Techmeme
November 3, 2022, 11:15 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Elon Musk plans to cut ~3,700 jobs at Twitter, or half of the company's workforce, starting on November 4, and reverse its work-from-anywhere policy  —  Elon Musk plans to eliminate about 3,700 jobs at Twitter Inc., or half of the social media company's workforce …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Twitter aims to charge for verification as soon as November 7, give current verified users a multi-month grace period, and make the edit button free  —  Twitter Inc. aims to start selling blue verification badges for user profiles as soon as next week, part of a plan by new owner Elon Musk …
Jennifer Surane / Bloomberg:
Memo: Stripe plans to lay off 14% of its staff, reducing its headcount by 1,000 to almost 7,000, to prepare for “leaner times”  —  Stripe Inc., one of the world's most valuable startups, will cut more than 1,000 jobs as it seeks to rein in costs ahead of any economic downturn.
Dan Milmo / The Guardian:
TikTok plans to update its privacy policy on December 2 to confirm that its staff outside of Europe, including in China, can access the data of European users  —  Privacy policy update confirms data of continent's users available to range of TikTok bases including in Brazil, Israel and US
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
WhatsApp announces Communities, a group messaging feature for larger, more structured groups of up to 1,024 people, rolling out worldwide in the coming months  —  WhatsApp today is officially launching Communities, the new feature offering larger, more structured discussion groups that first entered into testing earlier this year.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Twitter cancels its Chirp developer conference, set for November 16, and says it is building “some things that we're excited to share with you soon”  —  Twitter is canceling its developer-focused Chirp conference amid management transition, the company said late Thursday.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
In the coming weeks, Google will update Gmail to show live package tracking for order confirmation emails under the sender's name in the inbox  —  Google announced today a small but useful update to Gmail that will allow users to soon be able to track their upcoming package deliveries directly from their inbox.
Kate Irwin / Decrypt:
Meta lets select Instagram creators in the US test a toolkit for minting NFTs and selling them on and off the platform, and says it won't charge fees until 2024  —  Instagram will soon have NFT creation and trading tools built in, but in-app purchases will be “subject to applicable app store fees.”
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Qualcomm expects to provide modem chips for the “vast majority” of iPhones in 2023, retaining its current foothold after previously planning to supply ~20%  —  Qualcomm Inc. will continue to provide the modem chips for the “vast majority” of iPhones in 2023 …
Chloe Chaplain / The i Paper:
Source: the UK plans to remove the Online Safety Bill's controversial “legal but harmful” content rules, leaving them only for material targeted at children  —  EXCLUSIVEThe Bill is due to be brought back to Parliament later this month after it was delayed over the summer
Bloomberg:
Preqin: Chinese VC deals fell 44% YoY in October to $62.1B, of which $7.9B went to semiconductor companies, up from $6.3B in 2021  —  Venture capital investments in China are falling sharply this year, making it one of the worst-performing countries globally after the Communist Party's crackdown …
Joel Khalili / Wired:
A look at Twitter's Bluesky “federated social network” project under Elon Musk; CEO Jay Graber recently tweeted that she is “very glad we're independent”  —  For years, the platform has funded a project that's meant to create a better, decentralized online experience.
Bloomberg:
Apple's unionized Maryland store files a complaint with the NLRB after Apple withheld medical, educational, and other new benefits given to non-union workers  —  Apple Inc.'s unionized retail store in Maryland is filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board after it was excluded …
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Apiiro, which lets developers and application security engineers proactively fix problems, raised a $100M Series B, bringing its total funding to $135M  —  At a time when large rounds are a thing of the past, especially in the early stages, Apiiro, an applications security startup …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Whenever US politicians talk about changing Section 230 or regulating Big Tech and websites, they are almost always talking about imperiling the First Amendment  —  The First Amendment is one of America's most distinctive pieces of law.  But as the midterm — and, quickly, the presidential …

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