Techmeme
July 17, 2019, 9:50 AM

Top News

European Commission:
The European Commission launches a formal antitrust investigation into possible anti-competitive conduct by Amazon in its dual role as marketplace and retailer  —  The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether Amazon's use of sensitive data …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to fund original, exclusive podcasts and has reached out to media companies, in a bid to compete with Spotify  —  - Tech giant looks to use exclusives to compete with Spotify  — Company has recently added new Podcasts Mac app, web interface
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Highlights from the Senate hearing with Facebook's David Marcus on the proposed Libra cryptocurrency, and what was left unanswered  —  Facebook will only build its own Calibra cryptocurrency wallet into Messenger and Whatsapp, and will refuse to embed competing wallets …
Elizabeth Schulze / CNBC:
John Markoff / New York Times:
Neuralink, which has received $158M in funding including $100M from Elon Musk, hopes to begin testing its brain-computer interface on humans by Q2 of 2020  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk aspires to make inserting a computer connection into your brain as safe and painless as Lasik eye surgery.
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Reflecting on VidCon, it's clear that influencers' command of social media foreshadows future power in politics and elsewhere  —  As social media expands its cultural dominance, the people who can steer the online conversation will have an upper hand.  —  ANAHEIM, Calif. …
Nitasha Tiku / Wired:
Four of the seven Google employees who organized a 20,000-person walkout in November have resigned from the company  —  FOUR OF THE seven Google employees who organized a 20,000-person walkout in November have resigned from the company, including two women who claimed Google retaliated against them for their internal activism.
Reuters:
Review of 33 high-profile blockchain projects within the financial sector and interviews with execs shows the limitations of blockchain and its weak adoption  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two years ago Nasdaq Inc (NDAQ.O) and Citigroup Inc (C.N) announced a new blockchain system they said would make payments …
Patrick Howell O'Neill / MIT Technology Review:
Researchers shed light on how WeChat censors images in private chats automatically in real time by using a massive and growing index of MD5 cryptographic hashes  —  The super app instantly blocks even the images for over 1 billion users and growing.  —  WeChat is a window into the future of the internet in many different ways.
Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed News:
Google has banned Chinese app developer CooTek from its ad platforms and Play Store, removing 60+ CooTek Android apps for bombarding users with disruptive ads  —  Google is banning CooTek, a publicly traded Chinese app developer, from its Play store and ad platforms after BuzzFeed News …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Apple says it is sending out another silent update for macOS to fix a webcam vulnerability affecting apps using Zoom's tech including RingCentral and Zhumu  —  RingCentral and Zhumu are now patched  —  Apple informed us that it has sent out a silent security update to Macs to remove software …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Sprint says hackers had access to customers' names, billing, device details, and more via Samsung's website, fails to disclose the number affected  —  Hackers had access to customer info such as names, billing, device details, and more.  —  US mobile network operator Sprint said hackers broke …
BBC:
Pearson, the world's largest education publisher, says all future releases of its 1,500 active US titles will be “digital first” and updated on an ongoing basis  —  The world's largest education publisher has taken the first step towards phasing out print books by making all its learning resources “digital first”.
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Trump threatens to “take a look” at Google for alleged China ties, in a tweet that cited claims Peter Thiel made at a conference and repeated on Fox News  —  President Trump on Tuesday appeared to threaten that his administration would “take a look” at Google …
Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:
London-based ContractPodAi, which develops AI-powered contract lifecycle management software, raises $55M Series B led by Insight Partners  —  ContractPodAi, a London-based startup that has developed what it describes as AI-powered contract lifecycle management software, is disclosing $55 million in Series B funding.

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Zoho:
Update on Node.js vulnerabilities CVE-2026-111497, CVE-2026-105482, CVE-2026-105483 and CVE-2026-106069  —  Overview On October 21, 2026, Node.js announced security releases for the 26.x, 24.x and 22.x release lines to fix multiple vulnerabilities.
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Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Big Tech's Ugly Week, Getting Rich At Anthropic, AI Costs Plunge
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Machine Gods:
OpenAI's Latest Discoveries Spark a Backlash + Help! My Kid Hates AI
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Cheeky Pint:
Why Sam Altman is against a single superintelligence
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Sources:
Tobi Lütke on the AI agent revolution and future of Shopify
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
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