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Todd Spangler / Variety: Verizon is giving away Disney+ for free for one year to all of its wireless customers on unlimited-data plans and to FiOS and 5G home internet customers -
Drew Harwell / Washington Post: A look at HireVue's controversial AI-driven face and voice scanning “employability” assessment tool, used by 100 employers including Hilton and Goldman Sachs -
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat: Firefox 70 arrives with social tracking blocked by default, a personalized privacy report to show how many trackers have been blocked, and performance gains -
Tony Romm / Washington Post: New York State's attorney general says 46 attorneys general have joined its antitrust probe into Facebook, separate from DOJ and FTC investigations -
Conor Dougherty / New York Times: Facebook announces a pledge of $1B in a package of grants, loans, and land as part of a partnership with California to help build more affordable housing -
Joe Maring / Android Central: The Pixel 4 and 4 XL support fast wireless charging on any Qi charger, unlike the Pixel 3, which needed Google's own Pixel Stand for fast charging -
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch: Medium says it will now pay its Partner Program writers based “primarily” on reading time, not claps; the platform has paid $6M+ to 30,000+ writers since 2017 -
Ben Thompson / Stratechery: Mark Zuckerberg's proposal of social media as a “Fifth Estate” highlights that the world is fundamentally changing; the sooner we realize that, the better -
Josh Constine / TechCrunch: Facebook now requires some page owners to disclose the orgs running them and if they're tied to state-owned media, will add labels to pages run by state media -
Nathaniel Gleicher / Facebook: Facebook bans networks, three originating in Iran and one in Russia, running “inauthentic” accounts, Pages, and Groups misleading US and Latin American users -
Facebook: Facebook says it will more prominently label content that fact-checkers deem false on Facebook and Instagram, will ban ads suggesting voting is pointless -
Joseph Cox / VICE: The FTC issues its first-ever ban on “stalkerware” as it bars Retina-X from selling apps that monitor mobile devices unless a legitimate use for them is shown -
Dami Lee / The Verge: Browser-based UI design and prototyping tool Figma gives users public profiles to share design files and works in progress, as part of a new Community platform -
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC: In prepared remarks for Congress, Mark Zuckerberg argues Libra “will extend America's financial leadership” and that China is pursuing similar projects -
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Databricks raises $400M Series F at a $6.2B valuation led by a16z, with Microsoft and others participating, up from its $2.75B post-money valuation in February -
Financial Times: Sources: Facebook hasn't offered money to wire services Reuters and AP for being featured on its news page, as Bloomberg and Dow Jones land seven-figure deals -
Joseph Cox / VICE: Sources: MPC, pitched as a privacy-focused smartphone vendor, was run by a violent UK gang and shut down after multiple investigations into it developed -
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge: Google's Nest Mini is a great-sounding upgrade over the Home Mini, its ability to be mounted to a wall is nice, but it still lacks a 3.5mm jack, unlike Echo Dot -
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC: Rob Goldman, Facebook VP of advertising, says he's leaving the company after more than seven years — - Facebook Vice President of Ads Rob Goldman announced via Twitter … -
CNBC: Sources: SoftBank to take control of WeWork, spending $4B-$5B on new funding and existing shares in The We Company, valuing it between $7.5B and $8B — KEY POINTS