Techmeme
February 11, 2021, 8:15 PM

Top News

Will Oremus / OneZero :
Clubhouse employs an unusually aggressive user onboarding process, pressuring users to upload contacts before ranking those contacts based on total connections  —  The app pressures you to upload your phone's contacts — and makes them visible in surprising ways
William Turton / Bloomberg:
Some Black medical professionals who are voluntarily countering misinfo on Clubhouse about COVID-19 and its vaccine say they have been harassed and bullied  —  - Conspiracies flourish on app including about vaccines and 5G  — 'Hey, I was skeptical too, but here's where I am now'
Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:
Twitter's Spaces is well positioned to challenge Clubhouse as it's intuitive, a logical fit for Twitter, and adds a meaningful new experience to the Twitter app  —  Why Twitter's Clubhouse clone is poised to give the hottest app on the planet a run for its money.  —  I live a simple life with a few steadfast rules.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Google adds some of its Pixel-exclusive photo editing features to Google Photos, but they are paywalled behind Google One  —  Previously Pixel-exclusive features are coming to other devices — for a price  —  Google is adding some of its fancy, Pixel-exclusive editing features …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Microsoft President Brad Smith says the US and other countries should adopt Australia's proposed media rules, which require tech firms to pay for news content  —  Microsoft President Brad Smith told Axios in an interview that the U.S. and other countries should consider adopting media rules …
Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
Starting with iOS 14.5, Apple will proxy the Safe Browsing service in Safari through its own servers instead of Google's to protect user data  —  Starting with iOS and iPadOS 14.5, Apple will proxy Google's “Safe Browsing” service used in Safari through its own servers instead of relying …
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Bumble closes up 63.5% on its first day of trading, giving it a valuation of about $13B, after raising $2.15B in its IPO  —  - Shares of Bumble, which operates a dating app under the same name, began trading Thursday.  — The company's stock started trading up nearly 77% at $76 per share.
Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Disney says it now has 94.9M Disney+ subscribers  —  - Disney+ now has more than 94.9 million subscribers.  — Last quarter, the company said its streaming service will have 230 million to 260 million subscribers by 2024.  —  Disney announced Thursday that its streaming platform surpassed 94.9 million subscribers.
Jenny Leonard / BloombergQuint:
Biden administration says it is working to address the global chip shortage; Biden is expected to sign an EO directing a supply chain review in the coming weeks  —  (Bloomberg) — The Biden administration is working to address the global semiconductor shortage that has caused auto manufacturers …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft drops the price of foldable Surface Duo by $400 to $999 and says it will arrive in the UK, France, Germany, and Canada on Feb. 18, expanding beyond US  —  The first international release for Microsoft's dual-screen device  —  Microsoft is dropping the price of its foldable Surface Duo device …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Facebook says bullying and harassment takedowns reached 6.3M in Q4 2020, up from 2.8M in Q4 2019, due to increased reviewer capacity and AI improvements  —  It's ramping up moderation after a COVID-19 dip last year  —  On Thursday, Facebook released a new moderation transparency report showing …
Sky Sports:
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Twitter changes its position and says it will add labels to the personal accounts of heads of state starting next week  —  It's also adding more specificity to the text in the labels that identify such accounts  —  Beginning next week, Twitter will add labels to the personal accounts …
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Facebook's Oversight Board co-chair says if the project is a success, other platforms and tech companies would be “more than welcome” to work with the board  —  The Facebook Oversight Board has only been operational for a short time, but the nascent project is already looking ahead.
Daniel Goldblatt / The Wrap:
Facebook says Instagram has removed Robert F Kennedy Jr's account for making false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines  —  Move comes as the company is expanding efforts to crack down on conspiracy theory content  —  Instagram removed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s account on Wednesday …
Kerry Flynn / CNN:
Staffers at Medium in editorial, engineering, design, and product units say they're unionizing; a majority of about 140 employees signed union cards with CWA  —  New York (CNN Business)Gawker Media made history five years ago for being the first digital news company to ratify a union contract …
Mordechai Rorvig / VICE:
Researchers unveil the Ramanujan Machine, a software-based automated conjecturing system that develops new formulas for universal constants in mathematics  —  Pushing the boundaries of math requires great minds to pose fascinating problems.  What if a machine could do it?  Now, scientists created one that can.

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.
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.
Zoho:
5 common accounting mistakes  —  This is a guest post by Yaali Bizappln Solutions.  A lot of businesses manage their customers and finances on separate platforms.  This disconnect often leads to missed invoices …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 11/21 - What The DOJ Wants Google To Do
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 8:15 PM ET, February 11, 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

Dave Michaels / Wall Street Journal:
Diep Tran / Backstage:

Earlier Picks

Elena Schneider / Politico:
Dave Gershgorn / OneZero :
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: