Techmeme
May 27, 2020, 8:30 AM

Top News

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
In a first, Twitter adds a “Get the facts” label to two Trump tweets with false claims about mail-in voting, which links to a Twitter Moment refuting his claims  —  The action comes after years of criticism that social media companies have allowed the president to push misinformation unchecked
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Amazon sent a script and video to US TV stations promoting its safety measures; at least 11 stations aired some form of it, and 10 didn't divulge the source  —  Numerous news stations ran segments featuring identical Amazon talking points  —  Amazon has been successfully feeding talking points …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources and documents: Zuckerberg and others shelved damning research into Facebook's polarizing effect, weakening efforts to apply its conclusions to products  —  The social-media giant internally studied how it polarizes users, then largely shelved the research
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon is in advanced talks to buy self-driving car startup Zoox; the deal will value Zoox at less than the $3.2B valuation it achieved in 2018  —  Deal expected to value Zoox at less than its last private valuation  —  Amazon. com Inc. is in advanced talks to buy Zoox Inc. in a move …
Richard Nieva / CNET:
Sundar Pichai told employees Google plans to gradually reopen offices and is targeting July 6, at ~10% building capacity, increasing to ~30% by September  —  Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees Tuesday that the search giant is targeting July 6 to reopen offices for workers who want to come back.
Gartner:
Global shipments of PCs, tablets, and mobile phones are forecast to drop 13.6% overall in 2020, with smartphones dropping 13.7% YoY and PCs falling 10.5%  —  Work from Home Trend Saved PC Market from Collapse  —  Global shipments of devices (PCs, tablets and mobile phones) …
Bloomberg:
Sources: TikTok parent-company ByteDance generated $17B+ in revenue and $3B+ in net profit in 2019, more than double its $7.4B revenue in 2018  —  TikTok parent-company ByteDance Ltd. generated more than $17 billion in revenue and more than $3 billion in net profit last year …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: major advertisers on Quibi, including PepsiCo and Walmart, are seeking to defer payments as Quibi aims to cut costs after last month's lackluster debut  —  Some major advertisers have asked to defer their payments or revise their billing schedules  —  Streaming service Quibi …
Aditi Agrawal / MediaNama:
Indian government open sources its contract-tracing app, Aarogya Setu, on GitHub, starting with Android app code, with iOS code to come soon after  —  In a major win for privacy, transparency and accountability, Aarogya Setu has made its code open source for the Android client …
Morris Kiruga / Rest of World:
A look at OKash, a popular microcredit app in Kenya that threatens users to notify everyone on their contact list when they fall behind on loan payments  —  Okash, a popular fintech app in Kenya and Nigeria, threatens users to notify everyone on their contact list when you fall behind on your loan payments.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook's internal R&D group, NPE Team, launches CatchUp, an audio-only calling app in the US that shows which users are currently available to chat  —  Facebook's internal R&D group, NPE Team, has today launched a new app called CatchUp that makes it easier for friends and family …

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Earlier Picks

James Vincent / The Verge:
Amnesty International:
Sebastian Sinclair / CoinDesk:
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge: