Techmeme
February 9, 2023, 6:00 PM

Top News

Platformer:
Sources: Elon Musk fired a Twitter engineer for suggesting that his engagement numbers are tanking not because of a bug but because his popularity is waning  —  Inside Twitter 2.0, turmoil leaves employees stretched to the max  —  For weeks now, Elon Musk has been preoccupied with worries about how many people are seeing his tweets.
Austin Weinstein / Bloomberg:
Kraken agrees to pay $30M and discontinue its crypto-asset staking products to settle SEC allegations that its staking services broke US securities rules  —  Kraken will pay $30 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it broke US securities rules …
Financial Times:
Inside FTX's final hours, described by employees, chat logs, and Sam Bankman-Fried: panic selling assets, failing to raise money, SBF's silence, and bankruptcy  —  In January, I walked up the front steps of a single-storey, grey-shingled house in a neighbourhood on the fringe of Stanford University.
New York Times:
Rejecting a deal to let Sam Bankman-Fried use encrypted messaging, a judge orders SBF's lawyers to form a plan to tighten his bail to ensure messages are saved  —  A federal judge said he was not satisfied with a plan that lawyers for the disgraced FTX founder struck with prosecutors to limit his use of encrypted messaging apps.
Dietrich Knauth / Reuters:
A judge lets FTX subpoena Sam Bankman-Fried, his parents, brother, former FTX CTO Garry Wang, former FTX COO Constance Wang, and ex-Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison  —  Failed crypto firm FTX received court approval on Wednesday to issue subpoenas to its founder Sam Bankman-Fried and members …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Yahoo plans to lay off 20%+ of its workforce and restructure its ad tech unit, impacting 50%+ of the unit, or 1,600+ people; CEO says the cuts are “strategic”  —  Yahoo plans to lay off more than 20% of its total workforce as part of a major restructuring of its ad tech unit, executives told Axios.
Alexander Martin / The Record:
The US and the UK sanction seven people based in Russia, with likely FSB ties, connected to the Conti and Ryuk ransomware gangs and the Trickbot banking trojan  —  The United Kingdom and United States on Thursday sanctioned seven people connected to what officials have told The Record …
Bloomberg:
Maria Deutscher / SiliconANGLE:
Microsoft's GitHub cuts 10% of its staff, or an estimated 300+; GitLab cuts 7%, or an estimated 114; report: GitHub will close offices and shift to remote work  —  Microsoft Corp.'s GitHub unit and publicly traded rival GitLab Inc. today both announced layoffs, disclosing plans to let go 10% and 7% of their respective workforces.
Joey Roulette / Reuters:
SpaceX has limited Ukraine's military from using Starlink to control drones; COO Gwynne Shotwell says the internet service was “never meant to be weaponized”  —  SpaceX has taken steps to prevent Ukraine's military from using the company's Starlink satellite internet service …
Celso Martinho / The Cloudflare Blog:
Cloudflare debuts Wildebeest, an open-source ActivityPub server built on its Supercloud service that makes it easier to self-host a Mastodon-compatible instance  —  Loading...  The Fediverse has been a hot topic of discussion lately, with thousands, if not millions, of new users creating accounts …
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Tether claims $700M in Q4 profit, in addition to its reserves, and $67.04B in total assets and $66.08B in liabilities; Tether reduced its secured loans by $300M  —  - Tether issued its latest attestation report, saying its assets exceeded its liabilities as of December 2022.
Bloomberg:
Nintendo's upcoming Zelda sequel will cost $70, $10 more than prior new titles, matching Sony and Microsoft and opening the door for more expensive video games  —  Nintendo Co.'s upcoming Zelda sequel will be pricier than the company's other Switch games, clearing the way for more game makers to also lift their prices.
New York Times:
Researchers say ChatGPT can produce clean, convincing text that repeats conspiracy theories and misleading narratives but can sometimes debunk falsehoods too  —  Researchers used ChatGPT to produce clean, convincing text that repeated conspiracy theories and misleading narratives.
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
After over a decade of waiting for a quality Harry Potter video game, some fans battle to reconcile enjoying WBD's Hogwarts Legacy with JK Rowling's transphobia  —  Harry Potter fans have been waiting more than a decade for a video game worthy of the blockbuster entertainment franchise's dedicated following.
Bloomberg:
Meta submits data to the EU showing that pop up content warnings stopped Facebook users sharing 25% of flagged posts and 38% on Instagram; TikTok reports 29%  —  The warnings that pop up when someone tries to share potentially false or misleading posts on TikTok Inc., Instagram and Facebook are ignored most of the time.

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