Techmeme
October 20, 2019, 10:05 PM

Top News

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 …
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 …
Andrea Shalal / Reuters:
Amid growing skepticism about Libra, David Marcus says the group may consider stablecoins pegged to national currencies, instead of the coin it has proposed  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O), facing growing skepticism about its digital currency project Libra …
New York Times:
Comparing Trump and Democratic 2020 presidential campaigns online: it's “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 …
Sean O'Neill / Skift:
Travel reservations giant Sabre acquires Radixx, which sells passenger service systems to small and budget airlines, in a deal worth ~$110M  —  Sabre's acquisition of Radixx is yet another sign that the travel technology giant is shoring up its competitive position vis-à-vis …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google says it will update the Pixel 4 “in the coming months” with an option that requires open eyes for the phone's face unlock to be successful  —  In the meanwhile, learn how to use the lockdown feature  —  One of the headline features for the Google Pixel 4 is that it adds a new …
Laurie Sullivan / MediaPost:
eMarketer: Google will take 37.2%, or $48.05B, of all US digital ad spend this year, down from 38.2% in 2018, while Amazon will take 8.8%, up from 6.8% in 2018  —  Google dominates the search ad market today, but eMarketer's latest forecast shows that within the next two years, Google's revenue share will fall and Amazon's will rise.
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:
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.
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.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Connecting, collaborating, and growing: Zoho Mail 2025 wrap-up  —  Your inbox has been home to a lot this year—quick updates, long threads, approvals, reminders, and the occasional late-night draft you weren't sure about.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
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.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Grit:
How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The coming AI security crisis (and what to do about it) | Sander Schulhoff
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Potential, Google's Speedy Model, Copilot Hits Turbulence
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.
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.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:05 PM ET, October 20, 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.

Earlier Picks