Techmeme
December 22, 2016, 12:35 PM

Top News

Emily Jackson / Financial Post:
Canada's telecom regulator CRTC declares internet an essential service, mandates 50Mbps down, 10Mbps up for all, creates $750M fund to subsidize rural rollout  —  With its declaration that high-speed Internet a basic service, Canada's telecom regulator is shifting its regulatory focus from voice to broadband.
Ethan Baron / SiliconBeat:
Employee lawsuit claims Google violated labor laws that say employees must be allowed to discuss workplace conditions; company could face up to $3.8B in fines  —  A Google product manager has filed suit against the company, claiming an internal spying program that relies in part …
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Uber stops San Francisco self-driving pilot as California DMV revokes registrations on its vehicles; Uber says it will look to deploy vehicles elsewhere  —  Uber has confirmed that it will stop its self-driving pilot in San Francisco, following a meeting today with the California DMV and Attorney General's office.
Eben Upton / Raspberry Pi:
Raspberry Pi Foundation releases free experimental version of its desktop environment PIXEL for PCs and Macs  —  Our vision in establishing the Raspberry Pi Foundation was that everyone should be able to afford their own programmable general-purpose computer.
Laharee Chatterjee / Reuters:
Honda says it has entered into formal talks with Alphabet's Waymo to add self-driving tech to its cars, will provide modified vehicles initially  —  Honda Motor Co Ltd's R&D unit said on Wednesday it has entered into formal talks with Alphabet Inc's Waymo to add self-driving technology to its vehicles.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Zuckerberg, after saying Facebook is not a media company in August, now suggests it is a media firm, just not a “traditional” one  —  Mark Zuckerberg gave new insights about how he sees Facebook's role in informing the world today during a Live video one-on-one year-end chat with COO Sheryl Sandberg.
Cao Li / New York Times:
Beijing and Shanghai announce that Chinese ride-sharing services can only hire local residents as drivers  —  BEIJING — Fresh from school with a degree in hotel management, Luo Haichao left his hometown and moved to Beijing to look for a bigger paycheck.  He eventually found one in a different sector: driving cars.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple accuses Nokia of collusion with patent trolls in anti-trust lawsuit; Nokia sues Apple for 32 patent infringements, claims Apple declined licensing deals  —  Nokia today announced that it has filed several complaints against Apple in Germany and the United States, accusing the Cupertino company of infringing on Nokia patents.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Open Whisper Systems, the developers behind Signal, use “domain fronting” for its Android app to bypass censorship in Egypt and UAE, with iOS update coming soon  —  Any subversive software developer knows its app has truly caught on when repressive regimes around the world start to block it.

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Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: