Techmeme
October 22, 2019, 4:00 PM

Top News

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 …
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
A look at HireVue's controversial AI-driven face and voice scanning “employability” assessment tool, used by 100 employers including Hilton and Goldman Sachs  —  HireVue claims it uses artificial intelligence to decide who's best for a job.  Outside experts call it ‘profoundly disturbing.’
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Firefox 70 arrives with social tracking blocked by default, a personalized privacy report to show how many trackers have been blocked, and performance gains  —  Mozilla today launched Firefox 70 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS.  Firefox 70 includes social tracking protection …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
New York State's attorney general says 46 attorneys general have joined its antitrust probe into Facebook, separate from DOJ and FTC investigations  —  The expanded roster of 47 states and territories taking part reflects broad concerns among officials that ‘Facebook may have put consumer data at risk’
Conor Dougherty / New York Times:
Facebook announces a pledge of $1B in a package of grants, loans, and land as part of a partnership with California to help build more affordable housing  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook said on Tuesday it would give $1 billion in a package of grants, loans and land toward easing California's …
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 …
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Medium says it will now pay its Partner Program writers based “primarily” on reading time, not claps; the platform has paid $6M+ to 30,000+ writers since 2017  —  Medium is announcing significant changes to its Partner Program, where subscribers pay for access to exclusive content, and the revenue gets split with writers.
Nathaniel Gleicher / Facebook:
Facebook:
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
In prepared remarks for Congress, Mark Zuckerberg argues Libra “will extend America's financial leadership” and that China is pursuing similar projects  —  - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg intends to tell Congress that Facebook will not launch Libra anywhere in the world unless all U.S. regulators approve it.
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Google's Nest Mini is a great-sounding upgrade over the Home Mini, its ability to be mounted to a wall is nice, but it still lacks a 3.5mm jack, unlike Echo Dot  —  It can't hang with more expensive speakers, but it can hang on the wall  —  The main thing you need to know about the new Google Nest Mini …
Financial Times:
Sources: Facebook hasn't offered money to wire services Reuters and AP for being featured on its news page, as Bloomberg and Dow Jones land seven-figure deals  —  Facebook will pay millions of dollars to some publications featured on its news page but nothing to others, as its efforts to rebuild trust divide the US media sector.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Sources: MPC, pitched as a privacy-focused smartphone vendor, was run by a violent UK gang and shut down after multiple investigations into it developed  —  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.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Rob Goldman, Facebook VP of advertising, says he's leaving the company after more than seven years  —  - Facebook Vice President of Ads Rob Goldman announced via Twitter on Tuesday that he's leaving the company.  — Goldman became embroiled in controversy in early 2018, when he tweeted about the Mueller investigation's findings.
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.

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