Techmeme
October 20, 2018, 8:25 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Sources: Saudis groomed a Twitter employee to spy on accounts of dissidents; he was investigated and fired in Dec. 2015 after Western intelligence warnings  —  Each morning, Jamal Khashoggi would check his phone to discover what fresh hell had been unleashed while he was sleeping.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
SEC filing: Microsoft now includes LinkedIn performance metrics, like the number of active users, in calculating stock awards to four top execs, including CEO  —  - Microsoft paid $27 billion for LinkedIn in 2016 and is now tying its performance to executive pay.
Issie Lapowsky / Wired:
Interview with Brian Amerige, the former Facebook employee whose memo accusing the company of being a political monoculture led to fierce internal debate  —  AT ONE POINT this summer, Brian Amerige seemed destined to become the next James Damore.  —  Like Damore, the Google engineer who wrote …
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar / Associated Press:
Officials say a government computer system that interacts with HealthCare.gov was hacked earlier this month, compromising sensitive data for ~75,000 people  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — A government computer system that interacts with HealthCare.gov was hacked earlier this month …
New York Times:
Social platforms are relying on journalists as unpaid content moderators to address misinformation on their sites, even with all the tools at their disposal  —  Social platforms have a responsibility to address misinformation as a systemic problem, instead of reacting to case after case.
New York Times:
A look at apps like Cruz Crew, N.R.A., and Great America that offer conservatives safe spaces free from the content guidelines of big platforms like Facebook  —  Imagine a society in which everyone more or less agrees with you.  —  You wake up in the morning to online greetings from people …
Melia Russell / San Francisco Chronicle:
SF's Proposition C to fight homelessness may tax SF-based payment processors on gross receipts, hurting companies like Square and Stripe  —  Jack Dorsey, the head of Square and Twitter, unleashed a tweetstorm critical of a San Francisco ballot measure aimed at slashing homelessness …
Fast Company:
Many of the economists who testified at FTC hearings this week and dismissed or criticized the idea of tech monopolies received money from big tech in the past  —  Amid growing concern over the power of such behemoths as Amazon, Google, Facebook, and other tech giants, in recent months there's …
Adam Satariano / New York Times:
UK parliament report: an unknown firm spent an estimated £250K+ in the past 10 months on Facebook ads pushing for a hard Brexit and reaching 10M to 11M people  —  LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May has struggled to build support for her plan for Britain's exit from the European Union.
Amol Rajan / BBC:
Interview with Nick Clegg about his hiring and future at Facebook  —  Nick Clegg said no to Facebook when they first called this summer.  “But in that funny way that happens,” he says, “if you say no to people they suddenly become very interested in you.”  —  In a phone call …
Financial Times:

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Earlier Picks

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Washington Post:
Jan Strupczewski / Reuters: