Techmeme
December 1, 2021, 11:31 PM

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
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.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, a 5nm chip with 5G and Wi-Fi 6, promising up to 85% better CPU and up to 60% faster GPU performance compared to Gen 2  —  Third time's the charm?  —  Qualcomm has announced its latest flagship chip for PCs: the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, which …
Haje Jan Kamps / TechCrunch:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
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 …
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 …
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.
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 …
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.
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 …
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.
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.
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.
Bloomberg:
Uber adds ride booking via WhatsApp in India in the northen city of Lucknow, expanding to more locations in the near future  —  - Integration is a global-first for Uber, company says  — Users can book a ride with a message on the chat program  —  Uber Technologies Inc …
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.

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:
Fri. 11/22 - An LLM Siri But... Only The Year AFTER Next?
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 11:31 PM ET, December 1, 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

Rest of World:
Matt Grossman / Wall Street Journal:
Yogita Khatri / The Block:

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: