Techmeme
August 1, 2023, 9:50 AM

Top News

New York Times:
Twitter/X files a lawsuit against Center for Countering Digital Hate, accusing the nonprofit and its backers of “actively working to prevent free expression”  —  The Center for Countering Digital Hate said it had received a letter from X, Twitter's parent company …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Sheila Dang / Reuters:
Andy Robinson / Video Games Chronicle:
Sources: Nintendo plans to release a new console in H2 2024, with a portable mode, LCD display, and a cartridge slot; key partners already have development kits  —  Development kits for Nintendo's next console are now with key partner studios, with launch planned for next year, sources have told VGC.
Financial Times:
Sources: Meta plans to launch a range of AI chatbots dubbed “personas” that exhibit personalities as soon as September, to boost engagement on its platforms  —  Facebook owner seeks to seize on hype for AI while challenging rivals such as OpenAI, Snap and TikTok
Ina Fried / Axios:
Internal email: Google is revamping Assistant to focus on using generative AI, starting with the mobile version, and is reorganizing related teams  —  Google plans to overhaul its Assistant to focus on using generative AI technologies similar to those that power ChatGPT and its own Bard chatbot …
Preetika Rana / Wall Street Journal:
Uber reports Q2 revenue up 14% YoY to $9.23B, gross bookings up 16% YoY to $33.6B, and a $394M net income, up from a $2.6B loss in Q2 2022, its first profit  —  Ride-hailing and delivery businesses grew in the second quarter, though freight shrank  —  Uber Technologies posted …
Bloomberg:
Sources: senior EU and US officials are concerned about China's accelerated push into the production of older-generation chips made with 28nm equipment or above  —  - China is building more plants than others despite US sanctions  — Officials are worried about impact on domestic chip plans
Christian Davies / Financial Times:
Bloomberg:
After Curve disclosed a hack, CRV dropped by ~25% in three days, prompting fears of wider market turbulence; DefiLlama: crypto using Curve fell ~50% to $1.9B  —  - Curve's native CRV coin posted three-day, 25% slump after hack  — Drop raised concerns about wider fallout from platform's woes
Emma Roth / The Verge:
The BBC launches social.bbc, an “experimental” Mastodon server with posts from a handful of BBC accounts, and plans to try out the server for six months  —  The BBC has launched its own “experimental” Mastodon server, marking one of the first major news outlets to establish an instance on the Twitter alternative.
Jeremy Hill / Bloomberg:
Court filings: FTX Group details a draft plan to repay creditors, including settling claims in USD and wiping out FTT; seven classes of creditors can now vote  —  - Customer claims to be valued in US dollars as of bankruptcy  — Company hasn't ruled out rebooting offshore exchange
Joe McDonald / Associated Press:
China restricts civilian drone exports, citing Russia's war in Ukraine and concern about military use; DJI pulled out of Russia and Ukraine in April 2022  —  China imposed restrictions Monday on exports of long-range civilian drones, citing Russia's war in Ukraine and concern that drones might be converted to military use.
New York Times:
The FBI says a contractor misled the agency and used NSO's Landmark to track people in Mexico without consent; the FBI terminated the contract in April 2023  —  After a Times report, the bureau canceled its contract with a government contractor that used the tool on its behalf.  But questions remain.
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
The UK CMA reopens its consultation on Microsoft's Activision deal, an unusual move that could lead to a reversal of the decision to block the deal  —  CMA invites responses to tech giant's new arguments in rare move that could pave way for $75bn takeover to close
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Rapyd, which offers payment APIs, plans to acquire Prosus' payments unit PayU for $610M, excluding its operations in India, Turkey, and Southeast Asia  —  Rapyd, the fintech-as-a-service startup that provides APIs to enable payments, card issuing, digital wallet and other financial services …

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Earlier Picks

Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Decrypt:
Yogita Khatri / The Block: