Techmeme
June 15, 2021, 2:35 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Interviews with ~200 people show how Amazon's warehouse employment system, under strain before the pandemic, burned through workers and created huge confusion  —  Each year, hundreds of thousands of workers churn through a vast mechanism that hires and monitors, disciplines and fires.
Jason Del Rey / Vox:
Interviews with 30+ current and former Amazon employees detail allegations of racial bias and discrimination; many say its HR department was part of the problem  —  In interviews with Recode, dozens of Amazon employees detailed allegations of racial bias and discrimination on the job …
Olivia Carville / Bloomberg:
Interviews with 53 people shed light on Airbnb's secretive safety team, made up of ~100 agents, some with military backgrounds, who handle emergency situations  —  The first-floor apartment on West 37th Street, a few blocks south of Times Square, was popular with tourists …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
UK's CMA says it will launch an investigation into Apple and Google's mobile ecosystems over whether their market power is harming users  —  Today, the UK's competition watchdog (the Competition and Markets Authority) announced an official investigation into the mobile device ecosystem, citing Apple and Google's effective duopoly.
The Verge:
The Senate votes 69-28 to confirm Lina Khan, an antitrust expert who wrote the “Amazon Antitrust Paradox”, to the FTC, giving Democrats a majority  —  Congress is preparing to take drastic action against tech monopolies  —  The Senate confirmed Lina Khan as commissioner …
Fight for the Future:
Investigation finds Apple has removed LGBTQ+ apps in 152 countries, many which have poor human rights records; Saudi Arabia and China are missing the most apps  —  As LGBTQ+ people around the world celebrate Pride Month, new report from Fight for the Future and GreatFire shows …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
IRL, which is building a messaging-based social network, raises $170M Series C led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2, at a $1.17B valuation  —  Social calendar app IRL has been busy building a messaging-based social network, or what founder and CEO Abraham Shafi calls a “WeChat of the West.”
Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg:
EU's top court says Facebook can't avoid potential EU-wide privacy orders from data protection authorities beyond its legal watchdog in Ireland  —  - EU top court rules on scope of so-called one-stop-shop system  — Dispute stems from Belgian data order over Facebook cookies
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Ahead of Microsoft's event to unveil the next gen of Windows, a Windows 11 build leaks, showing a revamped UI, like a new taskbar with centered app icons, more  —  Screenshots have leaked online  —  Screenshots of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 11 operating system have appeared online today.
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Andreessen Horowitz launches Future, a media property that will focus on informational and editorial content created by full-time staff and outside contributors  —  Today, venture firm Andreessen Horowitz is officially launching its media property, called Future.
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
Sir Tim Berners-Lee is auctioning his original source code for the web as an NFT, the first time he would be able to raise money directly from his invention  —  Sotheby's sale will be first time creator has been able to raise money directly from invention  —  Sir Tim Berners-Lee is auctioning …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Automattic acquires Day One, a popular journaling app for Apple devices with 15M+ downloads on the Mac and iOS App Store; terms of the deal were not disclosed  —  Automattic is expanding its lineup of online writing platforms with its acquisition of Day One, a popular journaling app for Mac and Apple mobile devices.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Iterable, which offers AI-powered cross-channel sales and marketing tools, raises $200M Series E, giving the company a $2B post-money valuation  —  Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021.  —  Iterable, a cross-channel platform for customer experiences …
Christine Hall / Crunchbase News:
PayCargo, which develops cloud-based payment and financing services for the cargo industry, raises $125M Series B, following a $35M Series A last September  —  When products exit a cargo carrier and payment isn't immediately available for all of the entities that touched it, those products are generally hauled to a warehouse to sit.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Duda, which helps large businesses to build websites, raises $50M Series D led by Claridge IL, bringing its total raised to $100M  —  Self-expression for many consumers today comes in the form of social media and apps.  But if you're a larger business, even if you can't ignore platforms like Facebook …

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:
CIO challenge 5: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
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
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Earlier Picks

Monica Chin / The Verge:
NBC News:
Jonathan Ponciano / Forbes:
Andrew Chung / Reuters:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge: