Techmeme
September 30, 2021, 6:25 AM

Top News

The Verge:
Facebook shares two of its internal research docs about Instagram's impact on teen mental health reported on by WSJ, with annotations for context  —  The company shared the PDFs Wednesday night  —  Facebook has shared the internal research about the impact of Instagram on teenage mental …
Wall Street Journal:
WSJ publishes six internal Facebook documents it used for its report about Instagram's negative impact on teen girls, after Facebook published two of the docs  —  The Senate holds a hearing Thursday about the social network's impact, prompted by The Wall Street Journal's coverage
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.
Bloomberg:
Employees at 11 video game companies say their teams have a 4K Switch developer kit, but sources say a 4K Nintendo console won't go on sale until late 2022  —  At least 11 companies, including Zynga, have tools from Nintendo to make 4K Switch games.  —  Many people were surprised to learn …
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.
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 …
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.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Visually impaired users say that iOS 15 appears to have removed call, email, and voicemail Siri features they relied on  —  With the recent release of iOS 15, Apple appears to have made some changes to Siri functionality that have removed features relied on by low vision and blind iPhone users.
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:
Sam Bourgi / Cointelegraph:
Chainalysis: crypto transaction volume for Central, Northern, and Western Europe reached $1T+ from July 2020-June 2021, comprising 25% of global crypto activity  —  DeFi has become a major catalyst for Europe's crypto economy.  Large institutions have also upped their share of transactions significantly.
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.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Indian social commerce startup Meesho raises $570M Series F co-led by Fidelity and B Capital Group, more than doubling its valuation in under 6 months to $4.9B  —  Meesho has more than doubled its valuation in less than six months, to $4.9 billion, as a growing number of high-profile investors …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple has quietly begun allowing users to rate and review its built-in iPhone and iPad apps in the App Store with iOS 15  —  For the longest time, the App Store did not allow users to rate or review Apple's built-in iPhone and iPad apps, like Mail, Music, News, Stocks and Calculator.
Financial Times:
Profile of Chinese AI company SenseTime, which has raised $3B+, as it prepares for a Hong Kong IPO and tries to retain support from China, its biggest customer  —  Start-up is close to an IPO but remains heavily dependent on Beijing's support  —  Three years ago, Tang Xiao'ou joked …

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Earlier Picks

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Reuters:
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