Techmeme
December 15, 2020, 3:40 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 …
Reuters:
A security researcher says that, last year, he alerted SolarWinds that anyone could access SolarWinds' update server by using the password “solarwinds123”  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On an earnings call two months ago, SolarWinds Chief Executive Kevin Thompson touted how far …
Reuters:
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
Reuters:
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
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 …
Periscope / Medium:
Twitter says it will discontinue Periscope as a separate mobile app by March 2021, saying it's brought most of the core capabilities of Periscope into Twitter  —  Today, we're sharing that we have made the difficult decision to discontinue Periscope as a separate mobile app by March 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.
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.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Photos expands Memories, adding new collage designs and 3D Cinematic photos that simulate depth in a scene by adding a smooth panning effect  —  Google Photos is rolling out a series of updates to its Memories feature, which surfaces your best photos from years past.
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.
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:
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.  —  Just two weeks after Election Day …
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.

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