Techmeme
December 12, 2019, 3:25 AM

Top News

@jack:
Twitter is funding bluesky, an independent effort to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media, with the goal of Twitter being a client of it  —  Twitter is funding a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard. 🧵
Mark Di Stefano / BuzzFeed:
YouTube bans videos that “maliciously insult” people based on their race, gender, or sex, and will remove some of Steven Crowder's videos targeting Carlos Maza  —  The change comes after controversy around a right-wing comedian's homophobic slurs aimed at a gay Latino journalist.
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Google says it is changing mobile search results for news topics, adding more carousels of stories, starting in the US and rolling out later internationally  —  Users will now see multiple carousels of news stories.  —  Google is changing how it presents news stories in its search results.
The Verge:
A rundown of the 100 gadgets that defined the 2010s, shaped first by the smartphone wars before branching off into new categories  —  The 100 gadgets that made a difference and defined the 2010s  —  Gadgets in the 2010s were shaped first by the furious race to win the smartphone wars …
Bloomberg:
Investigation details how Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook handle voice assistant transcriptions, relying heavily on contractors and downplaying user privacy  —  Ruthy Hope Slatis couldn't believe what she was hearing.  She'd been hired by a temp agency outside Boston for a vague job …
Abe Othman / AngelList:
AngelList report: seed stage investors can increase their yields by investing into every credible deal, contradicting the common wisdom of passing on most  —  If you miss the best-performing seed investment, you will eventually be outperformed by someone who blindly invests in every credible deal.
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac:
Twitter now lets users upload iOS Live Photos as GIFs, will preserve original JPEG quality for web uploads  —  In another update to how Twitter handles photos, the company today shared the news that users can upload Live Photos from iPhone or iPad and they will show as GIFs on the social media platform.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Former PayPal COO Bill Ready, who announced he was leaving in June, will join Google as the company's president of Commerce  —  In June, PayPal announced its Chief Operating Officer Bill Ready would be departing the company at the end of this year.  Now we know where he's ending up: Google.
Sean O'Kane / The Verge:
BMW will finally add Android Auto compatibility to its cars starting in July 2020, after initially focusing on Apple's CarPlay  —  And it will be wireless, too  —  BMW is finally going to start integrating Android Auto into its cars starting in July 2020, the automaker announced Wednesday.
Hadas Gold / CNN:
Facebook confirms that a bug caused tens of thousands of now restored ads to disappear from its political ad library, days before UK's general election  —  London (CNN Business)Tens of thousands of political ads went missing from Facebook's archive this week, according to researchers …

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:
From content collaboration to content intelligence: Zoho WorkDrive's 2025 journey  —  As 2025 draws to a close, we're reflecting on a year marked by meaningful progress, purposeful innovation, and continuous learning at Zoho WorkDrive.
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

Hard Fork:
Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin' Xmas Song
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Sam Altman: How OpenAI Wins, AI Buildout Logic, IPO in 2026?
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.
Access:
Betting on reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour
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:
The new AI growth playbook for 2026: How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year | Elena Verna (Head of Growth)
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Neither Side Is Used to Losing." Lucas Shaw on What's Next for Netflix and Paramount in the Battle for Warner Bros.
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.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
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 3:25 AM ET, December 12, 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

Shirin Ghaffary / Vox:

Earlier Picks

Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Kollen Post / Cointelegraph:
Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News: