Techmeme
June 21, 2018, 12:45 AM

Top News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram debuts IGTV, a hub for high-profile creators, and says it will begin letting users upload videos up to an hour long, up from previous one-minute limit  —  Instagram is ready to compete head on with YouTube.  Today at a flashy event in San Francisco, the company announced …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook begins letting Group admins test a feature that charges members $4.99 to $29.99 per month for access to exclusive sub-groups  —  Facebook is starting to let Group admins charge $4.99 to $29.99 per month for access to special sub-Groups full of exclusive posts.
Robert Ferris / CNBC:
Tesla sues former employee Martin Tripp for allegedly exporting gigabytes of confidential data, after Musk sent memo saying an ex-staffer committed sabotage  —  - Tesla is suing former process engineer Martin Tripp for allegedly illegally exporting data and making false claims to reporters.
Katherine Krueger / Splinter:
Twitter temporarily suspended some accounts that simply linked to a Splinter post that shared a phone number for White House adviser Stephen Miller  —  This morning, Splinter published the personal cell phone number of White House adviser Stephen Miller, an official so monstrous …
Polina Marinova / Fortune:
Sources: nonprofit financial platform Stellar in talks to buy Chain, a startup building blockchain tech for the finance industry, for $500M in Stellar's Lumens  —  Stellar is in talks to acquire Chain, the San Francisco-based startup building blockchain technology for the financial industry, according to people familiar with the deal.
More: SludgeFeed
Marrian Zhou / CNET:
Microsoft says it does not have any plans for VR or mixed reality support for Xbox consoles  —  Microsoft's plans to include virtual reality in Xbox game consoles are virtually over.  —  The software giant told GamesIndustry.biz it isn't working on VR support for its popular Xbox console …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Microsoft to acquire Bonsai, which had raised $13.6M and helps add AI capabilities to firms' systems; Bonsai's 42 staff to join Microsoft's AI and Research unit  —  Microsoft is adding more firepower to its artificial intelligence arm.  The tech giant has agreed to acquire Bonsai …
Marguerite Reardon / CNET:
California lawmakers advance a net neutrality bill implementing some protections but not a proposed zero-rating ban that went beyond the FCC's 2015 regulations  —  California will not be the poster child for the nation's strongest set of net neutrality protections, as lawmakers …
Stephanie Chan / VentureBeat:
Sensor Tower data: Epic Games' Fortnite has generated $100M revenue on iOS in its first 90 days on the platform  —  Epic Games' hit game Fortnite has hit yet another milestone on mobile.  Since its iOS launch in mid-March, it has generated $100 million in revenue on those devices in 90 days, according to market analyst Sensor Tower.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon expands its Prime Wardrobe service, which lets users try between three and eight items, to all US users  —  Prime Wardrobe, Amazon's “try before you buy” shopping service first announced last summer, is officially out of beta and open to all Prime members in the U.S. as of today.
Rob Bennett / Windows Blog:
Microsoft News launches on Android and iOS as a rebranded MSN app, also powers news on Windows 10, Skype, Xbox, and Outlook.com  —  Microsoft has been in the news business for more than 23 years.  When we launched MSN in 1995, the news industry was just beginning to provide content online.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
EU Parliament panel passes copyright measures with final vote to come much later; Article 11 is “link tax”, and Article 13 mandates filtering uploaded content  —  In a key vote this morning the European Parliament's legal affairs committee has backed the two most controversial elements …
Axios:
Source: White House has begun planning a federal approach to data privacy, led by Trump's special assistant for tech Gail Slater, as EU rolls out GDPR  —  The White House is in the early stages of determining what a federal approach to online data privacy should look like, Axios has learned.
Patricia Zengerle / Reuters:
Bipartisan group of US lawmakers sends Google a letter questioning why it stopped Project Maven collaboration but continues to work with China's Huawei  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers asked Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google on Wednesday to reconsider …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Prifender, a startup led by past Microsoft, eBay, and PayPal execs with an automated platform for firms to ensure data privacy compliance, raises $5M seed round  —  Data privacy continues to be top of mind for companies all around the world, particularly as laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation go into effect this year.

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Earlier Picks

Patricia Hernandez / The Verge:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: