Techmeme: Walmart reports US e-commerce sales rose 43% YoY in Q4, thanks to its growing online grocery business, including the expansion of grocery pickups and deliveries (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Top News

Google publishes 30-page paper on how it combats disinformation across YouTube, Search, News, Ads: product improvements, experience with spam, context for users — Over the weekend, Google presented a white paper at the Munich Security Conference detailing how it fights disinformation across its largest services.

More: The Keyword, Engadget, Google, Geek News Central, Search Engine Roundtable, TechSpot, Search Engine Journal, and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check

Tweets: @kevinroose, @carnage4life, @lewisshepherd, @miles_brundage, @jeremybmerrill, @carnage4life, and @mattnavarra

See also Mediagazer

Jon Porter / The Verge:

Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon X55, its second generation 5G modem, with a maximum download speed of 7 Gbps, up 40% from the X50's 5 Gbps — The Snapdragon X55 adds support for more 5G technologies — Even before most phone makers have launched their first 5G handsets, Qualcomm …

More: Qualcomm, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Engadget, Mashable, Thurrott, Inquirer, Windows Central, AnandTech, XDA Developers, ZDNet, VentureBeat, Android Police, TechSpot, KnowTechie, Bloomberg, MSPoweruser, and CNET

Tweets: @neiltwitz and @patrickmoorhead

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

Coinbase buys Neutrino, which helps monitor, analyze, and track cryptocurrency flows, for an undisclosed sum — Coinbase, the world's most valuable crypto company, is gearing up to add more cryptocurrencies to its exchange thanks to its latest acquisition.

More: The Coinbase Blog, CoinDesk, SludgeFeed, Crunchbase News, CryptoNinjas, Cointelegraph, The Block, and Ethereum World News

Tweets: @coinbase, @melt_dem, and @neerajka

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Walmart reports US e-commerce sales rose 43% YoY in Q4, thanks to its growing online grocery business, including the expansion of grocery pickups and deliveries — Walmart this morning posted strong holiday sales growth for its holiday quarter, with U.S. sales up 4.2 percent over the same time last year …

More: news.walmart.com, GeekWire, and ZDNet

Tweets: @walmartinc and @walmartinc

BBC:

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei says there is “no way the US can crush us” and that “our company will never undertake any spying activities” — The founder of Huawei has said there is “no way the US can crush” the company, in an exclusive interview with the BBC.

Mitchel Broussard / MacRumors:

Report details Huawei's efforts to steal Apple's IP, including pressing suppliers for Apple Watch details, copying a MacBook Pro component, debriefing new hires

More: The Information, Android Authority, Business Insider, Firstpost, Cult of Mac, Redmond Pie, Tech in Asia, TechNode, BGR, 9to5Mac, Fortune, AppleInsider, The Mac Observer, Neowin, iPhone in Canada Blog, and iPhone Hacks

Tweets: @theinformation and @tomlasseter

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

A deep dive on the widespread and ongoing DNS hijacking attacks, which the DHS issued an emergency directive about last month — The U.S. government — along with a number of leading security companies — recently warned about a series of highly complex and widespread attacks …

More: New York Times, Ars Technica, and Telegraph

Tweets: @briankrebs, @nicoleperlroth, @cglyer, and @mikko

Dami Lee / The Verge:

As emoji become a critical part of communication, unprepared courts are increasingly having to interpret their myriad meanings in criminal cases — What does a crown emoji really mean? — Bay Area prosecutors were trying to prove that a man arrested during a prostitution sting was guilty …

More: Fortune, 9to5Mac, and One Degree. Tweets: @tommighell

Twitter:

Twitter expands its policy for political ad transparency to the EU, India, and Australia, will show billing information, ad spend, impressions per tweet, more — We continue to be committed to enforcing stricter policies for political advertisers and providing clear, transparent disclosure for all ads on Twitter.

More: Bloomberg, Twitter, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, Engadget, VentureBeat, RTÉ, and Neowin

Tweets: @luca, @policy, and @karenwhite

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Saudi Arabia PIF and Mubadala, the biggest outside investors in SoftBank's Vision Fund, have complained about high valuations paid for tech companies — High valuations of Vision Fund investments—and the decision-making role of SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son—have led to concerns

More: TechCrunch. Tweets: @lisaabramowicz1, @danprimack, and @wsj

Theodore Schleifer / Recode:

Behind the scenes at Mithril Capital, Peter Thiel's other fund, primarily run by Ajay Royan, which sources describe as an investment firm in disarray — A dozen former employees, investors in the fund, and other people close to the matter describe an investment firm in disarray.

More: FinSMEs. Tweets: @teddyschleifer, @shitfund, @sriramk, @teddyschleifer, @teddyschleifer, @lsvalue, @teddyschleifer, and @recode

Wolfie Zhao / CoinDesk:

Sources: Bitmain posts a net loss of ~$500M in the third quarter of 2018; the company had disclosed profits of $1B in the first half of 2018 — Mining hardware giant Bitmain lost about $500 million in the third quarter of 2018 amid an overall bearish market for cryptocurrency, CoinDesk has learned.

More: The Block, SludgeFeed, and CryptoGlobe

Tweets: @whalepool and @alex

Rebecca Keegan / Hollywood Reporter:

Q&A with Amazon Studios Chief Jennifer Salke on her content acquisition strategy, potentially broadcasting a ceremony such as the Oscars one day, and more — The studio head opened up about her Sundance buying spree, blockbuster ambitions and the secret room where Amazon's 'Lord …

More: Digital Trends, Business Insider, CNBC, New York Times, Variety, and Engadget

Tweets: @thrmattbelloni, @thr, and @thr

See also Mediagazer

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Code and imagery found in Instagram's Android app reveal Fundraiser stickers for Instagram Stories; Facebook says they are coming later this year — Mark Zuckerberg recently revealed that commerce is a huge part of the 2019 roadmap for Facebook's family of apps.

More: The Verge, ZDNet, Engadget, Social Media Today, Digital Trends, Geek.com, SlashGear, Thurrott, 9to5Mac, PYMNTS.com, and MSPoweruser. Tweets: @joshconstine

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

NsKnox, which provides real-time payment fraud detection services, raises $15M Series A co-led by Viola Ventures and Microsoft's M12 — Payments fraud is on the rise, and not even corporate giants are immune. In April 2017, a U.S. Justice Department investigation revealed that Facebook …

More: Tech.eu, GeekWire, PR Newswire, FinSMEs, MSPoweruser, WinBuzzer, and ZDNet

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

Google announces plans to acquire cloud migration startup Alooma, which has raised around $15M to date — - Google announced Tuesday it plans to acquire cloud migration company Alooma, marking its next play in the competitive space. — Google's new cloud chief said at a conference earlier …

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Loom, which equips enterprises with instant video messaging tools, raises $11M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins, says it's signed up 1.1M users from 18,000 firms — If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many emails can you replace with a video? As offices fragment into remote teams …

Tweets: @joshconstine, @ilyaf, and @kleinerperkins

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Days after Greenpeace dings Amazon's “dirty cloud” in report the company disputes, Amazon debuts initiative to make half of its shipments carbon neutral by 2030 — Perhaps hoping to distract from Greenpeace's latest report on its “dirty cloud, Amazon this morning announced …

More: Day One, Fortune, Silicon Republic, Geek.com, Digital Trends, SlashGear, The Hill, GeekWire, VentureBeat, and Engadget

Tweets: @tfadell, @karahurst, @davidzapolsky, @meharris, and @amazonnews

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:

SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work — Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.

Zoho:

3 smarter updates for your staffing pipeline — Staffing recruiters manage multiple client requirements, large candidate databases, and tight submission deadlines. Finding suitable candidates is only the first step.

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.

WebBrain:

WebBrain: an open-source AI agent for your browser — Read pages, fill forms and automate tasks in Chrome or Firefox. Use local models or your preferred AI provider. Get started free.

Featured Podcasts

Machine Gods:

OpenAI's Latest Discoveries Spark a Backlash + Help! My Kid Hates AI

The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.

Subscribe to Machine Gods.

The Upstarts Podcast:

The Accidental YC Founder Solving AI's GPU Crisis | SF Compute's Evan Conrad

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.