Techmeme
May 26, 2021, 11:20 AM

Top News

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon says it will acquire MGM Studios for $8.45B, its second-largest acquisition since it paid $13.7B for Whole Foods in 2017  —  - Amazon is buying MGM Studios, the companies announced, marking Amazon's most ambitious move yet into the entertainment business.
Peter Kafka / Vox:
Joseph Menn / Reuters:
WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit in Delhi against the Indian government for its new social media regulations, saying they would break privacy protections  —  WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit in Delhi against the Indian government seeking to block regulations coming into force on Wednesday that experts …
Stephen Shankland / CNET:
USB standards body unveils its USB-C 2.1 revision, which supports power up to 240W, up from 100W currently, aimed at devices like 4K displays and gaming laptops  —  An upgrade to the USB-C standard will accommodate levels of up to 240 watts, an improvement that could let you plug power-hungry devices …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook and Instagram now give users options to hide Like counts across all posts and to hide their own public Like counts from others  —  Facebook this week will begin to publicly roll out the option to hide Likes on posts across both Facebook and Instagram, following earlier tests beginning in 2019.
Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica:
Sources say Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC that could launch by year's end  —  We can confirm some, but not all, of what's in store for the codenamed “SteamPal.”  —  Video game and hardware studio Valve has been secretly building a Switch-like portable PC …
Sean O'Kane / The Verge:
Tesla says deliveries of Model 3 and Y vehicles in North America will no longer be equipped with radar for Autopilot and instead rely on a camera-based system  —  Autopilot will rely on cameras from here on out in the Model 3 and Model Y  —  Tesla has stopped building forward-facing radar sensors …
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Facebook says Russia is still the largest producer of disinformation, in a report that details 150 operations that the company has disrupted since 2017  —  Report explores how issue has evolved in recent years  —  A Facebook report released Wednesday says that Russia is still the largest producer …
Fadeke Adegbuyi / Cybernaut - Every:
Gen Z students are studying together online across YouTube, TikTok, Discord, and Twitter, seeking inspiration, finding focus, and sharing academic anxieties  —  In late 2020, a 10-hour loop of a song from Mario Kart titled “Coconut Mall” started blowing up on Youtube.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Bangalore-based Koo, a microblogging service that allows users to post in English and Indian languages, raises $30M at over $100M valuation led by Tiger Global  —  Investors are backing Koo, an Indian alternative to Twitter, with large size checks at a time when tension is brewing between the American social network and New Delhi.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
DataDome, which helps secure e-commerce marketplaces against web scraping, account takeover, and payment fraud, raises $35M Series B led by Elephant  —  Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021.  —  Bot defense startup DataDome today announced that it raised $35 million …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
SpotOn, a payments startup focused on SMBs, raises $125M Series D led by a16z, tripling its valuation from last September to $1.875B  —  Certain industries were hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic than others, especially in its early days.  —  Small businesses, including retailers and restaurants …
DFRLab:
Analysis of 40M pieces of QAnon content from 1/20 to 4/21: Facebook, Twitter, and others have successfully expelled most of the content after it peaked in 6/20  —  The conspiracy's followers on alternative platforms have failed to out-post their counterparts on mainstream ones
Jake Rudnitsky / Bloomberg:
Ivi.ru, Russia's most popular video streaming service, raises $250M from VTB Group, Roman Abramovich, and others, after pausing IPO plans earlier this year  —  - New investors contributed about 70% to Ivi funding round  — Ivi delayed IPO after proposal to limit foreign ownership

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Earlier Picks

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Jon Fingas / Engadget: