Techmeme
December 9, 2020, 8:40 PM

Top News

Federal Trade Commission:
FTC, in coalition with 46 state AGs, plus Guam and DC, sues Facebook, alleging Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions were used to stifle competition  —  Agency challenges Facebook's multi-year course of unlawful conduct  —  The Federal Trade Commission today sued Facebook …
More: New York Times, Federal Trade Commission, NBC News, CNBC, Ars Technica, The Verge, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, CNET, BuzzFeed News, The Register, ZDNet, CNET, Slate, Fortune, OneZero , AdExchanger, Tom's Hardware, International Business Times, Protocol, Politico, TechCrunch, Thurrott, Gizmodo, Business Insider, MIT Technology Review, ABC News, Forbes, Light Reading, Washington Post, PC Gamer, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, BBC, The Logic, MacRumors, GeekWire, Neowin, Bloomberg, Vanity Fair, Road to VR, VICE, Axios, Social Media Today, IGN, The Next Web, Politico, 9to5Mac, Newser, AppleInsider, Engadget, Bloomberg, Axios, MSPoweruser, Tom's Guide, iDownloadBlog.com, Mashable, iMore, Axios, and Business Insider
NY State Attorney General:
New York AG Letitia James leads a coalition of 48 AGs in suing Facebook, alleging the company uses a “buy or bury” approach toward its competitors  —  AG James Leads Bipartisan Coalition of 48 Attorneys General Charging Anticompetitive Conduct  —  Facebook Thwarted Competition, Reduced Consumer Privacy for Profits
The Verge:
FTC's antitrust lawsuit against Facebook seeks to unwind Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions, force Facebook to seek approval for future acquisitions, and more  —  New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the lawsuit on Wednesday  —  On Wednesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced …
Jennifer Newstead / About Facebook:
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Ina Fried / Axios:
Internal memo: Sundar Pichai apologizes over the handling of AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru's departure and says he will investigate  —  Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized Wednesday for the company's handling of the departure of AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru and said he would investigate …
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
DoorDash closes at $189.51, up 85% from its $102 pricing, after popping to $182 as the shares began trading, giving a valuation of $60.2B  —  - Shares of DoorDash, a leading food delivery app, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.  — The stock began trading at $182 per share and closed at $189.51.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Microsoft says its cloud gaming service, as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, will come to iOS via web browser in spring of 2021  —  Microsoft has confirmed that Xbox cloud gaming is coming to iOS in 2021.  In a new blog post today, the company says that cloud gaming as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate …
YouTube Official Blog:
YouTube says it will remove any content published from today that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the 2020 US Presidential election outcome  —  Over the past weeks and months, we've seen people coming to YouTube to learn more about where and how to vote or learning more about a candidate or an issue.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
WhatsApp says that Apple's new privacy labels are anti-competitive; Apple responds by confirming its own apps will include the “nutrition labels”  —  Facebook's global messaging service WhatsApp is protesting Apple's requirement that app owners submit information about the user data …
Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:
Apple and Google to ban mobile apps that use location trackers from data broker X-Mode, after it was revealed X-Mode provided data to US government contractors  —  After the data broker came under scrutiny for national-security work, tech giants tell app developers to remove trackers or lose access to their operating systems
D. M. Moore / Polygon:
AT&T has agreed to sell Japanese anime streaming service Crunchyroll to Sony's Funimation Global Group for $1.18B  —  The move consolidates the anime industry in a major way  —  On Wednesday, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. announced that AT&T and WarnerMedia agreed to sell Crunchyroll to Funimation.
Kellen Browning / New York Times:
Twitch unveils new guidelines to crack down on hateful conduct and sexual harassment, following a yearlong review, which take effect in January  —  The livestreaming site announced new guidelines after contending with claims that its streamers were too easily abused.
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Squire, which develops software for barbershops, raises $59M Series C led by Iconiq Capital at a $250M valuation, just months after raising a $34M Series B  —  Squire, a startup that sells software to barbershops, has raised $59 million in a round led by Iconiq Capital.
Nicole Lee / Engadget:
Amazon begins rolling out a new Fire TV UI with user profiles, a simpler design, and more  —  Back when Amazon announced its latest Fire TV products — namely, the third-generation Fire TV Stick ($40) and the Fire TV Stick Lite ($30) — it also said it was going to roll out a new Fire TV interface this year.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google says it will compel Chrome extensions to display privacy practices and limit data that developers can collect from January 18, 2021, ahead of Chrome 88  —  At Chrome Dev Summit 2020 today, Google announced it will change how extensions access data and how extension permissions work in 2021.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Parallel Domain, which is developing a synthetic data generation tool for accelerating the development of computer vision tech, raises $11M Series A  —  Parallel Domain, a startup developing a synthetic data generation platform for AI and machine learning applications, today emerged from stealth with $11 million in funding.

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Earlier Picks

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal: