Techmeme
December 4, 2020, 10:25 AM

Top News

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Timnit Gebru says she was fired as co-lead of Ethical AI at Google due to an email to colleagues; leaked email details her struggles as a Black leader at Google  —  “Stop writing your documents because it doesn't make a difference”: Timnit Gebru's final message to her peers
Wall Street Journal:
DOJ sues Facebook, accusing it of improperly reserving jobs for H-1B workers by not sufficiently advertising open positions and overlooking US residents  —  Justice Department lawsuit says social-media company didn't sufficiently advertise open positions, overlooked U.S. residents
Tom Simonite / Wired:
Chinese scientists claim quantum supremacy with a system that calculated in mins what a supercomputer would take 2B years, using tech different than Google  —  Google trumpeted its quantum computer that outperformed a conventional supercomputer.  A Chinese group says it's done the same, with different technology.
New York Times:
EU law inhibiting the monitoring of email, messaging, and other services that takes effect Dec. 20 would also restrict scanning for child sexual abuse imagery  —  Regulators argue that while abuse imagery on the internet is abhorrent, unchecked scanning for it by tech companies could violate privacy rights.
Washington Post:
Parler's lax moderation policies have helped it become a magnet for porn and escort services, which might complicate its hopes of expanding into advertising  —  Hashtags like #keepamericasexy proliferate alongside conspiracy theories and conservative politics
M.G. Siegler / 500ish:
Despite Microsoft's present-day sales power, a wave of product-focused enterprise companies inspired by Slack and its peers will ultimately disrupt the giant  —  A quick rebuttal on the Slackforce Slacklash  —  Look, it's late.  And everyone is happy enough so there's no pressing need to weigh in here.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the DOJ is in talks with Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou that would allow her to return to China in exchange for admitting wrongdoing in ongoing case  —  Justice Department is discussing an arrangement that would allow her to return to China in exchange for admitting wrongdoing
Reuters:
The DOD has added China's largest chipmaker SMIC to its blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Thursday added China's top chipmaker SMIC and oil giant CNOOC to a blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Twitter says it is turning off threaded replies because they made conversations hard to read, and shuts down its prototype twttr app  —  It's also shutting down its experimental app, twttr  —  Twitter has been experimenting with threaded replies for some time as a way to potentially make replies easier to read and follow.
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Warner Bros. says it will release every single movie in 2021 simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max in the US and stream them for one month  —  For a period of one month in the United States  —  WarnerMedia is pushing even more aggressively into streaming by releasing every single movie in 2021 simultaneously on HBO Max.
David McLaughlin / Bloomberg:
Sources: Facebook's VR business practices have attracted the attention of the DOJ, which is talking to developers about their interactions with Facebook  —  - Justice Department asks app developers about Oculus actions  — “Copy, acquire, kill” accusations echo House report critiques
Brian Barrett / Wired:
IBM researchers say a sophisticated global phishing campaign is targeting the companies involved in the “cold chain” needed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines  —  As vaccines await US approval, a sophisticated global phishing campaign has tried to harvest credentials from companies involved in their distribution.
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Apple's Screen Recognition, a computer vision system in iOS14 trained on images of apps in use, labels the UI elements on screen for users who are blind  —  Apple has always gone out of its way to build features for users with disabilities, and VoiceOver on iOS is an invaluable tool for anyone …

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Zoho named an overall leader in Dresner's 2026 Wisdom of Crowds® BI Market Study  —  Zoho Analytics has once again earned top honors in the analytics and business intelligence space.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Zuckerberg's Disappointment, OpenAI's Equity Gamble, Alex Karp's Rally Cry
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Fable Ban Reversed + Dr. Dana Suskind on Parenting With A.I. + Prediction Market Drama
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Blitzy's Brian Elliott: Cursor And Claude Code Are Looking At Your Enterprise Code 'Through A Straw'
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Re-Release: The Death of Hollywood? W/ Allan Loeb
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Great Chat:
Maybe Twitter isn't real life
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:25 AM ET, December 4, 2020.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Julia Alexander / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Peter Rudegeair / Wall Street Journal:
Anna Irrera / Reuters:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: