Techmeme
October 18, 2018, 11:30 AM

Top News

Kevin Roose / New York Times:
How a loophole in Facebook's political ad review system, letting verified buyers put anything in the “paid for by” field, has been weaponized in a Virginia race  —  A competitive race in Virginia's 10th Congressional District has an alarming new element: anonymous attack ads on Facebook.
Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic:
How one company spent between $1.2M and $4.6M over five months to get 45M+ impressions on Facebook political issue ads, without saying who's paying for the ads  —  Over just two weeks in September, a limited-liability company calling itself News for Democracy spent almost $400,000 …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter says it will show whether a tweet was deleted by the user who posted it or because Twitter took an action, starting in the coming weeks  —  Twitter is making a change to how its tweet reporting procedures will work.  Before, Twitter had experimented with both showing or hiding …
Bloomberg:
Dave Zohrob / Chartable:
An in-depth analysis of how the Apple Podcasts top charts are being manipulated, and how that affects the podcast ecosystem, which relies on Apple's directory  —  How did an unknown show about real estate beat out Serial, Dr. Death, and The Daily?  —  Something weird has been happening on the Apple podcast charts lately.
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
A close look at the suit against Facebook on video metrics and a look back at many statements from publishers pivoting to video as Facebook touted the medium  —  “It will probably be all video.”  —  In June 2016, Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's VP for Europe, the Middle East and Africa …
Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:
Rob Copeland / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: data mining giant Palantir is weighing an IPO as soon as H2 2019; some bankers have told the firm it could IPO with a valuation of as much as $41B  —  Bankers have told the firm it could go public with a valuation as high as $41 billion  —  Data-mining giant Palantir Technologies Inc. …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Facebook tentatively finds that the hack affecting 30M users was perpetrated by spammers posing as a digital marketing company, not by a nation-state  —  Facebook Inc. FB .40% believes that the hackers who gained access to the private information of 30 million of its users …
For The Record:
Spotify Premium gets streamlined navigation, personalized search, and endless artist radio, rolling out globally on iOS and Android starting today  —  We're always looking for ways to provide the best possible methods for people to discover and enjoy the music they love.
Valentina Palladino / Ars Technica:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Andy Rubin's Essential confirms layoffs; sources say it's almost a third of its workforce, primarily from the startup's hardware and sales divisions  —  Essential Products Inc., the startup founded by Android creator Andy Rubin, has cut almost a third of its employees.  —  “This has been a difficult decision to make.

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Zoho Mail MCP: Make your inbox work for you  —  Maya is the head of operations at a 500-person B2B software company.  She's sharp, she's busy, and she starts every morning the same way-with her coffee, laptop, inbox.Not to work.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Grit:
Airwallex's Jack Zhang on Fintech, Failure, and Growth
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Lenny's Podcast:
OpenAI Codex lead on the new shape of product work | Andrew Ambrosino
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
Anthropic's Mythos is Back, OpenAI Releases GPT 5.6, Apple's Price Increases
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
'The Daily' and 'The Opinions': How A.I. Is Changing Loneliness and Taste
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Writer's May Habib: Building AI Tools For Corporate 'Normal People' The Labs Leave Behind
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:30 AM ET, October 18, 2018.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Laura Stevens / Wall Street Journal:

Earlier Picks

Eric Geller / Politico:
Financial Times:
Wall Street Journal:
Kate Fazzini / CNBC:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge: