Techmeme
December 22, 2021, 8:15 PM

Top News

Washington Post:
Survey of 1,058 US internet users: 72% distrust Facebook, 63% TikTok, 60% Instagram, 53% WhatsApp, and 53% YouTube; 53% trust Amazon, 48% Google, and 44% Apple  —  You'll find all the usual technology suspects inside Mary Veselka's Pearland, Tex., home.  There's her iPhone …
Katanga Johnson / Reuters:
The US CFPB orders online payday lender LendUp to shutter lending operations after finding it repeatedly lied to and illegally cheated its customers  —  WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - (This December 21 story corrects date of LendUp wind-down from 2020 to 2022)
Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
Jack Dorsey's tweet sparks uproar: “You don't own ‘web3.’ The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It's ultimately a centralized entity”  —  Fresh off relinquishing the chief executive reins of Twitter Inc., Bitcoin enthusiast Jack Dorsey …
The Markup:
Amazon warehouse workers in Oregon say they saw a spike in COVID-19 cases this fall after the company started rolling back pandemic safety protocols  —  Two Oregon warehouses have been in an active outbreak for nearly 19 months.  Elsewhere in the country, warehouse workers report continual cases
The Economic Times:
India bans 20 YouTube channels and two websites for alleged “anti-India” propaganda from Pakistan, invoking its new IT Act's emergency powers for the first time  —  India banned 20 YouTube channels and two websites on Monday for allegedly running anti-India propaganda from Pakistan …
Reuters:
Chinese state media says regulators suspended an info-sharing partnership with Alibaba Cloud over accusations it failed to promptly report and fix a Log4j flaw  —  Chinese regulators on Wednesday suspended an information-sharing partnership with Alibaba Cloud Computing …
Ben Dummett / Wall Street Journal:
Skillsoft, which makes training software for businesses, acquires edtech startup Codecademy for $525M in cash and stock; Codecademy raised $40M in February  —  Acquisition is Skillsoft's largest deal since going public in June  —  Skillsoft Corp. has agreed to acquire rival U.S.-based …
Tom Krisher / Associated Press:
The US NHTSA opens an investigation to evaluate the driver distraction potential of Tesla's Passenger Play gaming feature, covering 580K cars from 2017 to 2022  —  ATHENS, Ohio (AP) — The U.S. has opened a formal investigation into Tesla allowing drivers to play video games on a center touch screen while its vehicles are moving.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
A Discord announcement bot for Justin Kan's NFT platform Fractal was hacked by a scammer who made off with about $150K, before the platform even launched  —  Despite billions in VC investment, many web3 crypto platforms are still pretty hostile places for users new to the crypto world.
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell on meeting pandemic demand, relationships with Apple and Amazon, killing the Harmony remote line, USB-C, and more  —  Logitech is one of those ubiquitous companies — it's been around since 1981, selling all kinds of important things that connect …
David Pierce / Protocol:
Interview with Automattic's Matt Mullenweg on working from his always-connected RV, making “the Berkshire Hathaway of the internet”, and betting on open systems  —  In the early days of the pandemic, Matt Mullenweg didn't move to a compound in Hawaii, bug out to a bunker …
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Retool, a low-code tool for creating enterprise apps, raises a $20M Series C from Stripe's founders and others at a $1.85B pre-money valuation  —  Covering venture capital, software and startups  —  When Retool CEO David Hsu set out recently to raise fresh funding for his low-code software startup …

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
3 lessons from 1,000+ teams running sales on WhatsApp  —  This is a guest post by Orkhan Jafarli, Growth PM at TimelinesAI.Sales teams of businesses across the world have one thing in common: a meaningful chunk of their pipeline now happens on WhatsApp.
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:
AI Pioneer Geoffrey Hinton: AI Is Conscious, Superintelligence is Coming, And We Should Be Worried
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:
How Dhar Mann Turned After-School Specials Into A Billion-View Business
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.
Invest Like the Best:
Dara Khosrowshahi - Uber's Bet on AVs, AI, and Building a Super-App
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Training Data:
Knowing What Your Customers Want, All the Time: Listen Labs' Alfred Wahlforss
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
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.
Grit:
What It Takes to Build Software for 171,000+ Restaurants | Aman Narang
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:15 PM ET, December 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

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Nathan Grayson / Washington Post:
Chris Vallance / BBC:
Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Ivan Levingston / Bloomberg:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk:
Mehul Srivastava / Financial Times:
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg: