Techmeme
April 18, 2022, 2:30 PM

Top News

Ronan Farrow / New Yorker:
An in-depth investigation into the global commercial spyware industry, led by Israel's NSO Group, as Citizen Lab finds Pegasus infected a device in UK's No. 10  —  The inside story of the world's most notorious commercial spyware and the big tech companies waging war against it.
The Citizen Lab:
Investigation finds 65+ people were targeted by Pegasus and Candiru, including Catalans, likely by Spanish authorities, and details a new iOS zero-click, HOMAGE  —  Key Findings  — The Citizen Lab, in collaboration with Catalan civil society groups, has identified at least 65 individuals targeted …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Report: Microsoft is working on a program to let select brands advertise within free-to-play Xbox games, such as on a billboard, and won't take a revenue cut  —  The ads supposedly wouldn't disrupt gameplay  —  Microsoft is reportedly working on a program that will let brands showcase …
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
To unlock its vast potential, Twitter should go private and split into two: one company to manage the social graph and the other its apps and ad business  —  Elon Musk wrote in a letter to Twitter's board: … The vast majority of commentary about the Musk-Twitter saga has focused …
Reed Albergotti / Washington Post:
Experts say open sourcing Twitter's algorithm will not increase transparency because recommendation engines are complex and use an immense fire hose of data  —  Conservatives have long claimed discrimination by the social network, but there's no one algorithm that could prove it, researchers say
Michael McSweeney / The Block:
Beanstalk, a credit-focused stablecoin protocol using Ethereum, was exploited for ~$182M in various crypto assets by someone who had amassed governance tokens  —  Beanstalk, a credit-focused stablecoin protocol built on Ethereum, was exploited Sunday morning.
Kate Kaye / Protocol:
Virtual classroom startup Class is testing Intel's “emotion AI” tech that claims to detect bored, distracted, or confused students, raising privacy questions  —  When college instructor Angela Dancey wants to decipher whether her first-year English students comprehend what she's trying …
Ignacio Olivera Doll / Bloomberg:
Fan tokens issued by Manchester City and other soccer clubs have proven to be a disappointment for hopeful fans, with prices quickly losing steam within days  —  As soon as rumors started buzzing that soccer star Lionel Messi would transfer from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain in August …
Sarah McBride / Bloomberg:
SoftBank's Shu Nyatta and Paulo Passoni, two of three managing partners at its $2B Latin America Fund, said they are leaving to start their own VC business  —  SoftBank Group Corp.'s Shu Nyatta and Paulo Passoni, two of the three managing partners at the SoftBank Group Corp.'s Latin America Fund …

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Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: