Techmeme
October 22, 2019, 12:15 PM

Top News

CNBC:
Sources: SoftBank to take control of WeWork, spending $4B-$5B on new funding and existing shares in The We Company, valuing it between $7.5B and $8B  —  KEY POINTS  — Softbank to spend $4 billion to $5 billion on new equity, existing shares, sources say.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Verizon is giving away Disney+ for free for one year to all of its wireless customers on unlimited-data plans and to FiOS and 5G home internet customers  —  New Fios broadband, 5G home wireless internet customers also eligible for 12-month free offer  —  Verizon is giving away Disney Plus …
Nathaniel Gleicher / Facebook:
Facebook bans networks, three originating in Iran and one in Russia, running “inauthentic” accounts, Pages, and Groups misleading US and Latin American users  —  Today, we removed four separate networks of accounts, Pages and Groups for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook:
Joe Maring / Android Central:
The Pixel 4 and 4 XL support fast wireless charging on any Qi charger, unlike the Pixel 3, which needed Google's own Pixel Stand for fast charging  —  11W speeds seem to be supported on just about anything.  —  Updated October 22, 2019: So it turns out that the Pixel 4's wireless charging situation …
Shelby Brown / CNET:
Devumi settles FTC charges that it sold fake followers and likes; cosmetics firm Sunday Riley also settles with FTC for allegedly posting fake online reviews  —  The Federal Trade Commission uncovered and stopped the misleading online marketing tactics of two different companies, it announced Monday.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Sources: MPC, which pitched itself as a privacy-focused smartphone vendor, was run by a violent UK gang, shuttering after multiple investigations into it began  —  Crime blogger Martin Kok was assassinated while leaving a sex club.  It turned out MPC, one of his clients, was not an ordinary phone company.
Andrew Nusca / Fortune:
A look at the revival in digital music sales, which have grown from $14.3B in 2014 to $18.1B in 2018, mainly thanks to paid streaming services like Spotify  —  Imagine, for a moment, that Taylor Swift was wrong.  The reigning queen of country-tinged pop shocked fans in 2014 by abruptly …
vpnMentor:
Researchers find open database that leaked 179GB+ of customer, US government, and military records from Best Western's travel reservation system Autoclerk  —  Led by Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, vpnMentor's research team discovered a breach in a database belonging to Autoclerk …

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Earlier Picks

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