Techmeme
December 21, 2019, 1:15 PM

Top News

Davey Alba / New York Times:
Facebook and Twitter shut down a network of fake accounts using AI-generated faces to “masquerade” as Americans; Facebook links the network to Epoch Media Group  —  Researchers said the profiles, linked to the Epoch Media Group, used photos generated by artificial intelligence in a preview of an …
Reuters:
US Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices citing a cybersecurity threat, will block devices with the app from the Navy Marine Corps Intranet  —  (Reuters) - Earlier this week the United States Navy banned the social media app TikTok from government-issued mobile devices …
Sarah Nassauer / Wall Street Journal:
The Verge:
During T-Mobile-Sprint merger trial, the key arguments of both T-Mobile and merger-opposing AGs seemed to rest on whether Dish can create a viable competitor  —  For two weeks now, the future of the American mobile broadband industry has hinged on a small courtroom in lower Manhattan …
Madeline Berg / Forbes:
Forbes estimates that the highest paid YouTube star of 2019 is Ryan Kaji, an eight-year-old with 23M subscribers, who has earned $26M this year  —  Anastasia Radzinskaya is an unlikely media star.  Born in southern Russia with cerebral palsy, her doctors feared she would never be able to speak.
New York Times:
Reporters identified a Secret Service agent, his home address, family details, and tracked Trump's movements using the leaked dataset obtained by the NYT  —  IF YOU OWN A MOBILE PHONE, its every move is logged and tracked by dozens of companies.  No one is beyond the reach of this constant digital surveillance.
Natasha Mascarenhas / Crunchbase News:
Data shows 21 female founded or co-founded companies reached unicorn status in 2019, up from 15 in 2018  —  Venture capitalist Jennifer Neundorfer gave me (quite possibly) the quote of the year when we spoke in October.  When describing her firm, Jane VC, and its focus on female founders, she said:
Tweets: @gremlinincThanks:@nmasc_
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Profile of Cliff Stoll, whose memoir The Cuckoo's Egg, which traces the first known case of state-sponsored hacking, inspired a generation of cybersecurity pros  —  Thirty years ago, Cliff Stoll published The Cuckoo's Egg, a book about his cat-and-mouse game with a KGB-sponsored hacker.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Karen Weise / New York Times:
Interviews with current and former staff, sellers, and suppliers on how Amazon dictates and unpredictably changes rules, punishes and threatens businesses  —  Twenty years ago, Amazon opened its storefront to anyone who wanted to sell something.  Then it began demanding more out of them.
Fortune:
Ripple raises $200M Series C led by global investment firm Tetragon at a $10B valuation  —  Ripple, a San Francisco-based company that uses cryptocurrency to move money across borders, announced a massive funding round on Thursday that values the company at $10 billion.

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