Techmeme
August 5, 2021, 2:25 PM

Top News

Gilad Edelman / Wired:
Mozilla's analysis says Facebook's justifications for cutting off access to researchers running NYU's Ad Observatory project “simply do not hold water”  —  The company says privacy concerns forced it to block access for a team of academics.  Whose privacy, exactly?
Bloomberg:
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple is reportedly considering using on-device hashing algorithms to match photos with known child abuse material, a potentially problematic practice  —  Apple is reportedly set to announce new photo identification features that will use hashing algorithms to match the content of photos …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Amazon delays its return to offices from September 3 to January 3, 2022  —  Amazon told employees Thursday that it will delay its timeline for returning to regular work in the office until early next year.  —  The new date: Jan. 3, 2022.  Previously, Amazon had expected employees …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Scammers are abusing Instagram's protections against self-harm and impersonation to purposefully target and ban Instagram accounts, some charging $60 per ban  —  An underground industry is abusing Instagram's mechanisms for removing self-injury and impersonating content to censor and harass people.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Nintendo misses in Q1 with $1.09B operating profit, down 17.3% YoY, on $2.94B revenue, down 9.9% YoY, as Switch sales decline by 21.7% YoY to 4.45M units  —  It was not exactly a normal quarter this time in 2020  —  Nintendo has released its earnings for the April-June quarter …
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Google refreshes its Nest lineup, including its video doorbell and indoor-only camera, with a unified design language and lower prices  —  A whole new lineup of cameras for Nest smart homes  —  Google has announced a new line of home security cameras and a video doorbell under its Nest brand.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok says it is testing TikTok Stories; source says Stories are available in a handful of markets outside the US  —  Twitter may have shut down its Stories features known as Fleets, but the Stories format will continue to invade other social platforms.  TikTok today confirmed it's piloting …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Yelp will let businesses list their vaccination policies, including if customers must show proof of vaccination, wear masks, or if all staff are vaccinated  —  Including details on staff and customer vaccinations  —  Yelp will let businesses share their policies on COVID-19 vaccinations, the company announced today.
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Ethereum's “London” hard fork has been activated, with changes to how transaction fees are calculated to decrease volatility, among other fixes  —  - Ethereum's “London” hard fork has just activated, and it's a major change.  — One of the changes alters the way transaction fees …
Michael McSweeney / The Block:
Senators Lummis, Wyden, Toomey propose amendment to infrastructure bill excluding crypto developers, miners, node operators, others from the “broker” definition  —  A trio of U.S. senators is proposing a legislative exclusion for crypto companies, including miners and software developers …
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Apple places female engineering program manager on administrative leave after she tweeted about sexism in the office  —  Ashley Gjøvik says the employee relations team implied she should stay off Slack pending an ongoing investigation  —  Apple has placed senior engineering program …
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Indian startup MindTickle, which offers tools to improve sales staff, raises $100M Series E led by SoftBank at a $1.2B valuation, bringing total raised to $281M  —  So-called sales readiness technology provider MindTickle Inc. is running with the unicorns today after landing a $100 million Series E round of funding.
Michael del Castillo / Forbes:
Cryptocurrency analytics firm Messari raises $21M Series A led by Point72 Ventures with Kraken Ventures, Gemini Frontier Fund, and Coinbase among investors  —  Point72 Ventures,, the venture capital firm of billionaire Steve Cohen, whose unconventional style helped inspire the hit television show Billions …
Chris McGreal / The Guardian:
Report: 25 oil and gas organizations spent $9.5M+ on 25K+ Facebook ads in 2020, seen 431M+ times, potentially undermining Facebook's ban on oil and gas misinfo  —  Thinktank InfluenceMap accuses petroleum giants of gaming Facebook to promote oil and gas as part of climate-crisis solution
Andrea Navarro / Bloomberg:
Crehana, a Latin American online learning service, raises $70M led by General Atlantic and says its user base jumped from 1.2M to 5M in 2020  —  - Crehana learning platform operates across Latin America  — Startup plans to launch Brazil office in October with proceeds
Khari Johnson / Wired:
New study says encouraging consensus among data labelers from diverse backgrounds can lead to better AI for detecting misogyny and harassment on social media  —  Misogyny on the internet too often slips through the filters of content moderators.  A new method hopes to inject more nuance into the process.

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Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Tom Warren / The Verge: