Techmeme
August 7, 2020, 11:45 PM

Top News

Olivia Solon / NBC News:
Internal docs: Facebook removed “strikes” so that at least 2 conservative pages, from PragerU and Diamond & Silk, dodged penalties under misinformation policies  —  Facebook has allowed conservative news outlets and personalities to repeatedly spread false information without facing …
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Trump signs an executive order to block all transactions with ByteDance and WeChat starting Sept. 20, just 5 days after Microsoft's deadline to acquire TikTok  —  Microsoft is currently in talks to acquire the company  —  President Trump has signed a new executive order …
More: The Verge, TikTok, The White House, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica, New York Times, The Guardian, Cointelegraph, Axios, Washington Post, BIG by Matt Stoller, Los Angeles Times, Access Now, CNBC, Ubergizmo, Bloomberg, Nikkei Asian Review, NBC News, Techdirt, iMore, Business Insider, ExtremeTech, Polygon, BBC, Washington Post, Adweek, Reuters, The Diplomat, TheStreet, Wired, Social Media Today, Android Central, PCWorld, Digital Trends, The Daily Dot, Android Central, KnowTechie, Silicon Valley Business …, Politico, Gizmodo, Associated Press, equalocean.com, OnMSFT.com, The Startup, South China Morning Post, Bloomberg, Android Headlines, Music Technology Policy, CoinGeek, Ledger Insights, Financial Times, Coinspeaker, Wccftech, Telecoms.com, Micky, TechSpot, Bloomberg, The Verge, AppleInsider, and ComputerWeekly.com
Sheila Dang / Reuters:
In a memo to advertisers, TikTok says it will refund ad campaigns it can't fulfill due to a US ban and will work with influencers to migrate to other platforms  —  (Reuters) - TikTok is preparing advertisers for a possible ban of its app in the United States, ad buyers said, offering refunds for ad campaigns that are unable to run.
Financial Times:
As it pursues TikTok, a look at how Microsoft laid roots in China in the 1990s and nurtured China's future tech leaders, including ByteDance's Zhang Yiming  —  The US tech company hopes its connections will help it navigate storm safely  —  More than two decades of efforts by Microsoft …
Bloomberg:
James Vincent / The Verge:
Isobel Asher Hamilton / Business Insider:
Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:
US government contractor Anomaly Six collects and sells location data from hundreds of millions of phones globally via an SDK that is embedded in 500+ apps  —  Anomaly Six has ties to military, intelligence agencies and draws location data from more than 500 apps with hundreds of millions of users
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Facebook slams Apple's App Store policies, launches Facebook Gaming on iOS without the app's mini games feature to pass the App Store's strict approval policies  —  Facebook is not happy with the months of rejections it has faced  —  Facebook is joining Microsoft in condemning Apple's App Store policies today.
New York Times:
Former staff at therapy-by-text app Talkspace say the company provided burner phones to write fake app reviews and doesn't adequately respect client privacy  —  The therapy-by-text company made burner phones available for fake reviews and doesn't adequately respect client privacy, former employees say.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Qualcomm patches 6 security flaws in a Snapdragon DSP used in most Android phones, which allowed attackers to take over a phone without needing user interaction  —  Several security vulnerabilities found in Qualcomm's Snapdragon chip Digital Signal Processor (DSP) chip could allow attackers …

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