Techmeme
June 11, 2020, 5:15 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Chris Cox is returning to Facebook as its chief product officer, a year after quitting over differences with Mark Zuckerberg over the company's direction  —  The longtime executive had quit in 2019 after a difference of opinion over the company's direction  —  A year after quitting the company …
Jay Greene / Washington Post:
Microsoft says it will not sell facial recognition tech to police departments until there is a federal law regulating its use  —  The software giant will ban police use of its controversial facial-recognition systems, as the company awaits regulatory rules for how law-enforcement agencies deploy the technology.
Ari Levy / CNBC:
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac:
Tim Cook announces Apple's Racial Equity and Justice Initiative with a $100M commitment, led by VP of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson  —  Tim Cook has just announced a new major commitment from Apple to support the fight for racial equality and justice …
Taylor Lyles / The Verge:
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Biden campaign steps up its criticism of Facebook, with an open letter to Zuckerberg and petition asking it to strengthen rules on misinformation  —  The campaign will urge its supporters to push the social media giant to strengthen its rules against misinformation and harmful comments.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Snap says more than 170M+ people access AR features daily and updates its AR platform with voice search, geography-specific Local Lenses, and SnapML  —  Snapchat's augmented reality dreams might be starting to look a bit more realistic.  —  The company has been subtly improving …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Snap announces Minis, apps made by third-party developers that run inside of Snapchat, launching on Android and iOS in July  —  - Snap on Thursday announced a new product called Snap Minis — small apps built by third-party software developers that can be opened within Snapchat.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple announces the schedule for its all-virtual WWDC 2020, including Special Event Keynote on June 22 at 10am PT  —  Ahead of WWDC 2020 kicking off on June 22, Apple today has offered additional details on this year's schedule.  Apple has confirmed that the all-virtual WWDC will include a keynote address …
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Adobe launches Photoshop Camera, which uses its Sensei AI to suggest filters, on iOS and on recent Pixel, Galaxy, and OnePlus phones  —  Another way for Adobe to introduce people to Photoshop  —  Adobe is launching a new app today called Photoshop Camera that's filled with a bunch …
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Apple pulls podcast apps Pocket Casts and Castro from the App Store in China after China's government determined they can be used to access “illegal” content  —  Pocket Casts and Castro are gone from China's App Store  —  Apple has removed Pocket Casts, the popular iOS …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: EU plans to file formal antitrust charges against Amazon for scooping up data from third-party sellers and using that info to compete against them  —  Charges are set to accuse Amazon of scooping up data from third-party sellers and using that information to compete against them
April Glaser / NBC News:
Sources detail Google's lackluster response to the BLM movement, which was to “corral and isolate the black employees” to vent without making structural changes  —  On May 29, four days after George Floyd died in police custody, the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, wrote an email to his staff …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
The Technology Coalition, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Apple, announces Project Protect, a 5-point plan to combat online child sexual abuse  —  - The Technology Coalition is a group backed by the likes of Google, Facebook and Microsoft.  Its aim is to combat online sexual abuse.
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Evan Spiegel says Snap's decision to stop promoting Trump's account in Discover is within its First Amendment rights  —  - Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said the company is well in its rights to restrict the accounts it promotes on Snapchat's Discover platform.  — Snap faced backlash …
More: Bloomberg and CNET
Ashlee Vance / Bloomberg:
OpenAI launches its first commercially available product, an API that can perform a broad set of language tasks, like translation or writing a news story  —  Over the past few months, OpenAI has vacuumed an incredible amount of data into its artificial intelligence language systems.
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
After outcry, Nextdoor pledges to provide more explicit guidelines on how to moderate against racism and tells community leads to allow BLM discussions  —  'To be clear, conversations related to racial inequality and black lives matter are allowed on Nextdoor'
Margaret Harding McGill / Axios:
Source: at the request of the Trump administration, Sen. Josh Hawley is working on new legislation targeting Section 230 protections  —  At the request of the Trump administration, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is working on new legislation targeting the tech industry's liability shield, a source familiar with the effort told Axios.
Axios:
Sources: Facebook is establishing a venture arm to invest in startups and has hired a head of investments for the New Product Experimentation team  —  Facebook has been hiring seasoned tech investors to help lead a new “multi-million dollar” investment fund within its experimental apps team, Axios has learned.
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Facebook says it is expanding the role of chief diversity officer, Maxine Williams, who will now report directly to COO Sheryl Sandberg  —  Amid a heavier focus on race, diversity and inclusion in light of the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, Facebook is making …
Facebook: Sheryl Sandberg
CNBC:
Instacart raises $225M led by DST Global and General Catalyst, valuing the company at $13.7B, up from $8B in 2018  —  - Amid surging demand for grocery delivery, Instacart has raised $225 million, led by DST Global and General Catalyst.  — The round increases its valuation to nearly $14 billion …
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
Meditation app Headspace raises an additional $47.7M, bringing its Series C round from February to $100.7M in equity funding  —  The Orange Dot, better known as Headspace, has closed on $47.7 million in equity funding, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook confirms it is testing an updated version of Search that displays information panels with publicly available data, including from Wikipedia  —  Facebook is testing a new feature that aims to keep users inside its platform when they're looking for factual information they would otherwise turn to Google or Wikipedia to find.

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Earlier Picks

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Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian / Axios: