Techmeme
December 2, 2021, 2:30 AM

Top News

Kate Rooney / CNBC:
Square is changing its name to Block, effective December 10, and renaming Square Crypto to Spiral, as its business shifts toward technologies like blockchain  —  - Payments giant Square will change its corporate name to Block, effective Dec. 10.  — The move comes as Square expands beyond …
CNBC:
Meta expands the number of eligible regulatory licenses for running crypto ads on Facebook and Instagram from three to 27  —  - Facebook on Wednesday announced its decision to reverse long-standing policy that prevented most cryptocurrency companies from running ads on its services.
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
In its end-of-year threat report, Meta says it took down several global disinformation networks, including anti-vaccine groups and groups linked to state actors  —  The takedowns described in the company's latest threat report demonstrate how the cat-and-mouse game between Facebook and bad actors is escalating
Haje Jan Kamps / TechCrunch:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
Michelle Singletary / Washington Post:
The CFPB's rule that lets debt collectors send texts, emails, and private social media messages to debtors, and requires opt-out instructions, goes into effect  —  Federal regulators have given debt collectors the okay to pursue debtors via email, text messages and social media sites
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft announces Teams Essentials, a standalone version of Teams for SMBs with a simplified UI, focus on meetings, and no Office apps for $4 per user/month  —  This standalone version of Teams is even more of a Zoom competitor  —  Microsoft is creating its first standalone version of Microsoft Teams for small businesses.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
DOJ charges an ex-employee of IoT manufacturer Ubiquiti with data theft and for attempting to extort his employer while posing as a whistleblower and a hacker  —  Nickolas Sharp, a former employee of networking device maker Ubiquiti, was arrested and charged today with data theft and attempting …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok adds monetization tools for creators, including Stripe-powered Tips and Video Gifts, starting in the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain  —  TikTok is today introducing new ways for its creators to make money from their content.  While already, the short-form video platform allowed creators …
James Clayton / BBC:
Meta will no longer block searches nor remove praise of Kyle Rittenhouse on Facebook and Instagram, after designating him a shooter in a “mass murder” in 2020  —  Facebook has reversed a decision to block searches on its platform for a US teenager who was acquitted of killing two people during unrest in Wisconsin.
The Verge:
Federal judge blocks a Texas law that limits large social media platforms' ability to moderate content, saying it violates the platforms' First Amendment rights  —  ‘Social media platforms have a First Amendment right to moderate,’ wrote the judge  —  A federal judge has blocked a Texas law …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Reddit announces real-time features, including live upvote, downvote, comment, and viewer counts, a typing indicator, and notifications for top-level comments  —  You'll see typing indicators, too  —  Reddit is introducing some big changes on Wednesday by adding new real-time features.
Yinka Adegoke / Rest of World:
A look at China's extensive tech investments in Africa, including undersea cables, data centers, and fintech apps, as part of its “Digital Silk Road” initiative  —  As the Chinese “tech stack” leads from undersea cables to smartphones and fintech apps, concerns grow for the digital future of ordinary Africans.
Washington Post:
Planned Parenthood Los Angeles says a hacker gained access to its network in October, compromising the information of ~400,000 patients including clinical data  —  A hacker gained access to the personal information of hundreds of thousands of Planned Parenthood patients in October …
Turner Wright / Cointelegraph:
Congress will hold a hearing with CEOs from Coinbase, Circle, FTX, Bitfury, Paxos, and Stellar on December 8 to discuss digital assets and the future of finance  —  The hearing, “Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: Understanding the Challenges and Benefits of Financial Innovation in the United States …
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Sounding Board, which operates a marketplace that connects employees with leadership coaches, raises a $30M Series B led by Jazz Venture Partners  —  Sounding Board, which started as a platform to connect leaders to coaches through a marketplace, realized early in the pandemic that mentorship needs a refresh.
Stacy Mitchell / Institute for Local Self-Reliance:
Research: Amazon revenue from third-party sellers will reach $121B in 2021, up from $60B in 2019, as seller fees reach 34%, up from 30% in 2018 and 19% in 2014  —  Amazon's dominance of online retail means that small businesses have little choice but to rely on its site to reach consumers.
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Twitter bans sharing private images and videos without consent, with exceptions for newsworthiness and public figures, and will remove content that users report  —  Twitter has expanded its private information policy to include media, banning users from sharing photos or videos of a private individual without their permission.
Robin Pogrebin / New York Times:
A look at Particle, founded by an ex-Christie's exec and others, which plans to split Banksy's Love Is in the Air into 10,000 pieces to be sold as NFTs  —  A former Christie's executive has joined cryptocurrency experts to create a company that purchases art and sells the fragments as NFTs.

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Kevin Roose / New York Times: