Techmeme
December 23, 2020, 12:05 AM

Top News

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.
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
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 …
Substack Blog:
Explaining its content moderation policy, Substack says it will “resist public pressure to suppress voices that loud objectors deem unacceptable”  —  Building a system that puts readers and writers in charge  —  As Substack grows, there is increasing interest in the stance we take on content moderation.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
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.
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
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 …
David McCabe / New York Times:
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 …
Sascha Segan / PCMag:
Testing suggests Verizon's dynamic spectrum sharing tech, which reuses parts of 4G channels for 5G, often produces slower speeds on 5G than its LTE network  —  Verizon's DSS 5G can be slower than 4G.  We explain why, and how to turn off or disable 5G on your iPhone.
Rest of World:
A look at India's booming dark data economy: stalkerware and spyware apps, databases about parents, cable customers, pregnant women, mutual fund investors, more  —  Thanks to lax privacy laws and high consumer demand, details on everything from how you shop to who you date are all for sale.
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.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
We can build it.  Can we judge it?  —  As agentic AI shortens the path from idea to shipped code, journey evaluation becomes a critical design skill.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Map My Client Location for Zoho CRM  —  App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
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:
Google's Potential, AI Money Spigot Shutting?, PHP Bug & Cybersecurity's "Black October"
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.
Machine Gods:
Fired OpenAI Safety Researchers Speak Out + We Look Inside Pandora's Box
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The Parking Startup That Swallowed A 100-Year-Old Giant | Metropolis CEO Alex Israel
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
AI's Spooky Season
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Sources:
Sundar Pichai on Gemini 4 and the AI compute crunch
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Netflix in Turmoil + Derek Thompson on AI & The Antisocial Century
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:05 AM ET, December 23, 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

Earlier Picks

Simon Parkin / New Yorker:
New York Times:
Raphael Satter / Reuters:
Reuters: