Techmeme: Sources detail how a 2019 NSO deal to sell Pegasus services to Uganda, followed by an attempt to hack US diplomats in Uganda using Pegasus, led to NSO's decline (Mehul Srivastava/Financial Times)

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December 22, 2021, 10:11 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Amid COVID-19 concerns, Meta, Amazon, Ring, and Twitter cancel in-person CES plans, T-Mobile and AMD plan a limited presence, and others monitor conditions — - Google, HTC, Samsung and Sony still currently plan to go — Host of CES conference remains steadfast in moving forward

More: T-Mobile, The Verge, Reuters, TechRadar, Axios, CNET, Adweek, Pocketnow, Telecoms.com, New York Post, iPhone in Canada Blog, Ad Age, TechCircle, BGR India, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, Fossbytes, iMore, Variety, Washington Post, TmoNews, Samsung Newsroom, and Light Reading

Tweets: @mikesievert, @markgurman, @lturrentine, @andyboxall, @epro, @bdsams, @caro_milanesi, and @obrien

Washington Post:

Survey of 1,058 US internet users: 72% distrust Facebook, 63% TikTok, 60% Instagram, 53% WhatsApp, and 53% YouTube; 53% trust Amazon, 48% Google, and 44% Apple — You'll find all the usual technology suspects inside Mary Veselka's Pearland, Tex., home. There's her iPhone …

More: 9to5Mac. Tweets: @carnage4life, @jesselehrich, @sfcpoll, @emgusk, @drewharwell, @sfcpoll, @eugene_scott, and @jeffjarvis

The Cloudflare Blog:

TikTok.com was the most popular domain globally between August and December 2021, after passing Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon this year

More: PhoneArena, Beyond Search, The Overspill, Gizmodo, First Futurist, CNET, TechRadar, Android Headlines, Slashdot, and The Register

Tweets: @b_fung, @flyfazfly, @liahaberman, @epro, @rsbutner, @carnage4life, @evelyndouek, @ericxtang, and @cloudflare

Mehul Srivastava / Financial Times:

Sources detail how a 2019 NSO deal to sell Pegasus services to Uganda, followed by an attempt to hack US diplomats in Uganda using Pegasus, led to NSO's decline — For years, the Israeli spyware maker thrived through scandal. Then, US diplomats in Uganda got hacked by Pegasus

More: Metacurity, Washington Post, The Electronic Intifada, BGR, iThinkDifferent, and Daring Fireball

Tweets: @jessicawriteug, @qataharraymond, @hebobiwine, @kizzabesigye1, and @leshaque

Reuters:

Chinese state media says regulators suspended an info-sharing partnership with Alibaba Cloud over accusations it failed to promptly report a Log4j vulnerability — Chinese regulators on Wednesday suspended an information-sharing partnership with Alibaba Cloud Computing …

More: South China Morning Post, Wall Street Journal, The Hacker News, Benzinga, and ExchangeWire.com

Tweets: @kevincollier, @campuscodi, @campuscodi, and @imposecost

Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:

An announcement bot for Justin Kan's NFT platform Fractal was hacked by a scammer who made off with about $150K, before the startup even launched its platform — Despite billions in VC investment, many web3 crypto platforms are still pretty hostile places for users new to the crypto world.

More: The Verge, The Block, Cotten.IO, thegamer.com, Solanews, GameSpot, Kotaku, and Protocol

Tweets: @zachbussey, @geerlingguy, and @0xdevant

Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:

Jack Dorsey's tweet sparks uproar: “You don't own ‘web3.’ ... VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It's ultimately a centralized entity” — Fresh off relinquishing the chief executive reins of Twitter Inc., Bitcoin enthusiast Jack Dorsey …

Source: @jack. More: The Verge, Slate, CryptoPotato, CoinDesk, Khakis & Leather, Cointelegraph, Benzinga, Protocol, Decrypt, Bankless Times, PYMNTS.com, TNW, CryptoSlate, Engadget, Livemint, KnowTechie, BGR India, Cryptonews, Crypto Briefing, Insider, The Economic Times, and India Today

Tweets: @jack, @elonmusk, @jack, @joemccann, @balajis, @balajis, @jack, @timgriffin77, @pt, @tyler, @matthuang, @0xdoug, @samkazemian, @antoniogm, @kelseyhightower, @jack, @mdudas, @balajis, @erikvoorhees, @adamscochran, @slightlylate, @bigblackjacobin, @sam_l_shead, @pitdesi, @getongab, @nikitabier, @mutedialog, @ourielohayon, @mdudas, @packym, @cdharrison, @backlon, @nadertheory, @howardlindzon, @samecwilliams, @gaberivera, @kevinsekniqi, @jason, @karlbode, @jack, @jack, @antoniogm, @thestalwart, @pierce, @thestalwart, @lopp, @kelseyhightower, @terenceleejx, @joemccann, @jakeudell, @cdixon, @thestalwart, @thestalwart, @grady_booch, @balajis, @iamdcinvestor, @trungtphan, @shonaghosh, @taha_zafar12, @liamspradlin, @punk6529, @asvanevik, @olivierjanss, @olivierjanss, @bigblackjacobin, @ashleevance, @arthurb, @jacklipstone, @levie, @cdixon, @vladsavov, @silvermanjacob, @cdixon, @anildash, @mdudas, and @kelseyhightower

Chris Vallance / BBC:

The UK's ad regulator bans two ads by Arsenal FC promoting its Socios-based Fan Tokens, saying the soccer club “failed to illustrate the risk of the investment” — A web page and a Facebook post by Arsenal football club promoting crypto-based fan tokens broke advertising rules, a watchdog has ruled.

More: asa.org.uk, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Decrypt, The Guardian, Coinspeaker, Reuters, Cointelegraph, Cryptonews, CoinDesk, Financial Times, The Athletic, and Football.London

Tweets: @tariqpanja, @jamesbenge, @josephmdurso, @josephmdurso, @josephmdurso, @josephmdurso, and @josephmdurso

Ben Dummett / Wall Street Journal:

Online training service Skillsoft acquires edtech company Codecademy for $525M in cash and stock; Codecademy raised $40M in February — Acquisition is Skillsoft's largest deal since going public in June — Skillsoft Corp. has agreed to acquire rival U.S.-based educational technology company Codecademy …

More: Skillsoft

Tom Krisher / Associated Press:

US NHTSA opens an investigation into Tesla's “Passenger Play” in-car gaming feature covering 580,000 vehicles from 2017 to 2022 — ATHENS, Ohio (AP) — The U.S. has opened a formal investigation into Tesla allowing drivers to play video games on a center touch screen while its vehicles are moving.

More: Insider, Reuters, and WRAL TechWire. Tweets: @kevin_stank

Bloomberg:

Intel faces criticism in China after asking suppliers not to use Xinjiang labor or products, with a Weibo hashtag on the topic drawing over 250M views — - Chipmaker says it doesn't use labor or supplies from Xinjiang — Western nations have accused China of forced labor in region

More: Benzinga, South China Morning Post, Global Times, and Global Times

Tweets: @byron_wan and @huxijin_gt

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Q&A with Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell on meeting pandemic demand, relationships with Apple and Amazon, killing the Harmony remote line, USB-C, and more — Logitech is one of those ubiquitous companies — it's been around since 1981, selling all kinds of important things that connect …

Tweets: @davezatz, @fghori, @naterethorn, @reckless, and @reckless

Alex Konrad / Forbes:

Retool, a low-code tool for creating enterprise apps, raises a $20M Series C from Stripe founders and others at a $1.85B pre-money valuation — Covering venture capital, software and startups — When Retool CEO David Hsu set out recently to raise fresh funding for his low-code software startup …

Tweets: @alexrkonrad, @alexrkonrad, and @alexrkonrad. Thanks:@alexrkonrad

Joe Williams / Bloomberg:

MongoDB has hired eight senior AWS executives in the past two years, making them CTO, VP of developer relations, head of partner marketing, and more — - The database provider has hired eight senior AWS leaders — AWS, Microsoft and Oracle have rival database products

Tweets: @business

Harry Brumpton / Bloomberg:

Canadian legal software maker Dye & Durham will acquire Australian data and back office services provider Link Group for about $2.5B — - Cash offer at 15% premium over Link's Tuesday closing price — Deal includes Link's 43% stake in recently spun-out PEXA Group

More: Canada NewsWire Group and Reuters

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:11 AM ET, December 22, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:

60 Minutes' CECOT segment, pulled by Bari Weiss, was mistakenly aired in Canada via an app owned by Global Television, which airs 60 Minutes in the country

Ali Watkins / New York Times:

Channel 4 says Jimmy Kimmel will share a message on Christmas Day as part of its Alternative Christmas Message show, emphasizing the importance of free speech

Reuters:

Israel's cabinet votes to shut down popular national radio station Army Radio, saying it has become a platform for views that “attack” its armed forces

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More News

Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:

The UK's National Centre for Gaming Disorders, opened in 2019 in London, says ~70% of those treated were aged 18 or under and ~90% were male

Shruti Srivastava / Bloomberg:

India says it expects domestic chip production to start in the next 2-3 years; its $10B semiconductor incentive scheme begins taking applications on January 1

More: The Economic Times, Gizchina, Livemint, Business Standard, and Business Today

Christine Hall / TechCrunch:

Overjet, which offers AI-powered software for identifying dental disease, raises a $42.5M Series B led by General Catalyst and Insight at a $425M valuation

More: Grit Daily News, Tech Times, Boston Business Journal, Overjet, and FinSMEs

Ivan Levingston / Bloomberg:

Delivery Hero says it will exit its food delivery business in Germany after seven months and divest its Japanese operations

More: TechCrunch, Silicon Republic, Delivery Hero, and Financial Times. Tweets: @ivanlevingston

David Pierce / Protocol:

Interview with Automattic's Matt Mullenweg on working from his always-connected RV, making “the Berkshire Hathaway of the internet”, and betting on open systems

Tweets: @protocol, @protocol, @glynmoody, @benpimentel, @amontalenti, @pierce, @protocol, @karynelevy, @jboogie, and @automattic

Annie Njanja / TechCrunch:

Australian startup Vivi, whose wireless tech enables tutors to display teaching material on students' own devices in classrooms, raises $20M from Quad Partners

More: Startup Daily and Vivi

Janice Bitters Turi / Crunchbase News:

Apella, which collects data via sensors in hospital operating rooms and analyzes the information using AI to improve surgical quality, raises a $21M Series A

More: Business Wire, FinSMEs, and San Francisco Business Journal

Tweets: @vickerysec, @justinklein1, and @crunchbasenews

Ryne Hager / Android Police:

CEO of OSOM, a privacy-centric smartphone company founded by ex-Essential employees, teases OV1, the company's first handset slated for launch in summer 2022

More: OSOM, Gizchina, Android Headlines, YouTube, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, PhoneArena, MobileSyrup, Liliputing, Droid Life, Android Central, XDA Developers, and GSMArena.com

Earlier Picks

Chris Welch / The Verge:

TCL resumes selling its Google TVs after recently pulling the entire lineup from Best Buy and rolling out software updates to fix performance issues

More: Engadget and 9to5Google. Tweets: @chriswelch

Mathew Olson / The Information:

Meta says it acquired ImagineOptix, a North Carolina-based startup specializing in liquid crystal lenses, which could help reduce the size of VR headsets

More: KGOnTech, Android Central, and SiliconANGLE

Tweets: @ruffianistired, @sadlyitsbradley, @sadlyitsbradley, @sadlyitsbradley, @sadlyitsbradley, @sadlyitsbradley, @ruffianistired, @jefmes, @ruffianistired, @sadlyitsbradley, @sadlyitsbradley, and @moncikoma

Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk:

Kraken acquires non-custodial staking platform Staked and claims it's “one of the largest crypto industry acquisitions to date”, but doesn't disclose a price

More: Business Wire, Kraken Blog, Decrypt, FinSMEs, CoinJournal, CryptoSlate, Coinspeaker, cryptodaily.co.uk, SiliconANGLE, City A.M., Crypto Briefing, Blockworks, The Block, Cointelegraph, and CryptoNinjas

Tweets: @cointelegraph, @asvanevik, @mayazi, @brianchoffman, @krakenfx, and @jespow

The Information:

Sources: Bolt, which offers a one-click checkout service, is seeking to raise ~$400M at a $14B valuation, after raising $393M at an $11B valuation in October

Mitchell Clark / The Verge:

Meta says over half of its Bulletin newsletter platform's 115 creators have over 1,000 free subscribers, “with many having more than 5,000 or 10,000”

More: Social Media Today and Insider. Tweets: @perlberg