Techmeme
February 7, 2022, 5:45 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Meta announces that Peter Thiel, one of Facebook's first institutional investors and longest-serving directors, will step down from Meta's board this year  —  The tech billionaire, who has been on the board of the company formerly known as Facebook since 2005, is backing numerous politicians in the midterm elections.
Alan Rappeport / New York Times:
The IRS says it will transition away from using facial recognition for identity verification, after a bipartisan backlash regarding its use of ID.me services  —  The tax collection agency will transition away from using a service from the authentication service ID.me amid bipartisan backlash.
Michiel Willems / City A.M.:
In its annual SEC report, Meta repeats its warning that it may be forced to shut down “significant” services in Europe if the EU adopts new data transfer rules  —  If Meta is not given the option to transfer, store and process data from its European users on US-based servers …
Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk:
The Ethereum Name Service DAO, which manages .eth domains, votes to remove Brantly Millegan as a steward over a 2016 tweet; Millegan has refused to apologize  —  A Tweet from Nick Johnson, founder and lead developer of ENS, confirmed Millegan has been removed from both the DAO and as director of operations of True Names Ltd.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Amazon raises its maximum base pay for corporate and tech employees from $160K to $350K, in line with other tech giants, citing a “competitive labor market”  —  Amazon will boost its maximum base pay to $350,000 for corporate and tech employees, from $160,000 previously …
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
A profile of freight logistics startup Flexport, which is raising a $935M+ Series E co-led by a16z and MSD Partners at an $8B valuation  —  Founder Ryan Petersen has positioned himself as shipping's savior, earning Flexport a new $8 billion valuation.  But industry rivals …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Ethereum scaling project Polygon raises $450M, its first major financing round, led by Sequoia Capital India; Polygon has a ~$13B market cap  —  Ethereum scaling firm Polygon has raised $450 million in a new venture financing round as the firm, with a market cap of about $13 billion …
Charles Daly / Bloomberg:
Price comparison service PriceRunner sues Google in Stockholm's patent and market court for allegedly manipulating search results to favor its own services  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google is being sued by Nordic price comparison provider PriceRunner AB for about 22 billion kronor ($2.4 billion) at Stockholm's patent and market court.
Karl Freund / Forbes:
Intel announces efforts to accelerate RISC-V development and adoption, including licensing plans, chip manufacturing partners, and a $1B IFS Innovation Fund  —  This announcement will have a long-lasting impact on the entire semiconductor industry:  —  Intel must fabricate chips …
J. Clara Chan / The Hollywood Reporter:
In a staff email, Daniel Ek says “silencing” Rogan is not the answer and commits $100M to licensing, developing, and marketing content from marginalized groups  —  Over the weekend, videos resurfaced by the musician India.Arie showed the podcaster repeatedly using the n-word …
Shoshana Wodinsky / Gizmodo:
Adtech experts explain how GDPR has proven ineffective thanks to the ingenuity of adtech firms, which have managed to effectively skirt its consent requirement  —  The EU's landmark privacy law, GDPR, was supposed to change the world of tech privacy forever.  What the hell happened?  —  Alerts

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
Accessibility in Zoho People: Our commitment to an inclusive HR experience  —  According to a recent statistic, nearly 1.3 billion people live with a disability.  In 2024, the employment rate for working-age people …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Channels with Peter Kafka:
How to Survive without Google: People Inc's Playbook
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Cheeky Pint:
Creating prediction markets (and suing the CFTC) with Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Invest Like the Best:
William Hockey - Building the Operating System for the Dollar and Silicon Valley Heresy
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
BG2 Pod:
ChatGPT - The Super Assistant Era
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Lenny's Podcast:
The tactical playbook for getting 20-40% more comp (without sounding greedy) | Jacob Warwick (Executive Negotiator)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Everybody Goes Home: How technology is helping prevent wildfires from spreading
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:45 PM ET, February 7, 2022.

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.

More News

Earlier Picks

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Christopher Knaus / The Guardian:
Casey Newton / Platformer: