Techmeme
July 8, 2021, 8:25 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Book excerpt shows how Zuckerberg and Sandberg's partnership deteriorated during the Trump era, as Zuckerberg increasingly made the biggest policy decisions  —  The company they built is wildly successful.  But her Washington wisdom didn't hold up, and neither did their close working relationship.
CNBC:
Instacart hires Fidji Simo, the head of Facebook's app and one of the highest-ranking female executives at Facebook, as its new CEO starting August 2  —  - Simo will succeed Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta on Aug. 2, and Mehta will transition to executive chairman of the board.
Wilson White / The Keyword:
Google says antitrust suit by 37 AGs is meritless as it ignores competition from Apple's App Store, Android's openness for competing app stores, app sideloading  —  We built Android to create more choices in mobile technology.  Today, anyone, including our competitors …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
AG suit alleges Google tried to “preemptively quash” Samsung's Galaxy app store by offering to pay Samsung, stopping OEMs from offering other stores, and more  —  ‘Competition in app distribution is a virus to be eliminated’  —  Google used anticompetitive practices in an attempt to …
Leah Nylen / Politico:
Zack Seward / CoinDesk:
Crypto financial services company Circle says it is going public via a SPAC merger at a $4.5B valuation  —  The deal values Circle at $4.5 billion.  —  Circle is going public in a deal that values the crypto financial services firm at $4.5 billion, the firm said Thursday.
Richard Nieva / CNET:
Anger grows among some Google staff about “hypocritical” remote work decisions and transfers as senior exec Urs Hölzle announces plans to work from New Zealand  —  As Google employees around the world make plans for post-pandemic work at the tech giant, Laura de Vesine won't be among them.
Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
A look at Peacock as it enters its second year, considers expansion abroad, and tries to grow paid subscriptions; sources: 20% of Peacock's 14M MAUs pay for it  —  Inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York last month, NBC executives revealed their long-awaited plan to use the Olympics to supercharge their streaming service, Peacock.
Sascha Segan / PCMag:
Qualcomm and Asus partner to launch the “Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders”, a $1,499 handset with Snapdragon 888, a glowing Snapdragon logo, and more  —  The Asus-made phone will showcase features that Qualcomm has been promoting but hasn't added to other prominent devices in the US.
Patrick Howell O'Neill / MIT Technology Review:
How a years-long cybercrime investigation by FBI, Russia, and Ukraine was undone by corruption, rivalry, and stonewalling, resulting in the hackers going free  —  Russia and Ukraine promised to cooperate and help catch the world's most successful hackers.  But things didn't quite go to plan.
Ray A. Smith / Wall Street Journal:
How dating apps are increasingly used to start platonic friendships, with average time spent on Bumble's BFF growing 83% for men and 44% for women in Q1 2021  —  Millennials and members of Generation Z increased their use of dating apps to make platonic friends during the pandemic; ‘now we all have these big life moments together’
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Oversight Board reverses a decision banning an Instagram post that criticized solitary confinement, after finding Facebook “lost” a policy exception for 3 years  —  An exception to the ban on supporting ‘dangerous entities’  —  Instagram accidentally banned …
FinSMEs:
Instawork, a marketplace that connects hourly workers with employers, raises $60M Series C led by Craft Ventures, bringing its total raised to $100M  —  Instawork, a San Francisco, CA-based digital marketplace connecting local businesses with qualified professionals across the U.S., raised $60m in Series C financing.
Liz Alderman / New York Times:
How Ireland, the European base of many tech giants due to its 12.5% corporate tax rate, is fighting the new 15% global minimum tax rate agreed by 130 countries  —  For decades, multinationals moved to Ireland for its low taxes.  A new global tax plan has put Dublin on the defensive.
CNBC:
Donald Trump sues Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as Zuckerberg, Dorsey, and Pichai, claiming the companies have violated his First Amendment rights  —  - Former President Donald Trump announced he is suing Facebook, Twitter and Google, as well as their respective CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai.
Bonnie Kristian / The Week:

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control  —  Picture this: It's Monday morning.  You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Great Chat:
So what happens after AGI?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:25 PM ET, July 8, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes:

Earlier Picks

Fu Ting / Associated Press:
Nishant Sharma / BloombergQuint:
Isabelle Lee / Insider:
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch: