Techmeme: Interview with Rep. Cicilline on his bipartisan package taking on Big Tech, Apple's DOJ subpoena, Facebook's platform lock-in, and acquisition and merger reform (Kara Swisher/New York Times)

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June 19, 2021, 2:00 AM

Top News

Sami Fathi / MacRumors:

YouTube says it is rolling out picture-in-picture support for YouTube Premium users on iOS and plans to launch the feature for all iOS users in the US — After a long wait, YouTube for iOS is officially gaining picture-in-picture support, allowing all users, non-premium and premium subscribers …

More: 9to5Google, The Verge, mobilesyrup.com, Neowin, Gizmodo, iPhone in Canada Blog, iThinkDifferent, Trusted Reviews, Redmond Pie, phonearena.com, Engadget, SlashGear, iMore, iPhone Hacks, MSPoweruser, AppleInsider, iClarified, and AppleTrack

Tweets: @samifathi_, @steipete, and @reneritchie

See also Mediagazer

Kara Swisher / New York Times:

Interview with Rep. Cicilline on his bipartisan package taking on Big Tech, Apple's DOJ subpoena, Facebook's platform lock-in, and acquisition and merger reform — Representative David Cicilline's bipartisan package takes aim at tech companies and would be the biggest antitrust reform in decades.

More: New York Times, New York Times, and Philip Elmer‑DeWitt

Tweets: @ashleyrgold, @kantrowitz, @migueldeicaza, @sarthakgh, @benedictevans, @benedictevans, @sally_hubbard, @greg_speicher, @greg_speicher, @stevesi, and @karaswisher

Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:

The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, which ends Big Tech acquisitions, could backfire in several ways, like discouraging startups' productive behavior — Congress wants to stop most Big Tech acquisitions. But that won't neccesarily increase competition. — 5 hr ago

More: BIG by Matt Stoller, Financial Times, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Politico, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, Axios, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @repkenbuck, @tomcottonar, @ggreenwald, @repkenbuck, @kantrowitz, @matthewstoller, @scottros, @kantrowitz, @ppatel, and @repkenbuck

Mercury News:

California launches a digital vaccine verification system built using the open-source SMART Health Card Framework, with QR codes to show COVID-19 vaccine status — Vaccinated Californians now have a new way to show they are inoculated against the coronavirus without carrying around a flimsy paper card.

More: Engadget, San Francisco Chronicle, SFGATE, Los Angeles Times, KNSD-TV, ABC7, Los Angeles Times, Yahoo News, SlashGear, San Francisco Business Journal, dot.LA, and Reuters

Tweets: @rklau, @sundeep, @rstephens, @rklau, @sacca, @rklau, @rklau, @aneeshchopra, @mpflowersnyc, @boltyboy, @rschooley, @dlthings, @mikeolson, @erickschonfeld, and @reillystyley

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

Roku says from May 20 to June 3, more Roku viewers streamed a Roku Original than Quibi users who streamed Quibi shows during the nine months of Quibi's lifetime — Roku has revealed viewership data for its original programming, much of which was powered by the acquisition of Quibi's library last January.

More: Roku, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, MobileSyrup, MarketWatch, The Streamable, Cord Cutters News, New York Post, and GameSpot

Tweets: @richlightshed, @caseynewton, @davezatz, @epro, and @backlon

Brandon Kochkodin / Bloomberg:

PitchBook: $17B have been invested in crypto startups this year, including $10B of digital assets from Block.one to capitalize crypto exchange Bullish Global — - VC funds already eclipsed annual amount for crypto investments — $10 billion Bullish Global raise largest in industry history

More: The Information

Margaret Harding McGill / Axios:

WH unveils new US broadband map that uses data from FCC, Ookla, Microsoft, and more, showing a greater gap in internet access, as it pushes for more spending — The Biden administration Thursday unveiled a new mapping tool that shows much greater gaps in use of high-speed internet service across …

More: CNET, Input, The Daily Dot, FierceTelecom, Gizmodo, govtech.com, and Maps Mania

Tweets: @bharatramamurti, @superwuster, and @esri

Hugh Son / CNBC:

Goldman Sachs has begun trading bitcoin futures in partnership with Mike Novogratz's merchant bank Galaxy Digital — - The bank has begun trading bitcoin futures with Galaxy Digital, the crypto investment firm founded by Mike Novogratz, CNBC has learned exclusively.

More: The Record, The Block, Blockworks, NewsBTC, Bitcoin News, Decrypt, PYMNTS.com, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Bitcoin Magazine, and BitcoinExchangeGuide

Tweets: @novogratz and @hugh_son

Reuters:

PayPal will increase US sellers' costs to 3.49% plus $0.49 per transaction on its payment products starting Aug. 2, up from 2.9% plus $0.30 on most transactions — NEW YORK (Reuters) -PayPal Holdings Inc will lift merchant costs for its branded payment products while cutting those for behind …

Source: PayPal Newsroom. More: PYMNTS.com and Bloomberg

Tweets: @quinnypig and @jasuja

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

Sources: EU antitrust regulators plan to open a formal investigation into Google's digital advertising business before the end of the year — EU antitrust regulators are set to open another front against Alphabet (GOOGL.O) unit Google by launching a formal investigation …

More: Android Central, PYMNTS.com, The Economic Times, and New York Post

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From Mediagazer

Elias Schisgall / Wall Street Journal:

BuzzFeed warns that it lacks the resources to fund its cash obligations over the next year and is exploring options, as it reports a Q4 loss of $26.8M

Washington Post:

Trump nominates Sarah B. Rogers, a State Department official, as chief executive of USAGM, after a judge ruled Kari Lake has been illegally running the agency

Erik Wemple / New York Times:

In NYT v. DOD, the Pentagon argued that a box on WaPo's website asking for tips about the military crossed the line into “solicitation” not protected by 1A

More News

Rest of World:

Koo, the Indian microblogging app that has positioned itself as a government-friendly alternative to Twitter in India, is taking a similar approach in Nigeria

Tweets: @evelyndouek

Laurel Brubaker Calkins / Bloomberg:

US appeals court rules Huawei can't subsidize the sale of its 5G tech with federal funds earmarked for US broadband development, upholding a 2019 FCC order

More: Associated Press

Ryan Browne / CNBC:

Dealroom: European startups have raised €43.8B in the first six months of 2021, surpassing the record €38.5B raised in 2020

More: PYMNTS.com

Jonathan Vanian / Fortune:

Fiddler AI, which makes tools to help engineers monitor machine learning systems, raises $32M Series B led by Insight Partners

More: EnterpriseAI, SiliconANGLE, PR Newswire, and SiliconANGLE

Tweets: @fiddlerlabs and @bznotes

Andrew Asmakov / Decrypt:

Two major Chinese banks now allow customers to exchange digital yuan for cash at 3,000+ ATMs in Beijing, in an expansion of China's digital currency experiment

More: Bitcoin News, Forkast, Cointelegraph, Crypto Briefing, Coinspeaker, CoinDesk, and The Block. Tweets: @johnkoetsier

VentureBeat:

Study: 80% of organizations that paid a ransom were hit by a second ransomware attack; 66% orgs cited revenue losses after the attack and 53% cited brand damage

More: NPR, The Record, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @lanceulanoff, @nixcraft, and @johndcook

Earlier Picks

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:

Ukrainian police arrest members of ransomware gang Clop, the first time that a national law enforcement agency has carried out mass arrests of such a gang

Bert Hubert's writings:

European companies' reluctance to offer free software and services has resulted in the region being over-dependent on US and others for communication platforms

Tweets: @philippbohn, @chrisnahr, and @nickdothutton

Sam Byford / The Verge:

OnePlus CEO Pete Lau says OnePlus and Oppo will have more integrations moving forward, further hinting at a possible merger

More: OnePlus Community, MySmartPrice, Forbes, 9to5Google, Thurrott, BGR India, SlashGear, androidauthority.com, SamMobile, SlashGear, PCMag, Input, Android Police, mobilesyrup.com, Pocket-lint, Gizchina, Phandroid, Engadget, techadvisor.com, Digital Trends, ExtremeTech, Droid Life, Trusted Reviews, PingWest, TechRadar, and Tom's Guide

Tweets: @backlon, @ricswi, @roobinam, and @stufflistings

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:

Spotify has acquired Podz, a podcast discovery startup whose tech helps podcasters promote their show using ML to select 60-second clips of key moments

John Koblin / New York Times:

Nielsen announces a new metric, The Gauge, to measure streaming viewing in ~14,000 US homes via hardware that watches internet traffic passing through a router

More: CNN, nielsen.com, Variety, CNBC, and The Verge

Tweets: @reedhastings, @om, @richlightshed, @lucas_shaw, @joecarlsonshow, @sub8u, @jason_kint, @kimmasters, @mulvihill79, @oliverdarcy, @marktorromeo, @nytimesbusiness, @koblin, @edmundlee, @ryansatin, @richlightshed, and @aidnmclaughlin