Techmeme
August 30, 2022, 9:10 PM

Top News

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Sources: Snap is planning to lay off ~20% of its 6,400+ employees; the layoffs are set to begin on Wednesday  —  Snap's stock price has declined nearly 80 percent this year  —  Snap is planning to lay off approximately 20 percent of its more than 6,400 employees, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Verge:
Sources: Twitter was working to monetize its adult content with OnlyFans-style subscriptions until a “red team” noted the prevalence of CSAM on the platform  —  Internal documents and Twitter employees reveal the need for massive investment to remove illegal content — but executives haven't listened
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Google says it has not yet approved Truth Social's Play Store app due to insufficient content moderation; CEO Devin Nunes said the decision “is up to Google”  —  Google hasn't yet approved Truth Social's Android app for distribution via its Play Store because of insufficient content moderation …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Twitter releases its Circle feature out of beta on iOS, Android, and the web, letting users tweet to smaller, selected groups of up to 150 people  —  Twitter is launching its Circle feature — which lets you post a tweet to a select set of people — globally.
Wall Street Journal:
MK Manoylov / The Block:
Kevin Rose's NFT startup Proof announces a $50M Series A led by a16z, upcoming NFT project Moonbirds Mythics, and a DAO to handle licensing of Moonbirds' name  —  - Additional participants in the round include Collab+Currency, Flamingo DAO, SV Angel, VaynerFund and Seven Seven Six.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Sony plans to acquire Savage Game Studios and creates a new PlayStation Studios Mobile Division, operating independently from console game development  —  Sony is acquiring mobile game developer Savage Game Studios, the company announced on Monday.  The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Jack Stebbins / CNBC:
Royal Caribbean Cruises partners with SpaceX's Starlink to offer onboard internet across all its ships, with installation scheduled to be completed early 2023  —  - Royal Caribbean Cruises will begin offering onboard internet via SpaceX's Starlink satellite network.
Jordan Middler / Video Games Chronicle:
Meta plans to shutter the Facebook Gaming app on iOS and Android on October 28, 2022, transferring games, content, and groups to the main Facebook app  —  Facebook will end support for its Facebook Gaming app in October, it's announced.  In a statement published on Sunday …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
A researcher says a Chinese database of up to 800M records was exposed for months, storing names, resident ID numbers, images of faces, license plates, and more  —  Another mass data lapse exposes new weaknesses in China's sprawling surveillance state  —  A massive Chinese database storing millions …
Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
TSMC CEO C. C. Wei says an endemic shortage of low-end chips costing $0.50 to $10 is holding up production in key segments of the global supply chain  —  An endemic shortage of chips costing anywhere from 50 cents to $10 is slowing down swathes of the $600 billion semiconductor industry …
Tatum Hunter / Washington Post:
Mental health content creators on TikTok and Instagram are increasingly filling a health care gap, which critics fear could lead to harmful self-diagnoses  —  Issey Moloney signed up for therapy through Britain's National Health Service when she was just 12 years old.  She was on a waiting list for four years.
Giles Turner / Bloomberg:
In an SEC filing, Elon Musk adds Peiter Zatko's allegations as a reason to terminate the $44B takeover bid, saying Twitter is in “material noncompliance”  —  Elon Musk has cited the recent accusations from a Twitter Inc. whistle-blower as a new reason to terminate the $44 billion takeover of the social media platform.
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:

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More News

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NBC News:
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Earlier Picks

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
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Tom Krazit / Protocol:
Financial Times:
Omkar Godbole / CoinDesk: