Techmeme
July 22, 2021, 12:30 PM

Top News

Bloomberg Law:
California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has sued Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment of and discrimination against its female staff  —  Video game giant Activision Blizzard Inc., maker of games including World of Warcraft and Diablo, fosters a “frat boy” …
Joe Tidy / BBC:
NSO Group says “all the finger-pointing should be at the customer” not the company as it compares itself to a car manufacturer and its clients to drunk drivers  —  The maker of powerful spy software allegedly used to hack the phones of innocent people says blaming the company is like …
Washington Post:
Shoshana Wodinsky / Gizmodo:
Grindr has a track record of saying that data shared with brokers is encrypted and unidentifiable, despite the use of such data to out a Catholic priest, others  —  The latest scandal to rock the Catholic Church was both incredibly unnerving and entirely preventable.  Why isn't anyone doing anything about it?
Edwin Chan / Bloomberg:
Sources: China sees Didi's decision to go public despite regulator pushback as a challenge to its authority and is considering unprecedented penalties  —  - Regulators weigh several penalties, from fine to delisting  — Ride-hailing startup raised $4.4 billion in U.S. listing
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Twitter is testing a way to downvote replies on iOS to understand the types of replies users find relevant to a conversation; downvotes won't be public  —  Last year, Twitter's chief product officer Kayvon Beykpour confirmed that the social network was “exploring” the idea of adding a dislike button to the app.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Q&A with Zuckerberg about his vision for the metaverse and its potential to further splinter our sense of shared reality, Biden's comments about Facebook, more  —  As June came to an end, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told his employees about an ambitious new initiative.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
The FTC formally pledges to fight unlawful right-to-repair restrictions, says it will use its power to lower repair costs and support independent repair shops  —  It comes days after the White House endorsed similar rules  —  The Federal Trade Commission formally pledged to take on unlawful …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
The Biden administration's promise to “review” Section 230 in response to anti-vax posts on Facebook will fail since being wrong online is protected speech  —  ‘Reviewing’ Section 230 isn't the answer to anti-vax posts  —  Last week, the White House declared war …
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Uber Freight to acquire Transplace, which makes transportation management software, from TPG, in a deal that values Transplace at $2.25B  —  - Uber Freight, the rideshare company's trucking division, said Thursday it's acquiring Transplace in a deal that values the transportation logistics company at $2.25 billion.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Visa buys Currencycloud, which sells software for banks and fintech companies to process cross-border payments, in a deal valuing the UK startup at £700M  —  - Visa is buying Currencycloud in a deal valuing the British payments start-up at £700 million.
Reuters:
Filing: Teads, which provides automated buying and selling of online ad space, plans to raise up to $808.5M in its US IPO, at a valuation of about $5B  —  Advertising technology company Teads BV, owned by French telecom company Altice, said on Wednesday it aims to raise up to $808.5 million through …
CNN:
Facebook hides the tag #VaccinesKill from searches, displaying a message that says it is “keeping our community safe”, two years after Instagram hid the tag  —  (CNN)Last week, even as it came under fire from the White House over its role in spreading anti-vaccine misinformation …
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Cheyenne Ligon / CoinDesk:
Thesis, the crypto incubator behind the Fold crypto rewards app and the decentralized Keep protocol, raises $21M Series A  —  ParaFi and Polychain are among the investors funding the studio behind the Fold app, the Keep protocol and an upcoming MetaMask competitor.
More: Blockworks
Aditya Kalra / Reuters:
India's antitrust regulator accuses Amazon of concealing facts when it sought approval for a 2019 investment in a Future Group unit, according to a June letter  —  India's antitrust regulator has accused Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) of concealing facts and making false submissions when it sought approval …

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Deep analysis for deep questions  —  Introducing Superagent.  A new research product from Airtable: Subagents deeply interrogate your topic and turn it into boardroom-ready reports, slides, docs, or websites.
Clay:
Turn any GTM idea into reality  —  Clay helps GTM teams combine AI agents, enrichment, and intent data to move faster and turn insights into action.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Plug&Play AI Email Assistant for Zoho CRM  —  Our App Spotlight brings you hand-picked apps to enhance the power of your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Is Something Big Happening?, AI Safety Apocalypse, Anthropic Raises $30 Billion
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
'Something Big Is Happening' + A.I. Rocks the Romance Novel Industry + One Good Thing
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Lenny's Podcast:
"Engineers are becoming sorcerers" | The future of software development with OpenAI's Sherwin Wu
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Cheeky Pint:
Ben Thompson from Stratechery on AI ads, the end of SaaS, and the future of media
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
His Excellency Khaldoon Al Mubarak: Investing in an AI-Driven World
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
The Billionaire Button w/ Tim Wu
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:30 PM ET, July 22, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Katie Jennings / Forbes:
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Jon Fingas / Engadget: