Techmeme
May 19, 2022, 3:15 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple executives previewed the upcoming mixed reality headset to the company's board last week; Apple ramped up reality OS development in recent weeks  —  Apple Inc. executives previewed its upcoming mixed-reality headset to the company's board last week, indicating that development …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
In a policy shift, the US Department of Justice plans to stop prosecuting good-faith security research that would have violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act  —  The new policy addresses decades of uncertainty around the law and security research.  —  Joseph Cox
Bloomberg:
Sources: at an all-hands, Twitter's top lawyer Vijaya Gadde said there is “no such thing as a deal being on hold” and execs said Musk's deal is moving forward  —  Twitter Inc. executives told employees on Thursday that the $44 billion deal to sell the company to billionaire Elon Musk …
Twitter:
Twitter announces a crisis misinformation policy, including adding a warning to highly visible tweets with misleading information and disabling engagement  —  Around the world, people use Twitter to find reliable information in real time.  During periods of crisis - such as situations of armed conflict …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
The CISA orders US federal civilian agencies to patch or remove VMware products with a remote code execution vulnerability that hackers are actively exploiting  —  Security flaws in VMware and F5's BIG-IP are being exploited by malicious hackers.  —  Malicious hackers, some believed to be state-backed …
Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:
A new bipartisan Senate bill would prohibit companies with $20B+ in annual digital ad transactions from participating in more than one part of the ad ecosystem  —  Legislation, which has some Democratic support, takes aim at conflicts of interest in the advertising technology industry
David Pierce / The Verge:
Framework refreshes its 13.5" modular Framework Laptop with 12th Gen Intel CPUs, starting at $1,049 in July; owners can upgrade existing laptops with a $538 kit  —  A new laptop that fits inside your old laptop  —  A little more than a year after announcing the first version of its ultra-repairable …
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Tether's accounting firm says Tether holds $20.1B in commercial paper, down 17% QoQ; Tether had $82.4B+ in total assets on March 31 and $82.2B in liabilities  —  Tether, the operator of the world's most used cryptocurrency, said it had reduced the amount of commercial paper in the reserve backing …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
In a letter to portfolio founders, Y Combinator advises to “plan for the worst” by cutting expenses and focusing on extending runways amid the economic downturn  —  Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley kingmaker, is advising its portfolio founders to “plan for the worst” …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Meta launches its free WhatsApp Cloud API, aimed at SMBs, to all businesses worldwide, and announces paid features for its WhatsApp Business app coming later  —  WhatsApp is continuing its push into the business market with today's news it's launching the WhatsApp Cloud API to all businesses worldwide.
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Fastly acquires Glitch, the web coding service formerly called Fog Creek Software; Glitch CEO Anil Dash will join Fastly as its VP of developer experience  —  The coding platform will continue under the new owner  —  Fastly, a major provider of cloud services, announced today that it's acquiring Glitch …
Henry Grabar / Slate:
As Uber begins to rein in costs, having lost ~$30B in five-odd years, a look at the impact of cheap rides on city transit and the opportunities that were lost  —  Recently I was talking with an executive who used to work in car-sharing—the wave of companies, led by Zipcar and car2go …
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
FTX.US launches FTX Stocks, a zero-commission stock trading feature available through the FTX app, rolling out in the US over the coming months  —  - The news comes shortly after Sam Bankman-Fried's acquisition of a 7.6% stake in retail trading giant Robinhood.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
An interview with a16z's Jonathan Lai on Games Fund One, the VC firm's new $600M fund for games that will invest in studios, infrastructure, and consumer apps  —  Andreessen Horowitz has raised a $600 million fund to invest in games.  The storied venture capital firm is already a big investor in games …
Washington Post:
Republicans, who opposed common carrier status for ISPs during the net neutrality debate, are now calling for the status to be applied to social media platforms  —  Happy Thursday!  I know, I know, going to law school probably would've helped writing today's newsletter.
Kim Velsey / Curbed:
AirDNA, Inside Airbnb, and Douglas Elliman data: NYC has ~3K to ~13K more Airbnb listings than rental apartments despite Airbnb listings falling in the pandemic  —  The fever isn't breaking.  There are now bidding wars for one in every five Manhattan rental apartments (and one in three luxury units) …
Jan Hoffman / New York Times:
As drug overdoses soar in the US, Snap, Instagram, Discord, and other major platforms have become a quick and easy conduit for drug deals  —  The soaring drug fatalities in the U.S. are being fueled partly by fentanyl-tainted pills bought by teenagers and young adults on Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and other social media apps.
Financial Times:
Chinese citizens angered by Shanghai's ongoing lockdowns are evading censorship of a viral post and video criticizing the government by minting them into NFTs  —  Growing popularity of decentralised ledger technology presents fresh challenge for country's censors
Joy Dong / New York Times:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Report: Netflix had 3.6M cancellations in Q1 2022, up from ~2.5M for each past five quarters; 13% came from subscribers who had the service for over three years  —  Users subscribed to Netflix for more than three years represented 13 percent of total cancellations

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Earlier Picks

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Lauren Feiner / CNBC: