Techmeme
August 12, 2021, 6:40 PM

Top News

Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Reddit raises $410M+ led by Fidelity Investments at a $10B+ valuation, up from $6B six months ago when it raised $250M; the new round could reach ~$700M  —  Reddit, the virtual town square of the consumer internet, has raised a fresh $410 million in funding, valuing it at more than $10 billion, the company said on Thursday.
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
UK's CMA says it has provisionally found that Facebook's Giphy acquisition could negatively impact competition, such as by denying competitors access to GIFs  —  The merger of social media giant Facebook and Giphy, the largest provider of GIFs, has run into a roadblock from the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok details upcoming protections for users aged 13 to 17, including turning in-app messaging off by default and changes to notifications  —  TikTok today becomes the latest tech company to roll out increased protections for minors on its platform in the wake of increased regulatory scrutiny.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Nvidia says part of its April keynote was led by a virtual replica of CEO Jensen Huang, created by scanning Huang and then training an AI to mimic his gestures  —  Nvidia pulled off a stunt to promote and showcase its latest technology by digitizing its CEO Jensen Huang in a conference keynote.
Bloomberg:
Facebook delays its office reopenings in the US until January 2022; Facebook originally hoped for 50% office capacity by September and 100% by October  —  - Company originally planned to have employees back by October  — Facebook will also require vaccinations for U.S. staff members
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Google says it banned location data company SafeGraph in early June, meaning apps using SafeGuard location SDK had to remove it  —  SafeGraph sells smartphone location data to essentially anyone.  Google banned the company in June.  —  Joseph Cox  —  Google has banned SafeGraph …
Simon Evans / Reuters:
Lionel Messi's new contract with Paris St Germain includes a “large number” of crypto $PSG Fan Tokens from Socios.com, which let holders vote on minor decisions  —  Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi's transfer to French club Paris St Germain included a payment in cryptocurrency fan tokens …
Nathan Grayson / Washington Post:
Thousands of marginalized streamers implore Twitch to counter “hate raids”, where groups of malicious users fill a streamer's chat with targeted abuse  —  During an Aug. 6 broadcast, the Twitch streamer RekItRaven — who is Black and uses they/them pronouns …
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
A look at community NFT projects like Pudgy Penguins, which have become a new kind of financial and social status symbol on the internet  —  Is this what the metaverse looks like?  —  Earlier this week, I got attacked by penguins.  —  Not real ones, mind you.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Internal docs: Amazon plans to monitor keyboard strokes and mouse movements of customer service staff to stop rogue workers or hackers accessing customer data  —  An internal document also mentions cases where imposters have stolen Amazon customer data.  —  Joseph Cox
Gael Fashingbauer Cooper / CNET:
Twitter rolls out a web and app redesign, implementing its first proprietary font, Chirp, high-contrast black and white follow and unfollow buttons, and more  —  It's inevitable: Twitter changes Twitter, and Twitter users complain on Twitter.  But does Chirp make you feel like a woodpecker is pounding on your skull?
Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Talkdesk, which provides cloud-based call center software, raises $230M Series D at a $10B valuation, following $143M Series C at a $3B valuation from last July  —  Talkdesk, a provider of cloud-based contact center software, announced $230 million in new Series D funding that more than triples …
Andrew Deck / Rest of World:
As Substack expands abroad, writers say it needs local payment options and customer service in other languages; some worry about legal support in hostile states  —  From India to Brazil, Substack is awarding grants and lending journalists editorial resources.  How far will that support really go?
Bloomberg:
Sources: Sequoia remains optimistic about China as the healthcare sector, about a third of Sequoia's China portfolio, has yet to become a focus of crackdowns  —  The venture firm has exposure to the online education sector that regulators have choked, and investors worry its other holdings could be next.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Honor unveils Magic 3 series, its first post-Huawei smartphones, all with 6.76-inch displays, Google services, up to 512GB and 12GB RAM, starting at €899  —  Honor has announced its first flagship smartphones since being sold off by former parent company Huawei: the Magic 3 series.
Li Jin / Li's Newsletter:
A look at how centralized social media platforms have made the creator economy corrosive for online workers and what can be done to remedy the issue  —  The creator economy is becoming the gig economy—but there's still time to turn things around  —  Nearly two years ago, I published …

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