Techmeme
February 17, 2023, 1:40 PM

Top News

Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg:
Source: Binance is considering de-listing USDC and other tokens from US projects, ending US partnerships, and closing VC investments, amid regulatory scrutiny  —  Crypto giant Binance Holdings Ltd. is considering ending relationships with US business partners as regulators turn up the heat.
Reuters:
Suvashree Ghosh / Bloomberg:
The SEC says Do Kwon and Terraform Labs have withdrawn $100M+ in fiat currency from a Swiss bank since June 2022, after moving 10K+ Bitcoin out of a cold wallet  —  Crypto fugitive Do Kwon and the firm he founded transferred over 10,000 Bitcoin out of their doomed project and turned …
Bloomberg:
The SEC sues Terraform Labs and Do Kwon, accusing them of selling unregistered securities and perpetrating a fraudulent scheme that lost $40B+ in market value  —  The US Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to sue the company behind TerraUSD, a crypto stablecoin whose collapse …
New York Times:
Microsoft is considering limiting Bing chatbot's conversation lengths and adding tools to let users restart conversations or give them more control over tone  —  The company knew the new technology had issues like occasional accuracy problems.  But users have prodded surprising and unnerving interactions.
Sheila Dang / Reuters:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Meta gave ~10% of employees subpar ratings in recent performance reviews, a potential sign of more layoffs, and cut a bonus metric to 85% of its target  —  The performance-review process is expected to set the stage for more workforce reductions this year  —  Why Tech Layoffs Don't Reflect the Job Market
Clothilde Goujard / Politico:
Under the Digital Services Act, online platforms disclose their MAUs in the EU: YouTube has 401M+, Facebook ~255M, Instagram ~250M, TikTok 150M, Twitter 100.9M  —  TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have now confirmed they will face the strictest rules under the EU's content-moderation law, the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Josh Ye / Reuters:
Sources: Tencent cuts its 300-strong metaverse unit and drops VR hardware plans due to trouble achieving quick profitability and the need for a big investment  —  Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) is abandoning plans to venture into virtual reality hardware, as a sobering economic outlook prompts …
OpenAI:
OpenAI aims to improve ChatGPT's behavior by reducing biases, allowing more user customization, and getting more public input into the company's decision-making  —  We're clarifying how ChatGPT's behavior is shaped and our plans for improving that behavior, allowing more user customization …
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Fitbit plans to remove adventures, challenges, and open groups on March 27 and replace Studio with an SDK; Google says the app's features were of “limited use”  —  Fitbit users: better one-up your friends in challenges while you still can.  Starting March 27th …
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Samsung says the Message Guard feature in Galaxy S23 series will prevent zero-click exploits via messaging apps by detecting malware hidden in image attachments  —  Zero-click attacks, which can install malware onto a device without the user clicking or tapping on anything, have been on the rise in recent years.
Cristiano Lima / Washington Post:
The FTC launches an Office of Technology, increasing the number of technologists on staff from 10 to ~22 ahead of legal battles with Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta  —  Happy Friday!  A quick programming note: The newsletter will be off Monday for the holiday, but back in your inboxes Tuesday.
Bloomberg:
Filing: the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund's Savvy Games Group now owns 8.3% of Nintendo, the largest outside stake, up from ~6% at the start of 2023  —  Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund became the largest outside shareholder of Nintendo Co. on Friday, in the latest move by the Gulf state to lower its reliance on oil.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
GoDaddy says it discovered a multi-year security breach in early December 2022 where unknown attackers stole source code and installed malware on its servers  —  Web hosting giant GoDaddy says they suffered a breach where unknown attackers have stolen source code and installed malware …

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