Techmeme
January 7, 2021, 12:05 AM

Top News

Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News:
As a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building, Facebook and Twitter allowed Trump to cheer them on using their platforms  —  As rioters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, President Donald Trump clung to his last vestiges of power: his social media accounts.
@twittersafety:
[Thread] Twitter says Trump's account will be locked for 12 hours following removal of recent tweets, and further violations will result in permanent suspension  —  As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy. https://help.twitter.com/...
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Facebook will remove content supporting violence at the Capitol, including photos and videos of the event, require admin review for group posts, more  —  After removing a video in which President Trump praised a violent group of his supporters who broke into the U.S. Capitol building …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Facebook and Instagram have banned President Trump from posting for the next 24 hours citing two policy violations  —  The company follows Twitter in restricting Trump's presence  —  Facebook has blocked President Trump from posting on the site for 24 hours, the company said Wednesday evening.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Facebook and YouTube have removed a video of Trump addressing supporters; Facebook says it risked adding to violence, YouTube says it violated election rules  —  YouTube also removed it, but Twitter left it up  —  As rioters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, Facebook removed a video …
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
After labeling some Trump tweets due to “risk of violence”, Twitter removed three Trump tweets, including the video to his supporters  —  Twitter has suspended Donald Trump and locked the president out of his account for the next 12 hours, after warning that his tweets posed a “risk of violence.”
Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News:
Some Facebook employees say internal forum admins froze comments on at least three threads in which employees discussed removing Trump from the site  —  Facebook employees were appalled by President Donald Trump's encouragement of his supporters as they stormed the US Capitol building …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple says App Store users spent $1.8B on goods and services between December 24 and New Year's Eve and $540M on New Year's Day alone; Books has 90M MAUs  —  Apple has announced today that App Store customers spent a record amount throughout the holiday season.
New York Times:
Sources: US intel agencies are investigating JetBrains as possible entry point for SolarWinds hackers; JetBrains isn't aware of any investigation or compromise  —  Russian hackers may have piggybacked on a tool developed by JetBrains, which is based in the Czech Republic …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Queenie Wong / CNET:
Bloomberg:
Facebook's Andrew Bosworth says its smart glasses, built in partnership with Ray-Ban, will arrive “sooner than later” in 2021 without AR features  —  - Company has more than 6,000 staff on AR, VR and hardware tasks  — Zuckerberg seeking the next computer platform after smartphone
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
An oral history from 24 people describing how Microsoft developed the original Xbox, initially an over-budget ungainly product, and reshaped the gaming industry  —  The original product was ungainly, over-budget and nearly canceled.  Here's how it became a hit and reshaped an industry.
Ari Levy / CNBC:
Roblox announces a $520M financing round led by Altimeter Capital and Dragoneer at a $29.5B valuation, says it plans to go public soon via direct listing  —  - Robolox raised $520 million at a $29.5 billion valuation in a financing round led by Altimeter Capital and Dragoneer Investment Group.
Emily Birnbaum / Protocol:
After Democrats won both of Georgia's Senate seats, a look at potential tech legislation under a unified government, including a federal privacy bill  —  Democrats have won both Senate races in Georgia, taking back control of the Senate after five years of Republican leadership.
Pranob Mehrotra / XDA Developers:
WhatsApp updates its Terms and Privacy Policy to mandate data sharing with Facebook, including transaction data, mobile device information, IP address, and more  —  WhatsApp users are receiving an in-app notice today regarding the service's new terms and privacy policy.

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
The crossroads of AI and SaaS  —  Enabling businesses of all sizes to build products in-house and disqualifying SaaS tools that are not AI-powered.  In a span of just two years, AI has made a name for itself as the key driver for innovation.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:05 AM ET, January 7, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Nicole Friedman / Wall Street Journal:
Alexandra Alper / Reuters: