Techmeme
March 15, 2021, 11:50 AM

Top News

Queenie Wong / CNET:
Facebook debuts tools to promote COVID-19 vaccinations: helping US users find slots, partnering with health authorities on WhatsApp, labeling all vaccine posts  —  Facebook said Monday it's releasing new tools to make it easier for people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 …
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Internal docs: a Facebook study about US users' vaccine hesitancy finds “substantial harm” from content that doesn't violate the company's rules  —  Internal study finds a QAnon connection and that content that doesn't break the rules may be causing ‘substantial’ harm
Financial Times:
Stripe raises $600M from Sequoia Capital and others at a valuation of $95B, becoming the most valuable private company in Silicon Valley  —  Payments provider becomes Silicon Valley's most valuable private company  —  Stripe has become the most valuable private company Silicon Valley has produced …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Kuo: Apple AirPods 3 will not enter mass production until Q3 2021; AirPods shipments will decline from 90M in 2020 to 78M in 2021 due to increasing competition  —  Despite a flurry of leaks surrounding next-gen AirPods in the last couple of weeks, Ming-Chi Kuo this morning said that new AirPods …
New York Times:
After US intel agencies, FBI, and DHS missed Chinese and Russian hacks, White House is looking to overhaul cyber defenses, including new industry partnerships  —  The intelligence agencies missed massive intrusions by Russia and China, forcing the administration and Congress to look for solutions …
Steven Bertoni / Forbes:
Low-code database service Airtable raises $270M Series E at a $5.77B valuation led by Greenoaks Capital, following $185M Series D at a $2.5B valuation last year  —  Howie Liu, the cofounder and CEO of cloud software start-up Airtable, has raised a $270 million Series E round at a valuation of $5.77 billion.
More: TechCrunch
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Match Group invests in Garbo, a nonprofit that lets people run background checks with a first name and phone number, and will add the service to Tinder  —  Only a last name or phone number needed  —  Tinder and other Match Group-owned apps are going to let their users run background checks on possible dates.
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Clubhouse says it won't require access to users' phone contacts anymore, and announces a creator accelerator program that will initially accept 20 participants  —  The voice chat app will provide users with resources and help them monetize their shows  —  During Clubhouse's weekly town hall on Sunday …

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Bryce Roberts: