Techmeme
July 22, 2021, 8:20 AM

Top News

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.
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” …
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 …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Clubhouse is no longer invite-only as it exits beta and says the 10M people on its waitlist will be added to the app over time  —  The app goes wide  —  Clubhouse is going wide.  Co-founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth announced today that the app is no longer invite-only.
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?
Washington Post:
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 …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out Backup by Google One, a unified Android cloud backup that syncs app data, messages, photos, and more; Backup replaces the Play Services tool  —  Google today started rolling out “Backup by Google One” as an update over the existing Android backup service that now means end users …
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Facial-recognition company Clearview AI raises $30M Series B amid legal and ethical concerns, with new investors requesting they not be publicly identified  —  Clearview AI is currently the target of multiple class-action lawsuits and a joint investigation by Britain and Australia.
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
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
More: Reuters
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Spanish police have arrested UK citizen Joseph O'Connor at the US' request over his alleged involvement in last year's hack of high-profile Twitter accounts  —  Authorities are still cracking down on participants in the July 2020  —  Twitter celebrity hacks.  Spanish National Police have
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 …
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 …
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler: stock tokens and stablecoins backed by securities “are implicated by the securities laws and must work within our securities regime”  —  Stock tokens and stablecoins backed by securities might be treated as securities under U.S. law, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said.
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 …
Washington Post:
Profile of the NSO Group, which has been hailed as an Israeli version of a Silicon Valley success story, as its founders defend their spyware operations  —  HERZLIYA, Israel — It was a proposition that would change everything.  —  Two 20-something Israeli entrepreneurs who had been running …
Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Tailor Brands, a SaaS platform to automate branding and marketing for SMBs, raises $50M Series C led by GoDaddy, bringing its total raised to $70M  —  Tailor Brands, a startup that automates parts of the branding and marketing process for small businesses, announced Thursday it has raised $50 million in Series C funding.
More: CTech
Bloomberg:
Paycor, which makes HR management software for SMBs, closed up 13% in its trading debut, giving the company a market value of $4.46B  —  - VTEX, CS Disco, Kaltura also rise in software trading debuts  — More than $6.7 billion sought in 29 U.S. listings this week
More: Reuters and PYMNTS.com

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