Techmeme
December 17, 2020, 10:50 AM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Facebook hits back at Apple with a second full-page newspaper ad today, says upcoming iOS changes will “change the internet as we know it - for the worse”  —  Facebook isn't done criticizing Apple just yet  —  Facebook is stepping up its campaign against Apple's privacy changes with a second full-page newspaper ad today.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple responds to Facebook's criticism of iOS 14 privacy measures, says Facebook won't be forced to change how it tracks users, but it must give users a choice  —  Apple has responded to Facebook's criticism over an upcoming iOS 14 privacy measure — specifically a change that will require users …
Wall Street Journal:
Bloomberg:
Gilad Edelman / Wired:
A look at allegations in Texas AG's antitrust suit, accusing Google of giving Facebook special privileges in exchange for not supporting a competing ad system  —  A new antitrust case against Google alleges that the two companies made a deal to reduce competition in online advertising.
Diane Bartz / Reuters:
Jack Morse / Mashable:
Twitter says it will stop prompting users to Quote Tweet, restoring the standard RT functionality, and says QT use increased but overall sharing dropped by 20%  —  Well, it was worth a shot.  —  Twitter announced Wednesday that it will cease prompting users to quote tweet in lieu of the standard retweet.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Twitter says it will start removing tweets that spread harmful COVID-19 vaccine misinformation starting next week and will label conspiracies starting in 2021  —  It may apply labels early in 2021  —  Twitter announced Wednesday that it will remove tweets making false or misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccinations.
Thomas P. Bossert / New York Times:
Ex-Homeland Security Adviser: the magnitude of the Solarwinds breach is hard to overstate and the remediation effort alone will be staggering  —  The magnitude of this national security breach is hard to overstate.  —  Mr. Bossert was the homeland security adviser to President Trump …
Washington Post:
CISA's Einstein, which cost billions and monitors US agencies' networks for bad actors, missed the SolarWinds hack, which now counts the NIH among its victims  —  When Russian hackers first slipped their digital Trojan horses into federal government computer systems, probably sometime in the spring …
Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC:
Robinhood agrees to pay $65M to settle SEC charges that the company deceived customers between 2015 and late 2018 about its source of revenue  —  This is a developing story.  Check back for updates.  —  The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged Robinhood with the deceiving customers …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Walmart partners with TikTok to test live-streamed video shopping, during which users will be able to shop Walmart fashion without leaving the app  —  Walmart and TikTok announced this morning they will be partnering on the first pilot test of a new shoppable product experience on TikTok's social video app.
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Facebook rolls back a post-election change that boosted news from authoritative outlets, even as some staff asked for the “nicer news feed” to be made permanent  —  Facebook confirmed that it has in the past few days rolled back a change that lifted news from authoritative outlets …
CNBC:
The European Commission approves Google's $2.1B acquisition of Fitbit, on condition of compliance with a set of commitments related to privacy and user consent  —  - The Commission on Thursday set out a number of commitments that Google must follow over the next 10 years.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
GoCardless, which processes direct debit payments for businesses, raises $95M led by Bain Capital at a $970M valuation  —  - Payments technology start-up GoCardless raised $95 million in an investment round that values it at $970 million.  — GoCardless plans to capitalize on an emerging trend …
Bloomberg:
A group of AI researchers at Google have asked for policy and leadership changes including the removal of VP Megan Kacholia from their reporting hierarchy  —  - Team says it must be able to contest Google ‘revenue agendas’  — Letter to CEO asks company to commit to academic integrity
Nick Keppler / VICE:
Adrienne LaFrance / The Atlantic:
A pessimistic look at Facebook and its enormous, uncontrollable impact on the US and world, giving Zuckerberg incredible power with little oversight  —  The Doomsday Machine was never supposed to exist.  It was meant to be a thought experiment that went like this: Imagine a device built …
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Ramp, a corporate spend management service, raises $30M, bringing its total raised to $55M  —  Corporate spend management startup Ramp has raised $30 million more in a new round, it announced today.  TechCrunch covered Ramp's launch earlier this year, when it also detailed that it had raised around $23 million up to that point.
More: Crunchbase NewsTweets: @alex
Katie Jennings / Forbes:
Curai, a chat-based telemedicine service helping doctors make better and faster decisions about patient care, raises $27.5M Series B led by Morningside Group  —  I am a staff writer covering healthcare.  Email me at kjennings@forbes.com.  —  Telemedicine makes doctors more accessible …

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