Techmeme
August 20, 2020, 10:25 AM

Top News

Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian:
Facebook removes over 980 Groups, 520 Pages, and 160 ads for “US-based militia organizations” and those that identify as Antifa  —  Facebook has taken down or restricted more than 10,000 groups, pages and Instagram accounts associated with QAnon, in the latest effort …
Sheera Frenkel / New York Times:
Facebook says it has further cracked down on QAnon, removing 790 Groups and restricting another 1,950 Groups, 440 Pages, and over 10,000 Instagram accounts  —  The social network also said it was restricting another 1,950 groups, 440 pages on Facebook and more than 10,000 accounts on Instagram related to the conspiracy group.
Kate Cox / Ars Technica:
Police in NYC and Miami have reportedly used facial recognition software to arrest people who allegedly committed crimes during Black Lives Matter protests  —  Cops' use of the tech among the list of things protesters are demonstrating against.  —  Law enforcement in several cities …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, and more Google services were hit by widespread disruption globally for a few hours Thursday  —  A number of Google services including Gmail, Drive, Docs, Meet, Groups, Chat, Keep and Voice are experiencing service disruptions, the company is reporting on its G Suite Status Dashboard.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Airbnb said it submitted its draft S-1 for an IPO to the SEC on Wednesday  —  - Airbnb has submitted a draft registration to the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering.  — The company did not disclose its financial information nor did it specify how many shares would be offered.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
A look at contact-tracing app Aura, which was a required download for students at a Michigan college and has faced criticism for its privacy and security issues  —  And students have no way to opt out  —  Schools and universities across the United States are split on whether to open for the fall semester …
Ed Sealover / Denver Business Journal:
Palantir lists Denver as its headquarters on its website, after Alex Karp said in a May interview that Palantir was considering moving out of Silicon Valley  —  Palantir Technologies Inc., a $20 billion data-analysis software firm that sells its products to governments to help them track everything …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Netflix confirms it's been testing a “Shuffle Play” feature, which will randomly play content based on what a user watches or saves to a list, since July  —  One variant is called Shuffle Play, and you might already see it  —  Does your Netflix home screen — you know …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
DoorDash launches grocery delivery, starting with select chains in California and parts of the Midwest  —  Starting with select stores in California and parts of the Midwest  —  DoorDash is ramping up its on-demand delivery efforts with the launch of grocery delivery …
More: TechCrunch and Reuters
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Researchers say a new P2P botnet FritzFrog is using advanced measures to infect millions of SSH servers around the world  —  Botnet is hard to detect and with no centralized control server, harder to take down.  —  Researchers have found what they believe is a previously undiscovered botnet …
Jeff Kauflin / Forbes:
How Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt built the fee-free stock trading app Robinhood, which disrupted rivals by relying on selling customers' orders  —  It's just after midnight on Friday, July 31, and the Todd Capital Options Community, a $20-per-month subscription Slack channel favored …
Committee to Protect Journalists:
Ankhi Das, a top Facebook exec in India, filed a criminal complaint against journalist Awesh Tiwari for sharing a WSJ article critical of Das on Facebook  —  New Delhi, August 19, 2020 - Facebook regional director Ankhi Das should withdraw her criminal complaint against journalist Awesh Tiwari …
Reuters:

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