Techmeme
August 19, 2021, 7:45 AM

Top News

Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
Facebook, for the first time, shares a report on the most widely viewed domains, links, posts, and Pages on Facebook in the US during Q2  —  A video of two cats walking, tails intertwined, looking like the best of friends.  A resource site for Green Bay Packers alumni.
Ethan Zuckerman:
Facebook's new report reinforces its narrative that most content on the News Feed is not news, but doesn't provide enough data to make meaningful conclusions  —  What content is popular on Facebook?  —  This is a surprisingly difficult - and very important - question to answer.
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Facebook announces Horizon Workrooms, a virtual meeting space with avatars, spatial audio, a whiteboard, and more, in beta on Oculus Quest 2  —  It wasn't long into a recent press briefing I attended in virtual reality when Mark Zuckerberg showed up to talk about the metaverse.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Apple says NeuralHash flaw found by researchers in CSAM detection system was in a generic version of the software and not in the final version it plans to use  —  Apple said the version of NeuralHash analyzed by researchers is not the final version that will be used for iCloud Photos CSAM detection.
Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC:
Robinhood reports Q2 revenue of $565M, up 131% YoY, net loss of $502M, down from $58M net income in Q2 2020, and crypto revenue of $233M; stock down 10%+  —  Robinhood's revenue more than doubled in the second quarter to $565 million, bolstered by a massive surge in crypto trading …
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Nvidia beats with record Q2 revenue of $6.51B, up 68% YoY, Gaming revenue of $3.06B, up 85% YoY, and Data Center revenue of $2.37B, up 35% YoY  —  - Nvidia reported earnings on Wednesday for its second fiscal quarter that ended on August 1, beating Wall Street estimates on the back of strong graphics cards sales.
Matt Robinson / Bloomberg:
SEC sues three ex-Netflix software engineers and two others for allegedly using confidential subscriber growth numbers to trade ahead of earnings announcements  —  - Group allegedly made $3 million in profits from illicit tips  — Scheme involved illegal trades on subscriber data, SEC says
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Facebook says it took action against 12 COVID vaccine misinfo “superspreaders” but disputes claims that those 12 were responsible for 73% of misinfo on Facebook  —  Back in March, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) published  —  a report linking more than two-thirds …
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Profile of Andrey Shumeyko, who advertised internal Apple docs and devices on forums while being an Apple informant and who says Apple took advantage of him  —  He spent years inside the iPhone leaks and jailbreak community.  He was also spying for Apple.  —  Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft has made changing default browsers in Windows 11 unnecessarily complex compared to Windows 10, drawing criticism from Firefox and Opera  —  Competitors aren't happy  —  Microsoft's upcoming release of Windows 11 will make it even harder to switch default browsers and ignores browser defaults …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Netflix says it is now rolling out support for Spatial Audio on iPhones and iPads  —  Netflix has confirmed that it is now rolling out Spatial Audio support to its iPhone and iPad applications.  This enables an immersive experience using directional audio filters, and it has been a long time coming to Netflix users.
Pew Research Center:
Survey of 11,178 US adults: 48% say the government should restrict false info online, up from 39% in 2018; 59% think tech companies should, up from 56% in 2018  —  Amid rising concerns over misinformation online - including surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, especially vaccines …
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
As Facebook bans the Taliban, Twitter says it only takes action against accounts breaking its rules, and YouTube says it will terminate Taliban-linked accounts  —  Who will control Afghanistan's official Facebook page?  —  Social platforms including Facebook, Twitter …
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:

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Earlier Picks

Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Amy Thomson / Bloomberg: