Techmeme
August 1, 2021, 9:45 PM

Top News

Reuters:
Square says it's buying Australia-based buy now, pay later service Afterpay for $29B in an all-stock deal, paying a 30% premium on Afterpay's last closing  —  U.S. fintech company Square Inc (SQ.N) said on Monday it had agreed to purchase Australian buy now/pay later giant Afterpay Ltd …
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Zoom agrees to pay $85M and bolster its security practices to settle a class action lawsuit over alleged user privacy violations and Zoombombing  —  Zoom Video Communications Inc (ZM.O) agreed to pay $85 million and bolster its security practices to settle a lawsuit claiming …
Stitch / The Verge:
Some K-pop stars are bypassing Twitter and Facebook to create platforms for fans, like Universe, which features AI-generated voice calls with the idols  —  Fandom has changed a lot since I was a kid.  As a tween, I had no hope of getting in touch with celebrities I adored like Britney Spears and Whitney Houston.
Kyle Chayka / New Yorker:
Profile of Bored Ape Yacht Club, an NFT collection that sold for $2M+ in April, spawned a collector community, and has since seen ~$100M in trading activity  —  N.F.T. clubs are all the rage among cryptocurrency enthusiasts.  Are they a get-rich-quick scheme or the future of culture?
John Herrman / New York Times:
After a decade of online identities coming under increasingly centralized control, online anonymity is starting to look like a threatened privilege than a right  —  Reconsidering pseudonymity and what it means to “be yourself” online.  —  In early July, when England's soccer team lost …
Molly Wood / The Atlantic:
Microsoft is avoiding antitrust scrutiny by rebranding itself as nice and boring, even as it reverts to some of the behaviors that led to prosecution the '90s  —  How has Microsoft escaped the scrutiny of reinvigorated antitrust regulators?  —  About the author: Molly Wood is the host …
Maya Wolfe-Robinson / The Guardian:
Report: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok failed to act on 84% of posts spreading anti-Semitism reported via their own complaint systems  —  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and TikTok failing to act on most reported anti-Jewish posts, says study
Francis Agustin / Insider:
Filings: Starlink has secured a license to build a satellite ground station on the Isle of Man, aiming to provide “blanket coverage” across Great Britain  —  - Elon Musk's Starlink will seek to provide high-speed internet across Great Britain, the Telegraph first reported.
Source: Telegraph

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.
Zoho:
The crossroads of AI and SaaS  —  Enabling businesses of all sizes to build products in-house and disqualifying SaaS tools that are not AI-powered.  In a span of just two years, AI has made a name for itself as the key driver for innovation.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
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 9:45 PM ET, August 1, 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

Earlier Picks

Jackie Davalos / Bloomberg:
Associated Press: