Techmeme: Clubhouse says it has added security safeguards and banned a user after some Clubhouse audio and metadata was found on a third-party website (Bloomberg)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

February 22, 2021, 1:25 PM

Top News

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Spotify says it will launch a subscription later this year called HiFi that will offer “CD-quality, lossless audio”; Spotify currently tops out at 320kbps audio — Your turn, Apple Music — Spotify is going hi-fi. Well, “HiFi.” It's taken longer than competitors like Tidal …

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, XDA Developers, 9to5Mac, CNET, techadvisor.co.uk, Engadget, TechRadar, Android Central, Android Headlines, Pocket-lint, and iDownloadBlog.com

Tweets: @chriswelch, @snazzyq, @chriswelch, @varadmehta, and @stevekopack

See also Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Spotify debuts features for creators like polls and Q&A tools to make podcasts interactive, partners with Wordpress to turn text into podcasts using Anchor — Spotify on Monday announced a slew of new tools to help podcast creators on its platform develop more interactive shows.

More: CNET. Tweets: @axios

Sami Fathi / MacRumors:

Gartner: in Q4 2020, Apple sold 80M new iPhones globally, overtaking Samsung to become the largest smartphone vendor, increasing its market share by ~15% — Apple overtook Samsung to become the largest smartphone vendor worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2020, a feat not achieved by Apple since 2016 …

More: Gartner, Engadget, BBC, ZDNet, Softpedia News, Forbes, CNBC, CNN, Cult of Mac, 9to5Mac, phonearena.com, and iClarified

Tweets: @gartner_inc, @holdenthepage, and @brianroemmele

Bloomberg:

Clubhouse says it has added security safeguards and banned a user after some Clubhouse audio and metadata was found on a third-party website — - The app's creators had been warned user data was vulnerable — An unidentified user streamed audio chats to their own website

VICE:

Researchers say a change in iOS 14.5 beta, which improves how iOS handles pointers, makes sandbox escapes and “0-click” attacks much harder to pull off — Multiple exploit developers tell Motherboard an upcoming change in iOS could make zero-click exploits harder to pull off.

More: AppleInsider, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Apple Must, iPhone Hacks, and iMore

Tweets: @motherboard, @josephfcox, @lorenzofb, and @josephfcox

Alex Barker / Financial Times:

Microsoft says it will work with Europe's four largest news publishing lobbying groups to “mandate payments” for content used by “gatekeepers” — Seattle-based company aligns with press industry and exploits difficulties of rivals — Microsoft has joined forces …

More: Microsoft, EU Policy Blog, Thurrott, Engadget, Windows Central, Associated Press, Washington Post, WRAL TechWire, Neowin, and MSPoweruser

Tweets: @newsceo, @klyngec, @alex, and @benedictevans

See also Mediagazer

Anton Troianovski / New York Times:

Russian officials are trying to lure people onto social networks tied to the government, in an attempt to keep dissent from going viral at moments of crisis — The Kremlin has constructed an entire infrastructure of repression but has not displaced Western apps. Instead, it is turning to outright intimidation.

More: Politico. Tweets: @alfonslopeztena, @samarajiva, @andrewkramernyt, @kenroth, and @john_sipher

Ben Smith / New York Times:

Russian investigative journalism is flourishing alongside “probiv”, the buying of data on phone calls, cell location, or air travel off Telegram or the dark web

Tweets: @benweinthal, @andrew__roth, @rasmus_kleis, @jaycuthrell, @yashar, @anthony, @dicktofel, @hshaban, @michaelsderby, @lionelbarber, @jerometaylor, @samanthajpower, @albertwenger, @brian_whit, @crtejada, @mattzeitlin, and @evangershkovich

See also Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Google tells ad partners that it will lift its ban on all political ads starting Wednesday, after banning them following the Capitol riot — Google informed its advertising partners Monday that its platforms will resume accepting all political ads starting Wednesday, after banning them following …

More: The Hill, CNET, Gizmodo, and CNBC

See also Mediagazer

Basil Kronfli / WIRED UK:

A look at Xiaomi, known to copy others and skimp on traditional R&D, as it successfully undercuts rivals on everything from smartphones to pens and backpacks — Xiaomi has been launching low-cost, occasionally half-baked tech for years. Now it's time everyone took it seriously

Tweets: @basil_knows and @neiltwitz

Cory Doctorow / Pluralistic:

Deep dive on CALERA, the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act unveiled by Sen. Klobuchar, that would effectively revamp US antitrust enforcement — When it's railroading time, you get railroads. — When the railroads turn into the personal satrapies of rail-barons, you get trustbusters.

Tweets: @doctorow, @doctorow, @doctorow, @doctorow, and @davidakaye

Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News:

Boston-based Creatio, which offers low-code customer relationship and process management tools, raises $68M, its first outside funding since launching in 2014 — Boston-based Creatio has received its first outside funding, a $68 million minority stake the company hopes to use to allow …

More: Protocol, FinSMEs, SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and PRWeb. Tweets: @crunchbasenews

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Spotify says it will launch in 80+ new markets in the coming days, expanding from 93 markets, making the service available to 1B potential new users — Spotify unveiled plans to launch in the next few days in 85 new markets, areas that represent more than 1 billion potential new listeners, according the company.

See also Mediagazer

Jason Cipriani / ZDNet:

Samsung extends security updates for Galaxy phones from three to a “minimum of four” years — Previously, Samsung only guaranteed security updates for 3 years. — Samsung on Monday announced that it's extending the amount of time it will provide security updates for its Galaxy phones …

More: Softpedia News, Android Police, 9to5Google, Android Authority, Liliputing, Wccftech, TalkAndroid.com, Pocketnow, MSPoweruser, Neowin, SamMobile, and SlashGear. Tweets: @samsungnewsus

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

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.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:25 PM ET, February 22, 2021.

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.

From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Source: Bari Weiss is planning to create a masthead for CBS News as part of a broader overhaul of standards and procedures

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Comcast extends Mike Cavanagh's contract through January 1, 2029, and grants a ~$35M performance-based stock package; he's set to become co-CEO in January 2026

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:

A US judge denies WBD's bid to block Sling TV from selling short-term offerings that let users sign up for access to its bundles for as little as one day

Upcoming Tech Events

Jan 4

Samsung "The First Look" media event

Game Developers Conference

More News

Asha Barbaschow / ZDNet:

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, TikTok, Twitter, and Redbubble adopt Australia's misinformation code and will release annual transparency reports

More: Slashdot and MSPoweruser

Tweets: @implausiblegrrl and @chrisede_au

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Ageras, which offers accountancy software and a marketplace for businesses to find accountants, raises $73M from Lugard Road Capital

More: Tech.eu. Thanks:@ingridlunden

Dina Bass / Bloomberg:

Seattle-based Highspot, which makes software for training and managing sales employees, raises $200M led by Tiger Global at a $2.3B valuation

More: GeekWire and FinSMEs

Tweets: @salesforcevc, @dinabass, and @madronaventures

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Splice, which makes tools for musicians and offers royalty-free samples, raises $55M at a ~$500M valuation, bringing its total raised to $150M

More: TechCrunch. Tweets: @lucas_shaw, @brooke, @mpinc, and @lucas_shaw

See also Mediagazer

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Sources: Twitter recently explored buying Indian social media startup ShareChat for $1.1B and had committed to an $900M additional investment

More: MUO and coinspeaker.com

Politico:

EU, with <10% of global chip production, has had its industries hit hard by chip shortages and is seeking “strategic autonomy” via new fabs and alliances

Reuters:

China finalizes rules on banks' internet loan businesses, affecting Alibaba and others, setting new capital requirements, must be complied with by July 17, 2022

More: Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, The Register, Tech in Asia, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @jkynge, @michaelschuman, @michaelxpettis, and @jane_li911

Earlier Picks

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Toast, a cloud-based restaurant management software provider, is planning an IPO that could value it at ~$20B; in Feb. 2020 it was valued at $4.9B

More: Crunchbase News and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @sarthakgh, @edbott, and @caseynewton

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Abound, a wholesale marketplace for both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retailers that launched in Oct. 2019, raises $22.9M Series A led by Left Lane Capital

More: FinSMEs and PYMNTS.com

Ashlee Vance / Bloomberg:

Profile of Youyang Gu, a 27-year-old data scientist whose ML model most accurately predicted COVID-19 death totals, which the CDC put on its forecasting website

More: The Overspill. Tweets: @neweconforum, @mepfuller, @ashleevance, @bonku, and @drtomfrieden

BuzzFeed News:

Sources: Zuckerberg's personal intervention to reduce the severity of Alex Jones' ban in 2019 slowed down Facebook's efforts to deal with dangerous content

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Researchers discover macOS malware dubbed “Silver Sparrow” on at least 30K Macs, which includes a native M1 version and leverages the Installer JavaScript API

Reuters:

Facebook deletes the main page of the Myanmar military for “repeated violations of Community Standards prohibiting incitement of violence and coordinating harm”

More: KrASIA, MediaNama, NPR, and Boing Boing

Tweets: @donk_enby, @brooklynmarie, @walone4, @militarymonitor, @moui, @haritho, @iainlevine, @donk_enby, @arvindhickman, and @watchingmyanmar