Techmeme
September 23, 2020, 3:33 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Leaked audio recordings and internal posts show Mark Zuckerberg's balancing act, as employees demand a harder line against Trump but users want the opposite  —  In 2020, Facebook would be roiled by a global pandemic, internal protests over racial injustice, a deeply polarizing election …
Jason Del Rey / Vox:
While livestreaming video e-commerce has taken off in China, it has yet to go mainstream in the US, but Walmart hopes it can lead the way with its bet on TikTok  —  For years, Walmart has been struggling to keep up with Amazon in pursuit of e-commerce dominance.  Kena Betancur/VIEWpress via Getty Images
Bloomberg:
Shopify says two “rogue members” of its support teams stole customer data from over 100 merchants; the company is working with the FBI to investigate  —  - Emails, names, addresses, order details may have been exposed  — E-commerce platform is working with FBI on investigation
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google rolls out updates to Maps with a layer showing COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, with labels to indicate trends, coming to 220 countries and territories  —  Google today announced an update to Google Maps that will bring a new COVID-19 layer to the service to help you better understand the number of cases in a given area.
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
DOJ, in a rare legislative proposal, asks Congress to adopt a law weakening Section 230, in an effort to hold Facebook, Google, and others liable for content  —  At issue is Section 230, which gives Facebook, Twitter and other social media legal protection for items their users post to the companies' websites
New York Times:
Facebook removes accounts, groups, and Pages tied to China that posted about US politics; the network was followed by fewer than 3,000 US accounts  —  The social media campaign was small but targeted all sides of the debate.  Officials said Beijing had not decided whether to wade more directly in the American presidential race.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Nick Clegg denies Facebook could pull out of EU over data transfer ban, saying legal action is “to send a signal” that the ban could be a disaster for the EU  —  Facebook's head of global policy has denied the tech giant could close its service to Europeans if local regulators order …
Sarah Jeong / OneZero:
Q&A with Casey Newton on leaving The Verge to start a newsletter on Substack called Platformer, after many years as The Verge's Silicon Valley editor  —  Sarah Jeong talks to Newton about the details of his deal, subscription journalism, and the magic of email
David Yaffe-Bellany / Bloomberg:
ByteDance asks a US court for a preliminary injunction to prevent the US government from banning TikTok from app stores, as Trump's ban looms  —  The owner of TikTok asked a federal judge in Washington for a preliminary injunction to block the Trump administration from removing the social network from U.S. app stores.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Twitter says it will begin testing audio DMs soon, after introducing support for audio in tweets, starting in Brazil  —  Shout into my DMs  —  After rolling out audio tweets for iOS in June, Twitter is now experimenting with the idea of letting people record and send voice messages through direct messages.
More: Protocol
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Kuo: Apple's first product with Mini-LED displays will be a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, with its displays entering mass production in 2020  —  Following his report earlier this week indicating that Apple will be accelerating adoption of mini-LED displays in its iPad and Mac notebook lineups thanks …
Eugene Wei / Remains of the Day:
How TikTok's UI, focused on just one auto-playing video at a time, generates clean user-driven data thanks to its “algorithm-friendly design”  —  In my previous post on TikTok I discussed why its For You Page algorithm is the connective tissue that makes TikTok work.
Ian Sherr / CNET:
Interview with Satya Nadella and Phil Spencer on buying more game companies, investing in Xbox Game Pass, and Microsoft's rejected TikTok bid  —  In an interview, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Xbox head Phil Spencer discuss further acquisitions, how to keep making hits and what happened with TikTok.

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Earlier Picks

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Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News: