Techmeme
September 23, 2021, 1:00 PM

Top News

Associated Press:
European Commission proposes legislation mandating USB-C charging for mobile devices, citing electronic waste; Apple is the main USB-C holdout  —  LONDON (AP) — The European Union unveiled plans Thursday that would require smartphone makers to adopt a single charging method for mobile devices.
Cristiano Lima / Washington Post:
Sen. Marsha Blackburn says WSJ's Facebook Files whistleblower has turned over documents and plans to reveal their identity “at some point down the line”  —  Happy Thursday and welcome to The Technology 202!  Below: Meet “Help Desk,” a new initiative our colleagues are launching …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
WSJ's Facebook Files, which uses Facebook's own data and research to highlight its impact on users, is Facebook's biggest crisis since Cambridge Analytica  —  How the company found itself in its biggest crisis since Cambridge Analytica  —  A week ago, the Wall Street Journal began to publish …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Google details several accessibility features coming to Android 12, including facial gesture controls, handwriting recognition, and an app for low-vision users  —  Alongside new Assistant and Gboard additions  —  Google's raft of new features coming to Android this fall includes some interesting new accessibility features.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer says he will step down next year and shift into a part-time adviser role; Andrew Bosworth will become CTO  —  - Veteran executive ‘Schrep’ will shift to senior fellow role  — Hardware boss Andrew Bosworth will be promoted to CTO role
The Verge:
Tim Sweeney says Apple told Epic that it will not consider reinstating Epic's developer account until all legal appeals have concluded, likely years from now  —  Epic CEO Tim Sweeney revealed the conversation in a series of tweets  —  Fortnite will not be returning to the iOS App Store any time soon …
Ben Bajarin / Creative Strategies:
Analysis: Apple Silicon averaged 19% GPU gains YoY for the past five years, and A15 grew 52%; since iPhone 5s, performance has grown 133% every four years  —  For years now, Apple's tight integration of its products and Apple Silicon have evolved in lockstep.
Jessica Guynn / USA Today:
Industry groups representing Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter sue Texas over a law that lets residents sue social networks that ban them for their political views  —  Technology trade groups that represent Facebook, Google's YouTube and Twitter are suing Texas to stop a new state law that cracks …
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Twitter plans to stop tweets from disappearing when the timeline auto-refreshes, in a series of updates over the next two months  —  address a longstanding complaint people have had with its mobile app.  If you use the software frequently, you may have noticed tweets will sometimes disappear …
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Leaked email: Tim Cook says recent leakers of info about Apple products and internal meetings “do not belong here” and the company is tracking them down  —  The CEO says the company is doing everything in its power to track down workers  —  Tim Cook sent an email …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Discord is testing Watch Together, a feature that lets members broadcast YouTube videos, after Google forced the shutdown of two popular music bots on Discord  —  Discord music returns, kind of  —  Discord is starting to test YouTube integration, just weeks after Google-owned YouTube forced two popular Discord music bots offline.
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Researchers say an Exchange Autodiscover bug can be used to obtain Windows users' domain and app credentials; Microsoft is investigating  —  Security researchers have discovered a design flaw in a feature of the Microsoft Exchange email server that can be abused to harvest Windows domain and app credentials from users across the world.
Aruna Viswanatha / Wall Street Journal:
US federal judge orders Facebook to hand over records on posts removed for promoting violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar  —  Federal judge rules social-media company must hand over information about posts removed for promoting violence against Rohingya Muslims
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Syng, founded by an ex-Apple designer to build “triphonic” audio hardware with spatial audio, raises $48.75M Series A led by Eclipse Ventures  —  Audio startup Syng has been building on quite a bit more hype than the average fresh hardware startup, largely because of the team behind it.
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Facebook details the types of posts that get demoted in News Feed, such as clickbait and spam, but stops short of saying exactly how a demotion works  —  A high-level look at what gets suppressed by Facebook's algorithm  —  The way that Facebook controls its News Feed is often controversial and largely opaque to the outside world.

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Bloomberg:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sara Fischer / Axios: