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December 22, 2020, 4:35 PM
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| Wall Street Journal: |
Draft lawsuit filed by ten US states last week says Facebook and Google agreed to “cooperate and assist one another” against possible antitrust action — Draft lawsuit quotes Facebook's Sandberg saying Google pact was a ‘big deal strategically’
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CNBC, Ars Technica, SiliconANGLE, The Verge, CNET, Gizchina, PYMNTS.com, coinspeaker.com, AppleInsider, Android Central, Slashdot, TheStreet, Thurrott, New York Post, Business Insider, Politico, and The Irish Times
Tweets: @rmac18, @tupp_ed, @davidpepper, @hawleymo, @jeffhorwitz, @stshank, @johnbattelle, @jesselehrich, @tonytassell, @mhbergen, @lizzadwoskin, @nickbaumann, @vijayshekhar, @wsj, and @cristinagberta
| Washington Post: |
Sources: in the early stages of US antitrust investigations, Facebook offered to help others build a social networking competitor using its network and code — The company ramped up its lobbying, hired high-powered lawyers and launched a slew of internal initiatives as the government prepared to sue … | Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: |
Three VPNs popular with criminals and active for over a decade have had their servers and web domains seized by law enforcement from US, Germany, France, others — The three VPN services provided safe haven for cybercriminals to carry out ransomware attacks, web skimming operations, spearphishing, and account takeovers.
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Europol, U.S. Department of Justice, BleepingComputer, and Security Affairs
Tweets: @europol, @campuscodi, and @zackwhittaker
| Alex Gallagher / NME: |
The COVID-19 relief bill passed by Congress includes the Felony Streaming Bill, which makes illegal streaming for profit a felony, with up to 10 years jail time — Targeting illegal for-profit streaming providers, not individual users — The US Congress has passed a COVID-19 stimulus bill …
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Hollywood Reporter, The Verge, The Verge, Techdirt, The Independent, Input, AFTVnews, Kotaku, TechCrunch, Thom Tillis …, and Mashable
Tweets: @mmasnick, @senthomtillis, and @quinnypig
| Mike Masnick / Techdirt: |
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Gizmodo, Fight for the Future, TorrentFreak, and GeekWire
Tweets: @aoc, @ericgoldman, @artramp, @adamscrabble, @charlespulliam, @callforcongress, @fightfortheftr, @ltpietrzak, @malcolm_flex48, @fightfortheftr, @fightfortheftr, @itsdansheehan, @dangillmor, @arossp, @stopskeletons, @sdkstl, @mmasnick, @ronwyden, @sbjohnsrpi, @ovenotter, @mmasnick, and @xirzon
| Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal: |
Investigation details Amazon's campaigns over the years to steamroll rivals and partners, including those on its marketplace, sometimes with Bezos' involvement — CEO Jeff Bezos still runs the e-commerce giant with the drive of a startup trying to survive, and that strand of its corporate DNA is becoming a liability
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The Verge. Tweets: @wsj, @paulpage, @benfritz, @ryan_knutson, @emilyglazer, @stevekopack, @s8mb, @awilkinson, @jeffhorwitz, @repkenbuck, @anthony, @eugenekim222, @katemilani, @quinnypig, and @matthewstoller
| Shoshana Wodinsky / Gizmodo: |
Analysis: of the 60 biggest brands that paused Facebook ads in 2020, only ~10 continue to do so, and some of those have kept spending using other Facebook tools — This past summer, dozens of major brands pulled their ad dollars from Facebook in a protest of the company's handling of the hate speech and disinformation.| Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: |
Facebook's small advertisers say that the company's inflexible account blocking tools and lack of customer assistance is hurting their businesses — - Marketers find ads still running after losing account access — Social network's automated tools ‘not perfect,’ company says
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BuzzFeed News, Social Media Today, and Ad Age
Tweets: @anomielol, @samharrelson, @mattnavarra, @psawers, @ellismbeh, @cgcmh1, @jeromysonne, @mattnavarra, and @kurtwagner8
| Jennifer Epstein / Bloomberg: |
Biden transition team says Twitter told it current followers of @POTUS won't carry over to Biden, whose @POTUS account will start at zero, a reversal from 2017 — - Followers were transfered to Trump from Obama in 2017 — First lady, press secretary accounts also reset to zero
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Wall Street Journal, The Verge, The Hill, Business Insider, The Daily Dot, Engadget, and TechCrunch
Tweets: @rob_flaherty, @yashar, @jeneps, @bidenwarroom, @joycewhitevance, @timsteno, @jeneps, and @emmakinery
| Electronic Frontier Foundation: |
The US government's proposal for crypto exchanges to collect identity data from users with self-hosted crypto wallets will expand the US' financial surveillance — One of the most important aspects of cryptocurrencies from a civil liberties perspective is that they can provide privacy protections for their users.
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The Coinbase Blog, Kraken Blog, CoinDesk, Decrypt, NewsBTC, Cryptonews, Crypto Briefing, and BitcoinExchangeGuide
| Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: |
Group of 19 security firms and tech companies including Microsoft and McAfee form Ransomware Task Force to develop a standard framework to deal with ransomware — The newly-founded Ransomware Task Force will work to put together a standard framework for dealing with ransomware attacks.
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Institute for Security …, Engadget, Neowin, PCMag, MSPoweruser, Tech.co, Windows Central, TechSpot, TechRadar, and infosecurity-magazine.com
Tweets: @security_score and @ist_org
| Dave Lee / Financial Times: |
Study: tens of thousands of sellers use Shopify to scam consumers and sell counterfeit goods, with ~21% of sampled merchant sites posing a risk to shoppers — Ecommerce platform's rapid growth during the pandemic has left it exposed to con artists — Tens of thousands of sellers are using … | Laura Kreutzer / Wall Street Journal: |
Mobile app marketing optimization service Liftoff says Blackstone Group has made a majority investment in the company; source: the amount is close to $400M — Liftoff Mobile uses machine learning to help app marketers improve and track performance — Blackstone Group Inc. is betting … | Matt Day / Bloomberg: |
Amazon says it will delay a planned raise in merchant fees for storing and shipping items until June 2021 in the US, EU, and Japan — - Largest online retailer to hold fees steady in U.S., EU, Japan — UPS, FedEx had already announced shipping price increases
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About Amazon
| Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal: |
SEC approves NYSE's plan to let companies raise capital and issue new shares via direct listings, potentially helping startups save on bank fees — Proposal lets companies raise capital through direct listings — The Securities and Exchange Commission will allow companies … | Reuters: |
Lidar sensor manufacturer Ouster says it will go public through a SPAC, raising up to $200M at a valuation of ~$1.9B, the fifth lidar manufacturer to do so — (Reuters) - Ouster Inc, a U.S. startup that makes lidar sensors for self-driving cars and smart cities, said on Tuesday it has agreed … | Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC: |
IAC says it plans to spin off its full stake in Vimeo, making it an independent, publicly trade company in Q2 2021; IAC stock rises 13%+ — - IAC announced it is spinning off its full stake in Vimeo. — Vimeo will become an independent publicly traded company after the deal closes, expected in the second quarter of 2021.| Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: |
SEC sues Ripple Labs, its CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and Chairman Chris Larsen, alleging they violated federal securities laws in selling XRP to retail consumers — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) believes Ripple Labs violated federal securities laws in selling the XRP cryptocurrency to retail consumers.| Paul Page / Wall Street Journal: |
Logistics startup project44, which helps companies track shipments and spot issues, raises $100M Series D led by Insight Partners — Latest funding round will support expansion of the company's visibility platform, boosting its services and geographic reach on the way to possible public offering
More:
Chicago Business Journal and PYMNTS.com
| Raphael Satter / Reuters: |
Microsoft, Alphabet, Cisco, LinkedIn, GitHub, VMware, and the Internet Association file an amicus brief in support of WhatsApp in the WhatsApp v. NSO Group case — (Reuters) - Tech giants Microsoft, Alphabet , Cisco, and VMware on Monday joined Facebook's legal battle against hacking company NSO … | Simon Parkin / New Yorker: |
Q&A with Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto on what excites him about his work, his strengths and weaknesses as a boss, avoiding abuse of power, ambitions, more — The legendary designer on rejecting violence in games, trying to be a good boss, and building Nintendo's Disneyland.
Tweets: @williams_paige, @newyorker, @polimayo, @ign, @mobymartin, @langealexandra, @wallelawal, @jamie_ful, @simonparkin, @panzer, @ghoulyboy, @cvanduyn, @knowsworthy, @jordanlkim, @ermonacelli, @genepark, @yumecaty, @chapperschapman, @pavanrajam, @nomoredaniels, @amandalkirk, @dylancuthbert, and @beenisch
| New York Times: |
Sen. Ron Wyden says the US Treasury Department acknowledged that its email system used by senior leadership was breached by SolarWinds hackers beginning in July — The disclosure was the first acknowledgment of a specific intrusion in the vast cyberattack.
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CNBC, Bloomberg, Engadget, TechSpot, The Hill, Fox News, CNET, CyberNews, Politico, The United States …, SlashGear, and Tech Xplore
Tweets: @davidgura, @ronwyden, @nytpolitics, @carriecordero, @kylegriffin1, @vickypjward, @nytimes, and @nytimes
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