Techmeme
May 16, 2019, 2:40 AM

Top News

Makena Kelly / The Verge:
White House launches tool to solicit information from people who had social media accounts suspended or banned and who suspect political bias behind the actions  —  'If you suspect political bias caused such an action to be taken against you, share your story with President Trump'
Washington Post:
Trump issues order blocking US companies from doing business with information and communications technology companies owned or controlled by a foreign adversary  —  Amid a deepening trade war with China, President Trump on Wednesday declared a “national emergency” to protect U.S. communications networks …
Washington Post:
White House won't sign Christchurch Call to Action, an effort by governments and social media companies to fight online extremism, citing free speech concerns  —  The White House will not sign an international call to combat online extremism brokered between French and New Zealand officials …
Facebook:
Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Google, and Amazon sign on to the Christchurch Call to Action, commit to a 9-point plan to stop spread of terrorist content online  —  Today, Facebook's Vice President for Global Affairs and Communications Nick Clegg joined G7 government and industry leaders …
Heather Kelly / CNN:
New York Times:
Sources describe Uber's IPO process and the setbacks that led Uber's $120B pre-IPO valuation floated by bankers to fall to its current market cap of $69B  —  Last September, Uber's top executives were pitched by some of Wall Street's biggest banks, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac:
Report details Apple's “long and painful divorce” with Intel, says Apple's custom 5G modems may not arrive until 2025  —  The Information is out today with a detailed report on the falling out between Intel and Apple over the last few years that led to settling with Qualcomm …
The Information:
Sources: Quibi, the upcoming mobile streaming service led by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, is planning to raise up to $1B, following a $1B raise in August  —  Quibi, the mobile video streaming service headed by Hollywood and tech veterans Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman …
Nicole Nguyen / BuzzFeed News:
Behind Twitter's plan to fix problems like disinformation, harassment, and outrage through its new prototype app twttr  —  In March, Twitter cofounder Biz Stone tweeted a screenshot of an iPhone homescreen along with a message: “Notice our new prototype? ...
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google says a bug in its Titan Security Keys' Bluetooth pairing protocols is exploitable by hackers in close physical proximity, provides free replacement keys  —  Google today disclosed a security bug in its Bluetooth Titan Security Key that could allow an attacker in close physical proximity …
Bijan Stephen / The Verge:
In email to staff, Kickstarter CEO Aziz Hasan says management will not voluntarily recognize its employee union Kickstarter United, wants NLRB election instead  —  “I know this position is disappointing to some of you who were hoping the company would voice support for this effort," he wrote
More: Gizmodo
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Ajit Pai proposes a new rule that would allow carriers to block robocalls by default and lets customers block calls from numbers not on their contacts list  —  ‘The American people are fed up with illegal robocalls’  —  On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission announced a new measure …
Google AI Blog:
Google details Translatotron, its project to directly translate speech from one language into speech in another without intermediate text  —  Posted by Ye Jia and Ron Weiss, Software Engineers, Google AI  —  Speech-to-speech translation systems have been developed over the past several decades …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Valve releases Steam Link, its service for streaming desktop games to another device, on iOS and Apple TV, almost a year after its initial App Store rejection  —  Almost exactly a year after its initial rejection from the App Store, Valve today has officially released Steam Link on the App Store.
ProPublica:
Sources: two US data recovery firms touting hi-tech solutions for unlocking data after ransomware attacks instead just paid the ransom and charged victims extra  —  Firms That Promised High-Tech Ransomware Solutions Almost Always Just Pay the Hackers  —  As ransomware attacks crippled businesses …
Peter Bright / Ars Technica:
Microsoft releases its SPTAG algorithm, used to answer questions on Bing, as MIT-licensed open source on GitHub  —  Search engines today are more than just the dumb keyword matchers they used to be.  You can ask a question—say, “How tall is the tower in Paris?”—and they'll tell …
Owen Bowcott / The Guardian:
UK Supreme Court finds in favor of civil rights organizations and rules that GCHQ's powers to hack into internet services should be subject to judicial review  —  Supreme court says GCHQ's hacking powers should be subject to judicial review  —  Government security decisions will in future …
Jillian D'Onfro / Forbes:
Google Maps' two-wheeler mode in India, which offers custom routes for motorbikes before riders start a trip, has grown to 5M daily users since its 2017 launch  —  India is the world's largest market for motorbikes, with two-wheelers making up 70% of all vehicles registered by its 1.3 billion residents.

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Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE: