:
YouTube says it is banning prominent anti-vaccine activists, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and blocking all anti-vax content, not just about COVID-19 vaccines  —  The Google-owned video site previously only banned misinformation about coronavirus vaccines.  Facebook made the same change months ago.
Reuters:
Russia arrests Ilya Sachkov, the CEO of cybersecurity company Group-IB, on suspicion of treason and will hold him in custody for two months  —  Russia has arrested Ilya Sachkov, the chief executive of top Russian cybersecurity company Group IB, on suspicion of state treason and will hold …
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
Google announces online shopping tools, including a Lens upgrade coming first to iOS and Chrome desktop that helps users find products seen in images and videos  —  New search tools designed for shopping from home  —  Shopping online isn't always a convenience.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google says it is improving Search using the MUM AI model, with features like “Things to know”, which gives users additional context about searched topics  —  At its Search On event today, Google introduced several new features that, taken together, are its strongest attempts yet …
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
Apple says the “jelly scroll” issue on the 6th-gen iPad mini is normal for LCD screens; the issue isn't noticeable on other latest iPad models with LCD screens  —  Apple says the issue is caused by normal LCD screen behavior.  —  Update, 9/28/2021: In response to our inquiry …
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Researchers discover a malware operation that has infected 10M+ Android devices in 70+ countries via benign-looking apps, netting $1.5M-$4M per month  —  Security researchers have found a massive malware operation that has infected more than 10 million Android smartphones across …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook is rolling out Reels to all US mobile users, after launching a beta last month, and announces a Reels Play bonus program for creators  —  After launching into beta tests just last month, Facebook today is rolling out Reels to all Facebook users in the U.S. on both iOS and Android.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the FTC is considering strengthening online privacy protections, including for children, in an effort to bypass legislative logjams in Congress  —  Agency is looking at strengthening rules that govern how digital businesses collect user data  —  WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission …
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Google Maps adds a wildfire info layer, rolling out to Android this week and iOS and desktop in October, expands its Tree Canopy tool to 100 cities worldwide  —  “Fire” will be a top-level layer just like traffic, satellite, and transit maps.  —  Google Maps is getting a few new features …
Ana Diaz / Polygon:
Twitch rolls out the option for streamers to require phone and email-verified accounts in chat, as part of the company's effort to reduce targeted harassment  —  Curbing harassment continues to be a “top priority” for Twitch  —  After an upswell in targeted harassment on the streaming platform Twitch …
Rachel Pannett / Washington Post:
Russia threatens to block YouTube unless it restores two German-language RT channels that were banned for COVID-19 misinformation  —  Russia has threatened to block YouTube unless the Google-owned video service restores two German-language channels managed by Russia's state media company RT …
Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg:
Ripple Labs says it is starting a $250M fund for NFT creators, exploring new use cases and providing financial, creative, and technical support  —  - Mintable, mintNFT, VSA Partners will have access to the fund  — Projects will be tokenized on the XRP Ledger blockchain
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
AngelList launches AngelList Stack, a set of tools to help founders start and run their companies, including end-to-end incorporation and banking services  —  AngelList Stack is a new suite of workflow products for founders  —  AngelList this week launched AngelList Stack …
Jennifer Lynch / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Ninth Circuit court confirms police need a warrant before opening people's email attachments, even if containing potentially illegal content such as CSAM  —  In a powerful new ruling for digital privacy rights, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has confirmed that the police need to get a warrant …
Tom Krazit / Protocol:
A look at IBM Cloud's missteps, driven by marketing mistakes, duplicated development processes, and a sales-driven culture catering to existing clients  —  The words stunned IBM's cloud executives in November 2013.  Former CEO Ginni Rometty had just told them that Watson, IBM's dubious crown jewel …
Cheyenne Ligon / CoinDesk:
Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith pleads guilty to violating US sanctions law following a crypto and blockchain presentation at a 2019 North Korean conference  —  Griffith was charged with violating sanctions law by giving a cryptocurrency and blockchain presentation at a North Korean conference in 2019.
Clive Cookson / Financial Times:
UK Met Office and DeepMind partner to improve short-term weather forecasts using AI, particularly predictions of storms and heavy rain  —  Better rainfall predictions could save lives when floods threaten, say researchers  —  Artificial intelligence improves the accuracy of short-term weather forecasts …
Reuters:
Senators Blackburn and Blumenthal say a Facebook whistleblower will testify at an October 5 Senate hearing on child safety  —  Two U.S. senators said on Tuesday a Facebook Inc (FB.O) whistleblower will testify at a Senate hearing next week about what one of them called the social media company's “toxic effects” on young users.
TechCrunch:
Andela, which trains African programmers to work remotely for US companies, raises $200M Series E led by Vision Fund 2 at a $1.5B valuation  —  Andela, a fully remote company that helps tech companies build remote engineering teams (initially from Africa but now a global market) …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Netflix acquires its first game studio, Night School Studio, which was founded by Sean Krankel and Adam Hines in 2014 and is best known for the game Oxenfree  —  Netflix has acquired its first game studio with the acquisition of Oxenfree creator Night School Studio.  The purchase price wasn't disclosed.
Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Cocoon, which offers a service to help companies and employees manage leave, raises $20M Series A led by Index Ventures  —  Employee leave benefits are a complicated web of company and government policies, and Cocoon is out to bring clarity and simplicity to both the employer and employee experience.

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:
5 common accounting mistakes  —  This is a guest post by Yaali Bizappln Solutions.  A lot of businesses manage their customers and finances on separate platforms.  This disconnect often leads to missed invoices …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
(BNS) Brian's Appearance On Daily Detroit
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 7:50 PM ET, September 29, 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

Eva Mathews / Reuters:
Cherie Hu / Water & Music:

Earlier Picks

Matthew Gault / VICE: