Techmeme
April 10, 2021, 1:10 PM

Top News

Raymond Zhong / New York Times:
China says it is imposing a record $2.8B fine on Alibaba for monopolistic business practices; Alibaba says it will accept the penalty “sincerely”  —  The penalty is Beijing's toughest action to date in its campaign to tighten supervision of the country's internet Goliaths.
Sarah Manavis / New Statesman:
A look at Tattle Life, a gossip forum where users dox celebrities and influencers, dissect their personal lives, and target them with vicious comments  —  When the lifestyle influencer Jessie Lethaby - better known as SunbeamsJess - announced she was pregnant in December …
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
1,200+ Alphabet employees have signed a letter asking the company to stop protecting harassers, following a NYT op-ed by an ex-employee who alleged harassment  —  Organizers say the demands of the Google Walkout still haven't been met  —  More than 500 Alphabet employees have signed …
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
In a letter to Tim Cook, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee “strongly urge” Apple to reconsider refusal to provide a witness for upcoming hearing on app stores  —  ‘We strongly urge Apple to reconsider its position,’ the senators said  —  Senate Judiciary Committee leaders …
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Sources: Sony's PlayStation organization has shifted its development focus to prioritize AAA games at the expense of projects from its niche teams and studios  —  Sony Corp.'s Visual Arts Service Group has long been the unsung hero of many hit PlayStation video games.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google denies reports Pixel 5a 5G is canceled, says it'll be available this year in the US and Japan and announced in line with last year's a-series phone  —  Despite rumors this morning to the contrary, Google has just issued an on the record statement that the “Pixel 5a” does indeed exist and will not be canceled.
Bloomberg:
Current and ex-employees say inattention to data protection at Verkada is emblematic of a “bro culture” that tolerated sexual harassment, misleading customers  —  Verkada Inc.'s security camera customers were livid.  Hackers had breached footage from thousands of surveillance devices trained …
About Amazon:
Amazon thanks workers for voting against unionizing, says less than 16% voted to join the union and counters the union's claims that Amazon won by intimidation  —  Thank you to employees at our BHM1 fulfillment center in Alabama for participating in the election.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg:
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Researchers say Facebook has known for years about exploits similar to the one that used its “contact importer”, enabling the scraping of 533M users' data  —  Software makers can't catch every bug every time, but Facebook had ample warning about the privacy problems with its “contact import” feature.

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
Introducing Zoho Expense MCP: Turn conversations into expense workflows  —  Artificial intelligence (AI) has already changed how we search for information, summarize documents, and analyze data.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce 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:
Demis Steps Down, Apple's Memory Problem, Microsoft's Clever Trick
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.
Hard Fork:
The White House's Secret A.I. Rules + The State of Model Alignment With METR's Chris Painter + The Final Hot Mess Express
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Oliver Darcy on Status, Bari Weiss, and Why Media Reporters Are Too Soft
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.
Training Data:
Chai Discovery's Bitter Lesson: Drug Design Is Another Scaling Problem
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Gavin Baker - AI Market Jitters
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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 1:10 PM ET, April 10, 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.

More News

Ben Patterson / TechHive:
Todd Feathers / VICE:
Brian Barrett / Wired:

Earlier Picks

Jack Morse / Mashable:
The Markup:
Jeff Horwitz / Wall Street Journal:
Kellen / Droid Life: