Techmeme
June 18, 2020, 9:52 PM

Top News

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Apple rejects HEY appeal, noting email apps must work without paid subscription; Apple suggests offering in-app sub or to reconfigure app as IMAP and POP client  —  In a brief call today about Basecamp's Hay email app from the iOS App Store, Apple's Phil Schiller told me that there would currently …
Bloomberg:
Microsoft says some app stores are creating a far higher barrier to fair competition than Microsoft did when found guilty of antitrust violations 20 years ago  —  - Developers put at a disadvantage by unfair rules, Smith says  — European Commission this week launched investigation of Apple
Seth Schiesel / New York Times:
Sources: since February, Apple has rejected at least five versions of Facebook Gaming, citing rules that prohibit apps that primarily distribute casual games  —  Apple has repeatedly denied Facebook's new Gaming app from appearing in its App Store, citing its own rules.
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with House antitrust committee chair Rep. David Cicilline who says Apple is acting like a monopolist and a bully whose App Store fees are “highway robbery”  —  Apple is acting like a monopolist and a bully, according to the chairman of the House antitrust subcommittee.
Media Matters for America:
Facebook says it has removed ads from Trump's 2020 campaign that featured Nazi iconography; the campaign ran 88 ads with the inverted red triangle symbol  —  Update (6/18/20, 1:15 p.m. EDT): Facebook has removed the ads in question following this post and public backlash.
Leo Kelion / BBC:
In a major U-turn, UK government abandons its own coronavirus-tracing app approach and shifts to the model based on Google and Apple's API  —  In a major U-turn, the UK is ditching the way its current coronavirus-tracing app works and shifting to a model based on technology provided by Apple and Google.
Dylan Byers / NBC News:
Facebook commits $200M to support US Black-owned businesses, plans to double Black and Latinx staff by 2023, and add “Lift Black Voices” section to app  —  Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg on Thursday announced a series of new steps the social media giant is taking …
Jeremy Roebuck / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Court filings show how the FBI used a Philadelphia protester's Etsy profile, LinkedIn, and other internet history to charge her with setting police cars ablaze  —  As demonstrators shouted, fires burned outside City Hall, and Philadelphia convulsed with outrage over the death of George Floyd …
Kerry Flynn / CNN:
Colin Kaepernick joins Medium's board and will write for Medium publications; Kaepernick Publishing will create stories for Medium about race and civil rights  —  New York (CNN Business)Colin Kaepernick is expanding his media ambitions.  —  The athlete-turned-civil-rights- activist …
Financial Times:
German payments group Wirecard says €1.9B cash is missing and that “spurious cash balances” might have been provided to its auditor by a third party  —  Shares of payments group crash as it says a third-party may have tried ‘to deceive’ its auditor
The Markup:
Investigation finds nearly 100 Amazon listings for products it bans, like drugs, weapons, and spy gear, some sold as “Amazon's Choice” and some by Amazon itself  —  The online giant bans products related to drugs, spying and weapons, but we found plenty for sale …
Alfred Ng / CNET:
Facebook files lawsuits in the US and Europe against developers it alleges scraped user data, as the company increasingly turns to lawsuits to stop data abuses  —  Facebook is suing a developer it alleges was behind a data scraping campaign that took personal information, including login credentials …
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Following public condemnation from two Black employees, Pinterest CEO says that it plans to add a person of color to its board, evaluate compensation, and more  —  - CEO commits to non-White board member by end of year  — Company will evaluate whether Black employees are underpaid
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Google releases Text Fragment extension that lets Chrome users generate URLs linking directly to a specific section of text on page  —  An easier way to use Chrome's Text Fragment feature  —  Link to Text Fragment is a new Chrome Extension from Google that lets you generate URLs to specific text …
New York Times:
US withdraws from international digital tax negotiations with European countries, saying it'll retaliate if they move forward with new taxes on US tech firms  —  The breakdown in negotiations could prompt President Trump to retaliate against countries that impose taxes on American tech firms.
Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:
Facebook acquires Swedish mapping startup Mapillary, which is building a crowdsourced database of street-level imagery  —  Mapillary, the Swedish startup that wants to take on Google and others in mapping the world via a crowdsourced database of street-level imagery, has been acquired by Facebook, according to the company's blog.

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Niantic Spatial:
World models need real-world data  —  Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics.  Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
Zoho:
Q1 Updates from Bigin: MCP support, AI-powered lead enrichment, Add-in for Outlook and more!  —  Hello!  And welcome to another round of quarterly updates from the world of Bigin, the easy, affordable …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
The Pentagon's AI Plan + Behind the Anthropic Fight — With Under Secretary of War Emil Michael
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.
Great Chat:
Developer marketing when everyone is a developer
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.
The Social Radars:
Justin Kan, Cofounder, Twitch
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Cheeky Pint:
The world of voice AI, with Mati Staniszewski of ElevenLabs
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Invest Like the Best:
Scott Nolan - SpaceX, Founders Fund, and Rebuilding American Uranium Enrichment
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:52 PM ET, June 18, 2020.

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

Earlier Picks

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Danielle Mackey / Rest of World: