Techmeme
June 18, 2020, 12:15 PM

Top News

Leo Kelion / BBC:
In a major U-turn, UK government abandons its own coronavirus-tracing app approach and shifts to the model based on Google and Apple's API  —  In a major U-turn, the UK is ditching the way its current coronavirus-tracing app works and shifting to a model based on technology provided by Apple and Google.
Financial Times:
German payments group Wirecard says €1.9B cash is missing and that “spurious cash balances” might have been provided to its auditor by a third party  —  Shares of payments group crash as it says a third-party may have tried ‘to deceive’ its auditor
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Aamir Siddiqui / XDA Developers:
Samsung begins rollout of blood pressure monitoring feature for the Galaxy Watch Active 2 in South Korea  —  Samsung has yet to enable the long-anticipated ECG support on the Galaxy Watch Active 2, but the company continues to work towards making the Galaxy Watch Active 2 more useful.
James Hercher / AdExchanger:
YouTube announces new shoppable “storefront” video ad unit, with clickable product images that link to the advertising brand's product  —  Google released a direct response ad format for YouTube on Thursday that will make YouTube ads more shoppable, and more closely integrated with a brand's Google Merchant Center account.
New York Times:
The US withdraws from international digital tax negotiations with European countries, says it'll retaliate if they move forward with new taxes on US tech firms  —  The breakdown in negotiations could prompt President Trump to retaliate against countries that impose taxes on American tech firms.
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.
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 …
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
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 …
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.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Payfone, which offers a service to identify and verify people using data gleaned from their mobile phones, raises $100M, bringing its total raised to $175M  —  As an increasing number of daily and essential services move to digital platforms — a trend that's had a massive fillip in the last few months …
Dan Primack / Axios:
DoorDash raises $400M led by Durable Capital Partners, at a $16B post-money valuation  —  DoorDash has raised $400 million in new equity funding at a $16 billion post-money valuation, Axios has learned.  —  Why it matters: For all the talk of deals that didn't happen because of coronavirus, this one is a product of the pandemic.
More: TechCrunch
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 …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Stockwell, the AI-based vending machine formerly known as Bodega, which had raised at least $45M, will be shutting down July 1  —  Stockwell AI entered the world with a bang but it is leaving with a whimper.  Founded in 2017 by ex-Googlers, the AI vending machine startup formerly known …
Danielle Mackey / Rest of World:
Ecuador's state-run Twitter troll army, perfected by former president Rafael Correa, has become less organized but more sophisticated since his departure  —  Ecuador's government-run Twitter army became a nexus for online political harassment across the world.  —  • QUITO, ECUADOR
Bloomberg:
Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com rises ~6% in its debut in Hong Kong after raising $3.9B  —  - JD's listing followed NetEase's coming-out party a week ago  — Alibaba, JD and NetEase bode well for future Chinese debuts  —  JD.com Inc. soared about 6% in its Thursday debut in Hong Kong …
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.
Dell Cameron / Gizmodo:
Sen. Josh Hawley's bill targeting Section 230 seems largely toothless, mandating companies only adhere more closely to their own rules  —  Sen. Josh Hawley, one of Facebook's most vocal critics on Capitol Hill, introduced new legislation on Wednesday that would purportedly chip away …
Margaret Harding McGill / Axios:

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