Techmeme
October 22, 2018, 12:10 AM

Top News

Fred Wilson / AVC:
Recent news serves as a reminder that operators in startups and venture capital should work to ensure their investors are not bad actors  —  I got an email from the CEO of one of our portfolio companies last week.  —  It asked a very basic question, but one that I don't recall being asked before:
The Information:
Sources: Facebook is stepping up efforts to buy a major cybersecurity firm and has approached several companies about an acquisition  —  In an effort to repair its tattered reputation around data protection, Facebook is stepping up efforts to acquire a major cybersecurity firm, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Haaretz:
An in-depth look at how Israel became a leading exporter of tools for oppressive regimes to spy on activists' and dissidents' communications  —  Haaretz investigation spanning 100 sources in 15 countries reveals Israel has become a leading exporter of tools for spying on civilians.
David Pierini / Cult of Mac:
Profile of YouTuber Scotty Allen, who rose to fame last year after he built an iPhone from scratch by using parts he bought from public markets in Shenzhen  —  Millions have watched Scotty Allen build an iPhone from parts mined from the electronics markets of Shenzhen, China.
Bloomberg:
Source: Plaid, which makes tools to let clients like Venmo and Coinbase authenticate accounts and check balances, is raising $200M at a valuation of up to $3B  —  Plaid Technologies Inc. is in talks to raise $200 million and the valuation of the deal is rising as venture investors vie to bankroll the startup.
Rita Katz / Wired:
Research shows ISIS and al-Qaeda have shifted away from YouTube for disseminating propaganda following the platform's 2017 crackdown against extremist content  —  BEFORE MOST PEOPLE even knew that terrorist outreach was happening online, YouTube was a top recruitment venue for jihadi terrorist groups.
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
How projects like Ocean Protocol, Oasis, Enigma, and SingularityNET use blockchain for AI research hoping to curb the dominance of big tech in the field  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Pairing artificial intelligence and the blockchain might be what you would expect from a scammer looking to make a quick buck in 2018.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
SoftBank Group COO Marcelo Claure and Arm CEO Simon Segers talk about the present and future of Arm, IoT growth, while trying to dodge Saudi-related questions  —  SoftBank, one of the world's biggest tech companies and startup investors, believes we'll have a trillion connected devices by 2025.
More: CNN

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More News

Dami Lee / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

New York Times:
New York Times: