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December 19, 2021, 10:05 AM
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| The Streamable: |
Disney fails to reach a deal with YouTube TV, removing 17+ channels including ABC, Disney, ESPN, Freeform, and FX; YouTube TV drops its price to $49.99/month — After a year of bitter disputes with its partners, YouTube TV just took a gut-punch from one of the entertainment world's biggest titans.
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YouTube Official Blog, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, 9to5Google, Tom's Guide, CNET, KnowTechie, MUO, Appleosophy, Mashable, USA Today, Cord Cutters News, AppleInsider, Hollywood Reporter, Washington Post, Variety, The Verge, Engadget, PhoneArena, Bloomberg, and Droid Life
| Igor Bonifacic / Engadget: |
Amazon issues an update to fix its Appstore and the issues that left some Android 12 users with apps that didn't work — Amazon has addressed the issue that had left those with Android 12 phones unable to use apps they had downloaded from the company's Appstore.
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Neowin, Android Police, The Verge, PhoneArena, Liliputing, and Android Headlines
| Alex Pasternack / Fast Company: |
How Chinese Wikipedia volunteers fighting censorship, threats, arrest, and violence expose the challenges to the Wikimedia Foundation's free-knowledge mission — This past July, before he was banned from Wikipedia, Techyan was one of dozens of volunteers preparing to speak at the free-knowledge movement's annual conference, Wikimania.| Melanie Mitchell / Quanta Magazine: |
AI language models like GPT-3 can achieve up to 97% accuracy on some Winograd schemas, but understanding language doesn't equate to understanding the world — It's simple enough for AI to seem to comprehend data, but devising a true test of a machine's knowledge has proved difficult.
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Blaise Aguera y Arcas. Tweets: @cavvia, @mgsiegler, @schrep, @quantamagazine, @allen_ai, and @quantamagazine
| Nilay Patel / The Verge: |
Interview with Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute on how Congress can regulate social media platforms while abiding by the First Amendment — One of the hardest problems at the intersection of tech and policy right now is the question of how to regulate social media platforms.| Financial Times: |
Profile of Tether CEO Jean-Louis van der Velde, who previously ran a company in China that faced lawsuits over unpaid bills and fines for late tax payments — Jean-Louis van der Velde's career offered few clues that he would become a key figure in fast-growing industry| Wall Street Journal: |
Investigation: a dozen automated TikTok accounts, registered as 13-year-olds, were shown tens of thousands of weight-loss videos within a few weeks of joining — The app's algorithm can send users down rabbit holes of narrow interest, resulting in potentially dangerous content such as emaciated images …
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The Verge and Tom's Guide
Tweets: @dnvolz, @jason, @rlheinrichs, @artjonak, @davidshipley, @senblumenthal, @niubi, @rebeccajarvis, @hypervisible, @yoreekoh, @adrianhon, @jorge_guajardo, @histoftech, @gavinsbaker, @brenbrenchie, @looks_last, @markfollman, @davidcloudlat, @plmanseau, @jeffsharlet, @moonalice, @slpng_giants, and @tawnell
| Andy Maxwell / TorrentFreak: |
Malaysia passes a bill to imprison illegal streaming pirates, primarily those involved in the provision or facilitation of illegal streams, for up to 20 years — Malaysia's House of Representatives has passed amendments to copyright law that will boost the country's deterrent …
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Lowyat.NET, thesundaily.my, Lexology, and Malaysiakini
| Dan Taylor / Tech.eu: |
Lepaya, an Amsterdam-based power skills training provider helping companies upskill their workforce via its app, raises a $40M Series B led by Target Global — Amsterdam's power skills training provider Lepaya has raised $40 million in a Series B round. With its upskilling offer …
More:
Lepaya EN, Bloomberg, Silicon Canals, pitchbook.com, and EU-Startups
| Patricia Allen / EU-Startups: |
Madrid-based Playtomic, an app for booking tennis and padel courts and connecting 1M+ active players in 34 countries, raises a €56M Series C led by GP Bullhound — Leading tennis and padel social and booking app, Playtomic, has just raised €56 million in investment led by GP Bullhound …
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Sifted
| BBC: |
A look at Russia's efforts to censor Western social media with fines and takedown requests, as most posts Russia wanted removed in 2021 were pro-Navalny content — Google and Meta face the threat of multi-million-dollar fines for failing to delete content that the Russian government considers illegal …
Tweets: @biannagolodryga, @jpmarthoz, and @fujiiponta
| Kim Lyons / The Verge: |
TikTok says it is removing “alarmist warnings” about a supposed day of school violence that prompted some US districts to cancel classes on Friday — It hasn't found any videos threatening school violence on Friday, the company said — TikTok said Friday that it's working to remove …
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USA Today, CNN, CBS News, BBC, The Independent, Reuters, Bloomberg, Livemint, WCCO | CBS Minnesota, Associated Press, Slate, PYMNTS.com, GeekWire, TechCrunch, Associated Press, HuffPost, Gizmodo, and CNET
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Hard Fork:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
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Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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