Techmeme
July 1, 2020, 6:35 PM

Top News

Reuters:
Over 400 advertisers are due to suspend Facebook ads on Wednesday for a month, as sources say talks broke down; Zuckerberg will meet boycott organizers  —  NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Advertisements for more than 400 brands including Coca-Cola and Starbucks are due to vanish from Facebook …
CNN:
Of the top 25 Facebook advertisers in 2019, which include Uber and Netflix, only three, Microsoft, Starbucks, and Pfizer, have said they are pausing ad spending  —  New York (CNN Business)Hundreds of companies have promised to halt advertising on Facebook and its sibling platform Instagram …
Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:
Rep. David Cicilline says Tim Cook will testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee in late July, alongside Facebook, Amazon, and Google CEOs  —  Apple CEO Tim Cook, the last chief executive of four big tech companies targeted in a U.S. House Judiciary Committee antitrust probe …
Katyanna Quach / The Register:
MIT apologizes and takes down its 80M-strong AI image training dataset, scraped from Google Images, that labeled some images with racist and misogynistic terms  —  Top uni takes action after El Reg highlights concerns by academics  —  Special report MIT has taken offline its highly cited dataset …
Nikkei Asian Review:
Sources: Apple faces up to 1-2 month production delays for 5G iPhone lineup, lowers volume target to 80M units, is trying to avoid postponing launch until 2021  —  US tech titan to make more older handsets to offset coronavirus disruption  —  TAIPEI/PALO ALTO, U.S. …
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple says it will close 30 more US retail stores as COVID-19 cases spike, bringing the total re-closed stores in the US to 77 in recent weeks  —  - Apple will close 30 additional stores in the United States by Thursday.  — Apple has already reclosed 47 stores in recent weeks …
Nick Summers / Engadget:
UK's Competition and Markets Authority calls for a “pro-competition regulatory regime” to monitor Facebook, Google, and other digital ad giants  —  The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has called on the UK government to create “a new pro-competition regulatory regime” …
New York Times:
Researchers say China's mobile hacking campaign against the Uighurs was broader and more aggressive than previously known, beginning as far back as 2013  —  A new report revealed a broad campaign that targeted Muslims in China and their diaspora in other countries, beginning as early as 2013.
Jacob Silverman / Columbia Journalism Review:
Over 15 journalists describe covering Facebook, which they say lies on the record, has ghost-written op-eds, and has demanded quote approval for interviews  —  One day in July 2016, Casey Newton, a tech reporter for The Verge, sat down at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park for the biggest interview of his career.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
WhatsApp announces contact-adding QR codes, animated stickers, dark mode for desktop and web, and a new group calling button  —  Improvements to video calls are also on the way  —  WhatsApp has announced a collection of new features that are coming to the Facebook-owned messaging service in the coming weeks.
Synced:
Yann LeCun, Facebook's chief AI Scientist and Turing Award winner, takes a break from Twitter after an acrimonious debate regarding racial biases in AI  —  This is an updated version.  —  Turing Award Winner and Facebook Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun has announced his exit …
Joshua Brustein / Bloomberg:
Anduril Industries, founded by Palantir veterans and Palmer Luckey, raises $200M led by a16z at a $1.9B valuation for its AI-powered drone and surveillance tech  —  Anduril Industries Inc., a Southern California startup that builds technology for military agencies and border surveillance …
More: Forbes
Emily Birnbaum / Protocol:
Employees at tech companies say NDAs, widely used across the industry, are muzzling those who have endured racism and discrimination  —  Earlier this month, Pariss Athena appeared on a podcast to discuss her experiences as a Black woman in web development.  During the wide-ranging conversation …
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon Game Studios pulls its free-to-play PC title Crucible from wide circulation following negative reviews, an exceedingly rare step for a big-budget game  —  - Crucible was first big-budget release from Amazon Game Studios  — Game will move to closed beta while developers work on changes
Billy Steele / Engadget:
Spotify expands its Premium Duo plan, which allows ad-free streaming for two people for $12.99 per month, to 55 markets including the US  —  Streaming services have been offering family plans for years.  While the terms and prices may change, the basic premise is the same …
Alfred Ng / CNET:
Ahead of a key contract renewal date, activists are pushing to end facial recognition use in Detroit, the US city with the highest percentage of Black residents  —  Activists say facial recognition and its racial bias have no place in Detroit, a city that boasts the highest percentage of Black residents in the US.

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