Techmeme
March 11, 2021, 3:35 PM

Top News

Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review:
How Facebook leadership sidelined AI experts and weakened initiatives to clean up misinfo, because doing so would undermine Zuckerberg's desire for growth  —  Joaquin Quiñonero Candela, a director of AI at Facebook, was apologizing to his audience.  —  It was March 23, 2018 …
The Markup:
Citizen Browser project's Split Screen tool shows Facebook's different News Feeds for Trump and Biden voters, based on data from 2,500+ users across the US  —  Facebook's recommendation algorithm shows different news, groups, and hashtags to different users.  But who sees what?
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, sold an NFT of his work for $69M, through a first-of-its-kind auction at Christie's  —  Through a first-of-its-kind auction at Christie's  —  Until October, the most Mike Winkelmann — the digital artist known as Beeple — had ever sold a print for was $100.
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Crypto lending and borrowing service BlockFi raises $350M Series D at a valuation of $3B, bringing its total raised to around $450M  —  If there were any doubt about a cryptocurrency boom, we need look no further than at the explosion of growth of certain companies in the space.
Hartley Charlton / MacRumors:
Kuo: all four iPhone 13 models will feature larger batteries with higher capacities, making them heavier than iPhone 12 models  —  Apple appears to be improving the iPhone's battery life with the iPhone 13 lineup, using a number of design changes, bigger batteries, and efficiency improvements.
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Facebook is making in-stream ads available on one-minute videos and is testing ads that look like stickers in Stories  —  Ads integrated into content  —  Facebook introduced Stories to its platform four years ago, mostly as a way to encourage people to post content that wasn't highly produced or necessarily photogenic.
Justin Bariso / Inc.com:
Google's new efforts to help job seekers include three new certificate programs and a Search feature that lets people find jobs for their education level  —  This morning, Google is announcing the next steps in its plan to disrupt the world of education, including the launch of new certificate programs …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
House and Senate Democrats announce a $94B proposal to make broadband internet access more accessible and affordable  —  Thirty House and Senate Democrats unveiled a new $94 billion proposal Thursday to make broadband Internet access more accessible and affordable nationwide …
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon has opened 11 Amazon Fresh stores around the US, with plans for at least 28 more  —  As many businesses struggled to survive the pandemic, Amazon.com Inc. was quietly building a national grocery chain.  —  The first Amazon Fresh store opened to the public in Los Angeles in September.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Researcher publishes a proof of concept on GitHub that uses vulnerabilities exploited by hackers to breach Microsoft Exchange servers; GitHub deleted the code  —  Microsoft-owned Github quickly deleted the code, which exploited vulnerabilities apparently used by Chinese hackers to break into a series of companies.
Asha Barbaschow / ZDNet:
Australia's government has put out a call for submissions on internet browser defaults, following its media bargaining code, with a focus on Apple and Google  —  The ACCC is concerned with the choice of browser options afforded to Australians.  —  With the News Media Bargaining Code out of the way …
Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg:
Instacart appoints Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman to its board, signaling IPO plans; source: Instacart has $1.5B+ in cash after last week's fundraising  —  - Startup's founder Mehta views Snowflake CEO as a ‘coach’  — Company sitting on more than $1.5 billion in cash, person says
Tweets: @levynews
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: China is considering a record fine, exceeding Qualcomm's $975M fine, against Alibaba, which may face softer treatment if it distances from Jack Ma  —  E-commerce company to face softer treatment than its Ant affiliate, provided it distances itself from founder Jack Ma
Bloomberg:
Three former employees say that 100+ employees at Verkada could view the camera feeds of its thousands of customers via widely used super admin accounts  —  - Former employee said issue was raised with Verkada executives  — Hackers gained access to 150,000 customer camera feeds
Stephen Warwick / iMore:
Twitter says it is testing displaying large images, instead of cropped previews, on iOS and Android and will add support for 4K photo uploads  —  “Sometimes it's better said with a picture or a video.”  —  What you need to know  — Twitter is testing new features that will let you see a single image in full on your timeline.
Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News:
Cowbell Cyber, which uses AI to assess risk and offer cyber insurance to companies with less than $1B in revenue, raises $20M Series A  —  Pleasanton, California-based Cowbell Cyber raised a $20 million Series A as more small and medium-sized enterprises look for insurance against the growing number of cyberattacks.
More: FinSMEs and ZDNet
Reuters:

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
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Zoho:
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