Techmeme
December 4, 2020, 8:30 AM

Top News

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Timnit Gebru says she was fired as co-lead of Ethical AI at Google due to an email to colleagues; leaked email details her struggles as a Black leader at Google  —  “Stop writing your documents because it doesn't make a difference”: Timnit Gebru's final message to her peers
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Warner Bros. says it will release every single movie in 2021 simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max in the US and stream them for one month  —  For a period of one month in the United States  —  WarnerMedia is pushing even more aggressively into streaming by releasing every single movie in 2021 simultaneously on HBO Max.
Wall Street Journal:
DOJ sues Facebook, accusing it of improperly reserving jobs for H-1B workers by not sufficiently advertising open positions and overlooking US residents  —  Justice Department lawsuit says social-media company didn't sufficiently advertise open positions, overlooked U.S. residents
Washington Post:
Parler's lax moderation policies have helped it become a magnet for porn and escort services, which might complicate its hopes of expanding into advertising  —  Hashtags like #keepamericasexy proliferate alongside conspiracy theories and conservative politics
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the DOJ is in talks with Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou that would allow her to return to China in exchange for admitting wrongdoing in ongoing case  —  Justice Department is discussing an arrangement that would allow her to return to China in exchange for admitting wrongdoing
Reuters:
The DOD has added China's largest chipmaker SMIC to its blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Thursday added China's top chipmaker SMIC and oil giant CNOOC to a blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Twitter says it is turning off threaded replies because they made conversations hard to read, and shuts down its prototype twttr app  —  It's also shutting down its experimental app, twttr  —  Twitter has been experimenting with threaded replies for some time as a way to potentially make replies easier to read and follow.
New York Times:
EU law inhibiting the monitoring of email, messaging, and other services that takes effect Dec. 20 would also restrict scanning for child sexual abuse imagery  —  Regulators argue that while abuse imagery on the internet is abhorrent, unchecked scanning for it by tech companies could violate privacy rights.
M.G. Siegler / 500ish:
Despite Microsoft's present-day sales power, a wave of product-focused enterprise companies inspired by Slack and its peers will ultimately disrupt the giant  —  A quick rebuttal on the Slackforce Slacklash  —  Look, it's late.  And everyone is happy enough so there's no pressing need to weigh in here.
David McLaughlin / Bloomberg:
Sources: Facebook's VR business practices have attracted the attention of the DOJ, which is talking to developers about their interactions with Facebook  —  - Justice Department asks app developers about Oculus actions  — “Copy, acquire, kill” accusations echo House report critiques
Brian Barrett / Wired:
IBM researchers say a sophisticated global phishing campaign is targeting the companies involved in the “cold chain” needed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines  —  As vaccines await US approval, a sophisticated global phishing campaign has tried to harvest credentials from companies involved in their distribution.
Peter Rudegeair / Wall Street Journal:
Stripe launches Treasury to let its customers offer checking accounts and other business-banking services; Shopify will offer the services from early next year  —  Shopify, a Stripe customer, will begin offering the service to its merchants early next year  —  Stripe Inc. is teaming …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Users can now share in-app purchases and subscriptions via Apple's iCloud Family Sharing, if developers enable the option in their apps  —  iPhone and iPad users who share apps with their families through Apple's Family Sharing feature can now share subscription apps as well.

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