Techmeme
October 1, 2020, 8:05 PM

Top News

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Google will pay publishers $1B+ through 2023 to create and curate high-quality journalism for the new Google News Showcase, starting in Germany and Brazil  —  Google will pay publishers more than $1 billion over the next three years to create and curate high-quality journalism for a new set …
Michael McSweeney / The Block:
DOJ and CFTC charge BitMEX and its founders with allegedly operating an unregistered trading platform and violating CFTC anti-money laundering rules  —  The U.S. Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have filed charges against crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils $549 Surface Laptop Go with smaller 12.4" display, 10th-gen Intel Core i5, in three color variants, preorders start today, shipping October 13  —  This new Surface laptop is smaller, lighter, and less powerful  —  Microsoft is introducing a new Surface Laptop Go today …
Cherlynn Low / Engadget:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Facebook announces updates for Groups: automating moderation, surfacing some public group discussions in News Feeds and search results, and more  —  The company is pushing people to join Groups  —  Facebook is expanding the reach of public groups today with new features that could lead …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
The Senate Commerce Committee votes to subpoena CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter to testify before the panel about concerns over Section 230  —  The Senate Commerce Committee Thursday voted on a bipartisan basis to subpoena the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter to testify before the panel …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon says that of its 1.37M frontline workers, 19K+ contracted COVID-19 from March 1 to September 19, with an infection rate lower than general US population  —  - Amazon on Thursday released comprehensive data into the spread of the coronavirus across its workforce.
Christine Fisher / Engadget:
Facebook makes Forecast, an app for crowdsourced predictions and collective insights, available to all users  —  The company thinks Forecast will ‘encourage measured, respectful conversation.’  —  Facebook isn't exactly known for balanced conversations or reliable information …
Traf:
A designer shares how he generated $100K+ selling custom app icon sets via a simple website when iPhone home screen customization exploded after iOS 14 release  —  This title is a little misleading.  Sure, it took me 6 days to amass 3,626 sales for a total of $101,528, but like any overnight success, it was years in the making.
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple launches its updated Maps in UK, after completing rollout across the US in 2019, with its Look Around feature in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin  —  Apple today officially launched its in-house mapping data in the United Kingdom and Ireland, after completing the rollout across the United States in 2019.
Gordon Corera / BBC:
UK report says Huawei has failed to adequately tackle security flaws in its telco equipment despite previous complaints  —  Huawei has failed to adequately tackle security flaws in equipment used in the UK's telecoms networks despite previous complaints, an official report says.
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
US Treasury says those who facilitate payments on behalf of ransomware victims, including digital forensics firms, face fines if recipients are under sanctions  —  Companies victimized by ransomware and firms that facilitate negotiations with ransomware extortionists could face steep fines …
Shannon Vavra / CyberScoop:
DOD and DHS say malware dubbed SlothfulMedia is being used in ongoing campaigns in India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Russia, and Ukraine  —  The Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security are calling out an unspecified “sophisticated cyber actor” …
cyber.fsi.stanford.edu:
Researchers detail communities of accounts on Instagram and Twitter that role play with stolen images of minors, sometimes to sexualize children  —  A Look at the Use of Stolen Child Imagery in Social Media Role-Playing Games  —  In June 2020 Stanford Internet Observatory came across communities …
Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:
Hundreds of thousands watched the Trump-Biden debate on Twitch, with streamers who normally narrate gaming sessions providing real-time commentary  —  The Amazon-owned platform, known for livestreams of video games, was a gathering spot for viewers seeking a different spin.
TechCrunch:
Facebook files a lawsuit against BrandTotal and Unimania for breaking TOS by scraping data from Facebook, Instagram, and other sites using browser extensions  —  Facebook today says it has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. against two companies that had engaged in an international “data scraping” operation.
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget:
Google unveils Pixel 5 with a 6-inch 90Hz OLED display, ultrawide rear-facing camera instead of zoom lens, 5G, 8GB RAM, and fingerprint sensor on back for $699  —  It's October, so despite the weird year we're having, Google is hosting a (virtual) event to show off its latest smartphone, the Pixel 5.

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More News

Shira Ovide / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

The Economic Times:
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Rich Woods / Neowin:
Natalia Drozdiak / Bloomberg: