Techmeme
June 12, 2019, 2:10 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: as part of its response to FTC inquiries, Facebook unearths emails that appear to show Mark Zuckerberg knew of problematic privacy practices  —  Internal exchanges uncovered in response to FTC probe could cast doubt on founder's commitment to user privacy, people familiar with the matter say
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Epic Games, maker of Fortnite and the Unreal Engine, says it has acquired video chat social network Houseparty for an undisclosed sum  —  What does a gaming company do after raising $1.25 billion?  Acquisitions seem like a pretty good place to start.  Epic Games — of Unreal Engine …
Juro Osawa / The Information:
Sources: Huawei has indefinitely postponed the announcement of a new Windows laptop, originally scheduled for this week, due to ongoing US trade sanctions  —  Huawei has indefinitely postponed the announcement of a new laptop computer that was originally scheduled for this week …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Google is moving some production of US-bound Nest thermostats and server hardware out of China to Taiwan and Malaysia, avoiding punitive US tariffs  —  - Trump's tariffs push tech giant to boost Taiwan manufacturing  — Google proved keener than other tech companies about shift
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Bird confirms it is acquiring electric scooter and moped startup Scoot, which was valued at ~$71M, meaning Bird can now operate shared scooters in San Francisco  —  Bird is acquiring electric scooter and moped startup Scoot, confirming TechCrunch's previous report that the two companies were in acquisition talks.
More: The Verge, Axios, and CNET
Samantha Cole / VICE:
Instagram says it will not remove deepfake video of Mark Zuckerberg, will treat it the same way as it does all misinformation on the platform  —  A fake video of Mark Zuckerberg giving a sinister speech about the power of Facebook has been posted to Instagram.  The company previously said it would not remove this type of video.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Critics question Alphabet's Jigsaw subsidiary's decision to hire a disinformation vendor to run a campaign during research into state-sponsored disinformation  —  FOR MORE THAN two years, the notion of social media disinformation campaigns has conjured up images of Russia's Internet Research Agency …
Aaron Tilley / The Information:
Sources: Apple is in talks to buy a key part of Intel's smartphone modem business, its German operations  —  Apple is in talks to buy a key part of Intel's smartphone modem business—its German operations—in a deal that could boost the iPhone maker's plans to internally develop a modem for its devices …
Sue Halpern / New Yorker:
A look at proposed US election security legislation, much of it bipartisan, and how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is stalling its progress  —  On May 21st, four commissioners who compose the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (E.A.C.) were asked to attest, in Congress …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google Pixel 4 details are starting to leak, indicating that the upcoming flagship may have a square rear camera bump, Project Soli radar tech for new gestures  —  Project Soli returns?  —  Google has been releasing Pixel phones in October for three years now, and so we're expecting a Pixel 4 and a Pixel 4 XL this October too.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
The DOJ's antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, lays out potential antitrust arguments the US government may use against big tech  —  KEY POINTS  — Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim laid out some possible antitrust arguments against big tech in a new speech in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

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Troy Hunt:
Rani Molla / Vox:
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