Techmeme
September 15, 2020, 10:40 AM

Top News

BuzzFeed News:
Internal memo from a fired Facebook data scientist shows how large amounts of inauthentic bot activity has boosted many countries' leaders and FB is slow to act  —  Facebook ignored or was slow to act on evidence that fake accounts on its platform have been undermining elections …
David Gilbert / VICE:
Activists say ethnic violence in Ethiopia in recent months has been supercharged by hate speech on Facebook; company says it has increased monitoring of content  —  Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox?  Sign up here.  —  Throughout his life, Ethiopian singer Hachalu Hundessa sang about love …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Sony has cut PS5 production for this fiscal year by 4M units to ~11M, following production issues with its custom-designed SOC for the new console  —  - Low yields of company's custom-designed silicon a bottleneck  — Sony facing aggressive pricing from Microsoft's Xbox team
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
In an open letter to CFIUS, Senator Josh Hawley says US should reject Oracle-ByteDance collaboration citing national security grounds, calls for a full sale  —  The deal is ‘completely unacceptable,’ Hawley says  —  Sen. Josh Hawley is publicly calling on the Treasury Department …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Oracle confirms it is part of a proposal submitted by ByteDance to the US Treasury to become TikTok's “trusted technology provider”  —  - Oracle and TikTok share an interest in marketing, but while Oracle pursues business from big companies, TikTok aims for a wide scale among consumers.
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Jay Rosen / The Verge:
Q&A with ex-CSO of Facebook Alex Stamos on why big newsrooms should have threat modeling teams, how media is amplifying disinformation with its coverage, more  —  An interview with Facebook's ex-security chief  —  Editor's note: We're barreling toward the 2020 election with big unresolved problems …
Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:
After retrieving a submerged shipping-container-size data center from Scotland's Orkney Islands, deployed in 2018, Microsoft says the project was a success  —  Two years after deploying a shipping-container-size data center to the depths off Scotland's Orkney Islands, Microsoft has reeled it back in …
Seth Schiesel / Protocol:
Cyrus Farivar / NBC News:
As Big Fish Games announces $155M class action settlement in WA, 21 users describe how they were hooked on casino-style apps and lost significant sums of money  —  Shellz, 37, a nurse from Houston, spends at least two hours a day with her husband playing a casino-style smartphone game called Jackpot Magic.
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Facebook paid $367.6M to buy a 400K square foot complex from REI in Bellevue, WA, expanding its 3M square feet office space footprint in Seattle  —  Facebook is yet again expanding in the Seattle region, its largest engineering hub outside of Silicon Valley.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Kuo: the 5.4" iPhone 12 will feature a narrower notch but none of the iPhone 12 models will have a 120hz display; iPad Air will feature Touch ID in side button  —  Ahead of tomorrow's Apple event, reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is out with a new investor note highlighting his expectations for the remainder of 2020.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Data virtualization service Varada raises $12M Series A led by Israeli early-stage fund MizMaa Ventures, with participation by Gefen Capital  —  Varada, a Tel Aviv-based startup that focuses on making it easier for businesses to query data across services, today announced that it has raised …
Justine Calma / The Verge:
Facebook launches an information center to combat climate change misinformation and pledges to cut greenhouse gases from its global operations this year  —  It's also working to bring more reliable climate information to its users  —  Facebook today pledged to slash greenhouse gases …

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
Website Traffic Analytics: How to Read Your Data and Take Action  —  Traffic is up.  Sessions look healthy.  The dashboard is full of green arrows and yet — conversions are flat, revenue targets are slipping, and the leads coming through aren't closing.
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

Hard Fork:
Hot I.P.O Summer + What Is A.I. Doing to Math? + HatGPT
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Vanta's Christina Cacioppo: The Underdog Turning 'Nonsense' Compliance Into A $4.2B Security Standout
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
Who are the billboards for?
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.
Access:
AI is turning sketches into real-world products
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Is AI Conscious?
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
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 10:40 AM ET, September 15, 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

Riley de León / CNBC:
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

Earlier Picks

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Chris Jaffe / YouTube Blog:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: