Techmeme
June 23, 2021, 2:35 PM

Top News

Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:
In a new report, Apple says letting iOS users sideload apps would undermine privacy protections, complicate parental controls, and potentially expose user data  —  Company says allowing users to download software onto their iPhones without using the App Store jeopardizes protections
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Morning Consult poll of 2,000 US voters: 53% at least somewhat support Congress' Big Tech antitrust bills; 44% rank tech regulation as their lowest priority  —  - A new poll commissioned by tech industry-funded group shows 53% of voters favor at least some tech regulation.
Politico:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Instagram says it will test mixing suggested posts throughout primary feeds, even above posts from people users follow, and adds new controls  —  A priority on algorithm-chosen content  —  Instagram says reception to its “suggested posts” feature has been so positive that it's launching a new test …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
EA says it will buy Warner Bros. Games' Playdemic mobile games studio, known for one of the top mobile games “Golf Clash”, for $1.4B in cash  —  Founded in 2010, Playdemic is known for “Golf Clash,” which lets players compete with each other around the world in real time.
Reuters:
DOJ says it has seized 36 Iranian media websites and sites for groups affiliated with Iran that are linked to Iranian disinformation for violating US sanctions  —  The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it seized 36 Iranian-linked websites, many of them associated with either disinformation activities …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
International coalition of consumer groups, digital and civil rights organizations, and data protection experts call for ban on “surveillance-based advertising”  —  An international coalition of consumer protection, digital and civil rights organizations and data protection experts …
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Tim Berners-Lee defends his decision to auction an NFT representing the web's source code, comparing it to the sale of an autographed book or a speaking tour  —  Creator of the world wide web says digital asset is ‘totally aligned with the values of the web’
Mark Nottingham / mnot's blog:
How recent actions against Big Tech in the US, UK, and EU could inadvertently lead to more fragmentation and ossification of the internet  —  A big change in how the Internet is defined - and who defines it - is underway.  —  For a while now, it's been apparent that Internet and Web standards have stagnated at the ‘top’ of the stack.
Tracy Qu / South China Morning Post:
Kuaishou now has 1B monthly active users globally, joining rivals ByteDance and Tencent, including on its Kwai and Snack Video apps  —  China's No 2 short video-sharing app operator joins rival ByteDance and Tencent as internet platforms with 1 billion monthly active users Kuaishou's tally covers …
More: TechCrunch
Anna Kramer / Protocol:
Profile of Twitter's Machine Learning, Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability team, as Responsible ML becomes one of the company's top priorities in 2021  —  Twitter's META team is made up of some of tech's most notorious critics, and two more will soon be joining them: Sarah Roberts and Kristian Lum.
Cam Wilson / Crikey:
Australia's controversial Online Security Bill is about to become law, expanding the eSafety Commissioner's ability to censor the internet  —  The controversial Online Safety Bill will give broad censorship powers to the eSafety commissioner, and experts warn that it could harm those it purports to save.
Bloomberg:
Microsoft has become the second public US company to reach a $2T market value, after Apple did in August 2020 and two years after hitting its first $1T in value  —  - Shares of the software giant have gained 19% so far this year  — Only Apple and Saudi Aramco had hit $2 trillion in value
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Facebook says it is working on visual search for Instagram shopping to help users find info on products in images, and Shops is coming to WhatsApp, Marketplace  —  Facebook is working on visual search technology for Instagram as it doubles down on shopping features throughout its platform.
Rebecca Ratcliffe / The Guardian:
Rights Group Global Witness study finds Facebook is promoting content that incites violence against Myanmar's coup protesters and amplifies junta misinformation  —  Posts ranging from wanted posters to death threats remain online for months, breaching platform's own standards
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Vercel, which develops the popular open-source Next.js React framework, raises $102M Series C led by Bedrock Capital at a $1.1B valuation  —  Vercel, the company behind the popular open-source Next.js React framework, today announced that it has raised a $102 million Series C funding round led by Bedrock Capital.
Margherita Beale / Forbes:
Habi, a Colombia-based residential real estate marketplace with automated pricing tech, raises $100M Series B led by SoftBank Latin America Fund  —  Habi, a real estate startup digitizing home buying and selling for Colombia's middle class, announced Wednesday that it has raised $100 million …
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
European Commission says it has opened an antitrust investigation into whether Google favors its own display ad tech over rivals  —  Brussels to examine whether US group broke rules by giving an advantage to its own services  —  The EU has announced a formal investigation …
Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
Sprinklr, which builds tools to help brands interact with customers online, raises $266M in US IPO at about a $4B valuation  —  - New York-based company valued at $4 billion after pricing IPO  — Sprinklr prices shares at $16, below marketed range of $18-$20
Helene Braun / CoinDesk:
Paris-based Kaiko, which provides cryptocurrency market data and research, raises $24M Series A to expand analysis of the Asian market  —  The Paris-based institutional data firm plans to open an Asian office in either Hong Kong or Singapore later this year.
More: FinSMEs and The Block

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Tiernan Ray / ZDNet:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: