Techmeme: In 2018, Microsoft said it would start giving app developers an 85%-95% cut for non-game apps, up from 70%, but the new pricing hasn't been implemented yet (Brad Sams/Petri)

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How deepfakes, AI-generated videos that graft a person's face onto another's body, have been weaponized to harass and humiliate their subjects, mostly women — “Deepfake” creators are making disturbingly realistic, computer-generated videos with photos taken from the Web, and ordinary women are suffering the damage.

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Brad Sams / Petri:

In 2018, Microsoft said it would start giving app developers an 85%-95% cut for non-game apps, up from 70%, but the new pricing hasn't been implemented yet — Back in the spring of 2018, Microsoft published a blog post saying that the company would soon be more generous with its revenue share in the Microsoft store.

Selim Chtayti / Agence France-Presse:

Parents are often shocked by inappropriate videos on TikTok, a major hit with teens that Sensor Tower says was the most downloaded app on iOS in H1 2018 — TikTok's video-sharing app was the most downloaded on Apple's App Store in the first half of 2018, beating out Facebook, Instgram and Snapchat

Natasha Singer / New York Times:

Experts say Facebook's opaque approach toward flagging possible suicide threats to police around the world may not be accurate, effective, or safe — A police officer on the late shift in an Ohio town recently received an unusual call from Facebook. — Earlier that day …

Tweets: @jeffjarvis, @nytpolitics, @carnage4life, @jason_kint, @nytscience, @kenroth, @nytimes, @johnwilson, @natashanyt, and @nytnational

Wall Street Journal:

Tech trends for 2019: foldable phones, 5G, cashierless retail, privacy legislation, autonomous delivery wagons, IoT edge computing, and more — From delivery wagons and foldable phones to privacy crackdowns and corporate health tracking, the coming year will make good on some of the tech industry's biggest promises

Tweets: @msquinn, @lars_ruud, @yunheekim22, @djg_media, and @priyankamogul

Zen Soo / South China Morning Post:

A look at a comprehensive Chinese e-commerce law, which was passed in August to address the sale of counterfeit and copycat merchandise, that is now in effect — - E-commerce platform operators are jointly liable with merchants for selling counterfeit and copycat merchandise on their websites

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

All photos uploaded to Twinning, Popsugar's tool to match a user's photo with a celebrity's, were accessible from a public AWS storage bucket that is now locked — I thought the worst thing about Popsugar's Twinning tool was that it matched me with James Corden.

More: Mashable, 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, iPhone in Canada Blog, Engadget, and Notes from Silicon Valley. Tweets: @mgsiegler

Rita Liao / TechCrunch:

Didi faces new challenges in 2019 as stricter regulations take effect in China that require drivers have a local residency permit and commercial car license — Over the last few years, millions of Chinese workers managed to earn extra money by being ride-hailing drivers.

Frank Chaparro / The Block:

Intercontinental Exchange subsidiary Bakkt raises $182.5M to build its cryptocurrency exchange; sources: regulatory hurdles delay its plans for bitcoin futures — Bakkt, the cryptocurrency venture by Intercontinental Exchange, has scored $182.5 million to build out its platform aimed …

Scott Scrivens / Android Police:

Screenshots suggest Google is testing group calling and a low light mode in its Duo video chat app for Android — Group calling and a low light mode in Google Duo have been rumored for some time, but we now have our first glimpse of the features in action.

More: SiliconANGLE, Engadget, BGR, Android Beat, and 9to5Google

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