Techmeme: Sensor Tower: Pinduoduo's marketplace Temu app had 10.8M US installations since September 1 and became the most downloaded US app from November 1 to December 14 (Shen Lu/Wall Street Journal)

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December 26, 2022, 6:25 AM

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Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post:

Former Twitter employees and people in Elon Musk's orbit detail his erratic leadership; Musk wanted “full access” for Bari Weiss, which staff refused to grant — Musk's intense focus on his social media company purchase has devolved into the culture wars. Meanwhile, Tesla is tanking.

Kenneth Li / Reuters:

Twitter restores a feature that promotes suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources, after removing it reportedly following Elon Musk's order — Twitter Inc restored a feature that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content …

More: The Guardian, Insider, BGR India, Reuters, Livemint, Engadget, Neowin, New York Post, Micky, and BetaNews

Mastodon: @dangillmor@mastodon.social, @eirliani@home.social, and @johnmorton@universeodon.com

Tweets: @elonmusk, @malpern, @elonmusk, @janlindyjames, @ajpennyfarthing, @alexwgoldenberg, @annecollier, @kwilsonmg, @tomcoates, @joshraby, @jasonleopold, @skwrlz, @jamesrbuk, @jacobtwop, @dukestjournal, @bestofdyingtwit, @jules_su, @jamesrbuk, and @martinsfp

Reuters:

Plea hearing court transcript: Caroline Ellison said she and Sam Bankman-Fried knowingly misled investors, lenders, and customers that Alameda borrowed from FTX — Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives received billions of dollars in secret loans from the crypto mogul's Alameda Research …

More: Bloomberg, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, SlashGear, Serious Trouble, New York Times, Newser, Forkast, Associated Press, Insider, crypto.news, TheStreet, The Daily Beast, Cryptopolitan, Cryptonews, New York Post, Inside Bitcoins, Bloomberg, Financial Times, The Block, PYMNTS.com, Watcher Guru, Bitcoin News, CryptoSlate, Ethereum World News, Cointelegraph, and Axios

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to, @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io, and @Popehat@mastodon.social

Thomas Claburn / The Register:

Study: programmers who use GitHub Copilot and other AI tools produce less secure code than those who do not, despite believing their code has no safety issues — At the same time, tools like Github Copilot and Facebook InCoder make developers believe their code is sound

More: arXiv

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @timmisiak, @weldpond, and @divergencearran

Amanda Hoover / Wired:

Mastodon's decentralized nature raises concerns about the legal risks for users hosting instances, which must comply with copyright and privacy laws globally — As the niche, decentralized social networking platform rises in popularity, it faces rising costs, culture shifts—and potential legal risks.

More: George Dillard, Insider, The Economic Times, Phandroid, The Verge, theATL.social …, and Windows Central

Tweets: @shoq, @doctorow, and @eff

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

An interview with Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko on scaling the network, plans for a split revenue model “like Mozilla's” and no ads, talking to investors, and more

More: TechCrunch

Mastodon: @caseynewton@mastodon.social, @kurtcagle@newsie.social, @viticci@macstories.net, @carnage4life@mas.to, @taylorlorenz@mastodon.social, @caseynewton@mastodon.social, and @gilduran@journa.host. Tweets: @joshmedia

Shen Lu / Wall Street Journal:

Sensor Tower: Pinduoduo's marketplace Temu app had 10.8M US installations since September 1 and became the most downloaded US app from November 1 to December 14 — Temu, a marketplace with deep discounts and copious coupons, has become the most downloaded mobile app in the U.S. — Copy Link

More: The PhilaVerse. Tweets: @jchengwsj, @jchengwsj, @shenlulushen, and @timcohn

Dhruv Mehrotra / Wired:

A look at Flipper Zero, a $200 portable security penetration testing device for hackers to intercept and replay signals from IoT sensors, garage doors, and more — Don't be fooled by its fun name and Tamagotchi-like interface—this do-everything gadget is trouble waiting to happen and a whole lot more.

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to

Patrick McGee / Financial Times:

Experts warn of a months-long disruption risk to Apple's iPhone production, operations, and Chinese consumer demand caused by China's latest COVID-19 wave — Supply chain experts warn outbreak following reversal of zero-Covid curbs creates uncertainty for iPhone maker

More: SiliconANGLE, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, Bloomberg, Nikkei Asia, iLounge, The Register, New York Times, Yahoo Finance, and The Week

Tweets: @danharris, @dnystedt, @catherinemary0, @patrickmcgee_, @aadilbrar, @finestyew, and @levinepmc

Ricardo Cano / San Francisco Chronicle:

A new California law effectively bans dealers and carmakers like Tesla from “deceptively naming or marketing” semi-autonomous vehicles as full self-driving — Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate — A Tesla with Full Self-Driving software was reportedly responsible …

More: TESLARATI and Notebookcheck.net

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @chuckbaggett, @sfchronicle, @wholemarsblog, @scottmoura, @sfchronicle, and @jacktwhitlock

Bloomberg:

The FTC orders Mastercard to give its rivals customer data for processing debit card payments, alleging Mastercard used tokenization to block competing networks — The Federal Trade Commission ordered Mastercard Inc. to start providing its competitors with customer account information …

More: Federal Trade Commission, Reuters, Engadget, Slashdot, PYMNTS.com, Spectrum News NY1, The Hill, and Forbes

Tweets: @linakhanftc, @ftc, and @chopracfpb

Bloomberg:

The 2022 crypto winter showed that the digital asset ecosystem is more interconnected than many participants realized, despite its core decentralization tenet — As 2021 came to a close, crypto enthusiasts were brimming with optimism. After all, it had been a banner year: Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, had crossed into the mainstream.

Tweets: @emilyjnicolle, @ourielohayon, @emilyjnicolle, @elfsternberg, @crypto, and @crypto

Joel Khalili / Wired:

A look at some NFT use cases, with gaming at the top, as NFT trading volume fell from $17B in January 2022 to $400M in November 2022 amid the crypto market drop

More: Rest of World

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @river_dao, @edzitron, and @wired

Financial Times:

Internal memo: Xiaomi President Wang Xiang and co-founders Hong Feng and Wang Chuan step down, as the company battles slowing sales amid COVID-19 disruptions — China's leading handset maker has suffered Covid disruption at home and regulatory woes abroad — Three top executives …

More: Sammy Fans

CyberScoop:

Current and former CISA employees and sources detail an agency that lacks a clearly defined strategic direction and whose leadership seems more focused on PR — When Congress was still trying to understand the full extent of Russia's 2016 election meddling and growing increasingly anxious …

Tweets: @jimlangevin, @igpalert, @mikebfarrell, @dcuthbert, @suzannemsmalley, @kellymnyc, @ericgeller, @tarah, @cyberscoopnews, @mideastxmidwest, @danielkennedy74, @mayhuangwrites, @gavinbwilde, @tonyajoriley, @mariambaksh, and @brfreed

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From Mediagazer

Andrew Trunsky / New York Times:

A profile of Natalie Winters, a Steve Bannon protégée, War Room reporter, and Piers Morgan Uncensored contributor, who now has a White House press pass

Harshita Mary Varghese / Reuters:

Warner Bros. Discovery says John Malone is not seeking re-election to the board of directors and will instead take on the role of chairman emeritus

Julian Clover / Broadband TV News:

A group of current and former BBC World Service journalists warn that cuts to the international service risk fracturing “the core identity of the World Service”

More News

Jennifer Conrad / Wired:

Q&A with author and labor lawyer Orly Lobel on AI's ability to help mitigate human biases in hiring and compensation, privacy regulation trade-offs, and more

Tweets: @jenniferconrad and @wired

Simon Hill / Wired:

A look at XRAI Glass, an Android app for the deaf and hard of hearing that can caption real-life conversations when paired with the $379 Nreal Air AR glasses

Tweets: @wired

Martin Matishak / The Record:

Joe Biden signs into law an $858B defense policy bill conferring more power and obligations on US Cyber Command, such as offensive operations on foreign powers

More: The White House, Reuters, CHINAdaily, CNN, Nikkei Asia, Reuters, Politico, FedScoop, and Axios

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Philadelphia-based Exyn, which develops autonomous drones for GPS-denied environments, raised a $35M Series B from Reliance and others at a ~$107M valuation

More: Exyn Technologies, Inc42 Media, and Livemint

Che Pan / South China Morning Post:

Tencent joins the open-source chip group RISC-V International as a premier member; 13 out of the 25 premier members are from China, including Huawei and ZTE

Tweets: @bgurley, @tariqkrim, and @bgurley

Earlier Picks

Naomi Jagoda / Bloomberg:

After pushback, the IRS delays requiring e-commerce apps such as Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, and Etsy to send tax forms to small businesses with $600+ transactions

More: The Daily Hodl, Internal Revenue Service, Bitcoin News, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, The Block, CNN, Barron's Online, BikeList, Watcher Guru, New York Times, and Slashdot

Mastodon: @glennf@twit.social. Tweets: @219_eth, @senrickscott, @marshacollier, @gabby_hoffman, @repcarolmiller, and @sn_handler

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

Congress passes a $1.7T spending package, including a bill banning TikTok on federal government devices, but fails to pass many aggressive bills targeting tech

More: Vox, The Hill, Federal Communications …, Forbes, Digital Music News, Washington Post, and USA Today

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @senatorwicker, @hawleymo, @marshablackburn, and @brendancarrfcc