Techmeme
October 20, 2023, 11:20 AM

Top News

Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
The US Treasury's FinCEN proposes labeling international crypto mixing as a “primary money laundering concern”, citing its use by Hamas and other illicit actors  —  Under pressure to address reports that Hamas and other terrorist groups are partially funded with crypto …
RT Watson / The Block:
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Elon Musk says X plans to launch two new premium tiers: a lower cost tier with all features, but no reduction in ads, and a more expensive tier with no ads  —  Elon Musk today said that X (formerly Twitter) is going to soon launch two new premium tiers, confirming previous reports and code sightings.
CoinDesk:
Filing: the US SEC drops charges alleging Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chairman Chris Larsen aided and abetted the company in violating securities laws  —  The regulator had included them as defendants in its securities violation case revolving around XRP transactions, and the agency now says it's just pursuing Ripple for damages.
New York Times:
Jon Stewart's Apple TV+ show abruptly ends, sources say over creative differences; source: Stewart said potential China and AI topics concerned Apple executives  —  Mr. Stewart and Apple are parting ways because of creative differences over “The Problem,” people with knowledge of the decision said.
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Source: X removed the main New York Times account's “verified” badge on October 17 without notice; source: X traffic to the NYT is down ~50% since August 2023  —  The unexplained decision removes the only symbol distinguishing the news organization from impostors and comes amid …
New York Times:
News publishers scramble to adjust to declining referral traffic, as Meta, X, and even Google become less dependable at amplifying and supporting journalism  —  News organizations are scrambling to adjust to the latest rift in the long-fractious relationship between publishers and tech platforms.
Mark Hachman / PCWorld:
AMD unveils the Radeon RX 7900M, a rival to Nvidia's RTX 4080 and the first laptop GPU to use a chiplet design, available in Dell's new Alienware m18 laptop  —  It will debut in the new Alienware m18, launching today.  —  AMD is setting its sights on Nvidia's RTX 4080 mobile GPU with the Radeon RX 7900M …
Gavin Bonshor / AnandTech:
Alexander Lee / Digiday:
FaZe Clan is acquired by esports holding company GameSquare Holdings in a deal valuing Faze at ~$16M, down from a $725M market cap at its 2022 SPAC merger  —  FaZe Clan's billion-dollar journey has taken an unexpected — but perhaps inevitable — turn.  Burned by controversy and facing …
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
23andMe is investigating a possible new data leak of 4M users' records on BreachForums; the hacker claims the stolen dataset includes info on people from the UK  —  The same hacker who leaked a trove of user data stolen from the genetic testing company 23andMe two weeks ago has now leaked millions of new user records.
Wes Davis / The Verge:
The FCC unanimously approves a petition by Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and others for access to the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi tethering for AR and VR headsets  —  The FCC has unanimously approved plans by several tech companies to use the 6GHz band for wireless devices.
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
William D. Cohan / Washington Post:
Writers and publishers need to band together to lobby against OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Meta, fighting for proper compensation and a share of AI's value  —  William D. Cohan is a best-selling author and a founding partner of Puck News.  —  The other day someone sent …

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More News

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Earlier Picks

Umar Shakir / The Verge:
Maria Heeter / The Information:
Jim Salter / Associated Press:
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC: