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August 20, 2020, 7:45 PM
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Top News

Kate Conger / New York Times:
An appeals court blocked an order requiring Uber and Lyft to classify drivers as employees, averting an expected shutdown of their services in California  —  The companies, under legal pressure to reclassify their drivers as employees, said they would halt rides unless an appeals court gives them permission to continue.
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Former Uber CSO Joe Sullivan charged with attempting to conceal the 2016 data breach, which exposed details of 57M drivers and users, from FTC officials  —  Joe Sullivan, who led Uber's security team through the company's most tumultuous period, was fired by the company's newly installed chief executive in 2017.
Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
A trade body representing NYT, WaPo, WSJ, and other publishers asks Apple for improved deal terms for digital subscriptions sold through the App Store  —  The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are among companies seeking more favorable terms in Apple's app store
DL Cade / PetaPixel:
Latest update to Lightroom for iOS inadvertently wiped users' photos and presets not synced to the cloud; Adobe says there is no way to get them back  —  This morning, multiple readers wrote in to alert us to a major Adobe gaff.  It seems the latest update to the Lightroom app for iPhone …
Meir Orbach / CTech:
Sources: Apple quietly acquired Israeli AR and computer vision startup Camerai over a year ago for several tens of millions of dollars  —  The AR and computer vision company was purchased a year and a half ago, an example of the tech giant's strategy of silently buying up small tech companies
Sam Shead / CNBC:
Airbnb announces a global party ban at its listings and an occupancy cap of 16 people, saying some users took “bar and club behavior to homes” during COVID-19  —  - Home-sharing platform Airbnb has introduced a global ban on parties as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
John Kruzel / The Hill:
DOJ asks US Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling that found Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking his critics on Twitter  —  The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling that found President Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking his critics on Twitter.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Facebook confirms Mark Zuckerberg testified before FTC this week, as part of the agency's antitrust probe  —  - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week testified at a Federal Trade Commission investigative hearing related to the federal agency's antitrust investigation into the tech company, the company confirmed to CNBC on Thursday.
South China Morning Post:
Alibaba posts quarterly revenue of $21.8B, up 34% YoY, and profit of $6.7B, up 124% YoY, on the back of its online retail and cloud computing businesses  —  Revenue hit US$21.8 billion in the June quarter, up 34 per cent from a year ago, on the back of its China online retail …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
A look at contact-tracing app Aura, which was a required download for students at a Michigan college and has faced criticism for its privacy and security issues  —  And students have no way to opt out  —  Schools and universities across the United States are split on whether to open for the fall semester …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Google's Pixel Buds get a new transcribe mode to translate long speeches, Attention Alerts to alert users of important events happening around them, and more  —  There's also a bass boost mode  —  Google is adding a number of new features to its Pixel Buds today.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:45 PM ET, August 20, 2020.

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From Mediagazer

Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Disney and OpenAI sign a three-year deal to bring 200+ Disney characters to Sora; Disney makes a $1B investment in OpenAI and will become a major OpenAI client

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
The value of WBD's cable networks including CNN is a key number for Netflix and Paramount bidders; Ellison says they're worth ~$2.5B, while analysts say ~$10B

Dan Friedman / Mother Jones:
Jack Posobiec, a new Pentagon press corps member, seems to be working in coordination with the Pentagon to threaten a journalist writing about a DoD official

More News

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
EU privacy regulators are clashing over how much to fine Twitter for its handling of 2018 data breach, which could delay investigations into Facebook and Google
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Netflix confirms it's been testing a “Shuffle Play” feature, which will randomly play content based on what a user watches or saves to a list, since July

Earlier Picks

Jon Porter / The Verge:
Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, and more Google services were hit by widespread disruption globally for a few hours Thursday
Kate Cox / Ars Technica:
Police in NYC and Miami have reportedly used facial recognition software to arrest people who allegedly committed crimes during Black Lives Matter protests
Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian:
Facebook removes over 980 Groups, 520 Pages, and 160 ads for “US-based militia organizations” and those that identify as Antifa
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