Techmeme
June 3, 2021, 6:20 PM

Top News

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Sources: Facebook plans to end its controversial policy that shields politicians from the content moderation rules that apply to other users  —  Going forward politicians will be treated more like everyone else  —  Facebook plans to end its controversial policy that shields politicians …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Twitter launches its subscription service Twitter Blue on iOS in Canada and Australia for CAD$3.49 and A$4.49/month, with Undo Tweet, Bookmark Folders, more  —  - Twitter Blue is designed for power users who are willing to pay a monthly fee for exclusive features.
Ian Sherr / CNET:
Apple will launch an Android app to detect AirTags that may be in use to track a person and reduces the interval before AirTags sound an alert in such cases  —  Apple said it's adjusting its approach to its AirTags sensors, changing the time they play an alert when separated from their owner …
WABetaInfo:
Zuckerberg says WhatsApp is working on a Disappearing Mode for messages in all threads, View Once for photos and videos, and multi device support  —  Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry  —  WhatsApp has unexpectedly reached out to me to confirm that some important features are coming on WhatsApp!
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Trump shutting down his blog shows the significance of social media platforms' amplification mechanics and how they give free and huge reach to the worst actors  —  What a failed blog tells us about the power of Twitter  —  Last month, after months of hyping up a forthcoming “social media platform” …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Review of Google's new $99 Pixel Buds A-Series: good sound quality, improved comfort, and water resistant, but audio can cut out and ear hooks are non-removable  —  The $99 Pixel Buds are a better buy than their pricier predecessors  —  With the new, awkwardly named Pixel Buds A-Series …
Christopher Bing / Reuters:
US DOJ says it is elevating investigations of ransomware attacks to a similar priority as terrorism in the wake of the Colonial Pipeline hack  —  The U.S. Department of Justice is elevating investigations of ransomware attacks to a similar priority as terrorism in the wake of the Colonial Pipeline hack …
Patrick McGee / Financial Times:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Stratechery's Ben Thompson announces a service called Passport to let creators manage their subscriptions and communicate with subscribers  —  Seven years ago, when I initially launched the paid Daily Update, there weren't really any tools designed for independent subscription businesses …
Politico:
SCOTUS narrows the scope of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, ruling it can't be used to charge people who misused databases they are otherwise entitled to access  —  The Supreme Court has sharply curtailed the scope of the nation's main cybercrime law, limiting a tool that civil liberties advocates …
Associated Press:
EU unveils plans for a digital ID wallet that residents can use to prove their identities and share electronic documents across the 27-nation bloc  —  LONDON (AP) — The European Union unveiled plans Thursday for a digital ID wallet that residents could use to access services across the 27-nation bloc …
New York Times:
Facebook employees say discontent at the company has surged over its handling of government demands to take down content in India and Israel  —  The social network wrongly bowed to government demands to take down content in the countries, employees said, in more signs of internal dissent.
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon says it will require police departments that need Ring security footage to publicly post requests in Ring's Neighbors app, beginning next week  —  - The change follows criticism of cozy ties to law enforcement  — Police officers must post requests in Ring's Neighbors app
BBC:
Google says it removed diversity strategy lead Kamau Bobb over a 2007 post in which he said Jews have an “insatiable appetite for war”  —  Google has removed its head of diversity over a 2007 blog post that said Jewish people had “an insatiable appetite for war and killing”.
Shirin Ghaffary / Vox:
Some current members of Google's ethical AI team say they have been in limbo for months and have serious doubts about whether Google can rebuild credibility  —  Six months after Timnit Gebru left, Google's ethical artificial intelligence team is still in a state of upheaval.
Paul R. La Monica / CNN:
NortonLifeLock says it's adding an Ethereum mining function to Norton 360, its paid antivirus software, initially to a small group of customers  —  New York (CNN Business)Mining for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is typically done by companies that own massive server farms operating outside of the United States.
Livemint:
Sources: SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 is in talks to invest $700M in Flipkart at a valuation of $28B; SoftBank sold its stake in Flipkart to Walmart in 2018  —  MUMBAI : SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks with Flipkart to invest $700 million in the internet retailer, three years after it sold …
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Kamala Harris announces that the Biden administration will make $1B in grants available to expand broadband access and adoption on tribal lands  —  The Biden administration will make $1 billion in grants available to expand broadband access and adoption on tribal lands …
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Paramount+ will launch its ad-supported Essential Plan on Monday, priced at $4.99 per month and replacing CBS All Access for new subscribers  —  If you didn't want to shell out $9.99 per month to watch the meme-worthy iCarly reboot, now you won't have to.  On Monday, Paramount+ will launch …
Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:
Chinese researchers unveil WuDao 2.0, an AI model they say was trained using 1.75T parameters, 10x more than GPT-3, to simulate conversational speech and more  —  The WuDao 2. natural language processing model had 1.75 trillion parameters, topping the 1.6 trillion that Google unveiled …
Tim Starks / CyberScoop:
Hart InterCivic, one of the big election vendors, says it will use Microsoft's voting software ElectionGuard in one of its systems as part of a pilot program  —  The ElectionGuard technology that Microsoft touts as a way to make elections more secure and verifiable is taking its biggest step yet …

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Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Tom Warren / The Verge: