Techmeme
June 17, 2020, 6:50 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
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:
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.
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 …
Mark Zuckerberg / USA Today:
Facebook launches Voting Information Center for accurate election information and tools for voter registration, aiming to help register 4M people via its apps  —  The 2020 election is going to be unlike any other.  It was already going to be a heated campaign, and that was before the pandemic …
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 …
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
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
David Pierce / Protocol:
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 …
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 …
Aaron Holmes / Business Insider:
Google cracks down on The Federalist and ZeroHedge for violating policies on race-related content and may permanently suspend their access to Google Ads revenue  —  - Google is cracking down on two right-wing outlets, ZeroHedge and The Federalist, for violating its policies on race-related content.
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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Google:
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Zoho:
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IDrive:
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Jennifer Alsever / Marker:

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