Techmeme
October 8, 2020, 1:05 PM

Top News

Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Square purchases $50M worth of bitcoin, becoming the second publicly listed company after MicroStrategy to invest in the cryptocurrency  —  Revolut, the London-based fintech firm, has enlisted crypto security firm Fireblocks to lay the foundations for new crypto products.
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Facebook says it will temporarily suspend political ads after US polls close on Nov. 3 and will remove calls for poll watching that use “militarized” language  —  The move is intended to limit confusion and misinformation on the platform, the social media company says
David Gilbert / VICE:
An ISP took down the website for the group calling itself The Real Facebook Oversight Board after Facebook complained that the site was involved in “phishing”  —  “Nothing says ‘free speech’ quite as much as a multi-billion dollar corporation with a global monopoly getting its critics shut down."
Ina Fried / Axios:
Microsoft adopts 10 “principles” for its app store, including letting developers choose a payment system for IAPs, that it says should be a model for others  —  In a not-so-subtle dig at Apple and Google, Microsoft today announced a series of “principles” for its Windows 10 App Store …
Sherisse Pham / CNN:
Samsung says it expects to make an operating profit of $10.6B in the July-September quarter, up 58% YoY, and sales of $7B, up 6% in its earnings guidance  —  Hong Kong (CNN Business)Samsung (SSNLF) predicts its profit jumped nearly 60% last quarter, suggesting it could soon retake its position …
Nikkei Asia:
Inside the US campaign to cut China out of supply chains, which already pressured companies like Apple to look at moving 15% to 30% of output out of the country  —  Apple, Google and others shift production to prepare for ‘decoupled’ global market  —  It was a hot summer morning in Taipei …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
IBM announces that it plans to spin off its managed infrastructure services unit, with $19B in sales and 90K staff, to help it focus on hybrid cloud apps  —  IBM will become a company that gets more than half of its sales from recurring revenue instead of services.
Kartikay Mehrotra / Bloomberg:
US seizes 92 websites it said were used by Iran to spread disinformation, including four domains disguised as genuine news outlets based in the US  —  - Four of the domains were fake news sites targeting Americans  —  The U.S. Justice Department seized 92 websites it said were used …
TechCrunch:
Instacart raises $200M led by D1 Capital and Valiant Peregrine Fund, at a post-money valuation of $17.7B, following a $100M raise in July and $225M in June 2020  —  Instacart announced today that it has raised $200 million in a new funding round featuring prior investors.
Christine Hall / Crunchbase News:
Bloom Credit, which offers an API for businesses to integrate with all three major US credit bureaus, raises $13M Series A  —  Bloom Credit is helping fintech and other businesses that want to provide credit products, such as lending, personal finance or credit monitoring, work with the country's three credit bureaus.
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
Triller, a TikTok competitor that sees being American as its greatest asset, is tempting TikTok stars with cash, fancy cars, creator mansions, and more  —  TikTok's top creators are taking “Triller money” to bring their content over to the app.  —  When talk of a possible TikTok ban began in July …
Steve Kovach / CNBC:
Following the House's antitrust report, an overview of how Democrats and Republicans view regulation and the common ground between them, like more FTC funding  —  - The House Subcommittee on Antirust released its report on Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, building a case for why each company has monopoly power.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Scott Chipolina / Decrypt:
Telegram CEO says Apple told it to take down channels used by Belarus protesters to identify members of government, arguing the channels can promote violence  —  Apple has told Telegram it must close several channels where Belarusian protesters are identifying members of the country's oppressive regime.
Hanna Ziady / CNN:
Web Summit, Europe's largest technology conference with 70,000+ attendees last year, will be held entirely online this year in December  —  London (CNN Business)Europe's largest technology conference will be held entirely online this year, as the coronavirus pandemic forces scores of major events to go digital.

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More News

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Earlier Picks

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Rachel E. Greenspan / INSIDER:
Axios:
Theodore Schleifer / Vox:
Gilad Edelman / Wired:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Izabella Kaminska / Financial Times: