Techmeme
March 5, 2021, 6:00 PM

Top News

Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Tim Wu, an outspoken critic of Big Tech, is joining the National Economic Council as a special assistant to President Biden for tech and competition policy  —  Tim Wu's appointment to the National Economic Council would signal a confrontational approach by the Biden administration.
Adam Klasfeld / Law & Crime:
US indicts John McAfee for fraud and money laundering over an alleged $13M cryptocurrency “pump-and-dump” scheme  —  Antivirus software mogul John McAfee, who has been awaiting extradition from Spain on tax evasion charges since late last year, just had his legal woes compounded …
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Sources: at least 30K US organizations have been hacked by an aggressive Chinese espionage group exploiting unpatched flaws in Microsoft's Exchange Server  —  At least 30,000 organizations across the United States — including a significant number of small businesses, towns …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: India threatened to jail Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter employees if the companies don't comply with takedown requests related to farmer protests  —  Country flexes new powers over big platforms while companies are counting on world's second-largest population for growth
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Leaked interface shows that Twitter's “undo send” feature may be a button that also doubles as a progress bar showing how much time a user has to undo  —  A work-in-progress interface has been unearthed  —  A potential animation for Twitter's long-rumored “undo send” …
New York Times:
Research: low-wage workers at businesses in the areas where Amazon operates have seen significant wage growth since the company raised minimum pay to $15/hour  —  New research suggests that when big companies increase wages, they drive up pay in the places where they operate — without a notable loss in jobs.
Sujeong Lim / Counterpoint Research:
Global smartwatch shipments rose 1.5% YoY in 2020, with Apple Watch shipments up 19% YoY, Huawei's up 26% YoY, and Fitbit shipments down 4% YoY  —  - In Q4 2020, the shipments decreased slightly YoY due to a fresh wave of COVID-19.  — However, Apple managed to expand its market share and remains firmly at the forefront.
Katherine Rosman / New York Times:
Robert Hackett / Fortune:
Eco, a personal finance app that offers yields of 2.5% to 5% and cash-backs for shopping at Amazon, Uber, and Doordash, raises $26M led by a16z crypto  —  Our mission to make business better is fueled by readers like you.  To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today.
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Reddit hires Drew Vollero as its first chief financial officer to prepare the company for an eventual IPO  —  The addition of Drew Vollero, formerly of Mattel and Snap, is a move toward developing operations more like publicly traded social networks.  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The world's …
Bennett Cyphers / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Google's FLoC, which helps advertisers perform behavioral targeting, avoids privacy risks of 3rd-party cookies, but creates new privacy issues in the process  —  The third-party cookie is dying, and Google is trying to create its replacement.  —  No one should mourn the death of the cookie as we know it.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: digital imaging company Shutterfly has held talks to go public via SPAC at a valuation between $4B-$5B, including debt  —  Discussions come less than two years after Apollo took the online-photo-book company private  —  Shutterfly Inc. is in talks to go public through a merger …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Screenshots of a beta version of Fireside, Mark Cuban's podcasting app, suggest it will be a hybrid between Spotify's Anchor and Clubhouse  —  The app is in beta on iOS  —  Last month, The Verge broke news of Mark Cuban and Falon Fatemi's new app Fireside, which promises to deliver a …
Bloomberg:
UK antitrust authorities say they plan to investigate Apple's App Store to probe whether it is abusing its market power to restrict competition  —  - CMA taking into account Apple's ‘dominant’ position in apps  — Apple probe prompted by complaints from some developers
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:

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More News

Varun Mishra / Counterpoint Research:
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Saqib Shah / Engadget:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Jasper Jolly / The Guardian: