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March 16, 2021, 7:25 PM
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CNBC:
SEC filing: Uber will reclassify its UK drivers as “workers”, granting them vacation pay, minimum wage, and pension plan access, but not full employee benefits  —  - Uber will reclassify all U.K.-based drivers as workers.  — Under the new designation, more than 70,000 drivers …
Dara Khosrowshahi / London Evening Standard:
Uber's thinking on UK driver rights has evolved and worker flexibility “should not come at the expense of social protections”  —  T  —  hree weeks after I became CEO of Uber in 2017, our licence to operate in London was revoked.  It was not how I expected to start my new job …
Dan Sullivan / Tampa Bay Times:
A Florida teen who hacked well-known Twitter accounts last summer and used them to ask for BTC, netting $100K+ worth, was sentenced to 3 years in a plea deal  —  Graham Ivan Clark, 18, agreed to plea guilty to fraud charges for a hack of several Twitter accounts last summer.
Noam Cohen / Wired:
Wikimedia Foundation debuts Wikimedia Enterprise, a premium service for delivering Wikipedia content to companies like Google, but a free option will remain  —  The Big Four all lean on the encyclopedia at no cost.  With the launch of Wikimedia Enterprise, the volunteer project will change that—and possibly itself, too.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Starting July 1, Google will drop its cut of revenue devs generate from Play Store from 30% to 15% on the first $1M earned per year, after Apple's similar move  —  - Google announced on Tuesday that it will cut Google Play app store fees to 15% on the first million dollars a developer makes …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google announces second-generation Nest Hub with sleep tracking, powered by a Soli radar chip, for $100, shipping on March 30  —  In deciding to not put a camera on what was initially called the Home Hub, Google made its first Assistant Smart Display ideal for nightstands.
Leah Nylen / Politico:
Internal FTC docs: 2013 decision not to pursue a Google antitrust investigation was based on faulty logic and a misunderstanding of the internet's potential  —  Few moments in the power struggle between Washington and Silicon Valley have inspired more anger and bafflement than one in January 2013 …
The Verge:
A group of 15 AGs update their antitrust complaint against Google, taking aim at Chrome's Privacy Sandbox and other privacy updates related to ad targeting
Bloomberg:
Huawei says it will start charging Apple, Samsung, and other manufacturers royalties for 5G patents, a potentially lucrative scheme as US sanctions bite  —  - Executives pledge to charge rates below its competitors  — Company is keen to expand its clout in global 5G networking
Rita Liao / TechCrunch:
Signal website and app communications are blocked in China, but the app is still available in the App Store; Greatfire: Signal's website was banned on March 15  —  Chinese users of the instant messenger Signal knew that the good times wouldn't last long.  The app, which is used …
James Vincent / The Verge:
Instagram says it's introducing new policies to limit interactions between teenagers and adults, including banning adults from DMing teens who don't follow them  —  Teen users will also be shown safety prompts when messaging ‘suspicious’ adults  —  Instagram is introducing …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook says it will publish an annual report detailing its impact on human rights and will establish a fund to support human rights activists and journalists  —  - Social media giant to give board formal updates on the issue  — Company has been criticized for role in Myanmar, Sri Lanka
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Intel's 11th Gen desktop chips launch, with the flagship Core i9-11900K sporting eight cores, two less than last gen, and boosted clock speeds of up to 5.3GHz  —  Rocket Lake-S looks to combine the best parts of Intel's 14nm process with its 10nm designs  —  Intel's next-generation desktop chips …
Sean O'Kane / The Verge:
GoPro refreshes its main smartphone app, now called Quik, and adds new features, including a private feed for organizing media  —  Another new direction for the camera company's software  —  GoPro is releasing a new version of its main smartphone app that will now be called “Quik.”
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Report: Apple will let the Russian government pre-install iOS apps in accordance with a new law; users can deselect the apps during setup or delete them after  —  Starting next month, Apple will allow the Russian government to pre-install apps on iPhones, iPads and other devices starting next month.
Ryan Weeks / The Block:
eToro, which lets users trade cryptocurrencies, commodities, stocks, and more, says it will go public via SPAC, valuing the company at $10.4B and raising $650M  —  Quick Take  — The investment platform is merging with FinTech Acquisition Corp. V  — The SPAC merger follows years …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Facebook will begin testing its publishing platform, including website and newsletter tools, with a small group of writers, some of whom will be paid  —  Facebook will soon begin testing partnerships with a small group of independent writers for its new publishing platform, sources tell Axios.
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Squarespace raises $300M in a round valuing it at $10B, two months after it filed confidentially to go public via a direct listing or an IPO  —  Squarespace has raised $300 million in a round of funding that values the company at a staggering $10 billion valuation.
More: Reuters and PR Newswire.  Thanks:@bayareawriter
William Turton / Bloomberg:
Leaked audio from a February 8 meeting reveals Parler's chief policy officer saying: “We are not going after misinformation in any way”  —  Leaked recordings of meetings detail role of Rebekah Mercer at social-media platform  —  Conservative donor Rebekah Mercer has been writing checks …
Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
SEC charges a California trader for allegedly using misleading claims to promote penny stocks on Twitter to his ~13K followers and then selling his holdings  —  The agency says social media was used in an alleged pump-and-dump scam.  —  The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) …
More: Reuters
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Nvidia confirms that a now-removed driver for developers to test the Windows Subsystem for Linux could unlock RTX 3060's Ethereum cryptomining performance  —  Nvidia probably didn't mean to do this  —  Nvidia implemented a special system to reduce the hash rate of Ethereum mining on its new RTX 3060 graphics card last month.
Rachel Lerman / Washington Post:
Despite progress in making social media accessible to deaf users, some creators say captioning can often be lackluster, leaving services inaccessible to many  —  Captioning on social media can be hit or miss, making the experience sometimes alienating for deaf users
Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
Socure, a cloud-based identity verification and fraud prevention startup, raises $100M led by Accel at a $1.3B valuation  —  - Value is an increase from 2020, when it was worth $360 million  — Socure helps verify that customers are who they say they are

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:25 PM ET, March 16, 2021.

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From Mediagazer

Isabella Simonetti / Wall Street Journal:
Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi agree to part ways and let her contract expire at the end of the year, following new allegations about her affair with RFK Jr.

Oliver Darcy / Status:
Sources: David Ellison's interference in WBD's failed summer talks to extend HBO Max's South Park licensing deal left David Zaslav distrustful of Ellison

Alexandra Steigrad / New York Post:
Sources: Forbes has cut ties with dozens of contributing writers; one exec said Forbes needs to ensure the contributor model is “financially sound”

More News

Earlier Picks

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Report: UK tech startups raised a record $15B in 2020, higher than any country besides US ($144B) and China ($44.6B), and $8B in the first three months of 2021
Financial Times:
Sources: Tencent and ByteDance are testing a new tool called CAID, developed by the China Advertising Association, to bypass Apple's IDFA ad privacy changes
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