Techmeme
October 22, 2020, 8:05 AM

Top News

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Quibi decided to shut down and return $350M in capital to investors rather than trying to prolong the life of the company via another big investment  —  Quibi Holdings LLC is shutting itself down, according to people familiar with the matter, a crash landing for a once-highflying …
Medium:
Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg confirm Quibi is shutting down: “Our failure was not for lack of trying; we've considered and exhausted every option”  —  We started with the idea to create the next generation of storytelling and because of you, we were able to create and deliver …
Kevin Collier / NBC News:
US intelligence director says Iran was behind threatening emails to FL Democratic voters demanding they vote for Trump; voter info was likely publicly available  —  Iranian intelligence was responsible for a recent campaign of emails sent to intimidate Florida voters, the FBI announced Wednesday night …
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Activists around the world are building facial recognition tools to identify police officers using off-the-shelf image recognition software  —  “We're now approaching the technological threshold where the little guys can do it to the big guys,” one researcher said.
Nathan Grayson / Kotaku:
Twitch sent DMCA notices to streamers on Tuesday, deleting content without allowing counterclaims; Twitch says “thousands” of music rights holders complained  —  It's finally happening: Twitch is taking action against copyrighted music—long a norm among streamers—in response to music industry pressure.
New York Times:
A look at the well-funded Big Tech opponents, from lawyers to academics, that have helped guide potential government regulation like Google's antitrust suit  —  An unlikely collection of lawyers, activists, economists and academics are fueling the tech backlash, armed with funding from billionaire sponsors.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says Jony Ive will collaborate with Airbnb as a design consultant, as part of a multi-year partnership with Ive's firm LoveFrom  —  Jony Ive retired from Apple about a year ago, following an almost 25 year tenure as head of Apple product design.
Anna Irrera / Reuters:
PayPal will let users buy and sell cryptocurrency using its online wallets in the coming weeks and shop at merchants on its network starting in early 2021  —  LONDON (Reuters) - PayPal Holdings Inc joined the cryptocurrency market on Wednesday, allowing customers to buy …
The Intercept:
Documents show Google Cloud will be used for its AI capabilities by the CBP in conjunction with Anduril Industries' surveillance tech on the US-Mexico border  —  After years of backlash over controversial government work, Google technology will be used to aid the Trump administration's efforts …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC's top lawyer defends its authority to interpret Section 230, saying 1996 legislation that included Section 230 amended a 1934 act that created the FCC  —  FCC lawyer claims authority to interpret any part of the Communications Act.  —  The Federal Communications Commission's top lawyer today explained …
Hugh Son / CNBC:
JPMorgan launches QuickAccept, a smartphone card reader and payments service for SMBs providing instant deposits of POS transactions for free, unlike Square  —  - JPMorgan's new QuickAccept service lets businesses take card payments within minutes, either through a mobile app or a contactless card reader …
Ina Fried / Axios:
Over 430,000 viewers tuned in simultaneously to watch Rep. Ocasio-Cortez play Among Us on Twitch, the third highest ever for an individual Twitch stream  —  More than 430,000 people tuned in simultaneously to Twitch on Tuesday night to watch Rep. Alexia Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) play a hit video game as part of an effort to promote voting.
Reuters:
China-based Yuanfudao, which offers online courses and homework plans to students, has raised $2.2B in two recent rounds, raising its valuation to $15.5B  —  BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing-based education technology startup Yuanfudao said on Thursday that it has secured $2.2 billion from major Chinese …
More: TechNode
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Report: at least 2,000 US law enforcement agencies, including 49 of the 50 largest police departments, have the tools to access locked, encrypted phones  —  At least 2,000 law enforcement agencies have tools to get into encrypted smartphones, according to new research, and they are using them far more than previously known.

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:
3 lessons from 1,000+ teams running sales on WhatsApp  —  This is a guest post by Orkhan Jafarli, Growth PM at TimelinesAI.Sales teams of businesses across the world have one thing in common: a meaningful chunk of their pipeline now happens on WhatsApp.
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:
AI Pioneer Geoffrey Hinton: AI Is Conscious, Superintelligence is Coming, And We Should Be Worried
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
How Dhar Mann Turned After-School Specials Into A Billion-View Business
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Invest Like the Best:
Dara Khosrowshahi - Uber's Bet on AVs, AI, and Building a Super-App
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Training Data:
Knowing What Your Customers Want, All the Time: Listen Labs' Alfred Wahlforss
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
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.
Grit:
What It Takes to Build Software for 171,000+ Restaurants | Aman Narang
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:05 AM ET, October 22, 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

Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: