Techmeme
October 14, 2021, 10:30 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft is shuttering the Chinese version of LinkedIn and replacing it with a job board; sources say China told LinkedIn in March to better regulate content  —  LinkedIn cites challenging operating environment, as retreat marks the biggest departure from China by a major tech company in years
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google rolls out continuous scrolling for English-language mobile search results in the US  —  Google announced today it's changing the way search works on mobile devices, initially in the U.S. Now, when you reach the bottom of a set of search results on your phone, you won't have to tap to go to the next page.
The Markup:
Investigation finds Amazon places its own brands above competitors, even those with higher ratings and more sales, despite telling Congress otherwise  —  The online giant gives a leg up to hundreds of house brand and exclusive products that most people don't know are connected to Amazon
John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal:
Wilson Walker / CBS San Francisco:
Residents of a quiet San Francisco street say Waymo's self-driving cars are flocking to the neighborhood throughout the day, seemingly confused by a dead end  —  SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — A normally quiet neighborhood in San Francisco is buzzing about a sudden explosion of traffic.
James Vincent / The Verge:
Facebook details Ego4D, a research project in partnership with 13 universities that uses first-person video to improve perception by AI assistants  —  AI tools that could one day appear in Facebook's AR glasses  —  Facebook is pouring a lot of time and money into augmented reality, including building its own AR glasses with Ray-Ban.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
WhatsApp starts rolling out e2e encryption for chat history backups in iCloud and Google Drive  —  WhatsApp is beginning to roll out a new feature that will provide its two billion users the option to encrypt their chat history backup in iCloud or Google Drive, patching a major loophole …
Ax Sharma / Ars Technica:
How a US hacker built a secret network of “news” sites and Facebook Groups to push bogus stories after an undisclosed company hired him to sway 2016's election  —  He was hired to build a fake news op but now wants to put things right.  —  This is the story of the mastermind behind …
Wall Street Journal:
Coinbase asks Congress to regulate digital assets outside of the existing financial system and to create a special regulator for digital asset markets  —  Crypto trading platform asks Congress to create an oversight regime separate from existing market regulators
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Google Threat Analysis Group says it tracks 270+ state-backed threat actors, and sent 50K+ alerts for email phishing attacks to Gmail users in 2021, up ~33% YoY  —  The Google Threat Analysis Group said today that its security researchers are currently tracking more than 270 different …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
HTC announces $499 Vive Flow, a VR headset that requires an external battery and uses an Android phone as a wireless controller, available in November  —  After years of focusing on business-oriented virtual reality, HTC is launching a $499 entertainment-focused headset called the Vive Flow in November …
Reed Albergotti / Washington Post:
Profile of Cher Scarlett, an Apple employee leading the #AppleToo campaign highlighting racism, retaliation, sexual and other forms of workplace harassment  —  Cher Scarlett is willing to risk a dream job at Apple to blow the whistle on alleged labor violations at the iPhone maker.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Twitter begins testing ads in replies on Android and iOS globally, placed after the first, third, or eighth reply to a tweet  —  Just kidding, it's a bad place  —  I don't know about you, but I sometimes feel like Twitter is overloaded with ads in my feed.
Ari Levy / CNBC:
GitLab closed up 35% in its Nasdaq debut, giving it a $14.9 billion market cap, after raising $801M in its IPO at an $11B valuation  —  - GitLab started trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday under ticker symbol “GTLB.”  — The company, whose code-sharing software competes with Microsoft's GitHub …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
FTC notifies 700+ companies, including Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft, that they could face penalties of up to $43,792 per violation for using deceptive reviews  —  The FTC sent a notice to hundreds of companies, including AT&T, Dunkin' Donuts, Hulu, and Macy's.
Haje Jan Kamps / TechCrunch:
Reliable Robotics, which aims to replace pilots with robots on commercial cargo planes, raises a $100M Series C led by Coatue Management  —  When flying cargo from one part of the world to another, you typically need a pilot for two parts: The take-off and the landing.
Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch:
Tala, which provides mobile-first financial services in emerging markets, raises a $145M Series E led by Upstart, source says at an $800M+ valuation  —  Tala, an emerging markets digital lender that offers loans between $10 to $500 to consumers and small business owners, has raised $145 million in Series E funding.

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Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
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