Techmeme
June 18, 2020, 9:05 PM

Top News

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Apple rejects HEY appeal, noting email apps must work without paid subscription; Apple suggests offering in-app sub or to reconfigure app as IMAP and POP client  —  In a brief call today about Basecamp's Hay email app from the iOS App Store, Apple's Phil Schiller told me that there would currently …
Bloomberg:
Microsoft says some app stores are creating a far higher barrier to fair competition than Microsoft did when found guilty of antitrust violations 20 years ago  —  - Developers put at a disadvantage by unfair rules, Smith says  — European Commission this week launched investigation of Apple
Seth Schiesel / New York Times:
Sources: since February, Apple has rejected at least five versions of Facebook Gaming, citing rules that prohibit apps that primarily distribute casual games  —  Apple has repeatedly denied Facebook's new Gaming app from appearing in its App Store, citing its own rules.
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with House antitrust committee chair Rep. David Cicilline who says Apple is acting like a monopolist and a bully whose App Store fees are “highway robbery”  —  Apple is acting like a monopolist and a bully, according to the chairman of the House antitrust subcommittee.
Media Matters for America:
Facebook says it has removed ads from Trump's 2020 campaign that featured Nazi iconography; the campaign ran 88 ads with the inverted red triangle symbol  —  Update (6/18/20, 1:15 p.m. EDT): Facebook has removed the ads in question following this post and public backlash.
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.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google's Area 120 launches Keen, an automated, machine learning-based app similar to Pinterest that lets users track their interests  —  A new project called Keen is launching today from Google's in-house incubator for new ideas, Area 120, to help users track their interests.
Dylan Byers / NBC News:
Facebook commits $200M to support US Black-owned businesses, plans to double Black and Latinx staff by 2023, and add “Lift Black Voices” section to app  —  Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg on Thursday announced a series of new steps the social media giant is taking …
Jeremy Roebuck / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Court filings show how the FBI used a Philadelphia protester's Etsy profile, LinkedIn, and other internet history to charge her with setting police cars ablaze  —  As demonstrators shouted, fires burned outside City Hall, and Philadelphia convulsed with outrage over the death of George Floyd …
Kerry Flynn / CNN:
Colin Kaepernick joins Medium's board and will write for Medium publications; Kaepernick Publishing will create stories for Medium about race and civil rights  —  New York (CNN Business)Colin Kaepernick is expanding his media ambitions.  —  The athlete-turned-civil-rights- activist …
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
The Markup:
Investigation finds nearly 100 Amazon listings for products it bans, like drugs, weapons, and spy gear, some sold as “Amazon's Choice” and some by Amazon itself  —  The online giant bans products related to drugs, spying and weapons, but we found plenty for sale …
Alfred Ng / CNET:
Facebook files lawsuits in the US and Europe against developers it alleges scraped user data, as the company increasingly turns to lawsuits to stop data abuses  —  Facebook is suing a developer it alleges was behind a data scraping campaign that took personal information, including login credentials …
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Following public condemnation from two Black employees, Pinterest CEO says that it plans to add a person of color to its board, evaluate compensation, and more  —  - CEO commits to non-White board member by end of year  — Company will evaluate whether Black employees are underpaid
New York Times:
US withdraws from international digital tax negotiations with European countries, saying 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.
Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:
Facebook acquires Swedish mapping startup Mapillary, which is building a crowdsourced database of street-level imagery  —  Mapillary, the Swedish startup that wants to take on Google and others in mapping the world via a crowdsourced database of street-level imagery, has been acquired by Facebook, according to the company's blog.

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