Techmeme
September 23, 2020, 12:55 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Leaked audio recordings and internal posts show Mark Zuckerberg's balancing act, as employees demand a harder line against Trump but users want the opposite  —  In 2020, Facebook would be roiled by a global pandemic, internal protests over racial injustice, a deeply polarizing election …
New York Times:
Facebook removes accounts, groups, and Pages tied to China that posted about US politics; the network was followed by fewer than 3,000 US accounts  —  The social media campaign was small but targeted all sides of the debate.  Officials said Beijing had not decided whether to wade more directly in the American presidential race.
Bloomberg:
Shopify says two “rogue members” of its support teams stole customer data from over 100 merchants; the company is working with the FBI to investigate  —  - Emails, names, addresses, order details may have been exposed  — E-commerce platform is working with FBI on investigation
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Kuo: Apple's next 12.9-inch iPad Pro, coming at the end of 2020, will have Mini-LED displays  —  Following his report earlier this week indicating that Apple will be accelerating adoption of mini-LED displays in its iPad and Mac notebook lineups thanks to better than expected development …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Nick Clegg denies Facebook could pull out of EU over data transfer ban, saying legal action is “to send a signal” that the ban could be a disaster for the EU  —  Facebook's head of global policy has denied the tech giant could close its service to Europeans if local regulators order …
Ian Sherr / CNET:
Interview with Satya Nadella and Phil Spencer on buying more game companies, investing in Xbox Game Pass, and Microsoft's rejected TikTok bid  —  In an interview, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Xbox head Phil Spencer discuss further acquisitions, how to keep making hits and what happened with TikTok.
Sarah Jeong / OneZero:
Q&A with Casey Newton on leaving The Verge to start a newsletter on Substack called Platformer, after many years as The Verge's Silicon Valley editor  —  Sarah Jeong talks to Newton about the details of his deal, subscription journalism, and the magic of email
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
DOJ, in a rare legislative proposal, asks Congress to adopt a law weakening Section 230, in an effort to hold Facebook, Google, and others liable for content  —  At issue is Section 230, which gives Facebook, Twitter and other social media legal protection for items their users post to the companies' websites
Eugene Wei / Remains of the Day:
How TikTok's UI, focused on just one auto-playing video at a time, generates clean user-driven data thanks to its “algorithm-friendly design”  —  In my previous post on TikTok I discussed why its For You Page algorithm is the connective tissue that makes TikTok work.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify introduces Polls, an interactive tool for podcast hosts that lets listeners answer questions  —  Spotify today is introducing a new feature designed to make podcasts more interactive.  The company says it's beginning to test “Polls,” a tool that will allow listeners to engage …
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Overview of the state of bundles in 2020 across Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft  —  Manage your Stratechery subscription.  —  If the famous Jim Barksdale quote is to be believed — the one about there only being two ways to make money in business, bundling and unbundling …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google rolls out updates to Maps with a layer showing COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, with labels to indicate trends, coming to 220 countries and territories  —  Google today announced an update to Google Maps that will bring a new COVID-19 layer to the service to help you better understand the number of cases in a given area.
Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
Samsung is launching its ad-supported streaming service Samsung TV Plus, available on Samsung TVs since 2016, on some of its latest mobile phones  —  Samsung is doubling down on free, ad-supported streaming: After turning Samsung TV Plus into a massive success story on smart TVs …

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Earlier Picks

Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News:
Peter Slattery / OneZero :
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Danny Palmer / ZDNet: