Techmeme
December 18, 2021, 1:30 AM

Top News

Luke Plunkett / Kotaku:
GSC Game World decides to “cancel anything NFT-related” in its game Stalker 2 after fans criticize its plans for in-game NFTs in partnership with DMarket  —  It hasn't been a great week for the GSC Game World team  —  STALKER 2 developers GSC Game World announced yesterday that they'd be adding NFTs to the game.
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
TikTok says it is removing “alarmist warnings” about a supposed day of school violence that prompted some US districts to cancel classes on Friday  —  It hasn't found any videos threatening school violence on Friday, the company said  —  TikTok said Friday that it's working to remove …
Kate Krader / Bloomberg:
TikTok partners with Virtual Dining Concepts to launch TikTok Kitchen, a food delivery service based on viral trends, starting with 300 US locations in March  —  The video platform is teaming up with Virtual Dining Concepts to deliver those viral foods across the country.  Baked feta pasta, anyone?
Reuters:
How Amazon grew its business in China, including partnering with a government propaganda arm for a books section on Amazon US, AWS-related concessions, and more  —  Amazon.com Inc was marketing a collection of President Xi Jinping's speeches and writings on its Chinese website about two years ago …
UPI:
JPMorgan Chase will pay fines of $125M to the SEC and $75M to the CFTC for letting some employees use WhatsApp and other unapproved channels to conduct business  —  JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay a $125 million penalty for allowing employees on Wall Street to use smartphone apps …
Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:
ByteDance launches Douyin Box, a fashion-focused shopping app in China akin to its Fanno app in Europe, betting on the Gen Z trend of buying on influencer tips  —  The stand-alone Douyin Box app signals that ByteDance, the world's most valuable start-up, is betting big on e-commerce in China …
More: Protocol
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Meta bans seven surveillance-for-hire groups, including Cytrox, removing over 1,500 Facebook and Instagram accounts and alerting 50K users who were targeted  —  Cytrox is one of seven surveillance companies now banned from Meta's platforms  —  While NSO Group was taking flak for hacking …
The Citizen Lab:
FinSMEs:
Fable, which provides a social reading platform for online book clubs, raises a $20M Series A led by Tiger Global  —  Fable, a Palo Alto, CA-based platform for social reading to improve mental wellness, raised $20m in Series A funding.  —  The round was led by Tiger Global with participation …
Craig Chapple / Sensor Tower Blog:
Eight mobile games passed $1B in global revenue on the App Store and Google Play so far in 2021; PUBG Mobile and Honor of Kings led with $2.8B each  —  A record-breaking eight mobile games including PUBG Mobile from Tencent, Honor of Kings from Tencent, and Genshin Impact from miHoYo …
Washington Post:
The Biden administration is concerned with US investments in Chinese companies developing “dual use” tech that could have civilian and military applications  —  Last year, a fast-rising artificial intelligence company in China won a little-noticed contract from a Chinese military academy …
Zachary Basu / Axios:

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation  —  UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Zoho:
The power of asynchronous communication: Striking the right balance in the workplace  —  Asynchronous communication may have surged during the transition to remote work, but as the years passed and teams returned …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
OpenAI Backtracks
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
How to fight Apple and (maybe) win, with Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Invest Like the Best:
David Senra - The Focused Few
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Grit:
HubSpot CEO on the Future of SaaS, AI, & Leading Through Change
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
Inside Devin: The world's first autonomous AI engineer that's set to write 50% of its company's code by end of year | Scott Wu (CEO and co-founder of Cognition)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Hard Fork:
The Dangers of A.I. Flattery + Kevin Meets the Orb + Group Chat Chat
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:30 AM ET, December 18, 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

Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
Tom Warren / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Joe Miller / Financial Times:
Paul R. La Monica / CNN:
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Liza Lin / Wall Street Journal:
Henry Mance / Financial Times: