Techmeme
May 9, 2019, 3:00 PM

Top News

Chris Hughes / New York Times:
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes says Mark Zuckerberg's influence is staggering and that it is time to break up Facebook  —  The last time I saw Mark Zuckerberg  —  was in the summer of 2017, several months before the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke.  We met at Facebook's Menlo Park …
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
Consumer advocacy groups file a complaint with the FTC accusing Amazon's Echo Dot Kids of collecting children's data without parental consent  —  Amazon barreled into the children's smart-speaker market last year with a brightly colored device called Echo Dot Kids Edition.
Cyrus Lee / ZDNet:
Report: Oracle is shutting down its R&D arm in China, laying off 900+ employees  —  Staff that were made redundant have gathered to protest the layoff plan, according to photos and video clips circulating on social media.  —  Oracle will shut down its research and development (R&D) …
Jonathan Browning / Bloomberg:
In a UK court filing, Amazon says hackers siphoned money from ~100 seller accounts over a period of six months last year  —  - Amazon asked U.K. court for bank details linked to hackers  — Hackers break into about 100 accounts, according to documents
Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:
Report: Fxmsp, a collective of Russian- and English-speaking hackers, is selling source code and network access to three US-based antivirus software vendors  —  Source code, network access being sold online by “Fxmsp” collective.  —  In a report published Thursday, researchers …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix acquires children's media brand StoryBots, its third-ever acquisition, from the founders of JibJab Media for an undisclosed sum  —  Netflix announced that it acquired StoryBots, the children's media brand created by brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, the founders of JibJab Media.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google to add “pending transactions” payment option to the Play Store, letting users pay for apps at a retail store by showing a payment code on their device  —  Today, the Android platform sees more app downloads than iOS, but Apple's App Store continually dominates in terms of revenue.
Axios:
FCC votes unanimously to deny China Mobile's application to provide telecommunications services in the US due to concerns about national security  —  The FCC has voted unanimously to deny China Mobile's application to provide telecommunications services in the U.S. due to concerns about national security and law enforcement risks.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Coalition, which provides cybersecurity insurance, raises $40M Series B led by Ribbit Capital  —  Coalition, a cybersecurity insurance company, has raised $40 million in its latest round of funding.  —  Fintech investment giant Ribbit Capital led the investment with participation from Greenoaks Capital and Hillhouse Capital.
More: FinSMEs.  Thanks:@thenicolenewby
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Samsung announces the ISOCELL Bright GW1, a 64-megapixel image sensor for mobile phones, expects it to go into mass production in the second half of this year  —  Samsung fires new salvo in megapixel wars  —  Samsung has announced a new image sensor for mobile phones with a higher resolution than anything comparable on the market.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Google unveils Mini-apps, a “new capability” for Google Search and Assistant that delivers interactive and dynamically updated content in search results  —  During the Tuesday keynote that kicked off Google's I/O 2019 developer conference, the Mountain View company unveiled a slew …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
The lead of Oculus VR, Hugo Barra, says he is taking a new role at Facebook “building a global AR/VR partner ecosystem”; Erick Tseng to take over Oculus  —  Hugo Barra, the former Xiaomi executive who has run Facebook's Oculus VR team since 2017, is changing roles in what looks like a larger shake-up in VR at Facebook.
More: TechCrunch
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Fact-checking startup Factmata gets investment from Eyeo, creator of Adblock Plus, will take over Trusted News, Eyeo's Chrome plugin that identifies false news  —  “Fake news” — news content that either misleads people with half-truths, or outright lies — has become a permanent fixture of the internet.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google says it will soon weight Play Store app ratings to favor reviews from more recent releases, viewable by end users starting in August  —  Two years ago, Apple changed the way its app store ratings worked by allowing developers to decide whether or not their ratings would be reset …

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Earlier Picks

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Washington Post:
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Reuters:
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Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: