Techmeme
December 20, 2022, 4:35 PM

Top News

Joshua Oliver / Financial Times:
FTX plans to recoup political donations by Sam Bankman-Fried and his associates, estimated at $70M+ in the 2021-2022 election cycle, to help repay creditors  —  Crypto group's new management says if funds are not returned voluntarily it will pursue recipients in court
Tracy Wang / CoinDesk:
A look at Modulo Capital, a mysterious multi-strategy hedge fund founded in 2022 and based in Albany in The Bahamas, which received $400M from Alameda Research  —  Founded in early 2022, Modulo operated out of the same luxury Bahamian condominium community where Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX employees lived.
Washington Post:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Twitter pilots Blue for Business with select accounts, helping companies identify brands and key employees via badges, but doesn't share other perks and pricing  —  Twitter launched “Blue for Business” last week alongside relaunching Twitter Blue.  At that time, the social network had assigned a gold checkmark to businesses.
Wall Street Journal:
As US lawmakers considered adding antitrust bills to the omnibus spending package, tech trade group CCIA, Meta, Amazon, and more ramped up opposition to them  —  Industry has spent more than $100 million to fight antitrust measures and other bills in Congress  —  How Apple's iPhone and Apps Trap You in a Walled Garden
Alex Stamos / @alex@cybervillains.com:
Elon Musk is amplifying false claims the FBI “paid Twitter millions” to “censor info from the public”; law enforcement reimburses companies for data requests  —  This claim is false.  Law enforcement has the ability to get stored communications from companies like Twitter under 18 USC 2703(d).
Bloomberg:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
TikTok begins telling users why a video was recommended in the For You feed, such as previous interactions or followed accounts  —  TikTok is launching a new feature that allows users to see why a particular video was recommended to them in their For You feed, the company announced on Tuesday.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI releases Point-E, an open-source ML system that generates and displays 3D objects from a text prompt in one to two minutes on a single Nvidia V100 GPU  —  The next breakthrough to take the AI world by storm might be 3D model generators.  This week, OpenAI open-sourced Point-E …
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
The DEA finds a Mexico-based methamphetamine and cocaine gang operating across the US, Mexico, Europe, and Australia used Binance to launder $15M to $40M  —  A methamphetamine and cocaine gang operating across the U.S., Mexico, Europe and Australia used the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange Binance …
Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon agrees to settle two EU antitrust cases related to third-party sellers on its platform, won't pay a fine, and will adhere to commitments for seven years  —  Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to settle two European Union antitrust cases related to allegations about its treatment of third-party sellers …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko says the social network reached 2.5M MAUs in November, up from around 300,000 in October, as Twitter users flee the service  —  Mastodon, a decentralized social media platform that many are turning to as a Twitter alternative, saw its userbase skyrocket …
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Over 100 BTC claimed to be inaccessible was moved out of cold wallets tied to QuadrigaCX, the exchange that went bankrupt in 2019 after its CEO allegedly died  —  More than 100 BTC tied to QuadrigaCX moved out of cold storage wallets over the weekend.  Quadriga's bankruptcy trustee …
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:
Sources: in a first, Apple plans to move some MacBook production to Vietnam in 2023, asking Foxconn to begin as early as May, to further diversify from China  —  iPhone maker aims to have ‘out of China’ production alternatives for key products  —  TAIPEI — Apple plans to move …
Lee Fang / The Intercept:
Internal documents show that, going back to 2017, Twitter worked with the Pentagon to whitelist CENTCOM accounts used in online foreign influence campaigns  —  Twitter executives have claimed for years that the company makes concerted efforts to detect and thwart government-backed covert propaganda campaigns on its platform.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Insider Intelligence: Google will capture 28.8% of US digital ad revenue in 2022 and Meta will get 19.6%, for a combined 48.4%, down from a 54.7% peak in 2017  —  Google and Meta, known together in the ad industry as the “duopoly,” are expected to bring in less than half of all U.S. digital advertising …
Jeff Kauflin / Forbes:
A profile of London-based crypto trading firm Wintermute in the aftermath of UST and FTX's implosion and a $160M hack, as revenues dramatically decline in 2022  —  By deftly navigating crypto's frontier markets and winning big on the collapse of Terra's stable coin, Wintermute has grown …
Viola Zhou / Rest of World:
Sources: Foxconn workers in Zhengzhou say they got COVID-19 at the plant in December and some were asked to keep working; one said he was dissuaded from testing  —  Sick workers say they're being asked to stay on the assembly line as Foxconn ramps up iPhone 14 Pro production.
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
BetterHelp, Cerebral, and other digital mental health companies are failing to offer quality care due to unprofessional therapists, a pressure to grow, and more  —  Heavy advertising and other strategies from Silicon Valley's playbook boost providers' growth but not the quality of care
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Apple fixes a macOS vulnerability, reported by Microsoft, that let attackers bypass Gatekeeper, a feature that checks if apps are notarized and developer-signed  —  Apple has fixed a vulnerability attackers could leverage to deploy malware on vulnerable macOS devices via untrusted applications capable …

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable 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!
F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
Don't Do.  Just Tell.  With Zoho MCP for Bigin.  —  Dear small business owners,This one's a little different.We're not here to walk you through a checklist of features.  We're here to tell you about something …
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

Invest Like the Best:
Alex Sacerdote - How to Invest Through Technology Cycles
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
Father of the iPod and iPhone on building taste, judgment, and creativity in the AI era | Tony Fadell
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Will Apple (Finally) Get AI Right At WWDC?, Anthropic's Worry, Microsoft vs. OpenAI
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.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Vanta's Christina Cacioppo: The Underdog Turning 'Nonsense' Compliance Into A $4.2B Security Standout
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Hot I.P.O Summer + What Is A.I. Doing to Math? + HatGPT
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
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 4:35 PM ET, December 20, 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

Sarah Krouse / Wall Street Journal:
New York Times:

Earlier Picks