Techmeme
June 16, 2020, 1:00 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
The European Commission opens two antitrust investigations into Apple's App Store and Apple Pay practices  —  Both investigations begin today  —  The European Commission is opening two antitrust investigations into Apple's App Store and Apple Pay practices today.
Frank Jordans / Associated Press:
Germany launches a COVID-19 contact tracing app on iOS and Android, saying it cost €20M to develop and will require €2.5M- €3.5M per month to operate  —  BERLIN (AP) — Germany launched a coronavirus tracing app Tuesday that officials say is so secure even government ministers can use it.
Washington Post:
CIA report: security was so lax at the time of the Vault 7 breach, that if WikiLeaks hadn't published said files, CIA may have never known they were compromised  —  The theft of top-secret computer hacking tools from the CIA in 2016 was the result of a workplace culture in which the agency's …
BBC:
Report finds 11% of people under 25 use Instagram for news compared with 12% for Twitter, predicts Instagram will overtake Twitter next year as a news source  —  Photo-sharing app Instagram is set to overtake Twitter as a news source, research suggests.  —  The 2020 Reuters Institute Digital …
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Instagram says that, amid concerns it may “shadowban” Black voices, it will review harassment and verification rules, and check for bias in recommendations  —  Instagram's top executive says the company will review its harassment and verification policies, as well as how the app recommends content …
Shakeel Hashim / Protocol:
Brightside, a financial health service offering expert assistance, says it closed a $35M Series A at the end of last year, led by Andreessen Horowitz  —  A pandemic in which thousands of businesses are struggling to pay bills seems like an odd time to voluntarily take on debt, especially for a startup.
Hiroyuki Nishimura / Nikkei Asian Review:
China proposes an East Asian digital currency based on the Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, South Korean won, and the Hong Kong dollar  —  Beijing backs private-sector-led East Asia digital money in challenge to US  —  TOKYO — Global competition for supremacy in digital currencies has entered …
Olivia Solon / NBC News:
Dozens of Tunisian, Syrian, and Palestinian activists and journalists say their Facebook accounts have been deactivated recently on the pretext of terrorism  —  “Facebook doesn't care.  It closes our accounts on the pretext of terrorism.  We are against terrorism and violence," one journalist said.
David Pierce / Protocol:
Basecamp debuts Hey, an email service for $99/year that tries to reimagine email, blocks tracking pixels, but needs its own client and can't import old email  —  David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founder and CTO of Basecamp, is trying very hard to not say “I told you so.”
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Apple says its App Store facilitated $519B in commerce globally in 2019, citing a study from Analysis Group  —  Amid increasing antitrust scrutiny by U.S. regulators, Apple announced an update on its App Store ecosystem.  While the company normally shares some App Store metrics during its WWDC keynote …
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Starburst, a startup based around an open-source data analytics project from Facebook called Presto, raises $42M Series B led by Coatue Ventures  —  An open-source software company with close ties to Facebook has raised a new funding round from one of the tech giant's former key executives.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Epic Games, which owns Fortnite, Unreal Engine, and Houseparty, is close to raising $750M at a ~$17B valuation, with investors including T. Rowe, KKR  —  - Epic owns Fortnite video game, Unreal Engine and Houseparty  — T. Rowe, KKR, Baillie Gifford to participate in round

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More News

Ashley Carman / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Reuters:
Ifeoma Ozoma / @ifeomaozoma:
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
CBS Boston: