Techmeme: Google VP in charge of Android security withdraws from Black Hat conference and asks the infosec community to stop using terms like “black hat” and “white hat” (Catalin Cimpanu/ZDNet)

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July 5, 2020, 9:25 PM

Top News

Will Oremus / OneZero :

A look at some radical proposals for creating better social networks, from establishing sites as nonprofits to restrictions on data collection — An offhand tweet sparked an outpouring of ideas to fix what's broken about Facebook and Twitter — Welcome back to Pattern Matching …

More: The Guardian and CCN.com

Tweets: @jilliancyork, @willoremus, @medium, @willoremus, @schemaly, @willoremus, @jayrosen_nyu, @slpng_giants, @paulstewartii, @willoremus, @mattnavarra, @willoremus, @willoremus, @jason_kint, @caseynewton, @profcarroll, @cwarzel, and @lebassett

Michael Flarup / Apply Pixels:

With macOS 11 Big Sur, Apple seems to have lifted a ban on fun, allowing for an expressiveness in visual design that we haven't seen from it in almost a decade — It's finally here. The thing I have been advocating for through my work, writing, videos and talks for years. A swing of the pendulum.

Tweets: @natisho, @flarup, @gavmn, @lkanies, @flarup, @sachinrekhi, @maxrudberg, and @samhenrigold

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

Google VP in charge of Android security withdraws from Black Hat conference and asks the infosec community to stop using terms like “black hat” and “white hat” — A Google security researcher withdrew from the Black Hat security conference and asked the community to stop using the ‘black hat’ term.

More: CNET and Digital Trends

Tweets: @alecmuffett, @ourielohayon, @semibogan, @fox0x01, @viking_sec, @somospostpc, @chrismessina, @carnage4life, @quinnypig, @splcenter, and @daveksecure

Greg Thomson / Decrypt:

Voice, a blockchain-based social media site on EOS that rewards users with tokens for posting “quality content”, is now open for the public to browse — The EOS-based crypto-based social media platform first conjured up by Block.one, Voice, today opened its doors to the public.

More: Voice, SiliconANGLE, coinspeaker.com, BitcoinExchangeGuide, and Cointelegraph

Bloomberg:

Source: UK to begin phasing out use of Huawei equipment in its 5G network as soon as this year, after report doubted viability of Huawei due to new US sanctions — - Officials said to speed up plans to remove Huawei kit — Decision would reverse green light given to Chinese tech giant

More: The Guardian, Engadget, CNET, Financial Times, SiliconANGLE, The Irish Times, Sky News, Telegraph, and The Guardian

Tweets: @rayhana, @tom_fowdy, @sunlorrie, and @iowbobseely

Paul J. Davies / Wall Street Journal:

How Wirecard, a global electronic-payments giant that was once valued at $14B+ and said it processed $140B of transactions a year, fully unraveled in eight days — Prosecutors are probing whether the electronic-payments giant used fictitious income to inflate its sales and fool investors; a missing $2 billion

More: Reuters and Bloomberg

Tweets: @edbott, @wsj, and @wsj

Christine Hall / Crunchbase News:

LA-based Scalefast raises $22M Series B to help DTC brands launch e-commerce stores in as little as 15 days, bringing its total raised to $32M — Digital commerce solution Scalefast announced it raised a $22 million Series B round of funding Tuesday to help brands launch an e-store in as little as 15 days.

Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:

iCloud Keychain in iOS 14 alerts users about passwords that are easy to guess and those that may have leaked on the web — In addition to the redesigned Home screen with widgets, App Library, and features like Car Key, iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 brings important enhancements to iCloud Keychain.

Tweets: @detroitborg

Pei Li / Reuters:

Tencent launches US game studio LightSpeed LA, to create AAA titles and increase overseas share of its total games revenue, which accounted for 23% in Q4 2019 — HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tencent Holdings, China's biggest social media and video game company, launched a new California-based studio this week …

More: GamesIndustry.biz, Engadget, Eurogamer.net, Game Rant, GameSpot, and VG247

Tweets: @zhugeex, @therealjoshye, @gibiz, and @domsplaying

Financial Times:

Sources: amid India-China tensions, Zomato is unable to access $100M of the $150M it secured from Ant Financial in January as the government reviews the funding — Indian food delivery start-up unable to access $100m of investment from Ant Financial — The $3bn Indian food delivery start …

Tweets: @jkynge and @sarthakgh

Nate Lanxon / Bloomberg:

UK tech companies say operating with remote workers has changed their approach to post-Brexit hiring: executives will be local to HQs, most other roles won't — - Shift to remote working suggests many visas may not be needed — The pandemic taught Britain's technology executives …

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Facebook partners with CBSE, an Indian government education body, to launch a certified curriculum on AR and digital safety for students and teachers in India — Facebook, which reaches more users than any other international firm in India, has identified a new area of opportunity …

Tweets: @chrisinsilico, @mikebutcher, @hackylawyer, and @smerrells

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From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:

60 Minutes' CECOT segment, pulled by Bari Weiss, was mistakenly aired in Canada via an app owned by Global Television, which airs 60 Minutes in the country

Dave Michaels / Wall Street Journal:

How Makan Delrahim, a top antitrust enforcer in Trump's first term, is helping Paramount buy WBD; sources say he told WBD investors the DOJ may reject Netflix

Blake Brittain / Reuters:

NYT reporter John Carreyrou and five other writers sue xAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta, and Perplexity, accusing them of pirating their books to train AI

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More News

Dave Lee / Financial Times:

eMarketer: US consumers to spend $710B online in 2020, up 18% YoY, with ecommerce's share of the retail market growing to a record 14.5%

Tweets: @_mrherbert, @neilretail, and @sub8u

Manuel Vonau / Android Police:

Indian ISPs start restoring access to DuckDuckGo after blocking the service via their DNS servers starting July 1; it is unclear why the service was blocked

More: Neowin, The Verge, and TechWorm. Tweets: @duckduckgo

Sankalp Phartiyal / Reuters:

India's TikTok ban resulted in a surge in popularity for Indian apps like Roposo, Mitron, and Chingari; Roposo says it has added 22M users in 48 hours

More: The Indian Express

Nitasha Tiku / Washington Post:

Ifeoma Ozoma, Aerica Shimizu Banks, and five other former Pinterest employees share examples of Pinterest's failure in addressing racial discrimination and bias

More: VentureBeat. Tweets: @kschwabable, @nitashatiku, @raisingself, @nikitatmitchell, @erikashimizu, @evany, @ifeomaozoma, @carnage4life, @heatherkelly, @nitashatiku, @nitashatiku, and @ericajoy

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:

India's e-commerce policy draft seeks creation of an e-commerce regulator, mandates government access to online companies' source codes and algorithms, more

More: The Economic Times, The Economist, The Economic Times, MediaNama, and The New Indian Express

Tweets: @realbharadwaj, @psb_dc, @rohitbjp, @sandeepmertia, @brij, @economictimes, @theunsaif, @shshk, @shukla, and @sushubh

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:

Colin Huang, the CEO of Chinese e-commerce company Pinduoduo, steps down; the company says he will remain chairman and work on long-term strategy

More: The Straits Times, KrASIA, MarketWatch, Caixin Global, Financial Times, Pinduoduo Inc., Business Insider, TechNode, The Star Online, and Nikkei Asian Review

Tweets: @johnhuber72, @malcolmmoore, @ruima, @docolumide, and @pingroma

Wall Street Journal:

Hong Kong's new national security law could force platforms like Facebook and Twitter to relinquish some of the freedom their operations have had in the city

More: Reclaim The Net and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @martinapennisi, @prasannavishy, @digitallybones, @jchengwsj, @netblocks, and @albertfong98

Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:

Some Amazon contracted delivery drivers in the US say they are feeling overwhelmed and overworked by dramatic increases in workloads during the pandemic

Tweets: @vice, @laurenkgurley, and @motherboard

Neil Greenberg / Washington Post:

Evo, a renowned esports tournament that moved online in 2020 due to the pandemic, is canceled after parting ways with co-founder for alleged sexual misconduct

More: Digital Trends, Micky, Gamasutra, Ars Technica, GameSpot, PC Gamer, Windows Central, GamingBolt, The Verge, VG247, USgamer.net, USgamer.net, GamesIndustry.biz, Destructoid, Engadget, Dexerto, Pocket Gamer.biz, and Polygon

Tweets: @netherrealm, @evo, @mrwiz, @imad, @aliciaxlife_, @mikehaimoto, @theycallmedsp, @markman23, and @gsmvoid

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

LinkedIn says its iOS app is copying the contents of users' clipboards after every key press due to a bug and promises a fix, after iOS 14 reveals the snooping