Techmeme
June 12, 2021, 4:30 AM

Top News

Makena Kelly / The Verge:
House lawmakers introduce five bipartisan bills to limit anticompetitive practices of tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook  —  The proposals could reshape the tech industry as we know it  —  On Friday, House Democrats introduced five new bills meant to chip away at the power …
More: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Congressman David Cicilline, Axios, Big Technology, Washington Post, Platformer, Chamber of Progress, CNN, Engadget, Vox, NBC News, US House of Representatives, ZDNet, New York Post, Thurrott, US House of Representatives, Electronic Frontier Foundation, US House of Representatives, US House of Representatives, The Economic Times, US House of Representatives, Bloomberg Government, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Techdirt, Tech.co, Android Central, The Daily Wire, Ubergizmo, The Markup, GeekWire, MSPoweruser, Mashable, SiliconANGLE, Tech Policy Press, Deadline, MacRumors, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, Insider, CNET, Bloomberg, Reuters, iMore, 9to5Mac, and Patently Apple
Ian Hamilton / UploadVR:
Facebook buys BigBox VR, the maker of VR battle royale title POPULATION: ONE, in its fifth VR game development studio acquisition  —  Facebook acquired another VR shooter game development studio with the purchase of BigBox VR, the creator of battle royale title POPULATION: ONE.
New York Times:
The DOJ's opaque subpoena of Apple during the Russia probe highlights the tension tech companies face in obliging law enforcement and protecting users' privacy  —  Apple, Google and Microsoft have been plunged into a political firestorm as they have contended with law enforcement requests to hand over information.
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Avaddon ransomware gang releases decryption keys for 2,934 of its victims and is likely shutting down due to increased scrutiny by governments around the world  —  The Avaddon ransomware gang has shut down operation and released the decryption keys for their victims to BleepingComputer.com.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Google commits to involve UK's competition and privacy regulators in the development of its Privacy Sandbox proposals to replace third-party cookies on Chrome  —  - Google will give the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority a say in its plans to replace third-party cookies on Chrome.
About Facebook:
Facebook unveils TextStyleBrush, an AI project that can copy the style of text in a photo using just a single word and can edit and replace text in images  —  - We're introducing TextStyleBrush, an AI research project that can copy the style of text in a photo using just a single word.
Jeremy Bogaisky / Forbes:
Larry Page's air taxi company Kitty Hawk buys drone software company 3D Robotics, whose co-founder and ex-Wired editor Chris Anderson will become Kitty Hawk COO  —  Eleven years after Google co-founder Larry Page bankrolled one of the first efforts to develop an electric flying car …
More: The Verge
Marty Swant / Forbes:
SurveyMonkey rebrands as Momentive as it looks to expand its growing enterprise business; SurveyMonkey will retain its branding for its consumer-facing business  —  It's not every day that a company is able to use its own tools to measure and mold its own identity.
Alyse Stanley / Gizmodo:
Joseph Cox / VICE:
EA hackers say they used stolen cookies, bought online for $10, to gain access to EA Slack, and then tricked IT support to give login tokens for EA's network  —  A representative for the hackers explained to Motherboard how the group stole a wealth of data from the game publishing giant.  —  Joseph Cox
Heather Haddon / Wall Street Journal:
McDonald's says hackers breached its operations in some markets, exposing some US business info and delivery customer data in South Korea and Taiwan  —  Hack exposed some U.S. business information, customer data in South Korea and Taiwan  —  McDonald's Corp. said hackers stole some data …

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Earlier Picks

Tom Warren / The Verge:
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Ryan Tracy / Wall Street Journal:
Stephen Shankland / CNET: