Techmeme
June 23, 2021, 4:10 PM

Top News

Reuters:
John McAfee has died by suspected suicide in a Spanish jail cell, hours after news that he would be extradited to face federal charges in the US  —  Antivirus creator John McAfee, 75, was found dead in his prison cell in Barcelona after the Spanish high court had authorised his extradition to the U.S. …
Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:
In a new report, Apple says letting iOS users sideload apps would undermine privacy protections, complicate parental controls, and potentially expose user data  —  Company says allowing users to download software onto their iPhones without using the App Store jeopardizes protections
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Morning Consult poll of 2,000 US voters: 53% at least somewhat support Congress' Big Tech antitrust bills; 44% rank tech regulation as their lowest priority  —  - A new poll commissioned by tech industry-funded group shows 53% of voters favor at least some tech regulation.
Politico:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Instagram says it will test mixing suggested posts throughout primary feeds, even above posts from people users follow, and adds new controls  —  A priority on algorithm-chosen content  —  Instagram says reception to its “suggested posts” feature has been so positive that it's launching a new test …
Bloomberg:
Two South African brothers who founded crypto investment firm Africrypt vanished with ~69,000 bitcoins, worth $3.6B+, after informing clients of an alleged hack  —  - Lawyers hired by investors piece together funds' disappearance  — Africrypt loss would rank among biggest-ever crypto heists
Anna Kramer / Protocol:
Profile of Twitter's Machine Learning, Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability team, as Responsible ML becomes one of the company's top priorities in 2021  —  Machine learning engineer Ari Font was worried about the future of Twitter's algorithms.  It was mid-2020, and the leader …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
EA says it will buy Warner Bros. Games' Playdemic mobile games studio, known for one of the top mobile games “Golf Clash”, for $1.4B in cash  —  Founded in 2010, Playdemic is known for “Golf Clash,” which lets players compete with each other around the world in real time.
Reuters:
DOJ says it has seized 36 Iranian media websites and sites for groups affiliated with Iran that are linked to Iranian disinformation for violating US sanctions  —  The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it seized 36 Iranian-linked websites, many of them associated with either disinformation activities …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
International coalition of consumer groups, digital and civil rights organizations, and data protection experts call for ban on “surveillance-based advertising”  —  An international coalition of consumer protection, digital and civil rights organizations and data protection experts …
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Tim Berners-Lee defends his decision to auction an NFT representing the web's source code, comparing it to the sale of an autographed book or a speaking tour  —  Creator of the world wide web says digital asset is ‘totally aligned with the values of the web’
Tracy Qu / South China Morning Post:
Kuaishou now has 1B monthly active users globally, joining rivals ByteDance and Tencent, including on its Kwai and Snack Video apps  —  China's No 2 short video-sharing app operator joins rival ByteDance and Tencent as internet platforms with 1 billion monthly active users Kuaishou's tally covers …
More: TechCrunch
Mark Nottingham / mnot's blog:
How recent actions against Big Tech in the US, UK, and EU could inadvertently lead to more fragmentation and ossification of the internet  —  A big change in how the Internet is defined - and who defines it - is underway.  —  For a while now, it's been apparent that Internet and Web standards have stagnated at the ‘top’ of the stack.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Snackpass raises $70M Series B led by Craft Ventures at a $400M+ valuation as its social food ordering service surpasses 500k users across 13 college towns  —  While every food delivery company is trying to get an edge on its rivals with discount codes, faster service, and a turn into the realm …
Cam Wilson / Crikey:
Australia's controversial Online Security Bill is about to become law, expanding the eSafety Commissioner's ability to censor the internet  —  The controversial Online Safety Bill will give broad censorship powers to the eSafety commissioner, and experts warn that it could harm those it purports to save.
Rebecca Ratcliffe / The Guardian:
Rights Group Global Witness study finds Facebook is promoting content that incites violence against Myanmar's coup protesters and amplifies junta misinformation  —  Posts ranging from wanted posters to death threats remain online for months, breaching platform's own standards
Margherita Beale / Forbes:
Habi, a Colombia-based residential real estate marketplace with automated pricing tech, raises $100M Series B led by SoftBank Latin America Fund  —  Habi, a real estate startup digitizing home buying and selling for Colombia's middle class, announced Wednesday that it has raised $100 million …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Vercel, which develops the popular open-source Next.js React framework, raises $102M Series C led by Bedrock Capital at a $1.1B valuation  —  Vercel, the company behind the popular open-source Next.js React framework, today announced that it has raised a $102 million Series C funding round led by Bedrock Capital.
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
European Commission says it has opened an antitrust investigation into whether Google favors its own display ad tech over rivals  —  Brussels to examine whether US group broke rules by giving an advantage to its own services  —  The EU has announced a formal investigation …
Bloomberg:
Microsoft has become the second public US company to reach a $2T market value, after Apple did in August 2020 and two years after hitting its first $1T in value  —  - Shares of the software giant have gained 19% so far this year  — Only Apple and Saudi Aramco had hit $2 trillion in value

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Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: