Techmeme
September 2, 2020, 11:35 AM

Top News

Soumyarendra Barik / MediaNama:
India bans another 188 Chinese apps, including PUBG, Baidu, and Alipay, saying widespread concerns were flagged against the blocked apps  —  India on Wednesday banned 118 more apps, including popular gaming app PUBG, for allegedly being engaged in activities which are “prejudicial to sovereignty …
James Vincent / The Verge:
In response to UK's “digital services tax”, Apple says it will raise UK developer fees by 2% and Amazon says it will increase third-party seller fees by 2%  —  Developers, ad buyers, and third-party sellers are all affected  —  For many years, Europe has been unhappy with the tax habits of US tech giants.
Alex Barker / Financial Times:
Donie O'Sullivan / CNN:
Facebook says, after an FBI tip, it took down several Pages and accounts pushing a fake left-wing news outlet made by people linked to Russian troll group IRA  —  New York (CNN Business)People associated with the infamous St. Petersburg troll group that was part of Russia's attempt to interfere …
Bryan Menegus / Gizmodo:
Amazon had job listings, now removed, for “intelligence analysts” who would assess “labor organizing threats” and contribute to filings like restraining orders  —  Jeff Bezos obviously doesn't want a union in his company.  Amazon's increasingly flippant statements …
Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: TikTok sale talks have been complicated by China's new AI export restrictions, with parties unsure whether TikTok's algorithms can be included  —  Complexity of new Chinese export restrictions has reduced the chances of a sale occurring soon  —  Deal talks for TikTok's U.S. operations …
Apple:
Apple says the iOS app economy created 300,000 new US jobs since April 2019 and now supports 2.1M+ US jobs across all 50 states, up 15% YoY  —  App Store ecosystem now supports over 2.1 million jobs across all 50 states  —  The iOS app economy has created nearly 300,000 new jobs since April 2019 …
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Facebook updates its terms of service globally, effective Oct. 1, allowing it to block content amid proposed Australian law that would force it to pay for news  —  - Change will give Facebook powers to remove or block content  — Mark Zuckerberg has long publicly championed free speech
David Ingram / NBC News:
Twitter says it plans to add context to trending topics, including picking a “representative tweet” for trends, amid criticism that the feature amplifies hoaxes  —  Twitter announced Tuesday that it plans to make a series of small changes to its trending topics feature to try …
Maria Armental / Wall Street Journal:
Patreon says it has raised $90M at a $1.2B+ pre-money valuation, nearly twice the $660M valuation it had prior to a funding round last year  —  New Enterprise Associates and Wellington Management led the $90 million funding round  —  Membership platform Patreon Inc., which enables musicians …
Microsoft on the Issues:
Microsoft unveils new tools to identify deepfake videos and launches an interactive quiz at SpotDeepfakes.org to combat disinformation  —  Today, we're announcing two new technologies to combat disinformation, new work to help educate the public about the problem, and partnerships to help advance …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Nvidia announces $699 RTX 3080 GPU, launching on Sept. 17, boasting up to two times the performance of the RTX 2080, as well as a $499 RTX 3070  —  Nvidia promises a PC gaming breakthrough  —  Nvidia is unveiling its new GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards today.
Nathan Munn / VICE:
Report: Canadian police are turning more to predictive policing algorithms, using tools like GeoDASH and Palantir's Gotham, raising civil liberty concerns  —  Police across Canada are increasingly adopting algorithmic technology to predict crime.  The authors of a new report say human rights are threatened by the practice.
Bloomberg:
Sources: AT&T decides not to sell its Warner Bros. gaming division, deciding to abandon a potential ~$4B deal once it realized the division's growth potential  —  - Boom in gameplay takes unit off list of assets to jettison  — ‘No sacred cows,’ said Stankey, but this could be an exception
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Indonesia-based PasarPolis, an insurance marketplace aimed at those who have never purchased policies before, raises $54M Series B from LeapFrog and others  —  PasarPolis, the Indonesian-based startup focused on making insurance policies more accessible in Southeast Asia, has closed a Series B round totaling $54 million.

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More News

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Earlier Picks

Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Oliver Reichenstein / iA:
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Bloomberg: