Techmeme
July 13, 2021, 5:00 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple and Goldman Sachs are working on a “buy now, pay later” service to let consumers pay for any Apple Pay purchase in installments, to rival Affirm  —  - Service to let users pay off any Apple Pay purchase over time  — Fresh partnership with Apple could boost Goldman consumer push
Gaspard Sebag / Bloomberg:
France fines Google $593M for failing to comply with a 2020 order to negotiate in good faith with publishers for displaying article snippets in Google News  —  - Tech giant penalized for not agreeing deal with publishers  — Fine is the second biggest French antitrust penalty so far
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
The current version of Apple's Weather app won't show 69 degrees, rounding up or down a degree; the behavior is present in some other versions but not iOS 15  —  It's not so nice  —  If you're an iPhone user, the weather is always a particularly nice 70 degrees.  Or 68 degrees.
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
REvil's infrastructure and websites are offline, including its data leak sites, less than two weeks after attacking 1,500+ businesses with ransomware via Kaseya  —  The infrastructure and websites for the REvil ransomware operation have mysteriously gone offline as of last night.
Telegraph:
Excerpt from An Ugly Truth: from Jan. 2014 to Aug. 2015, Facebook fired 52 staffers for exploiting access to user data, prompting an overhaul of data governance  —  In an exclusive extract, Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang reveal how an ethos of openness meant private information could be misused
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple announces a $99 MagSafe Battery Pack for the iPhone 12 lineup, with a total capacity of 1460mAh, arriving July 19  —  Apple today released the MagSafe Battery Pack accessory for iPhone 12 models.  Many months after the iPhone 12 series was unveiled, Apple has quietly released …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Ring says opt-in end-to-end encryption for video streams is available to all US users and is rolling out globally  —  It's available now in the US  —  Ring's end-to-end encryption for video streams is leaving technical preview, is now available to US users, and is currently rolling out globally …
The Guardian:
London Met Police says it seized ~£180M in bitcoin while investigating international money laundering, after seizing £114M of cryptocurrencies last month  —  Seizure in London follows confiscation of £114m of the cryptocurrency in June  —  Metropolitan police detectives …
Shannon Vavra / The Daily Beast:
Bitdefender says hackers behind TrickBot botnet, which was disrupted by US Cyber Command and Microsoft last year, have quietly rebuilt much of their operations  —  U.S. Cyber Command and Microsoft, among others, launched operations on the eve of the election meant to hobble a Russian-speaking hacking group.
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Discord buys Sentropy, which emerged from stealth last summer with AI-powered moderation software to fight online abuse and $13M in funding  —  The online chat platform Discord is buying Sentropy, a company that makes AI-powered software to detect and remove online harassment and hate.
More: The Verge
Mikael Thalen / The Daily Dot:
Twitter confirms it inadvertently verified six “inauthentic” accounts, now suspended, after a user highlighted them  —  Six users with fake profile pics were seemingly verified less than one month after being created.  —  Questions have been raised over Twitter's verification process …
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Sourcegraph, which offers a universal code search tool, raises $125M Series D led by a16z at a $2.6B valuation, up 3x from its December valuation  —  Sourcegraph, a late stage startup that wants to bring the power of search to code, announced a $125 million Series D investment today …
Lesley Goldberg / The Hollywood Reporter:
Sources: Netflix is turning to live events, like the Bridgerton Ball in London, video games, and merchandising to complement subscriber revenue and engage fans  —  Sources say the streaming giant wants to work directly with creators on live events that will, in success, provide new revenue streams as subscriber growth slows.
Julia Reinstein / BuzzFeed News:
Some Black and LGBTQ passengers say Uber and Lyft drivers refuse rides by falsely claiming they're maskless, a claim also used against drivers to get free rides  —  Black and LGBTQ passengers told BuzzFeed News they're being refused rides due to false claims they're not wearing masks.
NetBlocks:
In response to protests, NetBlocks says Cuba's state-run ISP has restricted social media and messaging apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp  —  Network data from NetBlocks confirm partial disruption to social media and messaging platforms in Cuba from 12 July 2021.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
YouTube says Shorts, which launched in India before expanding to 26 countries, will now be available in over 100 countries  —  The short-form video experience arrives in more than 100 countries  —  YouTube's TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts, is now rolling out globally.
Mark Landler / New York Times:
After England's defeat in Euro 2020, Boris Johnson and others condemn racist abuse of players on social media, with some calling for tougher action by platforms  —  The social media bigotry, directed at three players who missed penalty kicks in the Euro 2020 final, was condemned by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and most everyone else.

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