Techmeme
September 6, 2018, 7:45 AM

Top News

Peter Kafka / Recode:
A recap of Facebook and Twitter hearings: Republican claims of bias, Democratic claims of political manipulation, and appearances by Alex Jones and Laura Loomer  —  A capsule review of tech's visit to Washington: The Senate seemed serious, the House did not, and Republicans aren't done complaining about bias.
Washington Post:
Overview of the Senate hearing on foreign influence in social media, which heard testimony from Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey  —  Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey told lawmakers on Wednesday that they are better prepared to combat foreign interference on their platforms …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
In House committee hearing, Dorsey said Twitter intends to share an abuse transparency report this year, agrees to have the company undergo a civil rights audit  —  A meek and quiet “no” was Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's refrain as he responded to an onslaught of questions from House Energy Committee Republicans …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
DoJ says AG Jeff Sessions will meet with state AGs to discuss a “growing concern” that social media giants are “hurting competition” and stifling free speech  —  The Justice Department has confirmed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has expressed a “growing concern” …
Kris Holt / Engadget:
More: ObserverTweets: @jack, @jack, @jack, @jack, @jack, @jack, @jack, and @jack
Bloomberg:
Washington Post:
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Sources: Apple has considered the name “iPhone Xs Max” for the 6.5-inch model; both Xs and Xs Max will have 4GB RAM, up from 3GB, and dual SIM options  —  Last week 9to5Mac exclusively shared the first look at the new iPhone Xs models due to be officially announced by Apple on September 12.
Fathin Ungku / Reuters:
Facebook says it will invest more than $1B to build its first Asian data center in Singapore, slated to open in 2022  —  SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Facebook (FB.O) said on Thursday it will invest more than $1 billion to build its first data centre in Asia in Singapore, slated to open in 2022.
James Vincent / The Verge:
Google unveils Dataset Search, a search engine that will cover datasets from environmental and social sciences, government, and ProPublica-style news orgs  —  Dataset Search could be a scientist's best friend  —  Google's goal has always been to organize the world's information, and its first target was the commercial web.
Bryan Menegus / Gizmodo:
Bernie Sanders debuts the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (Stop BEZOS) Act that would tax big firms equal to the welfare received by low wage staff  —  Bernie Sanders introduced a bill today that culminates weeks of feuding between the Vermont senator and Amazon …
Kate Clark / TechCrunch:
SEC filing shows Groq, a startup developing a tensor processing unit, has raised $52.3M of a $60M round  —  Groq has raised $52.3 million of a $60 million round, per an SEC filing.  Social Capital co-founder and former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya, who's listed on the filing, has participated in the funding.
Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:
Monese, which provides a mobile-only current account targeting customers with a thin credit file, raises $60M Series B led by Kinnevik  —  The large amounts of cash that is being invested in challenger banks in the U.K., whether that be startups with a fully fledged banking license or those using …
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
A look at the potential antitrust cases against Google, Amazon, Uber, and Facebook and what they might look like if they lost  —  Antitrust crusaders have built up serious momentum in Washington, but so far, it's all been theory and talk.  Groups like Open Markets have made a strong case that big companies …
Jeff Grubb / VentureBeat:
Nielsen acquires games market intelligence company SuperData Research, which estimates digital game sales by looking at the behavior of 160M people  —  Nielsen wants to get better at tracking video games.  To fill in the digital-shaped gap in its data reporting, the market analysis firm …
More: Engadget and CNET
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Roblox, an MMO game popular with kids, raises $150M Series F, source says at a $2.5B+ valuation, bringing total raised to $185M  —  The company is now valued at more than $2.5B  —  Roblox, which allows kids to create 3D worlds and games, has raised an additional $150 million in funding.
Chris Ip / Engadget:
How 30+ popular tech companies, from social networks to dating apps, responded to requests for personal data; how they interpret that data remains opaque  —  Here's what they gave us — and what they didn't.  —  The average American, one study tell us, touches their phone 2,600 times per day.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Snap launches new styles of Spectacles 2 with polarized lenses that look more like traditional sunglasses, available today for $199  —  And they've got polarized lenses  —  If the main hangup that's kept you from purchasing Snap's Spectacles has been their design, two new models that the company …

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Earlier Picks

Andrew Perrin / Pew Research Center:
Diptendu Lahiri / Reuters: