Techmeme
May 12, 2021, 11:35 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
US agrees to remove Xiaomi from blacklist that could have restricted American investment in the company, following Xiaomi's lawsuit earlier this year  —  - U.S. to vacate order designating company as military-linked  — Xiaomi had sued U.S. government following the Trump order
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Researcher discovers a series of vulnerabilities, known as Frag Attacks, impacting Wi-Fi devices from the past 24 years, even when WEP and WPA are activated  —  A Belgian security researcher has discovered a series of vulnerabilities that impact the WiFi standard, with some bugs dating …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Amazon updates the Echo Show 8 and 5 with better cameras, the ability to turn on Alexa's security mode, and adds a $95 Kids Edition of the Echo Show 5  —  Plus a price drop for the Echo Show 5  —  Amazon is refreshing a handful of products in its Echo line: the Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 5 …
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Deep dive on the DarkSide ransomware gang, which pressures victims into paying via phone calls by affiliates, DDoS attacks, and threats of tipping short sellers  —  The FBI confirmed this week that a relatively new ransomware group known as DarkSide is responsible for an attack …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Instagram will let users list up to four pronouns on their profiles, viewable to friends or the public, available in a “few countries”  —  You can make this public or only viewable to friends  —  Instagram is making it easier to address people by their defined pronouns.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Epic v. Apple is shining a light on Apple's anti-steering rules, which prevent developers from pointing users to better deals on their website or elsewhere  —  Would ending anti-steering rules fix the App Store?  —  Last week, the judge in Epic v. Apple asked whether Epic really had an antitrust case …
Maya Gebeily / Reuters:
Instagram and Twitter apologize for deleting pro-Palestine posts, blaming technical errors, but critics say their “discriminatory” algorithms are to blame  —  Instagram and Twitter have blamed technical errors for deleting posts mentioning the possible eviction of Palestinians …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Big Time Studios, started by ex-CEO of Decentraland, comes out of stealth with $21M to let game studios offer NFTs in their games  —  Did you miss GamesBeat Summit 2021?  Watch on-demand here!  —  Big Time Studios is going big this week with a funding round of $21 million to bring nonfungible tokens …
More: Bloomberg and CoinDesk
Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon wins appeal over $300M EU tax bill, as EU court annuls a 2017 decision, saying regulators had failed to prove that the company got an illegal advantage  —  Ruling deals a setback to EU competition chief who is seeking to rein in U.S. tech giants  —  Amazon. com Inc. struck a new blow …
Anna Cooban / Insider:
WhatsApp details the experience for those who don't agree to its new privacy policy, including losing access to calls, messages, and notifications  —  - WhatsApp will eventually stop users sending and receiving messages if they refuse a new privacy policy.  — If users do not agree to the policy …
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
The US cable industry sees Biden's broadband plan as a grave threat because its language favors fiber and prioritizes funding for locally owned networks  —  The Biden administration's broadband plan read like a dream come true to Donnel Baird.  The $2 trillion American Jobs Plan …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
London-based Unmind, which lets employers offer digital mental health services to their staff, raises $47M Series B led by EQT Ventures  —  Mental health has been put into the spotlight in a big way in recent times.  For many of us, our lives and lifestyles have changed massively in the last year …
More: Tech.eu and FinSMEs
Sam Dean / Los Angeles Times:
Snap suspends anonymous Q&A apps Yolo and LMK after lawsuit over teen's death, allegedly due to bullying messages  —  Yolo and LMK, two Snapchat apps that allow users to send anonymous messages, are no longer available to users of the social media platform after parent company Snap suspended them Tuesday.
More: The VergeTweets: @itsjeffhiggins
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Cloudflare, which is already doing all of its computing on the edge, is uniquely suited to a world where politics matter more than economics  —  Manage your Stratechery subscription.  —  Matthew Prince, at the end of his prepared remarks after Cloudflare's recent earnings report, related a story from the company's earliest days:
Erika Kinetz / Associated Press:
Investigation: an army of fake bots covertly amplify Chinese propaganda on Twitter by retweeting posts from diplomats and state media tens of thousands of times  —  BRUSSELS (AP) — China's ruling Communist Party has opened a new front in its long, ambitious war to shape global public opinion: Western social media.
Riley de León / CNBC:
Online mortgage service Better.com to go public via a SPAC merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp. at $7.7B valuation; deal includes $1.5B SoftBank-led investment  —  - Digital mortgage lender Better will make its market debut by merging with Aurora Acquisition Corp., valuing the company at $7.7 billion.
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Treasury Prime, which develops APIs to help banks automate routine business processes, raises $20M Series B co-led by Deciens Capital and QED Investors  —  This morning Treasury Prime, a banking-as-a-service startup that delivers its product via APIs, announced that it has closed …

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