Techmeme
June 24, 2020, 3:20 AM

Top News

Alfred Ng / CNET:
Senate Republicans introduce bill calling for an end to “warrant-proof” encryption, citing apps like WhatsApp that use end-to-end encryption  —  The proposed legislation is Congress' latest attempt to weaken encryption from tech giants.  —  A group of Senate Republicans are looking …
Janus Rose / VICE:
1,000+ technologists, including some from MIT, Facebook, Google, urge Springer to not publish a paper that describes a system to predict crime based on faces  —  Technologists from MIT, Harvard, and Google say research claiming to predict crime based on human faces creates a “tech-to-prison pipeline” that reinforces racist policing.
Ian Hamilton / UploadVR:
Facebook says it will stop selling Oculus Go, ending app submissions for it in December, and vows to no longer make headsets that only track head rotation  —  Facebook will stop selling Oculus Go this year as the company sharpens its focus on fully positionally tracked VR headsets like Oculus Quest.
Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:
Ben & Jerry's, Eddie Bauer, and Magnolia Pictures join Patagonia, REI, and others suspending Facebook ads in July to protest amplification of hate speech  —  Eddie Bauer, Magnolia Pictures, Ben & Jerry's and others have suspended campaigns over the platform's content moderation practices.
Bloomberg:
Recent pledges by Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft to diversify their workforce come after years of similar claims followed by little progress  —  Spurred by nationwide protests and calls to end systemic racism after the police killing of George Floyd, Google, Microsoft Corp …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
After WWDC, the performance of Apple's silicon chips for Mac remains a mystery, with speed and efficiency claims not yet substantiated through benchmarks  —  There were canned demos but no benchmarks or comparisons  —  For years, Apple has steadily revealed how the ARM-based chips …
Kyle Daly / Axios:
Twitter flags a Trump tweet for breaking rules on abusive behavior; it threatened “serious force” against anyone who may try creating an “autonomous zone” in DC  —  Twitter on Monday opted not to take down or flag a tweet from President Trump that baselessly tied mail …
New York Times:
Over 70 people, mostly women, have shared stories of discrimination, harassment, and sexual assault within the video game live-streaming industry since Friday  —  After more than 70 allegations surfaced on Twitter this weekend, gaming companies and streamers responded with action.
Isaac McIntyre / Dexerto:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Microsoft releases the first public preview of its Defender antivirus Android app, as Microsoft Defender ATP for Linux becomes generally available for all users  —  UPDATE: Microsoft Defender ATP for Linux has also exited public preview and is now generally available for all users.
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Open Technology Fund, the US digital speech advocate that funded Signal, faces turmoil after the abrupt firing of entire leadership team and resignation of CEO  —  'There are so many countries and individuals who need this support right now,' says former OTF president
Bloomberg:
Central Bank of Brazil tells Mastercard and Visa to stop payments via WhatsApp in the country to evaluate risks and regulations  —  - Authority wants to assess risks to country's payment system  — Lawyer says suspension is an unusual move by the bank
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Twitter permanently suspends @DDoSecrets account for violating distribution of hacked data policy after it shared links to data stolen from US law enforcement  —  Twitter said DDoSecrets account leaked and promoted BlueLeaks, a huge collection of files stolen from more than 200 US police departments and fusion training centers.
Karin Matussek / Bloomberg:
A previously suspended German antitrust order against Facebook gets reinstated amid pending lawsuit, after a judge says Facebook abuses its dominant position  —  - Social network giant is abusing its market power, judges say  — Antitrust order won't be suspended while suit is pending
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
DoNotPay, which creates bots to automate mundane tasks and save users money, raises $12M Series A led by Coatue Management at a valuation of $80M  —  The pandemic has opened a Pandora's box of consumer concerns, with flights canceled, gyms closed, and monthly membership commitments to contend with.
Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon unveils the Climate Pledge Fund, which will invest an initial $2B in startups building sustainable technologies  —  Tech giant plans to invest in transportation, energy, food and other industries  —  Amazon.  AMZN 2.36% com Inc. is launching a $2 billion internal venture-capital fund focused …
Mark Wilson / Fast Company:
Segway, the two-wheeled, self-balancing vehicle known for the hype it generated in the early 2000s, ends production as the company lays off most of its staff  —  Steve Jobs said it would be bigger than the PC.  Some dubbed it the most hyped product since the Apple Macintosh.
Alex Barker / Financial Times:
GroupM: digital ad spend is predicted to overtake spending on traditional media for the first time in 2020, excluding online ads sold by old media outlets  —  Overall spending predicted to fall almost 12% but pain will be unevenly spread across industry  —  Digital advertising on platforms …
David Gelles / New York Times:
TaskRabbit says CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot is stepping down after four years; she is one of the few Black female tech CEOs in Silicon Valley  —  Stacy Brown-Philpot, one of the few prominent black women in the technology industry, has led the gig worker marketplace for four years, and oversaw its sale to Ikea.

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
Introducing intelligent document processing with Zoho RPA  —  Documents are a major bottleneck at many organizations.  Invoices, contracts, forms, ID cards, receipts: They all arrive in different shapes and sizes …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI buys TBPN, SpaceX's $2 Trillion IPO?, Iran Disables Amazon Infrastructure
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.
Hard Fork:
The Future of Addictive Design + Going Deep at DeepMind + HatGPT
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.
Great Chat:
Go touch some grass (but don't tweet about it)
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Lenny's Podcast:
An AI state of the union: We've passed the inflection point, dark factories are coming, and automation timelines | Simon Willison
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.
Access:
The future of AI might be on your finger
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
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 3:20 AM ET, June 24, 2020.

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

Earlier Picks

Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Ian Walker / Kotaku:
BuzzFeed News: