Techmeme
May 26, 2021, 2:30 PM

Top News

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon says it will acquire MGM Studios for $8.45B, its second-largest acquisition since it paid $13.7B for Whole Foods in 2017  —  - Amazon is buying MGM Studios, the companies announced, marking Amazon's most ambitious move yet into the entertainment business.
Peter Kafka / Vox:
With its MGM acquisition, Amazon doesn't want to compete with streamers like Netflix but reduce Prime subscriber churn by providing enough blockbuster content  —  Amazon isn't competing with Netflix, but it is spending billions trying to figure out Hollywood.  Maybe 007 can help.
Joseph Menn / Reuters:
WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit in Delhi against the Indian government for its new social media regulations, saying they would break privacy protections  —  WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit in Delhi against the Indian government seeking to block regulations coming into force on Wednesday that experts …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook says it will limit the distribution of all posts from personal accounts that routinely spread misinformation  —  Facebook Inc. will begin doling out harsher punishments for individual accounts that repeatedly share false or misleading posts, an expansion of the social network's efforts to crack down on misinformation.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook and Instagram now give users options to hide Like counts across all posts and to hide their own public Like counts from others  —  Facebook this week will begin to publicly roll out the option to hide Likes on posts across both Facebook and Instagram, following earlier tests beginning in 2019.
Stephen Shankland / CNET:
USB standards body unveils its USB-C 2.1 revision, which supports power up to 240W, up from 100W currently, aimed at devices like 4K displays and gaming laptops  —  An upgrade to the USB-C standard will accommodate levels of up to 240 watts, an improvement that could let you plug power-hungry devices …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Amazon says Andy Jassy will become CEO on July 5, which marks 27 years to the day that Amazon was incorporated  —  That's Amazon's 27th birthday  —  Andy Jassy will officially become the CEO of Amazon on July 5th, the company announced at a shareholder meeting on Wednesday.
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Facebook says Russia is still the largest producer of disinformation, in a report that details 150 operations that the company has disrupted since 2017  —  Report explores how issue has evolved in recent years  —  A Facebook report released Wednesday says that Russia is still the largest producer …
Melanie Evans / Wall Street Journal:
Google partners with US hospital chain HCA Healthcare to develop algorithms to improve operating efficiency, monitor patients, and guide doctors' decisions  —  Tech giant expands health-sector presence in latest deal to develop tools to improve medical care, as privacy concerns arise
New York Times:
An overview of Russia's increasingly aggressive attempts to control Google, Facebook, and Twitter, ordering them to store data in Russia and imposing fines  —  Its campaign is part of a global wave of actions by governments that are testing how far they can go to control online speech.
Patrick Sykes / Bloomberg:
Iran says it is banning cryptocurrency mining until September 22 after a series of power blackouts across major cities  —  - Iran blames crypto mining and drought for recent outages  — Government says 85% of mining activity is unlicensed  —  Follow us @crypto for our full coverage.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Instagram launches a new shopping section called Drops, helping users find limited supply products, and will temporarily waive fees due to COVID-19  —  Instagram today announced it's adding a new feature to help connect online shoppers to product drops through its app.
More: Adweek
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
In a first, England's NHS says it will scrape medical histories of 55M patients, including info on mental and sexual health, to be shared with third-parties  —  55m patients have until June 23 to opt out of having their health data scraped into a new database
Fadeke Adegbuyi / Cybernaut - Every:
Gen Z students are studying together online across YouTube, TikTok, Discord, and Twitter, seeking inspiration, finding focus, and sharing academic anxieties  —  In late 2020, a 10-hour loop of a song from Mario Kart titled “Coconut Mall” started blowing up on Youtube.
Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica:
Sources say Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC that could launch by year's end  —  We can confirm some, but not all, of what's in store for the codenamed “SteamPal.”  —  Video game and hardware studio Valve has been secretly building a Switch-like portable PC …
Sean O'Kane / The Verge:
Tesla says deliveries of Model 3 and Y vehicles in North America will no longer be equipped with radar for Autopilot and instead rely on a camera-based system  —  Autopilot will rely on cameras from here on out in the Model 3 and Model Y  —  Tesla has stopped building forward-facing radar sensors …
Martin Tisne / MIT Technology Review:
Lawmakers focus on protecting individuals from big tech when they should develop laws focusing specifically on collective data rights to prevent harm to society  —  Protecting individual data is not enough when the harms are collective  —  Every person engaged with the networked world constantly creates rivers of data.
South China Morning Post:
Xiaomi beats with Q1 profit of $1.2B, up 260.6% YoY, on revenue of $12B, up 54.7% YoY, and says it shipped 49.4M smartphones globally for a 14.1% market share  —  Smartphone giant Xiaomi's first-quarter profit beat market estimates to reach US$1.2 billion Revenue in the March quarter hit US$12 billion …
More: PingWest
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Bangalore-based Koo, a microblogging service that allows users to post in English and Indian languages, raises $30M at over $100M valuation led by Tiger Global  —  Investors are backing Koo, an Indian alternative to Twitter, with large size checks at a time when tension is brewing between the American social network and New Delhi.

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