Techmeme
October 20, 2019, 5:15 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Comparing Trump and Democratic 2020 presidential campaigns online: it is “like a supercar racing a little Volkswagen Bug”, with Democrats being the Volkswagen  —  On any given day, the Trump campaign is plastering ads all over Facebook, YouTube and the millions of sites served by Google …
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
How TikTok is making inroads into US schools, as students create TikTok clubs to riff on the latest memes, and shoot videos on Newton's Laws for extra credit  —  Teens love the app, and now it's getting the stamp of approval with teacher-approved clubs.  Did school just get ... fun?
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Owen S. Good / Polygon:
Twitch is testing Watch Parties, a feature that allows streamers to screen Prime Video content that their viewers can watch along if they have Amazon Prime  —  This is fargin' awesome!  —  Twitch is now testing out a long-requested “watch parties” feature, which means that streamers …
Richard Nieva / CNET:
Y Combinator partners talk about its online Startup School program, which has enlisted 30K+ startups, as the institution tries to overcome its insular image  —  About 30,000 startups have enrolled in the accelerator's online program, as the iconic institution tries to overcome its insular image.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Researchers find malware operators are now using steganography techniques to hide malicious code in WAV audio files  —  Steganography malware trend moving from PNG and JPG to WAV files.  —  Two reports published in the last few months show that malware operators are experimenting with using WAV audio files to hide malicious code.
Bijan Stephen / The Verge:
Twitch CEO Emmett Shear talks about company's approach to content moderation and changes announced at TwitchCon, including new tools for moderators, and more  —  At this year's TwitchCon in San Diego — a celebratory, over-the-top affair that brought in streamers and fans from all over the world …
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
A behind-the-scenes account of a cyberattack that disrupted the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics, which was tied to a specific unit of Russia's GRU  —  How digital detectives unraveled the mystery of Olympic Destroyer—and why the next big attack will be even harder to crack.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
ESET details a hacking campaign, active for the past 6 years, by the Russia-linked group the Dukes or Cozy Bear, which was thought to be dormant since DNC hack  —  Largely out of the spotlight since 2016, Cozy Bear hackers have been caught perpetrating a years-long campaign.
MIT Technology Review:
A game made with a real world dataset of defendants shows the shortcomings of COMPAS, an AI-powered risk assessment tool used in the US criminal legal system  —  The US criminal legal system uses predictive algorithms to try to make the judicial process less biased.  But there's a deeper problem.

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Featured Podcasts

The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Naughty Citizen', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
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Big Technology Podcast:
2025 In Review, 2026 Predictions — With Reed Albergotti
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
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Great Chat:
The stories we told ourselves in 2025
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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.
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Earlier Picks

ProPublica:
Bloomberg: