Techmeme
December 17, 2019, 11:00 AM

Top News

Bret Kinsella / Voicebot.ai:
Report: Amazon had revenue of $1.4M from Alexa's in-skill purchases in the first ten months of 2019, which was well short of its target of $5.5M  —  The Information published (N.B. paywall) an article this morning saying that Amazon earned $1.4 million Alexa skill revenue through the first 10 months …
Colin Lecher / The Verge:
Security engineer at Google says she was fired from the company last week after two years for sending internal browser pop-ups about labor rights  —  The latest termination at the company  —  Google has fired another employee following a showing of internal activism, marking the latest …
Paul Ziobro / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon blocks marketplace sellers from using FedEx Ground for Prime shipments indefinitely over FedEx's “delivery performance”  —  Amazon cites a decline in FedEx performance heading into the final holiday push  —  Amazon.com Inc. AMZN .47% is blocking its third-party sellers …
Luke Jones / WinBuzzer:
Microsoft opens up the Microsoft Edge Addons store for submissions ahead of Chromium Edge's launch; existing Chromium extensions to be migrated automatically  —  Developers can now submit to the Microsoft Edge Addons Store, with existing Chromium extensions migrated automatically.
Danny Palmer / ZDNet:
WhatsApp fixes bug that allowed a rogue group member to render the app unusable, forcing a reinstall and loss of group chat content  —  Researchers detail security flaw that allowed hackers to crash WhatsApp and permanently delete contents of group chats - and urge users to update the app to protect against attacks.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram expands its fact checking efforts by hiding false content behind warnings, except for politicians, and removing it from Explore and hashtag pages  —  Instagram is giving politicians the same free reign to spread misinformation as its parent company Facebook.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Adithya Venkatraman / App Annie:
Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, all belonging to Facebook, were the most downloaded apps worldwide of this decade  —  Mobile Has Been at the Heart of Major Changes in Consumer Behaviour This Decade Throughout the 2010s we have seen our world transform.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Lime launches a weekly subscription service for frequent riders that waives the unlock fee on renting the company's e-scooters and bicycles  —  LimePass waves the unlock fee on your rentals  —  Lime just announced LimePass, a weekly subscription service that waves the unlock fee on renting …
Annie Musgrove / Tech.eu:
Odoo, the Belgian provider of open source all-in-one business software, raises $90M led by Summit Partners  —  Odoo, the Belgian provider of open source all-in-one business software, has raised a $90 million round, led by Summit Partners, to fund its fast-paced product development and continued global expansion.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Some contractors at Google's Austin content moderation facility describe being overworked and suffering severe mental health consequences after just six months  —  These moderators help keep Google and YouTube free of violent extremism — and now some of them have PTSD
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:
French startup EfficientIP, which helps fight DDoS attacks, raises $11M Series B from Jolt Capital  —  French startup, EfficientIP, a network security and automation specialist, has secured an $11 million Series B investment from Jolt Capital in Paris.  The investment will drive international expansion.
More: Tech.eu and PR Newswire

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Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:
Davey Alba / New York Times:
Can Sezer / Reuters:
Karl Freund / Forbes: