Trending Stories from wsj.com
AT&T, Verizon, and other bidders have spent a record $80.9B during the 5G spectrum auction, expected to lead to a wave of borrowing for the indebted sector
Social media algorithms amplify the reach of incendiary, misinformation-filled, conspiracy theories, and users have no control over them
Social-Media Algorithms Rule How We See the World. Good Luck Trying to Stop Them. – What you see in your feeds isn’t up to you. What’s at stake is no longer just missing a birthday. It’s your sanity—and world peace.
Surging demand for laptops and 5G chips, alongside a boom in car sales, is fueling chip shortages and pushing prices higher, with older chips affected the most
Discord says over the past six months it took steps to make the service safer for kids, including more proactive policing and limiting what minors can access
FAA approves the first fully automated commercial drone flights, letting Massachusetts-based American Robotics operate its drones in rural areas below 400 feet
IBM says it will acquire Taos, an IT firm that helps companies migrate from in-house servers to cloud infrastructure; terms of the deal were not disclosed
Cisco says it has struck a new deal to buy Acacia Communications for around $4.5B, boosting the original purchase price by 64%
TSMC says it will raise capital expenditures to between $25B and $28B in 2021, an increase of at least 47% YoY
Axios says it will launch AxiosHQ, which lets companies write internal memos styled like Axios newsletters, next month, starting at $10K a year
Trump's YouTube Account Suspended
Internal docs: in hours ahead of Capitol riot, user reports of violent content on Facebook jumped 10x, and false news surged to ~40K reports/hour, 4x daily peak
Experts say widespread adoption of RISC-V, which was partly developed with DARPA's backing, could help China reduce its dependence on Western chip technology
Intel Ousts CEO Bob Swan
PC Giant Lenovo Plans China Listing, Sending Stock Soaring
Visa is abandoning its $5.3B planned acquisition of fintech firm Plaid after the DOJ sued over antitrust concerns in November
Video-sharing site Rumble, popular among conservatives, sues Google, accusing it of diverting traffic to YouTube
Google Sued by YouTube Rival Rumble over Search Rankings
Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal'
As tensions rise, China has found a subtle way to make life difficult for US tech companies: slowing down regulatory approval for acquisitions and other deals
As CES kicks off, a look at how the mammoth trade show pivoted to a virtual event this year with ~1,900 exhibitors participating, far shy of 2020's 4,500
Intercontinental Exchange says its crypto venture Bakkt will go public via a SPAC merger at a $2.1B valuation
Amazon, Walmart, and others are using AI to decide whether it makes economic sense to skip returns and let customers keep the products, which is often cheaper
Techmeme · 1 week ago
Airbnb, often forgotten in the Section 230 debate, has relied on the law to avoid responsibility for some listings and is lobbying to reshape it
Sources: Stripe will no longer process payments for Trump's campaign website and fundraising efforts, after violations of policies against encouraging violence
Tech Jobs Soar as Overall U.S. Job Market Dips
Tesla’s Elon Musk Overtakes Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as World’s Wealthiest Person
Reddit · 1 week ago
FBI, Homeland Security Int. Didn’t Issue Risk Assessment for ProTrump Protests
LG Electronics takes a majority stake in Alphonso, a data and ad targeting company for smart TVs; sources say LG invested almost $80M for a nearly 60% stake
Roku has acquired global rights for Quibi content, sources say for less than $100M, and will make it available free to stream in 2021 on the Roku Channel
Donald Trump’s Final Days – WSJ
Sources: US is considering prohibiting Americans from investing in Alibaba and Tencent, and is debating the impact on US financial markets of a potential ban
Shopify takes down online stores run by the Trump Organization and Trump campaign for violating its policy against promoting violence
Techmeme · 2 weeks ago
Officials say the US judiciary's electronic filing system was likely breached in the SolarWinds hack, putting highly sensitive nonpublic documents at risk
Amazon commits $2B+ over five years to create and preserve affordable housing in three of its employment hubs, Seattle, WA; Arlington, VA; and Nashville, TN
Techmeme · 2 weeks ago
IBM names Gary Cohn, former Goldman Sachs executive and economic adviser to Trump, as its vice chairman and member of its executive leadership team
Sources: China's regulators aim to force Ant Group, which owns Alipay, to share its consumer-credit data with China's central bank or an entity controlled by it
Beijing high court rules Amazon can't use its AWS logo in China, as it belongs to a Chinese software company, and must pay compensation, a setback for Amazon
Techmeme · 2 weeks ago