Techmeme
October 26, 2021, 2:10 PM

Top News

Washington Post:
Facebook documents show its News Feed algorithm treated emoji reactions as 5x more valuable than Likes starting in 2017, amplifying controversial content  —  Five years ago, Facebook gave its users five new ways to react to a post in their news feed beyond the iconic “like” thumbs-up: “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad” and “angry.”
Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:
Docs: Facebook tested turning off News Feed ranking for 0.05% of users in Feb. 2018 and found engagement dropped, Groups content rose, and ad views increased  —  New leaked Facebook documents show what happened when Facebook tried to remove feed ranking.  It didn't go well.
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Zuckerberg says he's redirected Facebook teams to serve young adults over older users, and that significant changes to Instagram will lean into video and Reels  —  Expect changes to Instagram to highlight Reels  —  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he's redirected teams within his company to …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
Steve Dent / Engadget:
Adobe announces Photoshop and Illustrator web apps to improve collaboration, make quick edits, and more  —  Adobe has announced that it's taken “a major step forward for collaboration” by bringing its Photoshop and Illustrator apps to the web.  The idea is not to do let you do complex work from a web page …
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Adobe announces Content Credentials for Photoshop, letting NFT sellers link their Adobe ID to authenticate the artwork using IPFS, coming soon in preview  —  Adobe is looking to fight NFT art theft with Content Credentials  —  Adobe is launching a system built into Photoshop that can …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Frances Haugen's documents have been useful to the press and groups opposing Facebook, but reporting should now expand to explore Haugen and her backers' goals  —  At the end of 2019, the group of Facebook employees charged with preventing harms on the network gathered to discuss the year ahead.
Dan Primack / Axios:
Sequoia Capital is forming the Sequoia Fund, which will hold all its US and European investments, including stakes in public companies  —  Sequoia Capital, one of the world's oldest and most successful venture capital firms, is forming a single fund to hold all of its U.S. and European investments …
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Biden names Jessica Rosenworcel to officially lead the FCC, nominates Gigi Sohn as third Democratic commissioner, but it's unclear if Senate will confirm soon  —  And progressive Gigi Sohn as a third Democratic commissioner  —  President Joe Biden named acting Federal Communications …
Loren Grush / The Verge:
Verizon partners with Amazon to use its Kuiper satellite network for expanded global 4G and 5G coverage in rural and remote locations  —  They still have to launch the satellites first  —  Amazon's ambitious satellite venture, called Kuiper, is teaming up with Verizon to further expand 4G/LTE …
Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan / Financial Times:
Stripe partners with Klarna to let retailers in the US, UK, and Europe more easily offer a buy now, pay later option  —  Tie-up will allow retailers easily to add option for customers to pay in instalments at checkouts  —  Online payments processor Stripe has entered a strategic partnership with …
Financial Times:
Sources: Amazon signs a contract with GCHQ, MI5, and MI6 to host top-secret material in the UK; the deal is worth an estimated £500M-£1B over a decade  —  Cloud contract for GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 with US tech group aims to speed analysis but likely to ignite sovereignty fears
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
macOS 12 Monterey review: automation on Mac is revitalized with Shortcuts, Low Power Mode is nice, and it's packed with tons of small tweaks like AirPlay to Mac  —  An iterative update to Big Sur that has a little something for everyone.  —  Big Sur was a landmark release of macOS, in ways both technical and symbolic.
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
A look at the Integrity Institute, a think tank formed by two former Facebook employees that wants to bring together tech integrity workers studying tech misuse  —  Shortly before he left Facebook in October 2019, Jeff Allen published his last report as a data scientist for the company's integrity team …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review: better display, monthslong battery, and USB-C, but poor support for non-Amazon books and no physical buttons  —  The most popular Kindle gets its biggest update in nearly a decade  —  It's been nearly three years since Amazon has updated its best …
Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Logicbroker, which offers cloud-based drop ship software and is on track for $6B in GMV across 4K+ companies in 2021, raises $135M from K1 Investment Management  —  Logicbroker, a Connecticut-based e-commerce company focused on cloud fulfillment, secured a $135 million growth round from K1 Investment Management.
Saqib Shah / Modern Retail:
After 2019's breakup over customer data, Mailchimp and Shopify strike a new deal, and Mailchimp acquires ShopSync to integrate with Shopify  —  Mailchimp is launching an integration for Shopify more than two years after a public bust-up between the two companies.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses  —  Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place.  Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
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.
Great Chat:
Code red: our favorite tech rivalries
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
How An AI Model Learned To Be Bad — With Evan Hubinger And Monte MacDiarmid
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
PBS Lost a Billion Dollars. Now what? With CEO Paula Kerger
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:10 PM ET, October 26, 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

Wall Street Journal:

Earlier Picks

BBC:
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Associated Press: