Techmeme: Tuvalu, a tiny island nation with the .tv TLD, has been cashing in on domain sales to Twitch and others, representing ~8% of the island's gross national income (Alexander Lee/Washington Post)

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December 28, 2019, 5:50 PM

Top News

Sarah J. Jackson / New York Times:

In 2010s, Twitter enabled young and marginalized people to be heard, held news organizations accountable, and pushed largely ignored issues into the mainstream — It's impossible to avoid news about how harmful social media can be. The Cambridge Analytica scandal. The ubiquitous Russian bots.

Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed News:

A look back at how Facebook and Twitter evolved over the 2010s, chasing size and influence at a cost to society that will take years to understand — The two companies had a bad run in the 2010s. It was their own fault. — It's been a rough decade for Facebook and Twitter.

Tweets: @jason_kint, @buzzfeednewsuk, and @laurahelmuth

See also Mediagazer

Kate Cox / Ars Technica:

A retrospective on Facebook's past decade, during which it grew to 2.45B users to become a major facet of life worldwide and wound up in regulatory crosshairs

Tweets: @arstechnica and @arstechnica

Mark Ledwich:

A new study finds that YouTube's late 2019 algorithm actively discourages users from watching radicalizing content, directing them to more mainstream videos — In 2018, Kevin Roose published a piece in the New York Times in which Caleb Cain, a liberal college dropout, described his experience …

More: arXiv.org and CNBC

Tweets: @mark_ledwich, @mark_ledwich, @kevinroose, @kevinroose, @kevinroose, @willfoia, @msmelchen, @persily, @eladgil, @mattgrossmann, @wordsandsuch, @mark_ledwich, @mark_ledwich, @austen, @can, @antumbral, and @andre_spicer

David Porter / 8tracks blog:

As 8tracks prepares to shut down on December 31, its co-founder shares a post-mortem of what went wrong with the once-promising music streaming startup — 8tracks has had a long run and its day in the sun. We're sad to announce, however, that the company and its streaming service will wind …

More: PiunikaWeb. Tweets: @chr1sa, @iancr, @robinsloan, @rrhoover, @caseynewton, @joshconstine, @ow, @tfallon22, @darthjuno, @hasief, @mathewi, @8tracks, @iamdickgregory, @agaresia, and @jherskowitz

Shunsuke Tabeta / Nikkei Asian Review:

China launches two more satellites for BeiDou, its GPS competitor, says it will be fully complete in June, with centimeters-level accuracy by the end of 2020 — 70% of Chinese smartphones now compatible with Beidou — BEIJING — China announced Friday that it is just months away …

More: Associated Press, TechCrunch, The Independent, and Gizmodo. Tweets: @tariqkrim

George P. Slefo / Ad Age:

Spotify will suspend political ads in early 2020, citing the lack of tools to review them; source: political ads are not a significant source of its revenue — Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders and the RNC are among Spotify advertisers — Spotify is suspending the sale of political advertising …

More: CCN.com, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Axios, Inc42 Media, CNET, Vanity Fair, Billboard, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, CNBC, WTKR-TV, SlashGear, VICE, Engadget, Input, Variety, Marketing Land, Bloomberg, Mashable, The Verge, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @slpng_giants, @digiphile, @emilyglazer, @tolles, @zck, @kerrymflynn, @johnwilson, @slacktivist00, @jason_kint, and @jason_kint

See also Mediagazer

Constance Grady / Vox:

With print books often cheaper than ebooks, whose sales stabilized at ~20% of total book sales, a look at the aftermath of Apple's ebook price fixing lawsuit — Publishing spent the 2010s fighting tooth and nail against ebooks. There were unintended consequences.

Tweets: @dandrezner, @irhottakes, @ezraklein, @voxdotcom, @mobylives, @tekaldas, @tkingdot, @paulkrugman, @gorskon, @thepixiepages, @timethief, and @jamesrbuk

See also Mediagazer

Alexander Lee / Washington Post:

Tuvalu, a tiny island nation with the .tv TLD, has been cashing in on domain sales to Twitch and others, representing ~8% of the island's gross national income — In 1995, Stephen Boland sat in his government office while working as the macroeconomic planner for the Pacific microstate of Tuvalu when the fax machine whirred to life.

Tweets: @yancyeaton, @brianstelter, @atossaaraxia, and @islandsinnovate

Allyson McCabe / Wired:

As labels increasingly rely on streaming data to scout talent, they could become less willing to sign artists whose music isn't engineered to maximize profit — The explosion of metrics and algorithms isn't just reflecting what's happening in the music industry. It's transforming it.

Tweets: @artsjournalnews, @wired, and @amirmizroch

See also Mediagazer

Jay Mazoomdaar / The Indian Express:

Sources: New Delhi police is now using facial recognition software to screen protesters; police acquired the software in 2018 to search for missing children — Following a Delhi High Court order in a case related to missing children, the Delhi Police had acquired Automated Facial Recognition System …

More: Gulf News, Oneindia, Free Press Journal, and Business Insider. Tweets: @indianexpress

Reuters:

Mastercard SpendingPulse: US online holiday sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24 grew 18.8% YoY, for a 14.6% share of the total retail sales during the period — (Reuters) - U.S. shoppers spent more online during this year's holiday shopping season, a report by Mastercard Inc (MA.N) …

More: Global Hub, Wall Street Journal, Market Realist, SGB Media Online, New York Times, PYMNTS.com, and CoinDesk

Tweets: @hadip and @reuters

Zachery Eanes / Raleigh News & Observer:

Profile of Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, including the development of Fortnite, why he chose North Carolina as a base, and his ambitious land conservation efforts — The News & Observer's Tar Heel of the Year — The News & Observer recognizes North Carolina residents who have made significant contributions …

Tweets: @will_doran, @newsycombinator, and @newsobserver

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From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Source: Bari Weiss is planning to create a masthead for CBS News as part of a broader overhaul of standards and procedures

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Comcast extends Mike Cavanagh's contract through January 1, 2029, and grants a ~$35M performance-based stock package; he's set to become co-CEO in January 2026

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

WBD's board says it will “carefully review and consider” Paramount's revised offer, which includes a full backstop personally guaranteed by Larry Ellison

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More News

Emma Lee / TechNode:

Tencent debuts Tencent Meeting, a Zoom-like cloud-based video conferencing service, as it continues its push into enterprise services

More: Caixin Global and Pandaily. Tweets: @prakharkhanduja

Brady Dale / CoinDesk:

Profile of Rune Christensen, the leader of MakerDAO, a decentralized finance project providing trustless loans, now backed by ~$312M worth of ethereum

More: The Maker Blog. Tweets: @bitcoinecon and @coindesk

Benedict Evans:

Amazon has ~35% of US ecommerce and ~6% of addressable US retail, and is two thirds the size of Walmart, which would make an antitrust case against it difficult

Tweets: @aaronbuley, @mschoening, @evplusev, @mayank_b23, @eicker, @stevesi, @sachinrekhi, and @robertwiblin

Elise Favis / Washington Post:

Livestreams have become a popular venue for charity fundraising, replacing legacy telethons, with Twitch users raising $75M+ for charities between 2012 and 2017

Tweets: @launcherwp and @elisefavis

Jasper Jolly / The Guardian:

UK's Competition and Markets Authority says Amazon failed to address its concerns about the investment in Deliveroo, refers the deal to a full investigation

More: BBC, CityAM, Sky News, Associated Press, Reuters, Engadget, PYMNTS.com, New York Post, and Telegraph

Tweets: @cmagovuk and @lamadridalfonso

Earlier Picks

William Suberg / Cointelegraph:

BitMEX Research report: of 12 big initial exchange offerings in 2019, 11 are almost worthless compared to the price their tokens first traded for on exchanges

More: BitMEX Blog. Tweets: @bitmexresearch

Financial Times:

All 20 standards proposals related to surveillance tech received by UN's ITU since 2016 have come from Chinese companies like Huawei, ZTE, and Hikvision

More: Financial Times. Tweets: @chinabeigebook and @noahbarkin

The Guardian:

A look at the rise of tech activism in the 2010s led by blue-collar or contract workers, with a sharp rise in activism of full-time/white-collar workers in 2019

Tweets: @dotben, @organizejs, @angemariasolis, and @teamcoworker

Amanda Keton / Wikimedia Foundation:

Wikimedia says India's proposed intermediary liability rules will impact Wikipedia and limit access to information online, urges government to redraft rules

More: TechCrunch, The Economic Times, Forbes India, TechCircle, Fossbytes, and Slashdot

Tweets: @loquacious_lion, @michaelkpate, @wikimedia, @wikimedia, and @wikimedia