Techmeme: Internet Society says private equity firm Ethos Capital will pay $1.135B for the .org top level domain registry (Kieren McCarthy/The Register)

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Huawei files lawsuit with a federal appeals court against the FCC's decision to bar rural carriers from using federal subsidies to buy Huawei's equipment — Huawei says FCC order is unlawful as it does not give Huawei required due process protections in labelling the company …

More: New York Times, Huawei, ZDNet, International Business Times, Wccftech, Engadget, Yahoo Finance, and Associated Press. Tweets: @huawei

Will Knight / Wired:

Jerome Pesenti, VP of AI at Facebook, on using AI for content moderation, limitations of deep learning and current AI, commercializing AI research, and more — Jerome Pesenti is encouraged by progress in artificial intelligence, but sees the limits of the current approach to deep learning.

Tweets: @went1955 and @wired

Bloomberg:

Sources: FTC investigators, who have been looking into Amazon's e-commerce business, have begun asking software companies about Amazon's practices around AWS — - FTC said to broaden Amazon inquiry beyond online retail — Amazon's cloud business leads market over No. 2 Microsoft

More: Engadget and Telecoms.com

Tweets: @benbajarin, @spencersoper, @technology, @adrianweckler, and @tsgiles

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

FCC investigation finds Verizon, T-Mobile, and US Cellular exaggerated 4G coverage in official filings to the FCC; Ajit Pai has no plans to punish the carriers — FCC buries investigation's finding in 5G press release, won't punish carriers. — 49 with 42 posters participating

More: 9to5Mac, VICE, Mashable, iDownloadBlog.com, Federal Communications …, PhoneArena, and Boing Boing

Tweets: @jbrodkin, @callumj, @robert_spalding, and @jbrodkin

Colin Lecher / The Verge:

How the Basel Action Network, which embeds trackers in discarded devices to trace where they end up in the world, uncovered bad practices of an e-waste recycler — How an e-waste sting uncovered a shocking betrayal — Jim Puckett got the messages from his “little lie detectors.”

Tweets: @russellbrandom and @colinlecher

Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News:

Kashmiris, who are subject to an ongoing four month internet shutdown, are losing their WhatsApp accounts because of the platform's policy on inactive accounts — On Wednesday, Kashmiris began disappearing from WhatsApp — and no one initially knew why. Citizens of the disputed geographical territory …

More: The Next Web, VICE, and The Verge

Tweets: @pranavdixit, @saha_abhi1990, @salmansoz, and @vrindabhandari. Thanks:@pranavdixit

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Imgur says it now has 300M MAU and launches Melee, an iOS app where users see a feed of memes and gameplay clips for the games to which they subscribe — 10 years after debut, 300 million monthly user Imgur is one of the last massively popular yet unpersonalized home pages on the internet.

More: VentureBeat and The Verge. Tweets: @joshconstine. Thanks:@sistaklein

See also Mediagazer

Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech:

An in-depth look at Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 865 and 765 chips, and why Snapdragon 865 does not come with an integrated 5G modem — We're here in Maui for the second day of Qualcomm's fourth annual Snapdragon summit, for what is probably the most exciting part of the event …

More: PCMag, Pocket-lint, The Verge, Qualcomm, Android Police, Engadget, Redmond Pie, Android Police, Apple Must, iPhone in Canada Blog, International Business Times, The Next Web, CNX Software, Softpedia News, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, Ars Technica, 9to5Mac, Patently Apple, AppleInsider, VentureBeat, Wired, The Verge, Gizmodo, and ZDNet

Tweets: @ryansmithat, @whatthebit, @rdrv3, @markhachman, @horwitz, and @horwitz. Thanks:@iancutress

Kieren McCarthy / The Register:

Internet Society says private equity firm Ethos Capital will pay $1.135B for the .org top level domain registry — Anger rises over ten-figure sale of registry — Analysis The price tag for one of the internet's largest and most important domain-name registries has finally been revealed: $1.135bn.

More: CNET

Munsif Vengattil / Reuters:

Alibaba-backed Chinese startup AutoX applies to test self-driving vehicles without an in-car backup driver in California — (Reuters) - Chinese startup AutoX, backed by e-commerce giant Alibaba, has applied to test self-driving vehicles without an in-car backup driver in California …

More: TechNode and CNET

Jason D. Rowley / Crunchbase News:

Analysis: Series A and Series B rounds have annually accounted for between 21% and 37% of total $100M+ VC rounds across the globe since 2010 — It's become the norm for some private tech companies to raise in a single round what VC firms raise for an entire new fund.

More: AVC

Jason Schreier / Kotaku:

Sources: Microsoft is planning a cheaper, disc-free Xbox, codenamed Lockhart, to go alongside its high-end Project Scarlett console — In June, Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, a new iteration of the Xbox that the company said would “set a new bar for console power, speed and performance.”

Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:

Figure, the lending platform led by Mike Cagney, who resigned as CEO of SoFi due to sexual harassment allegations, raises $103M Series C at a $1.2B valuation — Figure, a San Francisco-based consumer lending platform, raised $103 million in Series C funding led by Morgan Creek Digital at a $1.2 billion valuation.

More: CoinDesk and FinSMEs

Neha Malara / Reuters:

Slack reports Q3 revenue of $168.7M up 60% YoY, beating analyst estimates, and a net loss of $87.8M, says its paying customers grew to 105K, up 30% YoY — (Reuters) - Slack Technologies Inc (WORK.N) forecast disappointing current-quarter revenue and profit on Wednesday as its messaging platform wrestles with stiff competition.

More: Business Wire, SiliconANGLE, Financial Times, Benzinga, MarketWatch, ZDNet, and Wall Street Journal

Paresh Dave / Reuters:

Instagram says it will now require birthdates from new users, in order to improve safety features for minors and better target ads for age-restricted products — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's Instagram said it will require birthdates from all new users starting on Wednesday …

More: Instagram, Digital Trends, Geek.com, TechCrunch, The Overspill, Inc42 Media, Techweez, Social Media Today, Silicon Republic, Washington Post, TechCrunch, SlashGear, The Daily Dot, The Hill, KnowTechie, MSPoweruser, Neowin, CNET, Engadget, The Verge, Memeburn, BBC, and CNET

Tweets: @tamaleaver, @timmarchman, @shayan86, @sinnamonlove, @nicebigdog, @chrismessina, @tomgara, @sarahfrier, @karissabe, @mattnavarra, @wongmjane, and @wongmjane

Todd Feathers / VICE:

A look at the problems caused by spyware on student devices, marketed as a way to prevent shootings, without any independent research to support the claims — It was another sleepy board of education meeting in Woodbridge, N.J. The board gave out student commendations and presented budget requests.

Tweets: @josephfcox, @inhabitglobal, @zenalbatross, and @vice

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