Techmeme
September 16, 2021, 5:50 AM

Top News

Ash Parrish / The Verge:
After being sued by the state of California, Activision Blizzard is sued by a group representing employees, alleging it tried to prevent them from organizing  —  Organized by CODE-CWA, the suit claims Activision Blizzard engaged in coercive and intimidating behavior
David McLaughlin / Bloomberg:
FTC says Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft made 819 unreported acquisition deals of $1M+, including for patents and acquihires, from 2010 to 2019  —  - Report shows hundreds of deals by tech giants went unchecked  — Antitrust enforcers must close loopholes, FTC Chair Khan says
Ryan Weeks / The Block:
NFT marketplace OpenSea acknowledges that its head of product, Nate Chastain, purchased NFTs he knew were going to be displayed prominently  —  Quick Take  — The marketplace has acknowledged that its head of product Nate Chastain purchased NFTs that he knew were going to be displayed prominently.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
While critics liken iPhone 13 to an iterative “12S” update, the branding shows Apple has adjusted to the current smartphone market, where big overhauls are rare  —  Apple's ‘S’-year iPhones never went away, it just stopped advertising them  —  Apple had a lot of new features …
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Hugh Son / CNBC:
Goldman Sachs is acquiring buy now, pay later fintech GreenSky for about $2.24B, in an all-stock deal  —  - Goldman Sachs is acquiring fintech lender GreenSky for $2.24 billion as the investment bank pushes further into consumer finance.  — The all-stock deal for GreenSky …
Wall Street Journal:
Internal documents: Facebook's own research found that a 2018 change to encourage positive interactions had the opposite effect; Zuckerberg resisted any fixes  —  Internal memos show how a big 2018 change rewarded outrage and that CEO Mark Zuckerberg resisted proposed fixes
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft will now let users access accounts without a password by using Microsoft Authenticator, Windows Hello, a security key, or a verification code  —  You can delete your Microsoft account password  —  Microsoft now lets you remove passwords from Microsoft accounts to embrace a passwordless future.
Patrick Howell O'Neill / MIT Technology Review:
Sources: US firm Accuvant, now part of Optiv, sold iPhone hacking tool Karma to the UAE for $1.3M in 2016; the tool has been used against hundreds of targets  —  An American cybersecurity company was behind a 2016 iPhone hack sold to a group of mercenaries and used by the United Arab Emirates.
Ryan McMorrow / Financial Times:
Research: Didi's average daily user count for August fell to 10.9M, from 15.6M in June, after its NY IPO triggered a fierce backlash by Chinese regulators  —  Promotions and discounts help ride-hailing rivals increase customer numbers  —  China's leading ride-hailing app, Didi …
Politico:
Joe Biden announces a new Indo-Pacific security partnership with Australia and the UK to share tech in areas like AI, cybersecurity, and quantum technologies  —  The new allies' agreement will include cooperation on nuclear-powered subs, AI and cutting-edge defense tech.  —  The Australian flag flies.
Catherine Thorbecke / ABC News:
UN rights chief calls for a moratorium on sale and use of AI tech that threatens human rights, including facial recognition, until safeguards are put in place  —  “We cannot afford to continue playing catch-up regarding AI.”  —  The United Nations Human Rights chief on Wednesday called …
Melissa Repko / CNBC:
Deutsche Bank survey: Walmart+, Walmart's Amazon Prime rival, has grown to ~32M US subscribers since its 2020 launch, and ~86% of them have Amazon Prime also  —  - Walmart+ has hit an “inflection point” and is growing its membership at a faster clip, according to a new research note from Deutsche Bank.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Senator Markey and Reps. Castor and Trahan wrote to Facebook calling on it to abandon its plans to launch an Instagram app for kids in light of WSJ's report  —  Democrats call on the company to abandon Instagram for kids  —  Two top lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee's panel …

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