Techmeme
September 18, 2020, 8:50 PM

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 it will ban U.S. business transactions with China-owned social apps WeChat and TikTok on Sunday.
More: Wall Street Journal, U.S. Department of Commerce, Reuters, New York Times, Washington Post, The Verge, Reuters, The Verge, Vox, Engadget, TechCrunch, Slate, Ars Technica, BBC, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Axios, Wired, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Next Web, Threatpost, CNET, Business Insider, Fortune, CNN, Adweek, NBC News, The Verge, Bloomberg, Business Insider Australia, Reuters, Marketplace, Developer Tech News, Tubefilter, Decrypt, International Business Times, SlashGear, Droid Life, Tom's Guide, Computer Business Review, PYMNTS.com, Game Rant, Gamasutra, Observer, TalkAndroid.com, Deadline, Pocketnow, Tom's Hardware, MacDailyNews, iDownloadBlog.com, TweakTown News, Gizmodo, iClarified, Digital Trends, iPhone Hacks, ZDNet, NBC Bay Area, Politico, MacRumors, Neowin, and Pocket-lint
Jason Koebler / VICE:
Banning TikTok from US app stores but allowing it to operate until Nov. 12 prevents TikTok from patching any security vulnerabilities found in the meantime  —  Any TikTok vulnerabilities patched by ByteDance will continue to persist for Americans and Americans only under Trump's new TikTok ban.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Cade Metz / New York Times:
24 of 35 living American Turing award winners, including Alphabet chair John Hennessy, endorse Biden, citing the harm of Trump's immigration policies to tech  —  They said the administration's policies were driving away technology talent and could do long-term damage to their industry.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Google has restored India's Paytm app after pulling it from Play Store ahead of the IPL cricket tournament; sources say for violating its gambling policies  —  Google has pulled Indian financial services app Paytm from the Play Store for repeatedly violating its policies.
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
Epic says it will end macOS support for Fortnite: Save the World on September 23  —  Epic and Apple's squabble will pull the plug on Mac support for this PvE version of ‘Fortnite.’  —  Fortnite: Save the World — a castle building players-vs-zombies version of the game that preceded …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
DOJ charges six people who allegedly bribed Amazon employees and contractors since at least 2017 in a scheme to benefit some third-party sellers  —  - The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday charged six individuals who allegedly bribed Amazon employees and contractors …
Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
Comcast reaches a deal with Roku to ensure NBCU's Peacock service is carried on Roku devices, after NBCU threatened to pull its TV Everywhere channels  —  - Agreement ensures Peacock is carried on streaming platform  — NBC's threat came amid dispute with Roku over advertising
New York Times:
In August Facebook said it would crack down on QAnon, but analysis shows QAnon is flourishing on the site, at times aided by Facebook's recommendation engine  —  The social network tried cracking down on the spread of the conspiracy theory and other extremist material.  But QAnon groups are still flourishing on the site.
Hugh Son / CNBC:
Neobank Chime raises $485M Series F at a $14.5B valuation; CEO says the startup will be IPO-ready within the next 12 months  —  - Chime, the start-up that delivers banking services through mobile phones, has closed a fundraising that values the company at $14.5 billion, CNBC has learned exclusively.
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Outschool, a marketplace for online classes, raises $45M Series B, says bookings grew 2,000%+ between Aug. 2019 and Aug. 2020 and it turned profitable this year  —  Outschool, which started in 2015 as a platform for homeschooled students to bolster their extracurricular activities …
Nick Bastone / The Information:
Sources: Google's pro-privacy plan to block online ad trackers has boosted the US' antitrust probe, as publishers argue it would create an unfair playing field  —  Google has taken a lot of heat for violating people's privacy.  Now it could get in trouble for trying to protect it.

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