Techmeme
December 15, 2020, 2:38 PM

Top News

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
EU proposes two bills governing tech giants, focused on illegal content and anticompetitive behavior, to empower regulators to levy large fines or break them up  —  Proposed bills would be the bloc's most ambitious internet laws since GDPR  —  European officials want new powers …
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Apple plans to produce up to 96M iPhones for H1 2021, a nearly 30% YoY increase, and is also working on a new Apple TV for next year  —  Robust orders come as smartphone industry faces severe parts shortages  —  TAIPEI — Apple plans to produce up to 96 million iPhones for the first half of 2021 …
Jason Nelson / Decrypt:
Pornhub appears to be only accepting cryptocurrency for its premium service after Visa and Mastercard cut off payments to the website last week  —  It appears that Pornhub, the world's largest adult website, is only accepting crypto for its premium service.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Volexity researchers say they noticed SolarWinds hackers bypass MFA protections at a think tank previously but were subsequently undetected for several years  —  Hackers who hit SolarWinds compromised a think tank three separate times.  —  The hackers behind the supply chain attack …
Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
Reuters:
Reuters:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Ireland fines Twitter €450K for failing to promptly declare and document a data breach, in Europe's first GDPR decision of its kind  —  Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) has issued Twitter with a fine of €450,000 (~$547k) for failing to promptly declare and properly document …
Craig Timberg / Washington Post:
Facebook says people linked to France's military used fake accounts to meddle in African politics, tangling with similar efforts by Russia's IRA in some nations  —  It's the first time Facebook has identified people affiliated with a Western government for sanction
Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Critics and competitors argue that Google's massive web index, far surpassing its rivals in size, should be the focus of antitrust scrutiny  —  As regulators seek ways to curb the company's power, there is more focus on the vast index — hundreds of billion of web pages — behind its search engine.
Joseph Menn / Reuters:
Facebook will shift its UK users into user agreements with its HQ in California, instead of its Irish unit, moving them out of reach of EU's privacy laws  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc will shift all its users in the United Kingdom into user agreements with the corporate headquarters …
More: Slashdot
Financial Times:
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton says TikTok banned him without warning, thinks it was after pressure from TikTok stars, with whom he's feuded; TikTok denies this  —  The celebrity blogger was banned from TikTok on Saturday in a move he said was influenced by the app's biggest stars.
Theodore Schleifer / Vox:
Alloy, a Reid Hoffman-backed political data startup for Democrats, imploded after four senior employees, who had all complained about a colleague, were fired  —  Alloy was once seen as Democrats' next great hope.  But an implosion was waiting to happen.  —  SHARE All sharing options
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Parsec, which has built streaming tech for remote work and cloud gaming, raises $25M Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz  —  Parsec, a startup that's built streaming technology for both work and play, is announcing that it has raised $25 million in Series B funding.
Fortune:
Vise, which automates tasks for independent investment advisors while creating custom portfolios for clients, raises $45M Series B led by Sequoia Capital  —  So-called robo-advisers may be all the rage, but Sequoia Capital is betting that humans will still hold a prominent place in helping people make investment decisions.
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Boston-based Tive, which helps companies track sensitive shipments like food or medicine in real time, raises $12M Series A led by RRE Ventures  —  Tive, a Boston-based startup, is building a hardware and software platform to help track the conditions of a shipment like say food or medicine …
Sophia Kunthara / Crunchbase News:
Uhnder, a startup that has created a chip for digital imaging radar useful for autonomous transportation, raises $45M in a Series C led by Sensata Technologies  —  Uhnder, a startup looking to transform radar from analog to digital, raised $45 million in a Series C round of funding, the company announced Tuesday.

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