Techmeme
October 16, 2020, 7:00 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Twitter says it is now letting the NY Post link be shared because the info had spread so widely that it can no longer be considered private  —  The latest change underlined how rapidly social media platforms are shifting their positions in the days leading up to the election.
Vijaya Gadde / @vijaya:
[Thread] Twitter updates Hacked Materials Policy, says it won't remove content unless shared by hackers themselves and will label tweets instead of block links  —  Over the last 24 hours, we've received significant feedback (from critical to supportive) about how we enforced our Hacked Materials Policy yesterday. After reflecting on this feedback, we have decided to make changes to the policy and how we enforce it.
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Facebook and Twitter deserve some credit for rapidly restricting the New York Post hack-and-leak operation that made allegations about Hunter Biden  —  In a New York Post report, Facebook and Twitter smell a rat  —  I.  —  In the run-up to the 2020 election, platforms have been preparing for all manner of threats.
Wall Street Journal:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources describe how Mark Zuckerberg, who was once uninterested in politics, transformed himself into an active political operator during the Trump era  —  Facebook's chief, once uninterested, has transformed himself into an active political operator in the Trump era
Sean Lyngaas / CyberScoop:
Google says Chinese state-linked hacker group, known as APT31, has been using malware on GitHub to upload and download files on networks in targeted attacks  —  Former vice president Joe Biden.  Chinese hackers have unsuccessfully targeted the campaign, according to Google.  (Flickr / Gage Skidmore)
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Watch with Family Setup, Apple's take on GPS tracking smartwatches for kids, has features like Schooltime mode while offering good privacy, but is very costly  —  Apple's take on a GPS tracker for kids is unique but costly  —  The most interesting Apple Watch product Apple announced this year …
Apple:
Apple opens preorders of the fourth-generation iPad Air with 10.9-inch display, 12MP rear camera, starting at $599, shipping from Friday, October 23  —  The most powerful iPad Air ever features a new all-screen design with larger 10.9-inch display, new 12MP rear camera, next-generation Touch ID sensor, and more
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
UK's ICO reduces British Airways fine for a data breach, in which the personal details of more than 400,000 customers were leaked, from ~£184M to £20M  —  One of the biggest data breaches in UK corporate history has been closed off by regulators not with a bang, but a whimper — as a result of Covid-19.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
The FCC has no jurisdiction over Section 230, which was explicitly written to deny the FCC any authority over websites  —  For years, FCC Chair Ajit Pai has insisted that the thing that was most important to him was to have a “light touch” regulatory regime regarding the internet.
Bloomberg:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
EU data protection authority finds IAB Europe's GDPR consent framework, adopted by Google and others, fails to meet required legal standards of data protection  —  A flagship framework for gathering Internet users' consent for targeting with behavioral ads — which is designed by ad industry body …
BBC:
After a UK probe of influencer incentives, Instagram says it will add a prompt asking about compensation, improve detection algorithms, and report poor labeling  —  Instagram says it will do more to catch influencers who fail to disclose when they have been paid for their posts.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Google details how it is using AI to improve search, including indexing individual passages from webpages, allowing searches for songs by humming, and more  —  During a livestreamed event this afternoon, Google detailed the ways it's applying AI and machine learning to improve the Google Search experience.

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Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
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Earlier Picks

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
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NBC News:
Tom Warren / The Verge: