Techmeme
June 20, 2021, 1:55 AM

Top News

Eric Newcomer / Newcomer:
Andreessen Horowitz's Future doesn't compete with journalism because it offers up essays, not reporting, limiting its potential to promote tech-positive views  —  I've been dragging my feet on writing about Andreessen Horowitz's much-anticipated new publication, which the firm revealed Tuesday.
Todd Feathers / VICE:
Some US unemployment applicants say facial recognition models used by ID verification service ID.me are failing to identify them, locking them out of benefits  —  ID.me's CEO says unemployment fraud is costing taxpayers $400 billion, but his own company is denying claims because of problems with its tech, users say.
Olivia Solon / NBC News:
Drought-stricken communities in the US push back against data centers' water usage; a typical data center uses same water per day as a city of 30K-50K people  —  On May 17, the City Council of Mesa, Arizona, approved the $800 million development of an enormous data center …
Juan José Relmucao / Rest of World:
How an Argentinian govt. program that issued netbooks to 4M low-income students from 2011 to 2015 helped indirectly create a new generation of teen musicians  —  Working-class teens turned junked machines into musical instruments.  —  • BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
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
Kara Swisher / New York Times:
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 …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Lingokids, which offers educational games through its “playlearning” app for kids aged 2-8, raises $40M Series C and claims to reach 30M+ families worldwide  —  Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021.  —  Lingokids has raised $40 million in funding for its educational games platform.
Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
Survey: social media users see the removal of hate speech as more fair than removing profanity, with moderators who removed hate speech seen as more trustworthy  —  News consumers and social media platform users prioritize the removal of hate speech over the removal of profanity …
Chuq Von Rospach / 6FPS:
Apple, whose arrogance and sense of entitlement let it treat developers as a hassle for two decades, will find few allies as it fights looming regulation  —  If this issue seems late, believe it or not, it's not.  But given the vagaries of our calendar, this is the latest possible …

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