Techmeme
November 24, 2020, 7:50 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Sources: after the election, Zuckerberg agreed to temporarily tweak Facebook's algorithm to make authoritative news like CNN and NYT appear more prominently  —  Employees and executives are battling over how to reduce misinformation and hate speech without hurting the company's bottom line.
Alex Heath / The Information:
Sources: since 2018, over 110,000 government officials and candidates have been on a Facebook whitelist that prevented them from being fact checked  —  During a September 2019 speech in Washington, D.C., Facebook's global policy and communications chief Nick Clegg gave an ardent defense …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter says it will relaunch account verifications in early 2021 for six categories, including news, companies, and government officials, and asks for feedback  —  Twitter announced today it's planning to relaunch its verification system in 2021, and will now begin the process …
Ashley Gold / Axios:
YouTube says it barred OANN from posting videos for a week and demonetized its content following a video promoting a phony cure for COVID-19  —  YouTube has barred One America News Network from posting new videos for a week and stripped it of its ability to make money off existing content …
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Interview with Xbox chief Phil Spencer on gaming trends during the pandemic, releasing two consoles at once, xCloud distribution on Android and iOS, and more  —  The holiday season is always huge for gaming, but this year, it's even bigger: a new console generation has arrived with Microsoft's …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: WaPo is nearing 3M digital subscribers, up 50% YoY; NYT has tripled digital-only subscribers since 2016 to 6.1M  —  The New York Times and The Washington Post have very different strategies for building the subscription news company of the future.  —  The big picture …
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
Researchers: Baidu Maps and the Baidu App, with ~1.4B downloads globally, were leaking sensitive user data  —  Two apps developed by Chinese tech giant Baidu were leaking “sensitive” user data that potentially left as many as 1.4 billion users open to surveillance or cybercrime, researchers claimed on Tuesday.
Colin Harper / CoinDesk:
Ethereum's “Genesis Day”, the first of four migration phases to the Ethereum 2.0 blockchain, has been set for Dec. 1, after enough funds were secured on Monday  —  The biggest update in Ethereum's history will begin its first phase on Dec. 1.  —  Per a tweet by ETH 2. Researcher …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Stripe is in early funding talks with investors that would value it between $70B and $100B; Stripe was last valued at $36B in April  —  Financial technology startup Stripe Inc. is in talks to raise a new funding round valuing it higher than its last private valuation of $36 billion …
Rory Jones / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Google is laying the groundwork for a fiber-optic network that will connect historical enemies Saudi Arabia and Israel for the first time  —  New fiber-optic network would connect the historical enemies, avoid Egypt and open a new corridor for internet traffic
Patrick Moorhead / Forbes:
Apple's M1 Macs are impressive but some may want to pass on them for now due to incompatibility or stability issues with apps like Matlab, Parallels, and Docker  —  I've read the first batch of Apple MacBook Pro 13" M1 reviews from the Apple-chosen first reviewers and you'd be hard to find anything negative about the new laptop.
Mary Ann Azevedo / FinLedger:
Pay-per-mile auto insurance firm Metromile, which has a consumer app and licenses tech to large insurers, says it's going public via a SPAC at a $1.3B valuation  —  Metromile offers pay-per-mile auto insurance in addition to licensing its technology to large incumbents
Sue Dremann / Palo Alto Online:
Apple's head of global security Thomas Moyer indicted for trying to bribe Santa Clara sheriff's office with 200 iPads in return for concealed firearm permits  —  Defendants include Sheriff Laurie Smith's second-in-command  —  Four people, including top brass in the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office …
Justin Hendry / iTnews:
Australian government agency IGIS says one or more of the country's intelligence and security agencies collected data related to COVIDSafe contact tracing app  —  But not decrypted, access or used, IGIS says.  —  One or more of Australia's key intelligence and security agencies “incidentally” …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Mobile banking app Current raises $131M Series C led by Tiger Global Management, giving it a valuation of $750M, and touts over 2M members  —  U.S. challenger bank Current, which has doubled its member base in less than six months, announced this morning it raised $131 million in Series C funding, led by Tiger Global Management.
Todd Shields / Bloomberg:
The FCC affirmed its decision to designate ZTE as a threat to US national security, rejecting ZTE's petition  —  - Airwaves regulator shows continued tilt against ZTE and Huawei  — FCC contemplating formalizing rules to single out suspect gear  —  The U.S. Federal Communications …
More: The Hill and Reuters

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Earlier Picks

Rachel Monroe / The Atlantic:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: