Techmeme
September 18, 2020, 9:50 AM

Top News

Steve Kovach / CNBC:
Commerce Department announces that it will ban US downloads of and business transactions with TikTok and WeChat on Sunday  —  - The Commerce Department announced Friday morning that it would ban U.S. business transactions with China-owned social apps WeChat and TikTok on Sunday.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Source: an agreement between ByteDance and Oracle includes creation of an oversight board approved by the US government, and a continuous third-party audit  —  An agreement between TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance and Oracle includes a variety of concessions in an effort to make the deal palatable …
New York Times:
Sources: Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom has had preliminary talks about becoming TikTok's new CEO  —  The video app is also looking for a new chief executive and has talked to candidates including a founder of Instagram.  —  WASHINGTON — The Chinese company that owns TikTok has accepted …
Washington Post:
Sources: Steven Mnuchin is attempting to push through a TikTok deal enabling it to retain some Chinese ownership, despite security concerns from lawmakers  —  The deal would let the U.S. government approve the company's board and require TikTok to plan to go public
Bloomberg:
Sources: CFIUS sent letters to Epic, Riot, and other game companies asking for information about their data security protocols involving Tencent  —  - Cfius sent letters to gaming companies about data security  — Move is part of heightened scrutiny on Chinese companies
CNBC:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Google pulls India's Paytm app from Play Store ahead of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament; sources say for repeatedly violating its gambling policies  —  Google has pulled Indian financial services app Paytm from the Play Store for repeatedly violating its policies.
Michael Steeber / 9to5Mac:
Apple says it will open its online store in India on September 23  —  Apple announced today that it plans to open its online store in India on September 23.  The expansion will bring direct sales and an improved shopping experience to customers in the region for the first time.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Twitter rolls out security features for high-profile political accounts, including enabling password reset protection and security prompts, ahead of US election  —  It's automatically turning on password reset protection  —  Twitter will start prompting high-profile political accounts …
Jack Brewster / Forbes:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Apple's iOS 14.2 developer beta adds Music Recognition feature in Control Center, using Shazam tech for song identification of audio in apps and the environment  —  iOS 14.2 can identify songs that are playing inside your apps  —  Apple bought music recognition app Shazam in 2018 …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
A bug in the first public release of iOS 14 is making the default browser or mail app settings reset to Apple's Safari or Mail when the device reboots  —  One of the new features in iOS 14 is the ability to change the default email or browser app to a third-party alternative such as Chrome, Edge, or Outlook.
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
German media: a patient died after ransomware attack forced a hospital to send them elsewhere; hackers backed down after police told them target was a hospital  —  A person in a life-threatening condition passed away after being forced to go to a more distant hospital due to a ransomware attack.
Jeff Grubb / VentureBeat:
PS5 will launch on Nov. 12 in North America, Japan, Mexico, AU, and NZ for $500 for Blu-Ray version and $400 for Digital Edition and then elsewhere on Nov. 19  —  Sony provided more details about the upcoming PlayStation 5.  During a video event today, the company explained what you can expect in terms of a PS5 release date and price.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Interview with Ilkka Paananen, CEO of mobile game maker Supercell, on Tencent's majority stake, attempting to create another hit franchise, and team building  —  Mobile games maker Supercell has been one of the great, understated, breakthroughs of the European startup world.
Eric Geller / Politico:
US charges 3 alleged state-backed Iranian hackers with stealing sensitive info on aerospace and satellite tech from 2015-2019, detailing spear phishing attack  —  The hackers allegedly impersonated real U.S. citizens in the targeted industries.  —  A participant looks at lines of code …
Rob Walker / Marker:
Despite a shift to remote work amid COVID-19, Slack is having a hard time living up to its hype as layoffs/slowed hiring among its clients undercut its billings  —  In the war for the remote office, why isn't the hyped messaging app pulling a Zoom?  —  It's no secret that the arrival …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Facebook says it will limit the spread of private groups focused on health advice and those with ties to violence, and will archive groups without admins  —  - Facebook announced new policies that will limit the spread of private groups on its social network that focus on giving users health advice …
David Jeans / Forbes:
CEO of fraud detection startup NS8 arrested by the FBI on charges of misleading investors who invested $123M in his company, a deal in which he earned $17M+  —  The CEO of a startup that sold fraud prevention software is facing fraud charges after he was arrested Thursday by the FBI in Las Vegas.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Facebook says it will specify which parts of its internal Workplace are for discussing political issues so staffers don't have to confront such issues at work  —  - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday outlined to employees a new set of principles to guide debates and conversations within Workplace …

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Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: