Techmeme
April 2, 2019, 1:05 PM

Top News

Alex Konrad / Forbes:
a16z raises new $2B fund and says the firm's 150 employees are being registered as financial advisors, so they can go deeper on riskier bets, like buying crypto  —  Emerging from the financial crisis in 2009, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz laid out their campaign to take on Silicon Valley.
Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News:
Facebook says it removed over 800 Indian and Pakistani Pages, accounts, and Groups for spreading misinformation and propaganda, ahead of India's election  —  NEW DELHI — Facebook and Instagram removed more than 800 political pages, accounts, and groups in India and Pakistan for spreading misinformation …
Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
Sources: YouTube execs ignored internal warnings, concerns about the spread of toxic videos, and proposals to change recommendations, in favor of engagement  —  A year ago, Susan Wojcicki was on stage to defend YouTube.  Her company, hammered for months for fueling falsehoods online …
Paul Thurrott / Thurrott:
Microsoft closes the Microsoft Store's ebook category, offering to full refunds on ebook purchasers and a $25 credit to those who annotated their ebooks  —  I guess the only surprise here is when this would happen.  But Microsoft is indeed shutting down the ebook functionality in its Edge web browser and in the Microsoft Store.
Matthew Boyle / Bloomberg:
Walmart will let customers order groceries by voice through Google Assistant beginning this month, expanding the service to other platforms in the coming months  —  - Prior purchase data will help identify preferred brands, size  — Retailer to expand service to more platforms in coming months
Manish Singh / VentureBeat:
Readdle brings popular free email app Spark to Android with features aimed at power users and promises no ads or tracking  —  Twelve years after its inception, Readdle is finally venturing beyond Apple's ecosystem with the launch today of its Spark email app for Android.
Adrian Zmudzinski / Cointelegraph:
Report: data provided by TokenData shows about $118M has been raised via ICOs in Q1 2019, compared to $6.9B raised during the same period in 2018  —  About $118 million has been raised via initial coin offerings (ICOs) in Q1 of 2019, over 58 times less than $6.9 billion …
Abhimanyu Ghoshal / The Next Web:
WhatsApp debuts a fact-checking tip line in India to combat fake news, will work with startup Proto to help review text, photos, links, and video sent by users  —  WhatsApp has launched its next weapon in the fight against misinformation on its platform in India: a tip line to which you can send forwards …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils new mid-range 13-inch Surface Book 2 with Intel quad-core i5 processor, 256GB storage, and 8GB RAM for $1,499  —  Microsoft is quietly refreshing its Surface Book 2 base model today.  The software giant is introducing Intel's latest 8th Gen quad-core i5 processor …
Mark Di Stefano / BuzzFeed:
YouTube is removing UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson's videos from search results and prohibiting him from live streaming, stopping short of an outright ban  —  The video platform is removing the far-right activist's videos from search results and stopping him live-streaming.
Ellen Huet / Bloomberg:
Segment, which helps companies manage customer data streams, raises $175M Series D, source says at a $1.5B valuation, co-led by Accel and GV  —  Segment Inc., a startup that helps companies manage the ever-growing streams of data they collect about their customers, raised $175 million in venture funding …
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Valve confirms its Index VR headset with integrated headphones and new controllers will ship on June 15, plans full reveal for May 1  —  You won't have to wait until May to learn more about Valve's Index VR headset.  Valve briefly posted (and promptly removed) unfinished pages for the Index …
Colin Lecher / The Verge:
1,300+ Googlers sign a petition demanding Google remove Kay Coles James, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, from its external AI advisory board  —  ‘They think that some of our colleagues either do not or should not exist’  —  When Google announced an external advisory board …

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