Techmeme: Sources: California is conducting an inquiry into Amazon's practices, focused in part on Amazon selling its own products in competition with third-party sellers (Wall Street Journal)

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June 12, 2020, 5:00 PM

Top News

Nico Grant / Bloomberg:

Zoom says it deactivated accounts of US-based activists due to China's demands, won't allow such requests to impact users outside mainland China “going forward” — - Company shut down video meetings to remember Tiananmen Square — Zoom's in the middle of a free speech and censorship clash

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

UK Competition and Markets Authority, the country's antitrust watchdog, launches an investigation into Facebook's acquisition of Giphy — Facebook wants to be the go-to platform for all of your social needs, but a big move it made last month to take ownership in the world of GIFs …

More: GOV.UK, SiliconANGLE, Reuters, CNN, The Hill, CNBC, Associated Press, Adweek, Engadget, Reuters, Financial Times, Silicon Republic, PYMNTS.com, and Android Central

Tweets: @shonaghosh, @newmanmlex, @hadas_gold, @b_fung, @taylor_owen, @stevekopack, and @cmagovuk

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:

Internet Archive to close its National Emergency Library, which offers free, unrestricted access to ebooks, on June 16, after lawsuit from four major publishers — Online library asks publishers to “call off their costly assault.” — The Internet Archive has ended its National Emergency Library programs …

CNN:

Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan respond to Chan Zuckerberg Initiative scientists who wrote a letter on Trump, say they are “disgusted” by Trump's protest remarks — Hong Kong/New York (CNN Business)Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan say they are “disgusted” by President Donald Trump's remarks …

More: TechCrunch and MarketWatch

Tweets: @teddyschleifer, @danielzklein, @anitam86, @sruhle, @karaswisher, @jasonsynaptic, @slpng_giants, @anandwrites, and @neeratanden

Cecilia Kang / New York Times:

Biden campaign steps up its criticism of Facebook, with an open letter to Zuckerberg and petition asking it to strengthen rules on misinformation

Alyza Sebenius / Bloomberg:

Twitter removed 32K+ accounts engaged in propaganda linked to Russia, China, and Turkey, describing the accounts as “state-linked information operations” — - Accounts spread ‘deceptive’ claims about Hong Kong politics — Russia-linked accounts supported Kremlin, attacked dissidents

More: Twitter, Engadget, New York Times, cyber.fsi.stanford.edu, ZDNet, TechSpot, iMore, MediaNama, Tom's Guide, and Silicon Republic

Tweets: @twittersafety, @noupside, @yannikouts, @ecmclaughlin, @slpng_giants, @societyofhonor, @californiapanda, @nakashimae, @nakashimae, @jack, @opdeatheaters, and @yoyoel

Donie O'Sullivan / CNN:

Twitter says it had shut down more than 170K accounts tied to the Chinese government spreading deceptive narratives favoring China around COVID-19, HK, more

More: Reuters, ASPI, and ComputerWeekly.com

Tweets: @smitaprakash, @sameer_singh17, @paulmozur, @hiro_hamakawa, @dktatlow, @joshuawongcf, @cnn, @perpetualmaniac, and @demosisto

James Vincent / The Verge:

Facebook announces the results of its first Deepfake Detection Challenge, says the winning algorithm spotted deepfakes with an average accuracy of just 65.18% — But the company says deepfakes are not currently ‘a big issue’ — Facebook has announced the results of its first Deepfake Detection Challenge …

More: Facebook AI, CNET, VentureBeat, MIT Technology Review, Social Media Today, Fortune, Neowin, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @schrep, @facebookai, @schrep, @stshank, @cristiancanton, and @jeremybanon

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: California is conducting an inquiry into Amazon's practices, focused in part on Amazon selling its own products in competition with third-party sellers — State is looking at how the tech giant treats third-party sellers — California investigators are examining Amazon.com Inc …

More: MediaNama and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @zck and @danpriceseattle

Annie Palmer / CNBC:

Sources: NY AG has interviewed NY Amazon warehouse workers as employee retaliation claims become a central focus of investigation into Amazon's labor practices

More: GeekWire, TheStreet, and Slashdot. Tweets: @annierpalmer. Thanks:@mattrosoff

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Sources: AT&T is considering selling its Warner Bros. gaming division for about $4B, with Take-Two Interactive, EA, and Activision Blizzard expressing interest — - AT&T is considering selling its Warner Bros. gaming division for about $4 billion, sources say.

More: Bloomberg, 9to5Mac, TweakTown News, GameSpot, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @sherman4949, @toadsanime, @sherman4949, and @mattrosoff

Lee Fang / The Intercept:

Sources: Facebook internally showcased a feature for its Workplace chat product that allowed administrators to remove and block trending topics like “unionize” — During an internal presentation at Facebook on Wednesday, the company debuted features for Facebook Workplace …

Sean Burch / The Wrap:

HBO says it will be shutting down its HBO Go streaming app on July 31, following the recent launch of HBO Max; HBO Now will be rebranded as just HBO — HBO Go, which first launched in 2010, will be shut down at the end of July — HBO on Friday said it will be shutting down its HBO …

More: CNET, TechCrunch, CNET, The Verge, AppleInsider, and Engadget

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From Mediagazer

Associated Press:

After a short-term hold, SCOTUS denies former Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge's bid to stay an $800-a-day fine if she refuses to reveal a source

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:

A look at Comcast co-CEO Brian Roberts' earlier bundling strategy for connectivity and content, and his plan now to unbundle in order to keep growing

Janko Roettgers / The Verge:

A look back at BitTorrent, launched by Bram Cohen 25 years ago, and how media piracy fueled its growth while its architecture shielded it from legal liability

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More News

Samantha Cole / VICE:

Transfer limits and security freezes imposed by PayPal and Venmo are stalling efforts to bail out people from jail in the middle of a pandemic

Olivia Carville / Bloomberg:

Airbnb settles a lawsuit against NYC, will hand over physical addresses of NYC listings plus host names, addresses, phone numbers, and more every quarter

More: CNET

TechCrunch:

Norwegian educational gaming company Kahoot raised $28M in a private placement and $62M in a secondary share sale on Oslo's exchange, is now valued at ~$1.4B

More: Silicon Republic. Tweets: @ingridlunden

Reuters:

Sources: Netflix is in talks with Network18, the media unit of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, to establish a multiyear content creation partnership

Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:

IQM, which makes hardware for quantum computers, raises €15M from the EIC Accelerator program and a €3.3M grant from the Business Finland government agency

More: Nikkei Asian Review, FinSMEs, and EU-Startups. Tweets: @beernameno

Alnoor Peermohamed / The Economic Times:

Report: number of daily active internet users in rural India stands at 89% versus 88% in cities; rural India's users are 41% women, urban India's are 43% women

Tweets: @ettech and @sairee

Ruth Reader / Fast Company:

Researchers find sites monetizing health misinformation with Google's AdSense and DoubleClick; Google says the specific sites don't violate its policy

Tweets: @slpng_giants, @penamerica, and @matthewstoller

Anna Irrera / Reuters:

PayPal pledges $530M to support black and minority-owned US businesses, of which $500M is for an opportunity fund and $15M for fostering diversity at PayPal

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:

Sources: Palantir is preparing to register an S-1 filing confidentially, with plans to go public in the coming weeks and start trading as early as fall

More: PYMNTS.com. Tweets: @william_fitz, @wolfmetric, @rwsmolensjr, @sashaperigo, @quinnypig, @hunterwalk, @mdudas, @sonalibasak, and @sallyshin

Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech:

Jim Keller, SVP of Intel's Silicon Engineering Group, has resigned from the company due to personal reasons, will remain as a consultant for next six months

More: Intel Newsroom, Financial Times, ExtremeTech, The Register, IT Management, TechSpot, Fortune, and The Verge

Tweets: @patrickmoorhead, @david_schor, @somospostpc, and @iancutress. Thanks:@anandtech

Paige Leskin / Business Insider:

Sources: at all-hands, Snap CEO said he would not release diversity numbers so as not to reinforce the perception minority groups are underrepresented in tech

More: The Verge and Engadget

Tweets: @_harshilshah, @cgrantwsj, @paigeleskin, @carnage4life, @ryannmcenany, @iancoldwater, @belfastagmt, @lordkabelo, @garycoby, and @econ_marshall