Techmeme
August 15, 2021, 2:58 AM

Top News

Mark Sullivan / Fast Company:
Interview with Niantic CEO John Hanke about Niantic's vision for the metaverse and how the metaverse could become a dystopian nightmare  —  The metaverse, the concept of an alternative, shared digital world that originated in sci-fi, has bubbled up to the surface of tech chatter during the later days of the pandemic.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Twitter says it is changing the contrast of its new buttons, as users complain about headaches after its redesign that some experts say isn't very accessible  —  After teasing its new font in January, Twitter made some major changes to its website and app design this week.
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Facebook rolls out end-to-end encrypted voice and video calls on Messenger, and says it will begin testing opt-in e2e encryption for Instagram DMs  —  rolling out a host of features for Messenger users who switch on  —  end-to-end encryption (E2EE).  You can now call Messenger contacts using voice or video
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple details its CSAM detection system, says it expects to set a match threshold of 30 known CSAM images before an iCloud account is flagged for manual review  —  Apple today shared a document that provides a more detailed overview of the child safety features that it first announced last week …
Wall Street Journal:
Bill Hathaway / YaleNews:
Study of 12.7M tweets shows social media amplifies expressions of moral outrage, as users learn that such language gets rewarded with more “likes” and “shares”  —  Social media platforms like Twitter amplify expressions of moral outrage over time because users learn …
Reed Albergotti / Washington Post:
Profile of Philip Agre, a computer scientist turned humanities professor, whose work is considered foundational in studying the effects of technology on society  —  Philip Agre, a computer scientist turned humanities professor, was prescient about many of the ways technology would impact the world
Samreen Ahmad / Tech in Asia:
M-DAQ, a Singapore-based SaaS provider for ecommerce and tech companies to facilitate cross border transactions, raises ~$200M Series D from Affinity  —  Asian private equity giant Affinity Equity Partners has made an investment of US$200 million into M-Daq, a Singapore-based fintech company backed by Ant Group, in a series D round.

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Earlier Picks

Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Reuters: