Techmeme
May 24, 2019, 10:00 AM

Top News

Szu Ping Chan / BBC:
Sources: Facebook is planning to launch its own cryptocurrency and a digital payments system in about a dozen countries by Q1 2020  —  Facebook is finalising plans to launch its own crypto-currency next year.  —  It is planning to set up a digital payments system in about a dozen countries by the first quarter of 2020.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Multiple sources and emails describe how Snap employees used internal tools like SnapLion to access user data several years ago, before Snap restricted access  —  Multiple sources and emails also describe SnapLion, an internal tool used by various departments to access Snapchat user data.
Alan Boyle / GeekWire:
SpaceX successfully launches first batch of 60 Starlink satellites of nearly 11,000 planned into a low orbit above Earth to provide global internet connectivity  —  After two postponements, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket executed a mission that dealt out 60 Starlink broadband data satellites in low Earth orbit.
Aislinn Keely / The Block:
AT&T says customers can now pay their mobile bills in cryptocurrency via BitPay  —  Cryptocurrency is taking another step towards the mainstream as mobile carrier AT&T announced it would accept payments in crypto today, according to a release from the company.
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
A distorted video of Speaker Pelosi, in which her speech is made to appear slurred, has 2M+ views on Facebook; YouTube says it has removed uploads of the video  —  Distorted videos of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), altered to make her sound as if she's drunkenly slurring her words …
Biz Carson / Forbes:
Lime shuffles leadership, with co-founder Brad Bao taking over as CEO from co-founder Toby Sun, who will now focus on R&D; COO Joe Kraus promoted to president  —  Lime cofounder Brad Bao is stepping in as CEO, replacing his cofounder Toby Sun.LIME  —  Scooter startup Lime is shuffling …
More: TechCrunch and CNET
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Source: Amazon is working on a wearable voice-activated health and wellness device that works with a mobile app and can recognize human emotions  —  - Described as a health product, it would work with a mobile app  — Machines that can understand emotions are a sci-fi staple
Will Sommer / The Daily Beast:
Twitter permanently bans Brian and Ed Krassenstein, who frequently shared anti-Trump sentiments, alleging they ran fake accounts and purchased fake interactions  —  Ed and Brian Krassenstein are banned for life after ‘operating multiple fake accounts and purchasing account interactions,’ a Twitter spokesman said.
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:
Google adds group video calls for up to eight people to its Duo video calling app for iOS and Android users worldwide  —  Google's Duo video call app today introduced group video calls for up to 8 people for iOS and Android users worldwide.  At launch, Duo group video calls will not be available …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Shopify quietly acquired Handshake, an e-commerce platform for B2B wholesale purchasing, source says for less than $100M; Handshake was last valued at ~$54M  —  E-commerce platform Shopify has quietly made an acquisition to continue its expansion of the services and products that merchants can sell and purchase through its platform.
More: PYMNTS.com
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Instagram says IGTV will now support landscape video, following feedback from creators and users, as the service struggles to gain traction  —  The vertical video experiment is over  —  Instagram is no longer all-in on vertical video.  The company announced today that its longform video offshoot …
The Keyword:
Google says it has partnered with delivery services including DoorDash and Postmates to let users order food via Google Search, Maps, or Assistant in the US  —  French fries, lettuce wraps, massaman curry, chicken wings, cupcakes—I could go on.  When I was pregnant with my son last year, my cravings were completely overpowering.
Guy Rosen / Facebook:
Facebook releases an update on enforcing its community standards, saying it banned 2.19B fake accounts in Q1 2019, up from 1.2B in Q4 2018  —  Today, we're publishing our third Community Standards Enforcement Report, covering Q4 2018 and Q1 2019.  This report adds a few additional data points:

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Nico Grant / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Biz Carson / Forbes:
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Andrew Webster / The Verge: