Techmeme
October 9, 2019, 6:00 PM

Top News

Lauren Strapagiel / BuzzFeed News:
Blizzard is facing an intense backlash after banning a player over Hong Kong pro-democracy comments, with some fans boycotting its games  —  Players are boycotting games like World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Hearthstone after a user was punished for supporting pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong during a tournament.
Verna Yu / The Guardian:
Chinese state media warns Apple over app that tracks Hong Kong police, says Apple's approval of the app made it an “accomplice” in the protests  —  State media says ‘poisonous’ app made Apple an accomplice in the Hong Kong protests  —  China's state media has accused Apple …
Bloomberg:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Facebook refuses Biden campaign's request to take down a misleading Trump campaign ad, rejected by CNN, reigniting a debate about Facebook and political speech  —  WASHINGTON — The 30-second video ad released by the Trump campaign last week is grainy, and the narrator's voice is foreboding.
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Kuo: iPhone SE 2 and new iPad Pro models are coming in Q1'20; MacBooks with new keyboard and an Apple AR headset in partnership with third-party brands in Q2'20  —  According to a Chinese language Ming-Chi Kuo report, Apple is readying the release of the iPhone SE 2 and new iPad Pro models for the first quarter of next year.
VICE:
Leaked email from GitHub CEO shows the company will renew its $200K contract with ICE, despite stated opposition to child separation policies  —  Even though GitHub leadership and others oppose ICE's child separation policy, an internal email suggests GitHub won't stop ICE from renewing a contract with the tech company.
Pew Research Center:
Survey of 4,272 US adults shows patchy knowledge on tech issues: many answered correctly on cookies and phishing, few knew about 2FA, https, or private browsing  —  A majority of U.S. adults can answer fewer than half the questions correctly on a digital knowledge quiz, and many struggle with certain cybersecurity and privacy questions
CNBC:
House Financial Services Committee says Mark Zuckerberg will testify on October 23 as part of a hearing on Libra and more  —  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Oct. 23 at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, the committee announced Wednesday.
Rose Eveleth / Vox:
The biggest lie technologists tell themselves and others is that there is nothing we can do to stop the natural and inevitable evolution of technology  —  They see facial recognition, smart diapers, and surveillance devices as inevitable evolutions.  They're not.
Financial Times:
OECD countries unveil proposals to tax giant multinationals, especially tech giants, after months of negotiations, cracking down on the use of tax havens  —  The OECD has proposed a global shake-up of corporate taxation, overturning a century of rules that had allowed digital groups such as Facebook …
Nicola Davis / The Guardian:
Nobel prize in chemistry awarded to three scientists for their work in developing lithium-ion batteries, which sparked the portable technology revolution  —  John B Goodenough, M Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino honoured for development that sparked portable technology revolution
CNBC:
Shooting in Halle, Germany was livestreamed on Twitch; ~5 people watched the 35-minute video live and about 2,200 watched before it was removed in ~30 minutes  —  09 October 2019, Saxony-Anhalt, Landsberg: Police officers walk along a hedge with machine guns in their hands near Wiedersdorf/Landsberg.

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Deep analysis for deep questions  —  Introducing Superagent.  A new research product from Airtable: Subagents deeply interrogate your topic and turn it into boardroom-ready reports, slides, docs, or websites.
Clay:
Turn any GTM idea into reality  —  Clay helps GTM teams combine AI agents, enrichment, and intent data to move faster and turn insights into action.
Zoho:
Your next great hire is just a tap away  —  You're traveling for a recruitment conference and forgot your work laptop.  You still have to review a C-suite candidate's salary requirements, filter the best candidates …
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

Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI Closes in on $100 Billion, OpenClaw Acquired, AI's Productivity Question — With Aaron Levie
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 Pentagon vs. Anthropic + An A.I. Agent Slandered Me + Hot Mess Express
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:
Loyal's Celine Halioua: From Defying Doubters To Pioneering Dog Longevity
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.
Access:
Notion CEO Ivan Zhao on if AI is really killing software companies
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Head of Claude Code: What happens after coding is solved | Boris Cherny
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
His Excellency Khaldoon Al Mubarak: Investing in an AI-Driven World
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:00 PM ET, October 9, 2019.

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

Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Arielle Pardes / Wired:
Leigh Cuen / CoinDesk:

Earlier Picks

Alfred Ng / CNET:
Ina Fried / Axios:
Zachary Evans / National Review:
Washington Post: