Techmeme
September 24, 2020, 7:05 AM

Top News

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.
John Herrman / New York Times:
TikTok users in the US are experiencing something long familiar to much of the world: a flourishing online social space existentially threatened by politics  —  Banned apps, nefarious theories, trade wars, voiceless users.  The case of TikTok isn't news to most of the world.
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  —  - Chinese owner ByteDance seeks to block president's U.S. ban  — Keeps legal iron in fire as Oracle, Walmart pact works its way
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
NHS COVID-19, a contact tracing app created by the UK government, launches in England and Wales with Exposure Notification API from Apple and Google  —  NHS COVID-19, a contact tracing app created by the UK government, is rolling out to residents of England and Wales as of today, with the app available from the iOS App Store.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
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.
Brian Fung / CNN:
Avaaz analysis: Facebook has allowed hundreds of misleading super PAC ads, primarily spreading misinformation about Biden and USPS, with 10M+ views collectively  —  (CNN Business)Facebook has allowed political advertisers to target hundreds of misleading ads about Joe Biden and the US Postal Service …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Mark Sullivan / Fast Company:
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 …
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
Sahil Patel / Wall Street Journal:
GOAT Group, operator of online sneaker marketplace GOAT, has raised $100M Series E from D1 Capital Partners, source says at a $1.75B valuation  —  New funding round values the company at $1.75 billion, according to a person familiar with the deal  —  Goat Group, best known for its online marketplace …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 review: a big change for iPhones, with widgets, better notifications, and useful App Library, while iPad gets a more incremental update  —  It's time to blow up your iPhone's home screen  —  Apple spells out the significance of its new iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 updates right …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
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  —  The administration called on state attorneys general to open their own investigation on the same day it unveiled a legislative proposal …
Bloomberg:
Sources detail what went wrong at Magic Leap, which raised $3.5B and failed to build its much-hyped AR headset, with most blame placed on founder Rony Abovitz  —  The augmented reality startup was undone by profligate spending and its own hype.  Investors finally lost patience when the pandemic struck.
Crystal Tse / Bloomberg:
GoodRx, a price comparison service for prescription drugs at pharmacies, closes up 50%+ after its IPO, raising $1.14B and valuing the company at $19.4B  —  GoodRx Holdings Inc., which operates a telemedicine site and platform to track drug prices, rose as much as 50% in its trading debut …
Jeff Stone / CyberScoop:
How Arkady Bukh, a New York-based immigrant from the former Soviet bloc, emerged as the go-to defense lawyer for the cybercrime underworld  —  Sergey Pavlovich needed a fixer.  The 32-year-old ex-con was living in Moscow in 2015 after serving nearly eight years behind bars in Belarus …
Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Atlantic:
Reddit, one of QAnon's original hubs, has no meaningful QAnon presence now, although Reddit says it hasn't made a concerted effort to remove the conspiracy  —  Two years ago, most Americans knew nothing about QAnon, the ever-growing, diffuse, and violent movement devoted to a loosely connected set …

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More News

Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Eric Slivka / MacRumors: