Techmeme: A look at the debate over Spotify's Discovery Mode, whereby artists are prioritized for reduced royalties, a key way for Spotify to improve margins (Anna Nicolaou/Financial Times)

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July 31, 2021, 1:00 PM

Top News

Associated Press:

DOJ: 27 US Attorney offices had at least one staffer's Microsoft email account breached from May and Dec. 2020 by Russian hackers as part of the SolarWinds hack — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Russian hackers behind the massive SolarWinds cyberespionage campaign broke into the email accounts …

More: U.S. Department of Justice, Bloomberg, Wired, Engadget, Associated Press, BleepingComputer, Newser, The Hill, Fox News, and New York Post

Tweets: @jsrailton, @michaelehayden, @juliadavisnews, @etuckerap, and @jonlemire

Brian Merchant / VICE:

Metaverse, as Zuckerberg and others imagine, is an odd vision built from a compendium of juvenile fantasies, perceived market opportunities, and overt dystopias — Silicon Valley CEOs keep hailing its imminent arrival as they hawk digital goods, but the metaverse was a dystopian idea from its inception.

More: TNW. Tweets: @anildash, @margaretomara, @bcmerchant, @frankpasquale, @dsilverman, @sams_antics, @fabiochiusi, @smdiehl, @michaelhazani, @bartwronsk, @owillis, @peterme, @gerritd, @meganmorrone, @ckunzelman, @vice, @motherboard, @vectorpoem, @parismarx, @ethanz, @eric_seufert, and @qcapital2020

Nicholas Megaw / Financial Times:

Digital bank Monzo reveals a loss of £130M on £66M revenue for the year ended Feb. and says UK FCA is investigating it over potential money laundering breaches — Digital lender suffers second ‘going concern’ warning from auditors — The Financial Conduct Authority …

Source: Monzo and Monzo. More: Sifted, Finextra, altfi.com, Financial News, The Paypers, CNBC, Law360, Proactiveinvestors UK, BBC, The Guardian, Daily Mail, City A.M., The Independent, The Times, Telegraph, FStech, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @comaware_4s and @siftedeu

Telegram:

Telegram's latest update adds group video calls of up to 1,000 users with 30 simultaneous broadcasts, video messages, screen sharing during video calls, more — This update takes video to the next level. Group video calls now have up to 1000 viewers, video messages record in higher quality …

More: The Verge, AppleInsider, Android Beat, MacRumors, MUO, Engadget, Android Police, HC Newsroom, Releases, and Droid Life. Tweets: @telegram

Mark Harris / Wired:

Analysis: since August 2020, 100+ warships from 16+ countries have had GPS-based location data faked to make it look like they crossed into disputed territory — The latest weapons in the global information war are fake vessels behaving badly. — ON SEPTEMBER 17 last year …

Tweets: @essexcanning and @brbarrett

Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:

A look at the debate over Spotify's Discovery Mode, whereby artists are prioritized for reduced royalties, a key way for Spotify to improve margins — Executives complain new Discovery Mode is ‘payola’ but one Texas frontman sees it as the future — The Josh Abbott Band …

See also Mediagazer

Paul Smith / Australian Financial Review:

Australia-based IntelligenceBank, a marketing software provider for brands, raises $37M from Five Elms Capital to help speed up its expansion in the US — IntelligenceBank, a Melbourne-based marketing operations platform that counts ANZ Bank, National Australia Bank, Suncorp, Bupa, KFC …

More: Startup Daily

Teddy Nykiel / Milwaukee Business Journal:

Wisconsin-based Veda, which uses AI to automate data processing for healthcare payers and providers, raises $45M Series B led by Oak HC/FT — Veda Data Solutions, Inc., which uses artificial intelligence to automate health care data for providers and payers, closed a $45 million Series B funding round led …

Source: Business Wire. More: madison.com, AIxOutlook, Technical.ly DC, and medcitynews.com

Jackie Davalos / Bloomberg:

Apple removes Unjected, a social app for “unvaxxed friendly”, citing COVID-19 misinfo; Unjected removed social feed from its Android app after a Google warning — Anti-Vax App Squares Off With Google, Apple Over Misinformation Jackie Davalos31 July 2021, 15:00 CEST …

More: Mediaite. Tweets: @business, @savittj, @joeperticone, @tommyxtopher, @out5p0ken, @bennyheis, @robertlusetich, and @kathrynw5

Digbijay Mishra / The Economic Times:

B2B commerce and financing startup OfBusiness raises $160M led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a valuation of $1.5B, becoming the 18th Indian unicorn for the year — B2B commerce startup valued at $1.5 billion; New capital to be used for acquisition, expansion

More: Entrackr

Shiri Habib-Valdhorn / Globes Online:

Riskified, an Israeli e-commerce fraud protection company, began trading on the NYSE on Thursday after raising $363M in its IPO, at a valuation of $3.3B — The Israeli e-commerce fraud protection company is raising $363 million and an additional $55.1 million, if the underwriters exercise their options.

Source: Business Wire. More: The Times of Israel, SecurityWeek, Globes Online, and PYMNTS.com

Financial Times:

Educational publisher Pearson says it is switching to a subscription model for all of its 1,500 titles, available for $14.99/month through its new Pearson+ app — Educational publisher attempts move to Netflix model with access to 1,500 titles for $14.99 a month

Source: PR Newswire. More: The Independent, The Times, Bookseller News, Inside Higher Ed, Reuters, EdScoop, and ZDNet

Dan Wang / Foreign Affairs:

How US sanctions forced Chinese companies to develop key tech themselves, aligning the companies' incentives with China's goal of economic self-sufficiency — In 2016, AlphaGo, a computer program developed by machine learning experts in London, beat the world's top players of the classical Chinese board game Go.

More: IP Osgoode, Barron's Online, and news.com.au

Tweets: @kennedycsis, @jchengwsj, @jchengwsj, @charlesmok, @thisissoliman, @gyude_moore, @danwwang, @iandenisjohnson, and @foreignaffairs

Reuters:

SEC has stopped processing IPO and other registrations by Chinese companies as it crafts guidance for companies about the risks they face in China

More: U.S. Securities …, CNN, Protocol, PYMNTS.com, Blockworks, Associated Press, ZDNet, Financial Times, Axios, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Wall Street Journal

Tweets: @garygensler, @reuters, @danwwang, @senatorhagerty, @vlajournaliste, and @secgov

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:00 PM ET, July 31, 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.

From Mediagazer

Tierney Sneed / CNN:

CNN, MS NOW, and Politico ask a federal judge for a preliminary injunction to keep their White House access restored after a temporary order expires October 8

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: the Trump administration used DHS funds to finance pro-Trump ads, including one that is almost identical to a 2024 Trump campaign ad, calling them PSAs

Hassan Ali Kanu / Politico:

NYT and other publishers ask a court to disregard the DOJ's statement supporting OpenAI in their copyright suit, saying the Trump administration may be biased

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More News

Nikkei Asia:

Vietnam-based VNLife, the parent company of VNPay, which helps banks provide mobile payment apps and other digital services, raises $250M at a valuation of $1B+

Source: Business Wire. More: Tech in Asia, Reuters, and PYMNTS.com. Tweets: @nikkeiasia

Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:

Wyze Labs, which makes devices like smart security cameras, robot vacuums, and smartwatches, raises $110M Series B led by Marcy Venture Partners

Thanks:@cskuhlman

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:

Google contract workers in Pittsburgh have ratified a three-year deal with their employer HCL, for higher wages and more, nearly two years after unionizing

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:

A look at Intel's dismal 2020, which saw the delay of its 7nm architecture, Apple's switch to Arm-based chips, and the departure of Jim Keller and other execs

More: Creative Strategies. Tweets: @iancutress, @dimillian, @eastdakota, @timsweeneyepic, @benbajarin, and @tomwarren

Peter Guest / Rest of World:

As Southeast Asian governments introduce “fake news” laws to fight COVID-19 misinformation, conspiracists thrive on Telegram and other non-public platforms

Jasper Jolly / The Guardian:

Deliveroo says it plans to pull out of Spain, citing limited market share; Spain unveiled a “rider law” in March to reclassify couriers as employees

More: InvestEgate, TechCrunch, and Financial Times

Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert:

[Thread] Facebook's future prospects remain strong as the secular rise of digital advertising blunts any headwinds from regulators, Apple, critics, and others

Eva Dou / Washington Post:

China's top court issues new guidelines that hotels, airports, and other commercial venues must get consent from customers to use facial recognition from Aug. 1

Tweets: @sheenagreitens, @sophiehrw, @noahpinion, and @evadou

Earlier Picks

Tim Perry / HTTP Toolkit:

Safari's extremely slow pace in adopting popular features and fixing showstopping bugs, and refusal to engage with contentious API proposals, is harming the web

Stephen Shankland / CNET:

Twitter offers bug bounty of up to $3,500 to spot bias in its photo cropping algorithm, which was shown to favor white people over Black people

More: Twitter, PCMag, The Verge, Engadget, Livemint, BGR India, and SlashGear

Tweets: @erickgalinkin, @ahandvanish, @jesirae, @quinnypig, and @stshank

Russ Mitchell / Los Angeles Times:

New book claims Elon Musk demanded to be made Apple CEO during Tesla buyout talks in 2016, before Tim Cook cursed and hung up; Musk says he never spoke to Cook

More: BBC, HotHardware.com News, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, The Verge, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, MacRumors, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, Gizchina, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Ubergizmo, 9to5Mac, Daily Mail, iDownloadBlog.com, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, iThinkDifferent, CNET, CNN, Gizmodo, Silicon Valley Business …, iPhone Hacks, Mashable, Trusted Reviews, KnowTechie, mobilesyrup.com, Neowin, Forbes, Variety, fossbytes.com, Washington Post, MSPoweruser, Wccftech, Insider, MacDailyNews, iPhone in Canada Blog, Bloomberg, iMore, AppleInsider, MacRumors, iClarified, and The Mac Observer

Natalie Wolchover / Quanta Magazine:

Physicists say they used Google's quantum computer to demo a time crystal, which forever cycles between states without consuming energy, for the first time

Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg:

In a filing, Amazon disclosed EU privacy regulators fined the company a record $888M for violating GDPR data storage rules in a July 16 decision

Tom Wilson / Reuters:

Amid regulatory pressure, Binance says it will wind down its futures and derivatives products in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands

More: Binance, Bitcoinist.com, BitcoinExchangeGuide, Forbes, Coinspeaker, cryptodaily.co.uk, CoinJournal, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Cryptonews, Crypto Briefing, and The Block. Tweets: @anbessa100

Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE:

48 civil rights and advocacy groups ask the FTC to ban corporate facial surveillance technology and continuous corporate surveillance of public space

More: Washington Post and Common Dreams

Tweets: @fightfortheftr and @bigblackjacobin

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Snap says it resolved an issue that prevented some Snapchat users from logging in and advises users to manually update the app if the issue persists

More: iMore, KnowTechie, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechRadar, inews.co.uk, Android Authority, The Economic Times, ABC, 9News, and news.com.au

Tweets: @snapchatsupport and @snapchat