Techmeme
March 12, 2022, 2:05 AM

Top News

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
Biden administration is working with Gen Z For Change, a nonprofit advocacy group, to brief top TikTok stars about the war in Ukraine  —  On Thursday afternoon, 30 top TikTok stars gathered on a Zoom call to receive key information about the war unfolding in Ukraine.
David Gilbert / VICE:
Investigation finds a campaign coordinated in a secret Telegram channel to pay Russian TikTok influencers to post videos pushing pro-Kremlin narratives  —  An investigation by VICE News uncovered a coordinated campaign to pay Russian TikTok influencers to post videos pushing pro-Kremlin narratives.
Nick Clegg / @nickclegg:
Responding to reports that Russia may designate Meta an extremist org, Meta says it will allow calls for violence against Russian soldiers only in Ukraine  —  Responding to reports that the Russian government is considering designating Meta as an extremist organization for its policies in support of speech:
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Roskomnadzor says it is banning Instagram in Russia from March 14 because Meta now allows posts “calling for violence against Russian citizens”  —  First Facebook, now Instagram  —  One week after placing a ban on Facebook in Russia, the country's communications agency Roskomnadzor announced it will ban Instagram, too.
Jillian Deutsch / Bloomberg:
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
New York Times:
Sources: Meta is cutting back on staff perks like laundry service; CTO Bosworth and others chafed at the perceived sense of entitlement of complaining staff  —  The company told workers on Friday that it will reduce or eliminate some of its famous perks as it prepares for a return to the office.
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Sources: Apple has no plans to release a larger-screen iMac in the near future and is working on a new 24-inch iMac without high-end processors for 2023  —  With the introduction of the new Mac Studio and Studio Display, Apple quietly discontinued the 27-inch iMac - which was still sold with an Intel processor.
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Sources: new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, both with M2, coming this year; Apple has M2 Pro, Max, and Ultra in the works, the latter being a 24-core CPU  —  It has been almost two years since Apple announced the transition from Intel Macs to Apple Silicon, and while there's still …
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Yuga Labs, the creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club, acquires NFT collections CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs, along with 400+ CryptoPunks and 1.7K+ Meebits  —  Yuga Labs now controls three of the most valuable NFT collections on the market  —  Yuga Labs, the creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club …
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Mark Bernstein, a prominent Russian Wikipedia editor, is detained in Belarus for “distributing fake anti-Russian information” after being doxxed on Telegram  —  The editor was doxxed on Telegram prior to the arrest  —  The Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of Belarus …
Hartley Charlton / MacRumors:
Apple dismisses the findings of UK CMA's interim report on mobile ecosystems as based on “unsubstantiated allegations and hypothetical concerns” from its rivals  —  Apple has aggressively defended its ecosystem in a newly-published response to the UK's competition watchdog.
Axios:
Apple, Google, Meta, PayPal, and others urge Texas governor to abandon an EO that equates gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children with child abuse  —  More than 60 companies, including some of the largest firms in tech and finance, are calling on Texas governor Greg Abbott …
Suman Bhattacharyya / Wall Street Journal:
Counterpoint: as chip prices fall, 5G-capable devices have moved from $550+ to $250+; the average price of a multi-function 5G SoC is $40-$45  —  Phone companies are more willing to upgrade the capability of phones in the $200 range, market researchers say  —  5G is increasingly available …
Osato Avan-Nomayo / The Block:
UK's Financial Conduct Authority gives notice to crypto ATM operators to shut down their machines or face penalties since they are unlicensed  —  The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has contacted crypto ATM operators to shut down their machines or face penalties since they are unlicensed.
Emily Baker-White / BuzzFeed News:
Interviews reveal TikTok's Project Texas, an effort to rebuild its internal systems to keep US user data in the US and limit its access to a new US-based team  —  TikTok is rebuilding its systems to keep US user data in the US and putting a new US-based team in control.

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 2:05 AM ET, March 12, 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

New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Financial Times:
Ionut Arghire / SecurityWeek:
Financial Times: