Techmeme
December 17, 2021, 2:05 PM

Top News

Kim Lyons / The Verge:
TikTok says it is removing “alarmist warnings” about a supposed day of school violence that prompted some US districts to cancel classes on Friday  —  It hasn't found any videos threatening school violence on Friday, the company said  —  TikTok said Friday that it's working to remove …
The Citizen Lab:
Two Egyptians living in exile had their iPhones compromised in June 2021 using Predator spyware built by North Macedonian developer Cytrox  —  Key Findings  — Two Egyptians—exiled politician Ayman Nour and the host of a popular news program (who wishes to remain anonymous) …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Washington Post:
The Biden administration is concerned with US investments in Chinese companies developing “dual use” tech that could have civilian and military applications  —  Last year, a fast-rising artificial intelligence company in China won a little-noticed contract from a Chinese military academy …
Zachary Basu / Axios:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Windows 11 preview builds signal the end of the Control Panel by moving some settings, including for networks, devices, and app uninstalls, to the Settings app  —  One more step to simplifying Windows  —  Microsoft is finally signaling the end of the legacy Control Panel in Windows 11.
Paul R. La Monica / CNN:
The CFPB probes buy now, pay later practices of Affirm, Afterpay, PayPal, Klarna, and Zip, citing concerns over customers' debt accumulation and data harvesting  —  New York (CNN Business)Regulators in Washington may crack down on the industry behind “buy now, pay later,” …
Reuters:
How Amazon grew its business in China, including partnering with a government propaganda arm for a books section on Amazon US, AWS-related concessions, and more  —  Amazon.com Inc was marketing a collection of President Xi Jinping's speeches and writings on its Chinese website about two years ago …
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Media:
A look at the cycles of decentralization and recentralization, and why we won't understand what Web3 consists of until after the next bubble pops  —  There's been a lot of talk about Web3 lately, and as the person who defined “Web 2.0” 17 years ago, I'm often asked to comment.
Josh Sisco / The Information:
Sources: the FTC opened an in-depth probe into Meta's acquisition of Within, the company behind VR fitness game Supernatural  —  Meta Platforms' Oculus virtual reality headsets are a vital step toward creating what its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, calls the metaverse, an immersive internet in which people can interact in digital spaces.
Dan Primack / Axios:
Dedrone, which lets governments, airports, stadiums, prisons, and others detect and track drones, raises a $30.5M Series C led by Axon  —  Dedrone, an SF-based drone defense startup, raised $30.5 million in Series C funding led by public safety firm Axon, Axios has learned.
Joe Miller / Financial Times:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Oracle is in talks to acquire electronic medical records company Cerner, in a deal that could be worth ~$30B, which would make it Oracle's biggest yet  —  An agreement, which could potentially be worth $30 billion, would rank as biggest ever for software giant

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More News

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:

Earlier Picks

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Washington Post:
Liza Lin / Wall Street Journal:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Henry Mance / Financial Times: