Techmeme
August 31, 2021, 7:00 PM

Top News

Jiyoung Sohn / Wall Street Journal:
South Korea's National Assembly passes a bill that forces Apple and Google to allow alternative payment systems in their app stores  —  Seoul requires the companies to allow competing payment systems, threatening their 30% cut of most in-app digital sales  —  SEOUL—Google and Apple Inc …
Bloomberg:
Source: Apple's upcoming Watch is suffering production snags as manufacturers adjust to a new design, likely leading to supply restraints or shipment delays  —  - Revamped device has a larger screen and other new features  — Wearables category has been one of fastest-growing for Apple
New York Times:
Investigation shows Accenture is Facebook's biggest content moderation partner, employing over a third of its moderators, with annual contracts exceeding $500M  —  The social network has constructed a vast infrastructure to keep toxic material off its platform.  At the center of it is Accenture, the blue-chip consulting firm.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says Windows 11 will not support Android apps at launch on October 5; support for Android apps will likely arrive in 2022  —  Microsoft will start testing Android apps on Windows 11 in the coming months  —  Microsoft won't ship support for Android apps on Windows 11 in time for the operating system's launch on October 5th.
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Apple bars staff from making a Slack channel about pay equity; Apple says it's because it's not work related, despite other channels on pets and jokes  —  The company's rules around Slack usage are not being evenly enforced  —  Apple has barred employees from creating a Slack channel to discuss pay equity.
Scott Chipolina / Decrypt:
El Salvador's plan to make Bitcoin legal tender has been unpopular, with protests over concerns of money laundering, forcing trade in BTC, unconstitutionality  —  El Salvador will soon accept Bitcoin as legal tender, but not everybody shares the President's enthusiasm as citizens took to the streets this week.
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
United Talent Agency signs NFT art projects CryptoPunks, Meebits, and Autoglyphs, all created by Larva Labs, for representation across film, TV, games, and more  —  The agency will represent the crypto-art projects from Larva Labs for film, TV, video games, and publishing projects …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Source: Facebook plans to downrank current events content and political posts in the News Feed, after users approved of tests that limited such content  —  Facebook plans to announce that it will de-emphasize political posts and current events content in the News Feed based on negative user feedback, Axios has learned.
Garett Sloane / Ad Age:
LinkedIn is abandoning its Stories format at the end of September and has told advertisers to adjust their ad campaigns accordingly  —  Brands will have to adjust ad campaigns when video format leaves the platform after September  —  LinkedIn is telling advertisers to prepare for the end …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: Amazon is developing a live audio feature, led by its Music division, with a focus on live music and potentially radio and podcasts  —  Amazon is investing heavily in a new live audio feature that's similar to other live audio offerings like Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and Spotify's new live audio platform, sources tell Axios.
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Alpaca, which offers APIs for fintech apps to connect and trade in US stocks, raises $50M Series B led by Tribe Capital and says it is expanding into crypto  —  Alpaca said this morning that it has closed a massive $50 million Series B round of capital.  TechCrunch previously covered …
Micah Singleton / Billboard:
Apple acquires classical music streaming service Primephonic, giving users six free months of Apple Music, and will launch its own classical music app in 2022  —  Apple has acquired Primephonic, the classical music streaming service, for an undisclosed amount, the company tells Billboard.
Riley de León / CNBC:
Data analytics company Databricks raises $1.6B Series H led by Morgan Stanley's Counterpoint Global fund at a $38B valuation, up $10B from February  —  - Databricks has raised a $1.6 billion Series H funding round that boosts its valuation to $38 billion.  — Its latest funding round …
MIT Technology Review:
Sources and experts say US-funded Afghan government databases containing sensitive personal data could be used by the Taliban to identify millions of Afghans  —  As the Taliban swept through Afghanistan in mid-August, declaring the end of two decades of war, reports quickly circulated …
Dave Nyczepir / FedScoop:
White House announces the US Digital Corps, a two-year fellowship aiming to recruit early-career software engineers and other technologists to federal agencies  —  The White House launched a two-year fellowship Monday designed to place early-career software engineers, data scientists and other technologists at federal agencies.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Eight Sleep, which makes smart mattresses that cost $3K+ and use ML to regulate temperature for better sleep, raises $86M Series C led by Valor Equity Partners  —  The venture world is — quite literally — waking up to the potential of applying artificial intelligence to a wider variety of real-world …
More: FortuneThanks:@ingridlunden
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
State media says China is restricting online gaming for minors to three hours most weeks of the year, from 8pm to 9pm on Fridays, weekends, and public holidays  —  - The country is imposing its strictest limits yet on play time  — Beijing is waging a campaign to groom productive youths

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Toby Sterling / Reuters:
Jamie Tarabay / Bloomberg: