Techmeme
October 20, 2019, 9:30 PM

Top News

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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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:
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 …
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 …
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.
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.
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.

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Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: