Techmeme
December 22, 2020, 10:00 PM

Top News

Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
SEC sues Ripple Labs, its CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and Chairman Chris Larsen, alleging they violated federal securities laws in selling XRP to retail consumers  —  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) believes Ripple Labs violated federal securities laws in selling the XRP cryptocurrency to retail consumers.
Jennifer Epstein / Bloomberg:
Biden transition team says Twitter told it current followers of @POTUS won't carry over to Biden, whose @POTUS account will start at zero, a reversal from 2017  —  - Followers were transfered to Trump from Obama in 2017  — First lady, press secretary accounts also reset to zero
Alex Gallagher / NME:
The COVID-19 relief bill passed by Congress includes the Felony Streaming Bill, which makes illegal streaming for profit a felony, with up to 10 years jail time  —  Targeting illegal for-profit streaming providers, not individual users  —  The US Congress has passed a COVID-19 stimulus bill …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Three VPNs popular with criminals and active for over a decade have had their servers and web domains seized by law enforcement from US, Germany, France, others  —  The three VPN services provided safe haven for cybercriminals to carry out ransomware attacks, web skimming operations, spearphishing, and account takeovers.
Substack Blog:
Explaining its content moderation policy, Substack says it will “resist public pressure to suppress voices that loud objectors deem unacceptable”  —  Building a system that puts readers and writers in charge  —  As Substack grows, there is increasing interest in the stance we take on content moderation.
Wall Street Journal:
Draft lawsuit filed by ten US states last week says Facebook and Google agreed to “cooperate and assist one another” against possible antitrust action  —  Draft lawsuit quotes Facebook's Sandberg saying Google pact was a ‘big deal strategically’
Washington Post:
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal:
Investigation details Amazon's campaigns over the years to steamroll rivals and partners, including those on its marketplace, sometimes with Bezos' involvement  —  CEO Jeff Bezos still runs the e-commerce giant with the drive of a startup trying to survive, and that strand of its corporate DNA is becoming a liability
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Group of 19 security firms and tech companies including Microsoft and McAfee form Ransomware Task Force to develop a standard framework to deal with ransomware  —  The newly-founded Ransomware Task Force will work to put together a standard framework for dealing with ransomware attacks.
Rest of World:
A look at India's booming dark data economy: stalkerware and spyware apps, databases about parents, cable customers, pregnant women, mutual fund investors, more  —  Thanks to lax privacy laws and high consumer demand, details on everything from how you shop to who you date are all for sale.
Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal:
SEC approves NYSE's plan to let companies raise capital and issue new shares via direct listings, potentially helping startups save on bank fees  —  Proposal lets companies raise capital through direct listings  —  The Securities and Exchange Commission will allow companies …
Sascha Segan / PCMag:
Testing suggests Verizon's dynamic spectrum sharing tech, which reuses parts of 4G channels for 5G, often produces slower speeds on 5G than its LTE network  —  Verizon's DSS 5G can be slower than 4G.  We explain why, and how to turn off or disable 5G on your iPhone.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Enhancements to Zoho Writer's automation flow designer: New PDF operations, password protection, and more  —  Once we rolled out the automation flow designer in Zoho Writer's merge templates …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box 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:
2025 In Review, 2026 Predictions — With Reed Albergotti
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Great Chat:
The stories we told ourselves in 2025
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.
Grit:
How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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 10:00 PM ET, December 22, 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

Earlier Picks

Simon Parkin / New Yorker:
Electronic Frontier Foundation:
New York Times:
Raphael Satter / Reuters:
Reuters: