Techmeme
October 12, 2019, 3:35 PM

Top News

Nick Statt / The Verge:
Blizzard says its decision over the Hearthstone controversy had nothing to do with China, reduces player's suspension to six months and restores his prize money  —  It claims the ban has nothing to do with China  —  Video game developer Blizzard Entertainment has finally broken its silence …
BuzzFeed News:
Sources: in early 2018, Eddy Cue and Morgan Wandell, Apple's international TV lead, asked some Apple TV+ show creators to avoid portraying China in a poor light  —  We thought trade would bring Western values to China.  Instead, it brought Chinese values to Apple.
Nicole Carpenter / Polygon:
Gamers upset with Blizzard are protesting by turning Mei, a Chinese Overwatch character, into a pro-democracy symbol, to get Blizzard's games banned in China  —  Overwatch hero Mei is being turned into a symbol of resistance  —  People are furious after Blizzard Entertainment suspended …
Danny O'Brien / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Brian Fung / CNN:
Elizabeth Warren targets Facebook's ad policy of exempting ads by politicians from third-party fact-checking by running a Facebook ad with a clear falsehood  —  Zuckerberg says legal battles during a Warren presidency would ‘suck’  —  (CNN)A fresh series of Facebook ads this week …
New York Times:
Sources: Bill Gates met Jeffrey Epstein on many occasions, beginning in 2011, after Epstein's conviction for sex crimes; Gates says it was an error in judgment  —  Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who committed suicide in prison, managed to lure an astonishing array of rich, powerful and famous men into his orbit.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Visa, Mastercard, eBay, and Stripe say they are exiting Facebook's Libra Association, following PayPal, which announced its withdrawal last week  —  - EBay, Visa, Mastercard and Stripe announced Friday they will no longer be part of Facebook's libra cryptocurrency project.
Tyler Hall / tyler.io:
Apple's insistence on unnecessarily tying software releases to yearly hardware upgrades is a broken cycle for a services company; it needs to be more agile  —  This isn't the blog post intended to write.  In fact, last night I drafted up one about my problems sending background push notifications with Amazon SNS (coming soon!).
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Profile of PewDiePie covering his relationships with YouTube and mainstream media, as he tries to shed his reputation as a far-right sympathizer  —  The biggest YouTuber in the world has been accused of being a closet white nationalist and even inspiring mass shootings.  He says it's all a misunderstanding.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:
SEC says it has obtained a temporary restraining order against Telegram's $1.7B TON cryptocurrency ICO  —  The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has filed an emergency action and obtained temporary restraining order against two offshore entities conducting an alleged unregistered …
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Profile of BoxGroup, one of New York's most prolific seed stage investment firms, which is taking outside investors for the first time for two new $82.5M funds  —  Covering venture capital, software and startups  —  When entrepreneur Zachariah Reitano learned that his sister had a serious illness in 2015 …
Dustin Gardiner / San Francisco Chronicle:
California passes law, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, to block police from using facial recognition tech in body cams; OR and NH have passed similar laws  —  SACRAMENTO — Civil liberties advocates are declaring victory after California became the latest state to block police from using facial recognition technology in body cameras.

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Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
Mutiny's Jaleh Rezaei: Walking Away From Millions In Software To Grow Even Faster With Sales AI
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More News

Rachel Monroe / The Atlantic:

Earlier Picks

Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:
Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News:
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Kareem Anderson / OnMSFT.com: