Techmeme
July 31, 2020, 4:15 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: President Trump plans to sign an order directing China's ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok  —  President Donald Trump plans to sign an order to direct China's ByteDance Ltd.'s to divest its ownership of the popular U.S.-based music-video app TikTok, according to people familiar …
New York Times:
Source: Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok  —  The talks come as TikTok's ownership by a Chinese company is under scrutiny by the White House and lawmakers.  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app, according to a person with knowledge …
Ryan Hughes / WFLA-TV:
A Florida state attorney files 30 felony charges against a 17-year old arrested in Tampa, in connection with the July 15 Twitter hack  —  TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) - A Tampa teenager is in jail, accused of being the “mastermind” behind a hack on the social media website Twitter that caused limited access …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
In an update to the July 15 hack, Twitter says a few employees were targeted in a phone spear phishing attack, and it had since limited access to internal tools  —  ‘This attack relied on a significant and concerted attempt to mislead certain employees’  —  Twitter provided an update …
Financial Times:
Sources: Nvidia in talks to buy Arm in a cash-and-stock deal that would value it at more than the $32B SoftBank paid to buy the UK chip designer in 2016  —  US chipmaker seeks cash-and-stock purchase of UK chip designer from its Japanese owner  —  US chip company Nvidia is in talks to buy …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook confirms it will begin rolling out official music videos across its platform in the US, and introduce a new Music destination within Facebook Watch  —  Facebook today confirmed it will begin rolling out official music videos across its platform in the U.S., as TechCrunch first reported …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Facebook has made deals with Sony, UMG, and Warner Music for the right to show music videos and approached artists about exclusive rights to videos  —  - Social giant also could bankroll some video production  — Music videos have surged on YouTube during the pandemic
Caitlin Dewey / OneZero :
A look at the “hustle economy”, where unemployed teachers, cooks, and dancers are turning to Patreon, Twitch, and OnlyFans to monetize their digital offerings  —  Unemployed teachers, cooks, dancers are turning to Patreon, Twitch, and OnlyFans  —  e have nothing to sell besides physical touch.
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Netflix is rolling out playback speed controls of up to 0.5x slower or 1.5x faster on Android devices and is set to begin testing the option for iOS  —  Stream up to 0.5 times slower or 1.5 times faster  —  Netflix is letting people choose the speed at which they want to watch something …
Steven Musil / CNET:
Twitter permanently bans the account of white supremacist David Duke  —  Duke's Twitter account was “permanently suspended” for violating the company's policy against hateful conduct, a spokesperson for the social network says.  —  White supremacist David Duke has been permanently banned …
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Emails from Jeff Bezos and other Amazon employees suggest the acquisition of Ring was for “market position - not technology”  —  ‘And that market position and momentum is very valuable’  —  On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee held its last hearing as part …
More: Micky
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Sean Keane / CNET:
Canalys, Counterpoint, and IDC agree that Huawei became the biggest smartphone vendor in Q2, surpassing Samsung, and pushing Apple to the third place  —  Samsung and Apple held the top spot for years, but Canalys Counterpoint and IDC say the coronavirus pandemic gave the Chinese company the edge.
Politico:
North Face and Heineken are among the companies who say they will resume Facebook ads from August, Levi Strauss and Smucker Co. will continue the boycott  —  More than 1,000 organizations stopped ads for the month of July, without getting many concessions.  Can they keep it going and build global pressure?
Facebook:
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Porch, which connects homebuyers to movers, insurance providers, TV/internet companies, and others, to go public at a $523M valuation via merger with a SPAC  —  Porch, a real estate technology venture and home improvement marketplace that has spent four years quietly renovating its own business …
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Alphabet reported its first revenue decline in its history due, in part, to COVID-19 and a maturing ad market  —  - Google parent-company Alphabet reported its first revenue decline in history.  — The company beat most expectations with the exception of its Cloud division.

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