Techmeme
January 28, 2021, 8:30 PM

Top News

Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Discord says r/WallStreetBets members have set up a new server and Discord is helping them with moderation and management of rapid growth  —  A surprising change of events  —  Discord is now helping the r/WallStreetBets team moderate its new server.  The company originally banned …
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Paresh Dave / Reuters:
Facebook took down the “Robinhood Stock Traders” group with 157K users; a notification said the group violated polices on “adult sexual exploitation”  —  (Reuters) - Facebook Inc took down a popular Wall Street discussion group, Robinhood Stock Traders …
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou / Bloomberg:
Robinhood is telling some users it may close out some of their positions as part of measures it is taking to reduce account risks  —  Robinhood Markets told users of its popular stock trading app that it may close out some of their positions as part of measures it's taking to reduce account risks.
Tucker Higgins / CNBC:
Lawmakers, including AOC and Ted Cruz, criticize Robinhood; Reps. from both the Senate and House say they will hold hearings on the state of the stock market  —  - AOC, Ted Cruz, Ro Khanna and other lawmakers criticized Robinhood after it restricted trading in GameStop and other companies targeted …
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
The Information:
Sources: Facebook is preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple for forcing developers to abide by App Store rules that Apple's own apps don't have to follow  —  A long-simmering public dispute between Facebook and Apple has neared a boiling point.  With the aid of outside legal counsel …
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac:
In an apparent swipe at Zuckerberg, Tim Cook says that valuing engagement over privacy leads to “polarization” and “violence” and such businesses need reform  —  Speaking at the EU data protection conference CPDP today, Tim Cook gave the opening keynote with his talk entitled …
TechCrunch:
Apple says its App Tracking Transparency feature, which will be enabled by default, will roll out with iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and tvOS 14 updates in early spring  —  Apple has shared a few more details about its much-discussed privacy changes in iOS 14.  The company first announced at WWDC …
Dylan Byers / NBC News:
Facebook's Oversight Board issues first-ever rulings, which Facebook said it will abide by, overturning four out of the five cases it reviewed  —  Facebook's Oversight Board on Thursday issued its first round of decisions, overturning several of the company's decisions to remove posts …
Bijan Stephen / The Verge:
YouTube is testing the ability to make short clips, from 5 to 60 seconds, of livestreams or videos, starting today on desktop and Android devices  —  Another standard live-streaming feature makes its way over to the online video giant  —  YouTube is introducing clipping …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Facebook adds opt-in biometric fingerprint, face, or iris scan authentication for WhatsApp on desktop and the web  —  WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned popular messaging app with more than 2 billion users, has been getting a lot of heat and losing users in recent weeks after announcing (and then delaying) changes to how it uses your data.
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Microsoft reports it has “high confidence” the hacking campaign targeting infosec researchers is linked to ZINC, a DPRK-affiliated and state-sponsored group  —  Earlier this week, Google disclosed that a North Korean government-backed hacking group has been using social networks to target security researchers.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Snap announces a new digital literacy program on Snapchat, covering data privacy and security  —  Snapchat on Thursday unveiled a new digital literacy program aimed at educating its users about issues like data privacy and security.  —  Why it matters: Snapchat intends to help …
More: Tubefilter.  Tweets: @futureofprivacy
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: WeWork is in talks to merge with a SPAC at a valuation of around $10B, more than a year after its high-profile failure to launch an IPO  —  A deal could value the company at some $10 billion  —  WeWork is in talks to combine with a special-purpose acquisition company …
Kanishka Singh / Reuters:
Henry Moniz, ViacomCBS' top compliance official, will become Facebook's first chief compliance officer, amid heavy regulatory scrutiny  —  (Reuters) - ViacomCBS Inc's top compliance official, Henry Moniz, is moving to Facebook Inc as the social media platform's first chief compliance officer …
CNBC:
Qualtrics closes up 51% on its first day of trading, valuing the cloud software vendor at $27.3B, after raising $1.5B in its IPO  —  - Shares of Qualtrics began trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday at $41.85.  — Qualtrics had priced its shares at $30 a piece, just above its expected target range of $27 to $29 per share.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Gowalla, now resurrected as a social AR startup, raises a $4M seed round co-led by Google's venture arm GV and Spark Capital  —  The newly resurrected Gowalla wants to realize its mobile dreams from the early-aughts in an augmented reality world, and they've raised some new funding to make it happen.
More: Going Out Again.  Tweets: @gowalla, @jw, @mpawlo, and @piemonte

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Kif Leswing / CNBC: