Techmeme
March 3, 2022, 7:35 PM

Top News

Andrew Rummer / The Block:
Mykhailo Fedorov cancels Ukraine's crypto airdrop plan, saying the government will instead announce, but not issue, NFTs to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces  —  Ukraine's government abruptly canceled its planned crypto airdrop and said it would instead sell NFTs to raise funds following last week's Russian invasion.
Scott Chipolina / Decrypt:
Elliptic: crypto users have donated $50M+ to Ukraine across 89K+ assets since February 26; the government's wallet addresses show $10M in BTC and $16M in ETH  —  The Ukrainian crypto crowdfunding effort has now exceeded $50 million, through almost 90,000 separate donations.
MK Manoylov / The Block:
MetaMask says an Infura “misconfiguration”, which has since been corrected, led to users in Venezuela reporting an inability to access the wallet on Thursday  —  Users of MetaMask based in Venezuela say they can no longer access the popular digital asset wallet.
Jordan Pearson / VICE:
OpenSea confirms it is banning users to comply with US sanctions, after some users with Iran-based IP addresses say their accounts and NFTs were deleted  —  Social media is flooded with reports of users in Venezuela not being able to use MetaMask and Infura, and Iranian users being locked out of OpenSea.
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
A group of 35 former employees at crypto startup incubator ConsenSys alleges serious asset transfer “irregularities” in a Swiss court, and demands an audit  —  A group of former employees of the ConsenSys AG is alleging “serious irregularities” at the startup incubator that owns …
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
Analysis: Twitch has lost at least six executives alongside 60+ employees in 2022; sources say the platform is losing touch with its community of game streamers  —  Twitch, the popular site where people go to watch other people play video games, has lost at least six top employees since …
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
MIT Technology Review:
An investigation details Operation Safety Net, a sprawling surveillance program in Minnesota to track protesters and journalists after George Floyd's murder  —  Law enforcement agencies in Minnesota have been carrying out a secretive, long-running surveillance program targeting civil rights activists …
Jackie Wattles / CNN:
Experts warn that Russia can use satellite signals to geolocate and target Starlink users in Ukraine; Elon Musk says the “probability of being targeted is high”  —  New York (CNN Business)SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent a truckload of Starlink antennas — which can be used to connect …
Brian Fung / CNN:
ICANN rejects Ukraine's request to cut Russia off from the global internet, saying the proposal is neither technically feasible nor within its mission  —  (CNN)The international non-profit that coordinates management of the internet told Ukraine it will not intervene in the country's war with Russia …
New York Times:
A look at Friends With Benefits, an a16z-backed DAO with a buzz-fueled social club, which attracts artists and investors but faces perceptions of elitism  —  Friends With Benefits is a V.I.P. lounge for crypto's creative class.  Is it empty hype or the future of friendship?
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Reddit bans links to Russian state media outlets across its entire site for all users worldwide and ads that either originate from Russia or target the country  —  Reddit isn't done clamping down on misinformation following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.  The social hub has banned links …
Kellen Browning / New York Times:
Twitch plans to ban “harmful misinformation superspreaders” who share debunked theories on or off the site, including about COVID-19 vaccines and election fraud  —  The new policy will target channels that persistently lie about vaccines and election fraud, as well as Russian state-run media.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter will expand its Birdwatch fact checks on tweets to “a small and randomized” group of US users for feedback, after testing the service since January 2021  —  Twitter says it's expanding access to Birdwatch, its community-based fact-checking initiative first revealed in October 2020.
Anita Ramaswamy / TechCrunch:
Lido, which has an estimated 80%+ market share in Ethereum liquid staking, raises $70M from Andreessen Horowitz; 76K wallets stake assets worth $10B+ on Lido  —  The world's most-used blockchain, Ethereum, is switching to a new validation system this summer called proof-of-stake (PoS).
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Prominent open-source advocate Miguel de Icaza to leave Microsoft, which he joined when the company acquired Xamarin in 2016, saying he misses the startup world  —  Former Xamarin cofounder Miguel de Icaza is leaving Microsoft, the company he joined through acquisition just over six years ago.
Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
Google Maps and Tripadvisor block users from posting reviews to some listings in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus after activists used them to share Ukraine news  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google Maps and the travel search platform Tripadvisor Inc. temporarily blocked users from posting new reviews …
Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
Many Ukrainian tech workers, unable to leave the country, have relocated to the Lviv tech hub, with some joining Ukraine's ad hoc hacking army attacking Russia  —  Many companies in Ukraine's IT industry relocate staff, who have continued to ship code for clients
Joseph Cox / VICE:
The GitHub repository for Meta's open-source library React is being spammed with anti-US and anti-Ukrainian comments in English and Mandarin  —  “False liberty and democracy make me sick!” one message written in Mandarin reads.  —  Joseph Cox  —  The Github repository for React …
Davey Alba / New York Times:
US surgeon general formally requests Big Tech turn over information about the scale of COVID-19 misinformation on their platforms before May 2  —  Dr. Vivek Murthy also demanded information from the platforms about the major sources of Covid-19 misinformation.  Companies have until May 2 to submit the data.
Kate Clark / The Information:
Sources: automation software startup Hyperscience, last valued at $1.65B, laid off 100 staff after missing FY financial targets; CEO Peter Brodsky stepped down  —  In December, automation-software startup Hyperscience said it raised $100 million in venture capital from Tiger Global Management …
David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times:
A look at anonymity in crypto, as some VCs back founders without learning their names and pseudonymous entrepreneurs control hundreds of millions of dollars  —  Investors give money to pseudonymous developers.  Venture capitalists back founders without learning their real names.

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 7:35 PM ET, March 3, 2022.

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

Louise Matsakis / NBC News:

Earlier Picks

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Thomas Claburn / The Register: