Techmeme
June 17, 2020, 9:55 PM

Top News

Twitter:
Twitter will let users record and add up to 140 seconds of audio to tweets, rolling out to iOS users in the coming weeks  —  Twitter is where you go to talk about what's happening.  Over the years, photos, videos, gifs, and extra characters have allowed you to add your own flair and personality to your conversations.
Nico Grant / Bloomberg:
Zoom backtracks on end-to-end encryption, saying it plans to offer E2EE to all tiers of users who verify phone numbers and will start testing it in July  —  - Company will require users of free service to verify identity  — Video-conferencing app will test strongest encryption in July
Brian Barrett / Wired:
eBay confirms that ex-CEO Devin Wenig is the person who allegedly ordered six eBay employees to initiate a cyberstalking campaign; Wenig is not being charged  —  Surveillance.  Harassment.  A live cockroach delivery.  US attorneys have charged six former eBay workers in association with an outrageous cyberstalking campaign.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
T-Mobile says its massive outage on Monday was caused by failures of a leased third-party fiber circuit and its backup that resulted in an “IP traffic storm”  —  “We did not meet our own bar for excellence,” writes T-Mobile's CTO  —  If you've been wondering what could knock …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
No, Google didn't demonetize The Federalist and Zero Hedge, as NBC's misleading story claims, and it is not an example of anti-conservative bias  —  from the another-day-another-story dept  —  So, earlier today, NBC reported that Google had “banned” two well known websites from its ad platform, namely The Federalist and Zero Hedge.
Aaron Holmes / Business Insider:
Margaret Harding McGill / Axios:
DOJ proposes Congress adopt new legislation adding conditions to Section 230 protections, opening up Facebook, Google, Twitter, others to additional liability  —  The Justice Department is urging Congress to limit the legal protections enjoyed by online platforms, seeking to narrow the law …
Margaret Harding McGill / Axios:
Dell Cameron / Gizmodo:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
As the HEY debacle shows, the text of Apple's App Store policies is vague, and their arbitrary interpretation and enforcement makes things worse  —  Arbitrariness is a feature, not a bug  —  I started this morning all riled up and ready to write a newsletter about how Google is using …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
The distinction of business vs. consumer apps is flimsy as a justification for Apple's rejection of HEY from the App Store for not using in-app purchases  —  This statement is paraphrased by Pierce, not a direct quote, but on its surface this business/consumer distinction seems untenable.
John Bolton / Wall Street Journal:
Book excerpt by Trump's former national security adviser: Trump offered in 2019 to reverse Huawei's criminal prosecution if China agreed to a trade deal  —  The president pleaded with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for domestic political help, subordinated national-security issues …
Rob Copeland / Wall Street Journal:
Sundar Pichai says Google will increase its proportion of execs from underrepresented groups by 30% by 2025, contribute $175M+ for Black business owners, more  —  Not new to debates on race, Google seeks to address ‘systemic racism’ in society  —  Google announced a new hiring goal …
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Coinbase launches Rosetta, an open-source framework for blockchains that makes integrating with them and listing them on exchanges simpler and more reliable  —  Crypto exchange Coinbase is hoping to streamline how it adds new tokens to its platform.  —  The San Francisco-based exchange rolled …
Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg:
Uber to sell the software that powers its ride-hailing business, starting with public transit agencies; California Marin county is first to buy Uber's software  —  - Ride-hailing giant partners with California county officials  — Program is Uber's first software sale with a third party
Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News:
Documents from an ACLU lawsuit show Microsoft tried to sell facial recognition tech to the DEA in late 2017, six months before the company called for regulation  —  Last week, Microsoft said it would not sell its facial recognition to police departments.  But new documents reveal it was pitching …
VICE:
Investigation into a “supply chain” of people who scrape OnlyFans content en masse before reposting it for free, often on other adult websites or Discord  —  In late February, rumors of a massive database of adult content stolen from OnlyFans subscription-only accounts spread through social media.

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