Techmeme
August 13, 2019, 1:10 PM

Top News

Nitasha Tiku / Wired:
Interviews with 47 former and current employees about the past three years at Google reveal fear of the far right, activist awakening, weaponized leaks, more  —  ON A BRIGHT Monday in January 2017, at 2:30 in the afternoon, about a thousand Google employees—horrified, alarmed, and a little giddy …
Ursula Perano / Axios:
WordPress.com owner Automattic says it will buy Tumblr from Verizon, take on ~200 staffers, and keep the porn ban; source says Automattic paid less than $10M  —  Verizon is set to sell the social network Tumblr to Automattic Inc, the owner of blog site and publishing tool Wordpress, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Snap announces Spectacles 3 with an updated design and a second HD camera to create depth perception, going on sale in November for $380  —  They're $380 and go on sale in November  —  Snap today announced Spectacles 3, a redesigned version of its augmented reality sunglasses with a sleek …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Spotify for Podcasters comes out of beta, giving podcasters valuable listener data like age, gender, location, music taste, and episode listening duration  —  Spotify for Podcasters comes out of beta today  —  Spotify is going to give podcasters listener data they can't get anywhere else.
New York Times:
How YouTube radicalized Brazil, diverting users to conspiracy and far-right channels, elevating Bolsonaro's party, and possibly creating a public health crisis  —  NITERÓI, Brazil — When Matheus Dominguez was 16, YouTube recommended a video that changed his life.
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Pavilion Data Systems, a data center storage company, raises $25M Series C led by Taiwania Capital and RPS Ventures  —  Data center hardware maker Pavilion Data Systems Inc. is gearing up for expansion after closing on a $25 million round of funding that brings its total amount raised to $58 million.
Emily Birnbaum / The Hill:
Pentagon's internal watchdog says it is reviewing the $10B “war cloud” contract, which was set to be awarded to Microsoft or Amazon, over misconduct allegations  —  The Pentagon's internal watchdog on Tuesday said that it is investigating potential ethics concerns around the $10 billion …
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Facebook says it is opening up the closed beta of Spark AR on Instagram, letting any developer build and share AR filters on the platform  —  Not one to let Face App and Snapchat steal its spotlight, Facebook announced today that it's opening its closed beta of Spark AR on Instagram …
More: The Verge

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Brad Sams / Thurrott:
Daniel Palmer / CoinDesk:
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Steve Dent / Engadget:
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Jon Fingas / Engadget: