Techmeme
August 15, 2018, 10:25 PM

Top News

Alyssa Newcomb / NBC News:
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defends decision to just give Infowars' Alex Jones a timeout after Jones urged viewers to ready “battle rifles” against media and others  —  “We can't build a service that is subjective just to the whims of what we personally believe," Dorsey told NBC News' Lester Holt in an exclusive interview.
Washington Post:
Jack Dorsey says Twitter is considering promoting alternative viewpoints in timeline, labeling bots, and redesigning the like button and follower count display  —  Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey said he is rethinking core parts of the social media platform so that it doesn't enable …
Steven Musil / CNET:
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Uber's Q2 2018 financials: revenue rose 51% YoY to $2.7B as adjusted EBITDA losses widened to $404M, up from $304M in Q1; gross bookings rose 41% YoY to $12B  —  While Uber isn't required to disclose its financial results, Uber has done so for past few quarters as it gears up to go public next year.
Arjun Panchadar / Reuters:
Report: Uber has been urged by investors to sell off its self-driving car unit, which has lost $125M-$200M per quarter over the last 18 months  —  (Reuters) - Investors have told Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] it would be wise to sell off its self-driving car unit after it racked up losses …
Steve Stecklow / Reuters:
Investigation finds 1,000+ Facebook posts, comments, images, and videos attacking Rohingya 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.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Ahead of Twitter API changes coming on August 16, Tapbots removes several features from Tweetbot for iOS, following similar moves by Twitterrific and others  —  Ahead of upcoming Twitter changes set to be implemented tomorrow, Tapbots has released an updated version of its Tweetbot app for iOS devices …
Gregory Barber / Wired:
Coinbase acquires the five-person team behind Distributed Systems to help Coinbase find ways to integrate decentralized identity across its services  —  EARLIER THIS YEAR, the executors of #DeleteFacebook engaged in a form of decentralized group therapy.  Catharsis came in a zip file downloaded …
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.
Thomas Fox-Brewster / Forbes:
Court docs: FBI served Google a warrant with gag order for info on all users at two locations, a space of 45 hectares, amid robberies; Google didn't provide it  —  The FBI asked Google to provide information on its users who'd been at two of nine locations at certain times, as investigators tried to find leads in an armed robbery case.
Andy Kroll / Rolling Stone:
Email and documents show the FBI has investigated cyberattacks on California Democratic candidate Hans Keirstead, who was running in Dana Rohrabacher's district  —  The FBI investigated hacking attempts targeting a Democrat who ran against “Putin's favorite congressman”
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum has continued to show up at least monthly at the Facebook office to secure his stock rewards of ~$450M  —  Jan Koum said he was leaving Facebook in April, but has been making periodic appearances in the office to secure stock rewards

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

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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Omnibus Week Of 04/28
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
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.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Josh Kopelman from First Round Capital
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.

More News

Earlier Picks

Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Zeynep Tufekci / MIT Technology Review:
Bloomberg: