Techmeme
December 24, 2019, 4:50 AM

Top News

New York Times:
US officials say ToTok, a chat app gaining popularity around the world, is a spying tool by the government of UAE; Google and Apple have now removed the app  —  ToTok, an Emirati messaging app that has been downloaded to millions of phones, is the latest escalation of a digital arms race.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Bytedance is considering setting up a global headquarters for TikTok outside of China, as part of its effort to shake off its Chinese image  —  Singapore, London and Dublin are among cities being considered; no U.S. city made shortlist  —  Bytedance Inc. is considering setting …
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Twitter blocks animated PNGs, saying a bug had allowed them, and that they did not respect autoplay settings so could be used to harm people sensitive to motion  —  Twitter will no longer animate PNG files after trolls hijacked the Epilepsy Foundation's handle and hashtags last month …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Dish increases price of both Sling TV packages, Orange and Blue, by $5 to $30/month, gives all users 10 hours of cloud-based DVR storage and additional channels  —  The cheap days of Sling TV are over  —  The cheap days of Sling TV are over.  Dish's internet TV service is raising the price …
CNBC:
Mike Bloomberg created a tech company called Hawkfish that's helping his 2020 campaign and employs ex-Facebook CMO Gary Briggs and ex-Foursquare CEO Jeff Glueck  —  - A technology company called Hawkfish, with former executives from Facebook and Foursquare, is helping Bloomberg's 2020 presidential bid.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Researchers: unpatched flaws in Citrix products leave 80,000+ businesses potentially vulnerable to unauthorized network access; Cisco shares steps to mitigate  —  A newly discovered vulnerability impacting the Citrix Application Delivery Controller (NetScaler ADC) and the Citrix Gateway …
ProPublica:
Sources show how Amazon repeatedly delayed or scrapped investments in common industry practices like onroad safety training, as it built out its driver network  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.
Natalie Wexler / MIT Technology Review:
Educators and school administrators love digital devices that studies show mostly have a negative impact on learning, harming lower performing students the most  —  Educators love digital devices, but there's little evidence they help children—especially those who most need help.
Dan Primack / Axios:
DraftKings to go public via a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company and SBTech sports betting tech platform, targeting a $3.3B valuation  —  DraftKings on Monday announced that it will go public via a reverse merger with a blank-check acquisition company called Diamond Eagle …
The Verge:
The 84 biggest flops, fails, and dead dreams of the 2010s, from the Fire phone and Google Glass to the undoing of net neutrality in the US  —  A decade of failures  —  The world never changes quite the way you expect.  But at The Verge, we've had a front-row seat while technology …
Wired:
San Francisco's surveillance law, which banned city agencies from using facial recognition in May, has been amended to allow for Face ID on city-issued iPhones  —  San Francisco quietly amends its municipal surveillance law to allow for Apple's Face ID, though the ban on facial recognition still applies.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses  —  Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place.  Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Great Chat:
Code red: our favorite tech rivalries
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
How An AI Model Learned To Be Bad — With Evan Hubinger And Monte MacDiarmid
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
PBS Lost a Billion Dollars. Now what? With CEO Paula Kerger
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:50 AM ET, December 24, 2019.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Russell Brandom / The Verge:
New York Times:
Amy Booth / OneZero:

Earlier Picks

Gabriel J.X. Dance / New York Times: