Techmeme
January 12, 2021, 7:50 AM

Top News

Twitter:
Twitter says it has suspended over 70K accounts involved in spreading harmful QAnon-associated content since Friday  —  Following the horrific events in Washington, DC, last week, here are some of the steps we've taken to protect the conversation on our service from attempts to incite violence …
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Parler is suing Amazon after its AWS suspension, leveling far-fetched antitrust allegations, including that Amazon hoped to reduce competition for Twitter  —  Parler has sued Amazon after the beleaguered conservative social media site was expelled from AWS, filing a fanciful complaint alleging …
Dell Cameron / Gizmodo:
Bruce Haring / Deadline:
About Facebook:
Facebook says it is now removing content containing the phrase “stop the steal”, under Facebook and Instagram's Coordinating Harm policy  —  We began preparing for Inauguration Day last year.  But our planning took on new urgency after last week's violence in Washington, D.C. …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Following Trump's ban on Facebook and Twitter, alternative social apps and private messengers top the app stores, including Signal, Telegram, MeWe, and CloutHub  —  Alternative social media apps including MeWe, CloutHub and other privacy-focused rivals to big tech, are topping …
Bloomberg:
Evelyn Douek / Lawfare:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Melissa Repko / CNBC:
Walmart says it will launch a fintech start-up, with Ribbit Capital owning a minority share in the new company  —  - Walmart said Monday that it will launch a fintech start-up with Ribbit Capital, one of the investment firms behind Robinhood.  — The retail giant interacts with millions of customers …
Ashley Gold / Axios:
Facebook says it's freezing all contributions from its PAC through at least Q1 as it reviews its political spending, joining Microsoft and Google  —  Facebook is halting political spending for at least the first quarter of 2021 following last week's deadly attack on the Capitol.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
IDC: PC shipments for 2020 were up 13.1% YoY, the most annual growth in the market since 2010's 13.7% increase  —  The PC is far from dead  —  The PC was supposed to die 10 years ago, but it's just experienced its first big growth in a decade.  Market research firm Canalys reports …
Jessica Guynn / USA Today:
Facebook hires Roy L. Austin, Jr., a renowned civil rights attorney and advocate, to establish a new civil rights organization inside Facebook  —  Civil rights attorney Roy L. Austin, Jr., who focused on policing in the Obama administration, first at the Justice Department and then at the White House …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Muslim prayer app Salaat First, with 10M+ Android downloads, tracks users' location in the UK, Germany, France, and Italy and sells it to data broker Predicio  —  Salaat First has more than ten million downloads and sold location data to Predicio, which is linked to a U.S. contractor which works with ICE.
Monica Chin / The Verge:
Lenovo announces ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga: less than half an inch thick, 2K touch display with 450 nits of brightness, 11th-gen Intel i7 vPro, starts at $1,899  —  Plus a new X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga  —  Lenovo announced a bunch of additions to its ThinkPad line today, headlined by the new X1 Titanium Yoga.
Emily Czachor / Newsweek:
North Idaho ISP Your T1 WIFI will block Facebook and Twitter for customers that request it after it received complaints over censorship  —  Your T1 WiFi, an internet service provider based in northwestern Idaho, will implement firewalls that restrict access to Facebook and Twitter at its customers' requests.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation  —  UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Zoho:
Automate recurring activities with Zoho One's RPA addition  —  Robotic Process Automation (RPA) automates manual and routine tasks for businesses by using digital robots that replicate human behaviour.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
Inside Devin: The world's first autonomous AI engineer that's set to write 50% of its company's code by end of year | Scott Wu (CEO and co-founder of Cognition)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Omnibus Week Of 04/28
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Hard Fork:
The Dangers of A.I. Flattery + Kevin Meets the Orb + Group Chat Chat
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
EP 141 Ben Lamm (Founder & CEO, Colossal Biosciences) On The Breakthroughs Making De-Extinction Actually Possible
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Great Chat:
What's the deal with Deel?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Josh Kopelman from First Round Capital
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:50 AM ET, January 12, 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

Wall Street Journal:
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal: