Techmeme
September 15, 2022, 4:40 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Adobe plans to acquire UI design and prototyping tool Figma for ~$20B, half cash and half stock; CEO Dylan Field will continue to lead Figma; ADBE drops 15%+  —  Adobe Inc. agreed to buy software design startup Figma Inc. in a deal valued at about $20 billion in a bid to expand its suite of creative tools for professionals.
Casey Newton / Platformer:
TikTok and ByteDance's links to China mean wrongdoing will be punished more harshly in the US than Meta and Twitter, no matter how “transparent” the company is  —  In new testimony to Congress, the company faces stern questions on China  —  Ever since TikTok became …
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
In a US Senate committee hearing, Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter executives defended their platforms and dodged security, privacy, and moderation questions  —  Executives from four of the biggest social media companies testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee Wednesday …
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
TikTok rolls out Now, a BeReal-like feature, to its app in the US, with daily prompts to capture a 10-second video or a photo using both front and back cameras  —  TikTok launched a new feature today that is basically just a copy of BeReal, the buzzy French social app that's been steadily gaining popularity.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Mike Truppa / The Block:
Ethereum activates its long-awaited Merge upgrade, in development since 2020, and transactions are now being processed under proof of stake  —  - The Merge upgrade is transitioning Ethereum from proof of work to proof of stake.  — The Merge is one of the largest technological events in the industry to date.
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
Snap makes Snapchat for Web available to all users globally, including chat, photos, and audio and video calls, releases iOS 16 lock screen widgets, and more  —  Snapchat's messaging and video chat features first made their way to browsers back in July, but only in select markets and for Snapchat+ subscribers.
Financial Times:
Sources: alongside the UK's CMA, the EU is expected to open an in-depth probe into Microsoft's $75B Activision bid due to its size and concerns from rivals  —  Regulators in Brussels expected to follow CMA with plans for prolonged competition investigation  —  Microsoft's $75bn acquisition …
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Senator Ron Wyden reveals the CBP told Congress it adds data from ~10K travelers' devices per year to a database, accessible by 2,700 officers without a warrant  —  Contacts, call logs, messages and photos from up to 10,000 travelers' phones are saved to a government database every year
Charles Hutzler / Wall Street Journal:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Meta's Oversight Board says the company should be more careful with automated moderation and criticizes it for removing a cartoon of police violence in Colombia  —  Meta's Oversight Board says the company should be more careful with automated moderation tools, criticizing it for removing a cartoon depicting police violence in Colombia.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
EU lawmakers propose the Cyber Resilience Act, a set of cybersecurity rules for IoT and smart device makers to provide ongoing support and patches or face fines  —  European Union lawmakers have proposed a new set of product rules to apply to smart devices that's intended to compel makers …
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
NYC-based job-focused social network Polywork raised a $28M Series B led by ex-GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Caffeinated Capital, and launches out of private beta  —  Stop trying to make Polywork happen.  It's already happening.  You may even be polyworking as you read this.
More: FinSMEs
Stephanie Murray / The Block:
Coinbase updates its app to let US users see a scorecard that evaluates members of Congress on crypto policy issues, register to vote, and find political events  —  - Coinbase is getting political: The exchange added new app features to help users evaluate lawmakers, register to vote and find political events.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Soxton:
AI-powered law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Zoho:
Zoho CRM Plus in 2025: A year of thoughtful CX improvements  —  2025 marked 11 years of building a customer experience platform designed to support organizations as customer expectations, channels …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Alex And Ranjan's 2026 Outlook: ChatGPT 1 Billion, AI Shopping, Apple's Big Year, AI Love Boom
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Where Is All the A.I.-Driven Scientific Progress?
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Naughty Citizen', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
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.
BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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 4:40 PM ET, September 15, 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

Laura Cappelle / New York Times:

Earlier Picks