Techmeme
August 19, 2019, 7:15 PM

Top News

Twitter:
Twitter says it proactively suspended ~200K “spammy” accounts, before they became “substantially active”, alongside its initial ban of 936 China-linked accounts  —  We are disclosing a significant state-backed information operation focused on the situation in Hong Kong …
Twitter:
Twitter says it will no longer accept advertising from state-controlled news media entities, but the rule does not apply to “taxpayer-funded entities”  —  Our singular mission is to serve the public conversation.  This mission applies to every part of our service, including our advertising and promotional products.
Nathaniel Gleicher / Facebook:
After a tip from Twitter, Facebook removes 7 Pages, 3 Groups, 5 accounts originating in China “involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior” regarding Hong Kong  —  Today, we removed seven Pages, three Groups and five Facebook accounts involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Twitter accuses China of running a disinformation campaign against Hong Kong protesters, attempting to “sow political discord”, suspends 936 associated accounts  —  KEY POINTS  — Twitter said Monday it suspended hundreds of accounts that are believed to be tied to a …
@pinboard:
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
The first public jailbreak in years for up-to-date iPhones has been posted online, researchers say, after a bug that was patched in iOS 12.3 was reintroduced  —  Apple accidentally unpatched a vulnerability it had already fixed, making current versions of iOS vulnerable to hackers.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Nvidia says that its GeForce Now game streaming service, which is in public beta for Mac, PC, and Shield TV, will be coming to Android later this year  —  Ahead of the next Stadia Connect livestream where Google will announce more games, Nvidia revealed that its competing GeForce Now streaming service will be coming to Android.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Disney+ to launch in Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand along with the US in November, streaming on all major platforms except Fire TV  —  Disney today confirmed its first global launches for the company's upcoming Disney+ subscription service, and it outlined which devices …
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Without evidence or any attempt at further explanation, Trump accuses Google of manipulating millions of votes in 2016's election, says Google “should be sued”  —  The President this morning lashed out at Google on Twitter, accusing the company of manipulating millions of votes …
Reuters:
Google shuts down its free service to show carriers weak spots in their coverage, sources say to avoid potential scrutiny over sharing data from its users  —  NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google has shut down a service it provided to wireless carriers globally that showed …
Steve Dent / Engadget:
Spotify's Premium Family Plan is getting parental controls with an explicit content filter and a Family Mix personalized playlist for the whole family  —  Spotify is rolling out a new Premium Family Plan with a much-awaited setting.  Parents will now have the ability to filter out songs with swearing …
Tushar Mehta / XDA Developers:
Microsoft brings SMS Organizer, its Android app to filter spam texts and get smart notifications about bills, flights, and more, from India to Australia, UK, US  —  Microsoft's aspirations of creating and selling smartphones may have collapsed but its association with smartphones has not ended.
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Binance says it plans to launch Venus, an “independent regional version of Libra”, which will develop “localized” stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies  —  The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance is planning to launch “Venus,” calling it an …
Financial Times:
Sources: Apple has committed $6B+ for original shows and movies, many featuring huge names, ahead of Apple TV+'s launch, expected within the next two months  —  Apple has committed more than $6bn for original shows and movies ahead of the launch of its new video streaming service …
Tiernan Ray / Fortune:
Cerebras Systems unveils the world's biggest semiconductor chip that is the size of a large mousepad, with 400K cores, 1.2T transistors, and 18GB of SRAM memory  —  Tucked in the Los Altos hills near the Stanford University campus, in a low-slung bunker of offices across from a coffee shop …
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Report: 650K+ tests in the US from early 2018 to early 2019 show that carrier throttling on mobile for Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video is pervasive  —  - New research finds location, time of day play no role  — Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video targeted for slowdowns
Brian Martin / Twitter:
Twitter open-sources Rezolus telemetry tool, designed to uncover resource utilization spikes too brief to be captured through normal metrics systems  —  We are open-sourcing Rezolus, our high-resolution systems performance telemetry agent.  Rezolus began in an effort to help uncover performance anomalies …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Facebook is expanding its data abuse bounty program, first introduced after Cambridge Analytica, to Instagram after more data incidents  —  Facebook is expanding its data abuse bug bounty to Instagram.  —  The social media giant, which owns Instagram, first rolled out its data abuse bounty …

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
Introducing AI Forms: Create optimized forms with AI in Zoho Forms  —  The future of form creation isn't coming, it's here.  Forget everything you thought you knew about building online forms.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:15 PM ET, August 19, 2019.

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

Earlier Picks

Sam Byford / The Verge:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: