Techmeme
October 21, 2021, 5:55 PM

Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
The TOS for TRUTH Social shows it bans “excessive use of capital letters”, reserves the right to ban users, and hopes to benefit from Section 230 protections  —  Truth Social has some unusual rules for a Trump-run site: It reserves the right to ban users and safeguard itself from lawsuits with Section 230 protections.
ABC News:
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Anna Kramer / Protocol:
Twitter says its research shows its algorithms amplify right-leaning content more than left-leaning content, but doesn't know what causes the amplification  —  Twitter is publicly sharing research findings today that show that the platform's algorithms amplify tweets from right-wing politicians …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Sam Altman's Worldcoin launches its cryptocurrency that it gives in exchange for users' eye scans, says it has 100K users globally and is valued at $1B  —  - Tech millionaire Sam Altman's new start-up Worldcoin uses orb-shaped devices to scan people's eyes in exchange for free cryptocurrency.
Oversight Board:
Facebook's Oversight Board releases a report demanding more transparency, including for the company's “cross-check” system, and says 524K appeals were submitted  —  Over the last several weeks, media reporting has drawn renewed attention to the seemingly inconsistent …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple product orders, including iPad mini, MacBook Pro, and $19 cleaning cloth, are delayed into November and December due to supply chain issues  —  - Store employees say supply situation is the bleakest in years  — Latest iPhones, iPads, Macs and watches all see long delays
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Snap Q3: $1.07B revenue, up 57% YoY, vs. $1.10B est., DAUs up 23% to 306M, net loss down 64% to $72M, blames iOS ATT changes for revenue miss; stock down 25%+  —  - Snap reported its third-quarter earnings on Thursday, missing revenue expectations after Apple's iPhone privacy changes disrupted its advertising business.
Wall Street Journal:
US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announces a broad investigation into consumer data practices at Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google, and others  —  Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to seek information on how those firms and others use consumers' financial information
Sam Rutherford / Gizmodo:
Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud gaming service adds a $100/month tier with RTX 3080 GPUs, hosted inside a bespoke SuperPod server, offering 1440p games at 120fps  —  Thanks to new custom servers equipped with RTX 3080 GPUs, GeForce Now will support game streaming at up to 1440p at 120fps—but it'll cost you.
The Markup:
Analysis of 23K+ websites of nonprofit organizations: ~86% had third-party cookies or trackers, with some, like Planned Parenthood, tracking user keystrokes  —  Such organizations often deal in sensitive issues, like mental health, addiction, and reproductive rights—and many are feeding data about website visitors to corporations
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Rippling, an employee data management company led by Parker Conrad, raises $250M at a $6.5B valuation, bringing its total raised to $450M  —  Founded by entrepreneur Parker Conrad in 2013, the HR company Zenefits was quickly anointed one of the fast-growing companies in Silicon Valley …
Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
Apple says the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max will feature a High Power Mode for intensive, sustained workloads  —  The new 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Max Apple Silicon chip will feature a new High Power Mode for intensive, sustained workloads, according to Apple.
Danny Nelson / CoinDesk:
Bahamas-based crypto exchange FTX raises a $420.69M Series B-1 at a $25B valuation from 69 investors, including BlackRock and Tiger Global  —  FTX has memed itself into another massive funding round.  —  Sam Bankman-Fried's Bahamas-based crypto exchange said Wednesday it had raised $420,690,000 in a Series B-1 funding round.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
A first look at Android app support on Windows 11: the apps are nicely integrated, run well, and installing them is simple, only requiring Amazon's Appstore app  —  Android apps can now run on Windows 11  —  Microsoft has released the first preview version of its Android apps support in Windows 11.
Wall Street Journal:
Over 2,000 hourly workers at Amazon's Staten Island facilities sign union cards and plan to file with the NLRB by October 25; Amazon opposes the move  —  An effort said to involve more than 2,000 workers across four Amazon facilities in Staten Island faces obstacles
Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:
Google begins offering Stadia as a white label product, starting with letting AT&T customers play Batman: Arkham Knight for free in Chrome or Edge  —  AT&T is working with Warner Bros to offer a streaming version of Batman: Arkham Knight, powered by Stadia's streaming technology.
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
PleasrDAO, a group of digital asset collectors, says it created an NFT that will stand as an ownership deed for Wu-Tang Clan's one-of-a-kind physical album  —  The government sold “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” to satisfy a judgment against its first owner, Martin Shkreli.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter rolls out the ability for all Android and iOS users to host a Space, after previously limiting access to accounts with at least 600 followers  —  After steadily expanding access over the course of the year, Twitter announced today its audio chatroom feature known as Twitter Spaces …
More: 9to5Mac
Alan Rappeport / New York Times:
Austria, France, Italy, Spain, and UK reach a deal with the US to drop digital services taxes on Big Tech companies as part of a global tax overhaul in 2023  —  WASHINGTON — The United States reached an agreement on Thursday with Austria, France, Italy, Spain and Britain that will terminate …

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