Techmeme
March 3, 2022, 8:50 PM

Top News

Andrew Rummer / The Block:
Mykhailo Fedorov cancels Ukraine's crypto airdrop plan, saying the government will instead announce, but not issue, NFTs to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces  —  Ukraine's government abruptly canceled its planned crypto airdrop and said it would instead sell NFTs to raise funds following last week's Russian invasion.
Scott Chipolina / Decrypt:
Elliptic: crypto users have donated $50M+ to Ukraine across 89K+ assets since February 26; the government's wallet addresses show $10M in BTC and $16M in ETH  —  The Ukrainian crypto crowdfunding effort has now exceeded $50 million, through almost 90,000 separate donations.
MK Manoylov / The Block:
MetaMask says an Infura “misconfiguration”, which has since been corrected, led to users in Venezuela reporting an inability to access the wallet on Thursday  —  Users of MetaMask based in Venezuela say they can no longer access the popular digital asset wallet.
Jordan Pearson / VICE:
OpenSea confirms it is banning users to comply with US sanctions, after some users with Iran-based IP addresses say their accounts and NFTs were deleted  —  Social media is flooded with reports of users in Venezuela not being able to use MetaMask and Infura, and Iranian users being locked out of OpenSea.
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
Analysis: Twitch has lost at least six executives alongside 60+ employees in 2022; sources say the platform is losing touch with its community of game streamers  —  Twitch, the popular site where people go to watch other people play video games, has lost at least six top employees since …
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
MIT Technology Review:
An investigation details Operation Safety Net, a sprawling surveillance program in Minnesota to track protesters and journalists after George Floyd's murder  —  Law enforcement agencies in Minnesota have been carrying out a secretive, long-running surveillance program targeting civil rights activists …
Jackie Wattles / CNN:
Experts warn that Russia can use satellite signals to geolocate and target Starlink users in Ukraine; Elon Musk says the “probability of being targeted is high”  —  New York (CNN Business)SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent a truckload of Starlink antennas — which can be used to connect …
Kellen Browning / New York Times:
Twitch plans to ban “harmful misinformation superspreaders” who share debunked theories on or off the site, including about COVID-19 vaccines and election fraud  —  The new policy will target channels that persistently lie about vaccines and election fraud, as well as Russian state-run media.
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Reddit bans links to Russian state media outlets across its entire site for all users worldwide and ads that either originate from Russia or target the country  —  Reddit isn't done clamping down on misinformation following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.  The social hub has banned links …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter will expand its Birdwatch fact checks on tweets to “a small and randomized” group of US users for feedback, after testing the service since January 2021  —  Twitter says it's expanding access to Birdwatch, its community-based fact-checking initiative first revealed in October 2020.
New York Times:
A look at Friends With Benefits, an a16z-backed DAO with a buzz-fueled social club, which attracts artists and investors but faces perceptions of elitism  —  Friends With Benefits is a V.I.P. lounge for crypto's creative class.  Is it empty hype or the future of friendship?
Paresh Dave / Reuters:
Google says it is pausing all ad sales in Russia including on Search, YouTube, and outside publishing partners, following similar moves by Twitter and Snap  —  Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google said on Thursday that it had stopped selling online advertising in Russia, a ban that covers search, YouTube and outside publishing partners.
Brian Fung / CNN:
ICANN rejects Ukraine's request to cut Russia off from the global internet, saying the proposal is neither technically feasible nor within its mission  —  (CNN)The international non-profit that coordinates management of the internet told Ukraine it will not intervene in the country's war with Russia …
Davey Alba / New York Times:
US surgeon general formally requests Big Tech turn over information about the scale of COVID-19 misinformation on their platforms before May 2  —  Dr. Vivek Murthy also demanded information from the platforms about the major sources of Covid-19 misinformation.  Companies have until May 2 to submit the data.
Anita Ramaswamy / TechCrunch:
Lido, which has an estimated 80%+ market share in Ethereum liquid staking, raises $70M from Andreessen Horowitz; 76K wallets stake assets worth $10B+ on Lido  —  The world's most-used blockchain, Ethereum, is switching to a new validation system this summer called proof-of-stake (PoS).
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
NonFungible: the average NFT selling price has declined to ~$2K, after an all-time high of ~$6.9K on January 2, with a ~40% drop since Russia attacked Ukraine  —  While anecdotal evidence that the NFT market is beginning to cool abounds, there are no bigger red flags that what's going on with sales and prices.
More: Decrypt
Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
Many Ukrainian tech workers, unable to leave the country, have relocated to the Lviv tech hub, with some joining Ukraine's ad hoc hacking army attacking Russia  —  Many companies in Ukraine's IT industry relocate staff, who have continued to ship code for clients
Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
Google Maps and Tripadvisor block users from posting reviews to some listings in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus after activists used them to share Ukraine news  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google Maps and the travel search platform Tripadvisor Inc. temporarily blocked users from posting new reviews …
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Prominent open-source advocate Miguel de Icaza to leave Microsoft, which he joined when the company acquired Xamarin in 2016, saying he misses the startup world  —  Former Xamarin cofounder Miguel de Icaza is leaving Microsoft, the company he joined through acquisition just over six years ago.

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