Techmeme
August 15, 2018, 1:43 PM

Top News

Steven Musil / CNET:
Twitter puts account of Alex Jones in read-only mode for seven days after a tweet violated policy; he can browse but can't tweet, retweet, or like other posts  —  Twitter has cut off Alex Jones from key functions of his account after the founder and star of conspiracy site Infowars violated another Twitter policy.
Selina Wang / Bloomberg:
Y Combinator names former Baidu COO Qi Lu as CEO of Y Combinator China, a new Chinese arm it says may start as soon as next summer  —  - This marks the seed investor's first international program  — Former Baidu COO, Qi Lu, will oversee the rollout in China
Steve Stecklow / Reuters:
Investigation finds 1,000+ Facebook posts, comments, and media attacking Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, highlighting Facebook's woeful attempts to fix the issue  —  Reuters found more than 1,000 examples of posts, comments and pornographic images attacking the Rohingya and other Muslims on Facebook.
Ry Crist / CNET:
Amazon and Microsoft begin rolling out Alexa and Cortana integrations, with the ability to ask each assistant to “open” the other  —  Alexa and Cortana: Tech's new BFFs?  —  That's the premise behind a cooperative effort from Amazon and Microsoft that lets Alexa users cue up Cortana on their Echo speakers.
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Researchers detail Foreshadow, a speculative execution flaw in secure enclaves on Intel processors, mitigated by May/June microcode fixes, patches coming today  —  IN CYBERSECURITY CIRCLES, this has been the year of Spectre and Meltdown, not only because the chip vulnerabilities …
Bloomberg:
Sources: China freezes game approvals amid a restructuring within regulatory administrations, affecting all online, mobile, and console games  —  - The halt has shaken Tencent as smaller players struggle  — Regulatory administrations are said to be under restructuring
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: Amazon's Twitch has been pursuing exclusive livestreaming deals with popular companies and personalities, offering millions per year in some cases  —  It wants to turn its Twitch online hangout for avid gamers into a broader video service.  —  YouTube has become synonymous …
Zeynep Tufekci / MIT Technology Review:
How digital technologies and social media went from being hailed as tools of freedom during the Arab Spring to being blamed for upheavals in Western democracies  —  To understand how digital technologies went from instruments for spreading democracy to weapons for attacking it, you have to look beyond the technologies themselves.
Karissa Bell / Mashable:
Hundreds of Instagram users have reported their accounts hacked and their emails and phone numbers tied to accounts changed, preventing account recovery  —  Krista, an Instagram user with more than 4,500 followers on her fitness account, noticed something strange on Saturday evening: she had been logged out of her account.
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Bumble announces Bumble Fund, a $1M+ fund aimed at startups founded and led by females with investments of $5,000-$250,000  —  Bumble Fund at work: Cleo Capital managing director and fund adviser Sarah Kunst, left, poses with Bumble COO Sarah Jones Simmer, right, and recently-backed entrepreneur Anasofia Gomez.
More: TechCrunch and The BeeHiveTweets: @alexThanks:@alexrkonrad
Julie Bort / Business Insider:
In lawsuit against IAC, Tinder's co-founders and execs allege sexual misconduct by former Tinder CEO and a coverup by the company; IAC says suit is “meritless”  —  - Included in a jaw-dropping lawsuit brought by Tinder's founders against its parent company, IAC, are allegations of sexual misconduct against its former CEO.
More: Fortune
CNNMoney:

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation  —  UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Zoho:
Automate recurring activities with Zoho One's RPA addition  —  Robotic Process Automation (RPA) automates manual and routine tasks for businesses by using digital robots that replicate human behaviour.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
Why Clone A Messaging App?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Grit:
HubSpot CEO on the Future of SaaS, AI, & Leading Through Change
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
Inside Devin: The world's first autonomous AI engineer that's set to write 50% of its company's code by end of year | Scott Wu (CEO and co-founder of Cognition)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Hard Fork:
The Dangers of A.I. Flattery + Kevin Meets the Orb + Group Chat Chat
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Ben Lamm (Founder & CEO, Colossal Biosciences) On The Breakthroughs Making De-Extinction Actually Possible
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Great Chat:
What's the deal with Deel?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:43 PM ET, August 15, 2018.

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

Sijia Jiang / Reuters:

Earlier Picks

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch: