Techmeme: Google changes its appeals process for CSAM-flagged accounts; content deemed exploitative will still be removed and reported but users can plead their innocence (Kashmir Hill/New York Times)

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December 31, 2022, 11:20 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Sam Bankman-Fried will likely plead not guilty to fraud and other charges at a January 3 hearing; SBF returns to Twitter to deny he moved Alameda funds — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is likely to plead not guilty to eight counts of fraud at a hearing next week, according to a person familiar with the matter.

More: Bloomberg, Reuters, Cointelegraph, Insider, The Block, Decrypt, Forbes, CryptoSlate, CoinGape, Cryptonews, Yahoo News, Investing.com, The Information, Decrypt, and Bloomberg

Mastodon: @MikeElgan@mastodon.social and @davidgerard@circumstances.run

Tweets: @sbf_ftx, @gerberkawasaki, @bitfinexed, @marcslove, @bitboy_crypto, @renato_mariotti, @teddyschleifer, @pixelatedboat, @cgasparino, @danprimack, @cryptomanran, @iansherr, @lukewearechange, @mikeelgan, and @laurashin

Reuters:

The Bahamas' Securities Commission says it is holding FTX assets worth $3.5B temporarily and plans to deliver them to customers and creditors who own them — The Securities Commission of the Bahamas said on Thursday that it is holding FTX assets worth $3.5 billion based on market pricing …

Nathan Crooks / The Block:

FTX says it would seek the return of its digital assets held by the Bahamas, claiming the value was ~$296M when transferred on November 12 and is now ~$167M — - FTX Trading and its affiliated debtors said Friday that they would seek the return of crypto held by the Securities Commission …

More: FTX, Crypto Daily, CryptoSlate, Bitcoin News, Reuters, and CoinJournal

New York Times:

Sources detail Elon Musk's Twitter cost-cutting measures, including closing a data center, reducing training for new staff, and canceling janitorial services — Elon Musk has reduced the company to a bare-bones operation, and employees are under a “zero-based budgeting” mandate to justify any spending.

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

After not paying rent, Twitter is reportedly closing its Seattle office, its second-largest engineering hub outside of San Francisco, and asking staff to WFH

More: The Seattle Times, Firstpost Tech, New York Post, CoinGape, and San Francisco Business Journal

Tweets: @zoeschiffer, @watcherguru, @jasonrantz, @unusual_whales, @wflbc, @techwontsaveus, @oalexanderdk, @drskyskull, and @carnage4life

Matt Levine / Bloomberg:

Crypto created a toy financial system and had a toy financial crisis; in order to work in the long run, crypto must prove its real usefulness outside of finance — On Oct. 25, Bloomberg Businessweek published “The Crypto Story,” a cover-to-cover issue of the magazine that I wrote about what crypto is and what it all might mean.

More: TheStreet

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @mdudas, @nathanbenaich, @tomi, @smdiehl, @joelwebershow, @ccatalini, and @carnage4life

Emily Birnbaum / Bloomberg:

Tim Wu, who helped shape Joe Biden's antitrust agenda, plans to leave his adviser role on January 4 and return to teaching antitrust law at Columbia Law School — Adviser Tim Wu, who helped to shape President Joe Biden's antitrust agenda, will leave his position Jan. 4, the White House said Friday.

More: New York Times, UPI, Axios, SiliconANGLE, Politico, and Slashdot

Tweets: @tariqkrim, @dmccabe, @superwuster, @samirunni, @alondranelson46, @samirunni, @robsmithonline, @patrick_spence, @zephyrteachout, and @pstasiatech

Sandali Handagama / CoinDesk:

Italy's parliament approves a 26% tax on gains of €2,000+ from crypto trading per tax period and offers incentives for declaring crypto profits for tax purposes — Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's new bill also includes an incentive for those declaring crypto for tax purposes.

More: CryptoSlate, Reuters, PYMNTS.com, crypto.news, Watcher Guru, Cryptopolitan, and The Block. Tweets: @coindesk

Kashmir Hill / New York Times:

Google changes its appeals process for CSAM-flagged accounts; content deemed exploitative will still be removed and reported but users can plead their innocence — People who upload images of children that Google flags as potentially illegal will be able to provide more context to appeal bans.

Mastodon: @ben@adida.net. Tweets: @kashhill and @kashhill

Brian Merchant / The Atlantic:

Meta's dramatic implosion, Elon Musk's Twitter train wreck, and Amazon's labor uprising show that 2022 was not just a disastrous year, but a reckoning for tech — The companies that define our digital lives have hit a wall. — The dramatic, multidimensional implosion of Meta …

More: The Ringer, CNN, Electronic Frontier Foundation, CrimsonRock, and Beyond Search

Tweets: @mpawlo, @carnage4life, @ringer, @greg_doucette, @neilturkewitz, @bcmerchant, @nc_renic, @dlberes, @dwallacewells, @bcmerchant, @estherkeziat, @techwontsaveus, @adriennelaf, and @dlberes

Ryan Broderick / Polygon:

A look at the disastrous 2022 for NFT-based games, after interest from EA, Ubisoft, Zynga, Niantic, and others, as the community grew more niche and scam-filled — The NFT gaming community only grew more niche and scam-filled in 2022 — Less than 12 months ago, it felt as if 2022 …

Tweets: @starl3xx, @realjonahblake, @realjonahblake, @michaelcarusi, and @midimyers

Washington Post:

Sources: Meta is still working on a wrist wearable device, wants to move its hardware manufacturing out of China, but is struggling to find necessary suppliers — The company needs China's factories as it pushes to become a hardware producer — SAN FRANCISCO — For more than a year …

Dan Strumpf / Wall Street Journal:

Huawei has exited “crisis mode” following US restrictions and expects ~$91.5B in 2022 revenue, unchanged from 2021, due to growing telecom infrastructure sales — Chairman says U.S. restrictions are new normal and company is back to business as usual

More: Softpedia News, Reuters, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Gizchina, SamMobile, Firstpost Tech, Pandaily, South China Morning Post, TelecomLead, CHINAdaily, Tech Xplore, Associated Press, and Huawei Central. Tweets: @mattvvolf

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From Mediagazer

Associated Press:

President Trump signed an EO on May 1 instructing CPB and other agencies to cut federal funding for NPR and PBS, alleging “bias” in the broadcasters' reporting

Minho Kim / New York Times:

An appeals court allows the Trump admin to continue withholding funds from federally funded newsrooms, temporarily reversing parts of two lower-court rulings

Sean Burch / The Wrap:

The LA Times Guild says 14 of its members have been laid off, or 6% of its newsroom staff, the third round of newsroom layoffs at LAT in as many years

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More News

Ari Levy / CNBC:

Ernst & Young: US tech IPO deal proceeds plummeted 94%, from $155.8B in 2021 to $8.6B in 2022; FactSet: no tech IPO raised $1B in 2022, compared to 15 in 2021

More: Bloomberg, EY, and John Battelle's Search Blog

Tweets: @davemcclure and @trengriffin

Wall Street Journal:

Predictions for 2023: competition for Meta's metaverse, Apple's AR/VR headset debut, generative AI integration into products, continuing crypto gloom, and more

Mastodon: @mimsical@mastodon.social. Tweets: @cathyhackl, @joannastern, @mims, and @wsj

Ben Jiang / South China Morning Post:

Sources: founder Richard Liu berated JD.com executives for poor performance and remains the undisputed decision maker despite having quit many frontline roles

More: TechNode and Tech in Asia

Ian Johnston / Financial Times:

Accounting software maker Sage threatens to turn off UK customers' single-payment licenses on security grounds, forcing them to buy costly monthly subscriptions

More: PYMNTS.com

Shadine Taufik / Tech in Asia:

Hangzhou-based Freetech Intelligent Systems, which makes a full autonomous vehicle software and hardware stack, raised a ~$100M Series B led by Chaos Investment

Source: Nikkei Asia. Tweets: @vaactiveangels and @techinasia

Earlier Picks

Reuters:

Canada's Competition Tribunal approves Rogers' ~$14.77B bid to acquire Shaw, saying the deal is “not likely to prevent or lessen competition substantially”

More: SiliconANGLE, iPhone in Canada Blog, Bloomberg, Competition Tribunal, MobileSyrup, and The Logic. Tweets: @jj_mccullough

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft plan to connect data centers to heating systems in Europe; Meta began in 2020 in Denmark, and Google is assessing its opportunities

More: iPhone in Canada Blog, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, TechRadar, and 9to5Mac

Tweets: @nielsfuglsang, @fedprom, @kiavashzare_, @tunguz, and @staunovo

Sam Kessler / CoinDesk:

Sources: the FBI is probing the leak of ~100K API keys linked to users of crypto trading service 3Commas; a victim group of ~60 members tallies losses at $20M+

More: The Daily LEO, HackRead, TechRadar, crypto.news, The Daily Hodl, Zero Ex, Wu Blockchain, Coinmonks, and Cryptopolitan. Tweets: @wublockchain

Chris Vallance / BBC:

After a hacker demanded $200K to delete data on 400M+ Twitter accounts, Ireland's DPC plans to investigate the “security issue”; Twitter hasn't issued a comment

More: SiliconANGLE

Mastodon: @elan@publicsquare.global, @malwaretech@infosec.exchange, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, @campuscodi@mastodon.social, and @briankrebs@infosec.exchange

Tweets: @c7five, @briankrebs, @troyhunt, @vmanancourt, @joshuaphilll, @stevegrzanich, @briannawu, @cjwerleman, @seamusblackley, @seamusblackley, and @scalzi