Techmeme
January 18, 2022, 12:00 AM

Top News

Ashley Rodriguez / Insider:
Social Capital founder and CEO Chamath Palihapitiya says the “ugly truth” is “nobody cares about what's happening” to Uyghurs in China, himself included  —  - Chamath Palihapitiya said “nobody cares about what's happening” to Uyghur Muslims in China.
New York Times:
Game publishers' plans to add NFTs to games have sparked a fierce backlash from gamers, who have long resented the growing number of micro transactions in games  —  Game publishers are offering NFTs, but skeptical gamers smell a moneymaking scheme and are fighting back.
Kirsten Grind / Wall Street Journal:
Activision Blizzard says 37 employees have “exited” and 44 have been disciplined since July as part of its investigation over workplace misconduct allegations  —  Company's actions have come in the wake of pressure from investors, business partners and employees to address complaints over its handling of misconduct issues
Eric Benjamin Seufert / Mobile Dev Memo:
Apple clarifies it will still collect a commission from Dutch developers using third-party payments; Google will too in South Korea, just lowering its fee by 4%  —  On December 24th of last year, the Netherlands' competition regulator, the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) …
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Tech Oversight Project, mainly funded by Pierre Omidyar and Chris Hughes's organizations, launches Tuesday to push for Big Tech antitrust regulations  —  Organizations with ties to eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes are the primary funders of the Tech Oversight Project
Financial Times:
In February, Spain will start requiring influencers and sponsors promoting cryptocurrencies to pre-notify authorities and warn of investing risks or face fines  —  Watchdog imposes landmark restrictions amid concerns for investors in unregulated sector  —  Spain is imposing restrictions …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
India-based agritech startup Arya, which helps farmers in South Asia store and sell their produce and secure credit, raises a $46M Series C and $14M as debt  —  Indian agritech startup Arya, which reaches hundreds of thousands of farmers in the South Asian market and helps them store and sell …
Kate Park / TechCrunch:
South Korean startup flex, which makes tools for automating HR processes and workflows, raises a $32M Series B led by Greenoaks at a $287M valuation  —  South Korea-based human resources management platform flex announced today it has closed a $32 million Series B round at a valuation of $298 million.
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
BitPay says Bitcoin use by its merchants fell to ~65% of crypto payments, down from 92% in 2020, as Ether purchases rose to 15% and stablecoins grew to 13%  —  Consumers and businesses are increasingly starting to use digital tokens other than Bitcoin for purchases, according to BitPay Inc. …
Alberto Nardelli / Bloomberg:
Amazon reverses its plan to ban the use of Visa credit cards in the UK, set to start on January 19; the company had cited high transaction fees  —  Amazon.com Inc. has emailed U.K. customers to say that a planned ban on Visa credit cards will no longer take place.
Microsoft Security Blog:

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Earlier Picks

Lauren Thomas / CNBC:
FingerprintJS Blog:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
James Ball / Rolling Stone: