Techmeme
August 30, 2022, 1:35 PM

Top News

The Verge:
Sources: Twitter was working to monetize its adult content with OnlyFans-style subscriptions until a “red team” noted the prevalence of CSAM on the platform  —  Internal documents and Twitter employees reveal the need for massive investment to remove illegal content — but executives haven't listened
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Sony plans to acquire Savage Game Studios and creates a new PlayStation Studios Mobile Division, operating independently from console game development  —  Sony is acquiring mobile game developer Savage Game Studios, the company announced on Monday.  The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Twitter releases its Circle feature out of beta on iOS, Android, and the web, letting users tweet to smaller, selected groups of up to 150 people  —  Twitter is launching its Circle feature — which lets you post a tweet to a select set of people — globally.
Giles Turner / Bloomberg:
In an SEC filing, Elon Musk adds Peiter Zatko's allegations as a reason to terminate the $44B takeover bid, saying Twitter is in “material noncompliance”  —  Elon Musk has cited the recent accusations from a Twitter Inc. whistle-blower as a new reason to terminate the $44 billion takeover of the social media platform.
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
TSMC CEO C. C. Wei says an endemic shortage of low-end chips costing $0.50 to $10 is holding up production in key segments of the global supply chain  —  An endemic shortage of chips costing anywhere from 50 cents to $10 is slowing down swathes of the $600 billion semiconductor industry …
Shannon Grixti / Press Start:
Sony updates the PS5 in Australia ahead of a broader rollout, reducing the disc model's weight by 300g and digital model's by 200g compared to the 2021 versions  —  Earlier today it was revealed by Japanese retailers that a brand new PS5 model dubbed the CFI-1200 model was releasing on September 15th …
Tom Krazit / Protocol:
Cloudflare is facing growing protests for providing services to Kiwi Farms, a forum with a long history of harassment; Cloudflare remains silent on the matter  —  Hello, and welcome to Protocol Enterprise!  Today: why Cloudflare finds itself yet again under fire for doing business with communities of hate …
Jordan Middler / Video Games Chronicle:
Meta plans to shutter the Facebook Gaming app on iOS and Android on October 28, 2022, transferring games, content, and groups to the main Facebook app  —  MUCH OF THE FUNCTIONALITY WILL BE MIGRATED TO THE MAIN FACEBOOK APP  —  Facebook will end support for its Facebook Gaming app in October, it's announced.
Tatum Hunter / Washington Post:
Mental health content creators on TikTok and Instagram are increasingly filling a health care gap, which critics fear could lead to harmful self-diagnoses  —  Issey Moloney signed up for therapy through Britain's National Health Service when she was just 12 years old.  She was on a waiting list for four years.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Google says it has not yet approved Truth Social's Play Store app due to insufficient content moderation; CEO Devin Nunes said the decision “is up to Google”  —  Google hasn't yet approved Truth Social's Android app for distribution via its Play Store because of insufficient content moderation …
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
California's State Senate passes an online safety bill requiring services to increase protections for users under 18; Governor Newsom must approve the bill  —  The new rules, which would require many online services to increase protections for children, could change how popular social media and game platforms treat minors.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTube Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl plans to leave in early 2023 after 12+ years as a senior executive; Google veteran Mary Ellen Coe will replace him  —  Robert Kyncl will exit YouTube in early 2023 after more than 12 years as a senior exec at video giant.
Emily Anthes / New York Times:
Scientists are using ML to decode communication between fruit bats, crows, naked mole rats, and whales, even planning “chatbots” to talk with the marine animals  —  Scientists are using machine learning to eavesdrop on naked mole rats, fruit bats, crows and whales — and to communicate back.
Financial Times:
Rakuten founder Hiroshi Mikitani, whose mobile business is bleeding cash, defends his reputation with investors ahead of a planned IPO of Rakuten's online bank  —  Hiroshi Mikitani's group is bleeding cash as he tries to enlist shareholders to back online bank IPO
Ryan Broderick / Garbage Day:
Social media “war rooms” that are set up to fight misinformation and reported on by the media ahead of the US midterms are nothing more than theater  —  Read to the end for a great Reddit post  —  The Election War Room Scam  —  We're less than three months away from the US midterms …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
A researcher says a huge Chinese database with up to 800M records was exposed for months, storing images of faces, license plates, resident ID numbers, and more  —  Another mass data lapse exposes new weaknesses in China's sprawling surveillance state  —  A massive Chinese database storing millions …

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More News

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Earlier Picks

Kim Willsher / The Guardian:
Paul Thurrott / Thurrott:
Omkar Godbole / CoinDesk:
Alex Konrad / Forbes: