Techmeme
November 30, 2018, 7:35 AM

Top News

New York Times:
Sources say Sandberg asked Facebook staff to research George Soros's finances, though she denied knowledge of hiring Definers, the firm tasked to research Soros  —  Sheryl Sandberg asked Facebook's communications staff to research George Soros's financial interests in the wake …
Liz Moyer / CNBC:
SEC settles with Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled on charges of promoting ICOs without disclosing payments; Mayweather to pay $600K+ in fees, Khaled to pay $150K+  —  Pro boxer Floyd Mayweather and music producer DJ Khaled pumped up initial coin offerings without telling investors …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram is launching a “Close Friends” list on iOS and Android to let users share Stories with a limited group of friends  —  They're Finstagram Stories  —  No one wants to post silly, racy, or vulnerable Stories if they're worried their boss, parents, and distant acquaintances are watching.
Ryan Gallagher / The Intercept:
Sources detail the measures Google took to keep Dragonfly under wraps, including shutting out some members of the security and privacy teams from key meetings  —  The secrecy surrounding the work was unheard of at Google.  It was not unusual for planned new products to be closely guarded ahead of launch.
Gabe Rivera / Techmeme News:
Techmeme now publishing paid and free “Leaderboards” showing the most influential reporters around a specific news topic  —  Today Techmeme has begun publishing Topic Leaderboards, which list the top authors and publications covering 24 topic areas such as cloud computing, autonomous vehicles …
Yogita Khatri / CoinDesk:
FBI arrests Jared Rice, Sr., CEO of cryptocurrency platform AriseBank, for defrauding investors out of $4M+ and charges him with securities and wire fraud  —  The FBI has arrested the CEO of cryptocurrency platform AriseBank after he was indicted over an alleged multi-million dollar scam.
The Verge:
Alt-right commentator Laura Loomer handcuffed self to Twitter NYC door to protest her ban from the service; NYPD cut cuffs at Loomer's request after a few hours  —  'They may have banned me from Twitter but now I'm handcuffed to Twitter'  —  Earlier this afternoon, alt-right Jewish commentator …
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
YouTube begins rolling out Stories, which last for seven days on its mobile app and can be viewed by everyone, to accounts with over 10,000 subscribers  —  Amid some concern from the community  —  YouTube is expanding its Instagram-like Stories capability to more creators today …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Marriott International says 500M records from the guest reservation database of Starwood Hotels were stolen in a massive data breach  —  Starwood Hotels has confirmed its hotel guest database of about 500 million customers has been stolen in a data breach.  —  The hotel and resorts giant …
More: Reuters
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft debuts redesigned icons for its Office suite, alongside other cosmetic changes, and says Outlook Mobile is getting a redesign soon  —  A new modern look  —  Microsoft is modernizing its Office icons as part of a broader focus on design for its various Office apps.
Erika Kinetz / Associated Press:
Over 200 car manufactures operating in China, including Tesla, BMW, and Ford, are sending position info and other data to government-backed monitoring centers  —  SHANGHAI (AP) — When Shan Junhua bought his white Tesla Model X, he knew it was a fast, beautiful car.
Nat Levy / GeekWire:
New book outlines Microsoft's product roadmap: new Surface Pro and Laptop, “ambient devices”, and cheaper Xbox One S in 2019; new Surface Book and Hub in 2020  —  Next year will be a busy one for Microsoft's Surface division, if a new book about the organization is any indication.

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More News

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Earlier Picks

Thomas Ricker / The Verge:
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Sam Kim / Bloomberg:
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: