Techmeme
December 9, 2020, 7:05 PM

Top News

Federal Trade Commission:
FTC, in coalition with 46 state AGs, plus Guam and DC, sues Facebook, alleging Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions were used to stifle competition  —  Agency challenges Facebook's multi-year course of unlawful conduct  —  The Federal Trade Commission today sued Facebook …
More: Federal Trade Commission, New York Times, About Facebook, Wall Street Journal, NBC News, Ars Technica, CNBC, CNET, The Verge, OneZero , AdExchanger, Tom's Hardware, International Business Times, Protocol, Thurrott, TechCrunch, Business Insider, MIT Technology Review, Politico, Gizmodo, Washington Post, Forbes, BBC, GeekWire, The Hill, MacRumors, VICE, CNET, The Next Web, BuzzFeed News, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Engadget, PC Gamer, ABC News, Axios, Business Insider, Axios, Ubergizmo, The Logic, Neowin, IGN, Road to VR, Vanity Fair, Social Media Today, Newser, Android Central, iMore, Tom's Guide, Mashable, PYMNTS.com, Apple Terminal, Politico, iDownloadBlog.com, Input, MSPoweruser, Bloomberg, Quartz, The Wrap, SlashGear, and Axios
The Verge:
FTC's antitrust lawsuit against Facebook seeks to unwind Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions, force Facebook to seek approval for future acquisitions, and more  —  New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the lawsuit on Wednesday  —  On Wednesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced …
NY State Attorney General:
New York AG Letitia James leads a coalition of 48 AGs in suing Facebook, alleging the company uses a “buy or bury” approach toward its competitors  —  AG James Leads Bipartisan Coalition of 48 Attorneys General Charging Anticompetitive Conduct  —  Facebook Thwarted Competition, Reduced Consumer Privacy for Profits
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
A look at Facebook's plans to monetize WhatsApp, which makes virtually no money at present, by facilitating business transactions, a shift away from ads  —  On the final day of November, Facebook Inc. announced it had bought a customer service software startup most people had never heard of …
Ina Fried / Axios:
Internal memo: Sundar Pichai apologizes over the handling of AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru's departure and says he will investigate  —  Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized Wednesday for the company's handling of the departure of AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru and said he would investigate …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Microsoft says its cloud gaming service, as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, will come to iOS via web browser in spring of 2021  —  Microsoft has confirmed that Xbox cloud gaming is coming to iOS in 2021.  In a new blog post today, the company says that cloud gaming as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate …
YouTube Official Blog:
YouTube says it will remove any content published from today that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the 2020 US Presidential election outcome  —  Over the past weeks and months, we've seen people coming to YouTube to learn more about where and how to vote or learning more about a candidate or an issue.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
WhatsApp says that Apple's new privacy labels are anti-competitive; Apple responds by confirming its own apps will include the “nutrition labels”  —  Facebook's global messaging service WhatsApp is protesting Apple's requirement that app owners submit information about the user data …
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
DoorDash closes at $189.51, up 85% from its $102 pricing, after popping to $182 as the shares began trading, giving a valuation of $60.2B  —  - Shares of DoorDash, a leading food delivery app, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.  — The stock began trading at $182 per share and closed at $189.51.
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
Report: four former Apple employees say the company was aware of Chinese labor law violations by its suppliers but took no action to avoid product delays  —  Three former members of the Apple Supplier Responsibility team say Apple was complicit in labor law violations in China.
Kellen Browning / New York Times:
Twitch unveils new guidelines to crack down on hateful conduct and sexual harassment, following a yearlong review, which take effect in January  —  The livestreaming site announced new guidelines after contending with claims that its streamers were too easily abused.
Kyle Hyatt / Roadshow:
Report: Hyundai Motor Group has agreed to purchase Boston Dynamics, maker of the Spot quadruped robot, from SoftBank for around $921M  —  The acquisition has been expected since early November. … Hey, remember those deeply unsettling robot dogs that have been creeping out the internet for years and recently went into production?
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Squire, which develops software for barbershops, raises $59M Series C led by Iconiq Capital at a $250M valuation, just months after raising a $34M Series B  —  Squire, a startup that sells software to barbershops, has raised $59 million in a round led by Iconiq Capital.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google says it will compel Chrome extensions to display privacy practices and limit data that developers can collect from January 18, 2021, ahead of Chrome 88  —  At Chrome Dev Summit 2020 today, Google announced it will change how extensions access data and how extension permissions work in 2021.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Parallel Domain, which is developing a synthetic data generation tool for accelerating the development of computer vision tech, raises $11M Series A  —  Parallel Domain, a startup developing a synthetic data generation platform for AI and machine learning applications, today emerged from stealth with $11 million in funding.
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Facebook removed at least nine Pages, including one with 16M+ followers, that spread coordinated health misinformation, after being flagged by a think tank  —  Facebook just took down prominent pages that were directing their millions of followers to false claims about the coronavirus, the flu vaccine, and other health issues.
Ian Allison / CoinDesk:
Latin American crypto exchange Bitso raises $62M Series B led by QED Investors and Kaszek Ventures, following a $15M Series A in October 2019  —  Latin American crypto exchange Bitso has raised a whopping $62 million funding round, the largest in the region for a digital asset firm.

Sponsor Posts

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Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal: