Techmeme: At launch, Facebook News had very few stories on politics, many New York Times links, and coverage overlapped little with the most popular articles on Facebook (Laura Hazard Owen/Nieman Lab)

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June 13, 2020, 2:20 PM

Top News

Margaret Harding McGill / Axios:

In leaked letters, House Judiciary asks Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Facebook to say by Sunday whether their CEOs will testify in antitrust hearings in July — House antitrust investigators are pressing Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook to say by Sunday whether their CEOs will testify …

More: AppleInsider, Engadget, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, iMore, Patently Apple, and MacRumors

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

More: Engadget, The Information, New York Times, Mashable, Digital Trends, Gizmodo, TheStreet, GeekWire, Slashdot, Seeking Alpha, MediaNama, CNBC, and TechSpot

Tweets: @lutherlowe, @ddayen, @zck, and @annierpalmer

Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Atlantic:

Reddit faces renewed scrutiny over racism on the platform, as moderators claiming to represent 200M users sign open letter in its largest ever collective action — In 2015, the Southern Poverty Law Center called out Reddit as home to “the most violently racist” content on the internet …

More: Upvoted, reddit, CNET, and Business Insider

Tweets: @campuscodi, @liminalphase, @rogerwcheng, @anupkaphle, @katiecollins, @slpng_giants, @theatlantic, @katiecollins, @kimcrayton1, and @iethics

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: 9to5Mac, Redmond Pie, TechCrunch, CNET, Engadget, The Verge, CNET, Tubefilter, Gizmodo, MacRumors, Android Authority, and AppleInsider

Tweets: @natjarv, @billsimmons, @ditzkoff, @maskedscheduler, @azalben, @moryan, @brianmcc, @profgalloway, @mmasnick, @reckless, @kimzetter, and @karlbode

See also Mediagazer

Biz Carson / Protocol:

Q&A with Chris Best, CEO of Substack: the company has seen revenue increase 60% and readership and writership double in the first three months of the pandemic — If it seems like everyone is launching a newsletter these days, well, you're not wrong. Chris Best, CEO and founder …

Tweets: @substackinc, @bizcarson, and @sarthakgh

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:

Microsoft is aware of a bug affecting Windows 10 PCs with a printer connected via USB that renders the USB port unusable; patch is coming in a future OS update — Windows 10 users are reporting that they are unable to print using devices from multiple vendors after installing updates …

More: Microsoft Docs, BetaNews, Windows Latest, Thurrott, HotHardware, ZDNet, Windows Latest, TechRadar.com, gHacks Technology News, Windows Latest, Fossbytes, and Tom's Guide

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

At launch, Facebook News had very few stories on politics, many New York Times links, and coverage overlapped little with the most popular articles on Facebook — On June 10, the most popular stories across Facebook were all NASCAR banning Confederate flags and Blue Lives Matter (with a sprinkling of dead kids).

More: The Verge

See also Mediagazer

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: Input, Financial Times, TechCrunch, EURACTIV.com, Newser, Fox News, The Hill, Observer, CNET, and MarketWatch

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

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

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

PE firm TPG to invest $600M in Reliance Jio Platforms for a 0.93% stake in the company; TPG is the eighth investor to invest in Jio in as many weeks — American private equity firm TPG will invest $600 million in Jio Platforms, joining a roster of high-profile investors including Facebook …

Tweets: @khare_khote

Liza Lin / Wall Street Journal:

China's $1.4T tech campaign includes a massive 5G project, aiming for 600K base stations by end of 2020, relies on money from private sector, local governments — Beijing plans to spend $1.4 trillion in the next five years in sectors including 5G, artificial intelligence and data centers

Tweets: @jaygoldberg, @lizalinwsj, and @joshchin

Katie Paul / Reuters:

Facebook fired an employee for challenging his colleague's silence on Twitter over company's inaction regarding Trump posts — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) fired an employee who had criticized Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's decision not to take action against inflammatory posts …

More: Fox Business, Variety, and CNET

Tweets: @aweary, @aweary, @aweary, and @reuters

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:

Filing: Tencent took a 1.6% stake in Warner Music Group for $200M in Warner's IPO in separate transactions by two Tencent subsidiaries; shares now worth ~$250M — Chinese internet giant already had interests in Universal Music Group, Spotify — Tencent Holdings Ltd. TCEHY 1.56% took …

Tweets: @somospostpc

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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.

From Mediagazer

Jake Kanter / Deadline:

Sources: new Doctor Who episodes are likely to remain off TV until at least 2028; the BBC says it will use a competitive process to find producers for Season 16

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Disney study: the Toy Story franchise has driven $16B in total revenue for the company over 30 years; nearly half of the revenue was generated domestically

Sarah Rumpf / Mediaite:

The Washington Post faces a proposed class action lawsuit that claims the company covertly used surveillance pricing to charge loyal subscribers higher rates

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More News

Alexander Behrens / Decrypt:

Report: EOS platform, which raised $4B in ICO in 2018, has seen developer activity decline by 85% YoY; Ethereum has 80% of all smart contracts and dapps space

More: Outlier Ventures, Outlier Ventures, and CryptoGlobe

Srividya Kalyanaraman / AmericanInno:

Boston-based Kyruus, which provides analytics and scheduling software for health care systems, raises $30M, bringing its total raised to $155M

More: Kyruus, MobiHealthNews, FinSMEs, and hitconsultant.net. Tweets: @bostinno

Debby Wu / Bloomberg:

Taiwanese court fines Taiwanese chipmaker UMC $3.4M after finding three of its engineers stole trade secrets from US chipmaker Micron for China-backed company

More: Tom's Hardware. Thanks:@pelstrom

Jonathan Eley / Financial Times:

Ocado, a UK-based online grocery delivery service, to raise £1B+ of fresh equity and debt as it seeks to capitalize on a surge of interest amid the pandemic

Tweets: @paul_framp

Hugh Langley / Business Insider:

Memo: Google has created a task force to improve the company's racial equity which will listen to staff feedback and work with Google's Black leadership groups

Tweets: @aprilaser, @hypervisible, and @aaschapiro

Theodore Schleifer / Vox:

Dorsey's plan to give $1B shows philanthropy is not as hard as billionaires say; charities with links to Silicon Valley or celebrities have an edge

Tweets: @anandwrites, @folletto, @rbreich, @jrichlive, @wolfejosh, @hkanji, @teddyschleifer, @teddyschleifer, and @teddyschleifer

Earlier Picks

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

Tweets: @samleecole and @neerajka

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

More: 9to5Mac, Neowin, GamesIndustry.biz, IGN, GamingBolt, Gamasutra, Wccftech, Game Rant, USgamer.net, Bloomberg, TweakTown News, Dot Esports, Windows Central, VG247, GameSpot, CNET, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @sherman4949, @kwingreviews, @loudmouthjulia, @henereyg, @toadsanime, @sherman4949, and @mattrosoff

Ginny Marvin / Search Engine Land:

Google says it's updating its advertising policies to prohibit demographic and zip code targeting for housing, employment, and credit ads

More: The Keyword, Engadget, Ars Technica, and Search Engine Roundtable

Tweets: @marypcbuk and @caro_milanesi

See also Mediagazer

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%

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

Tweets: @facebookai, @schrep, @synopsi, @evelyndouek, @strwbilly, @jenlucpiquant, @schrep, @cristiancanton, @jeremybanon, and @stshank

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

UK Competition and Markets Authority, the country's antitrust watchdog, launches an investigation into Facebook's acquisition of Giphy

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

Tweets: @markscott82, @taylor_owen, @b_fung, @cmagovuk, @shonaghosh, @newmanmlex, @hadas_gold, and @stevekopack

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

Alyza Sebenius / Bloomberg:

Twitter removed 32K+ accounts engaged in propaganda linked to Russia, China, and Turkey, describing the accounts as “state-linked information operations”