Techmeme
October 16, 2021, 6:50 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Internal docs: Instagram spent the majority of its global annual marketing budget since 2018 targeting teenagers, as it worries about losing its user “pipeline”  —  The app, hailed as Facebook's growth engine, has privately wrestled with retaining and engaging teenagers, according to internal documents.
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
A joint advisory by the FBI, NSA, CISA, and EPA reveals three more ransomware attacks on water treatment plants this year in Nevada, Maine, and California  —  Ransomware gangs have silently hit three US water and wastewater treatment facilities this year, in 2021, the US government …
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Valve quietly updates Steam's rules to ban games “built on blockchain technology that issue or allow exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs”  —  Your move, Epic Games Store  —  Games that use blockchain technology or let users exchange NFTs or cryptocurrencies won't be allowed on Steam …
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Twitch downplays last week's hack, saying it had minimal impact and user login credentials, full credit card numbers, and bank information were not exposed  —  In an update regarding this month's security incident, Twitch downplayed the breach saying that it had minimal impact and only affected a small number of users.
Julie Jargon / Wall Street Journal:
Some doctors in the US and other countries say TikTok videos about Tourette syndrome may be contributing to a rise in cases of teen girls with physical tics  —  When teens started turning up in doctors' offices with sudden, severe physical tics, specialists suspected social media …
Chavi Mehta / Reuters:
Jack Dorsey says Square is considering building an open source Bitcoin miner, using custom silicon, for individuals and businesses  —  Square Inc (SQ.N) Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey said on Friday the fintech firm is looking to build a bitcoin mining system based on custom silicon …
Kyle Chayka / New Yorker:
A look at Raya, a secretive subscription-based social network with a rigorous user selection process and a rigid code of silence for accepted members  —  The app has created a space free of the problems that plague the rest of the Web, but only by leaving almost everybody out.
Aislinn Keely / The Block:
CFTC files and settles charges against Tether and Bitfinex, ordering them to pay a total of $42.5M for making “untrue or misleading statements” about USDT  —  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) simultaneously filed and settled charges against Tether and Bitfinex today …
Huib Modderkolk / The Guardian:
Profile of Edwin Robbe, who hacked the Netherlands' largest telecom KPN as a teenager and cost the company €3M, before being found dead in South Korea  —  Edwin Robbe had a troubled life, but found excitement and purpose by joining an audacious community of hackers.

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Kellen Browning / New York Times:
Bloomberg: