What's Popular on Techmeme
Ireland's High Court rejects Facebook's bid to block Data Protection Commissioner's decision that may force the company to stop sending EU user data to the US
DarkSide, the gang behind Colonial attack, says it lost control of web servers and funds, as researchers wonder if it is due to US takedown or an exit scam
Amazon says it will hire 10,000 more people in the UK, taking its total headcount in the country to 55K by the end of 2021
bloomberg.com · 3 hours ago
Google is leading an effort, supported by many tech giants, to maintain work authorization for tens of thousands of people whose spouses hold H-1B visas
Foxconn reports Q2 net profit of $1B on revenue of $48B, up 45% YoY, and says global supply crunch will worsen this quarter
Chinese regulators expand scrutiny to ride-hailing sector, warning execs from Didi Chuxing and nine other companies against price fixing and monopolizing data
A peer-reviewed study finds UK's NHS contact-tracing app reduced the second wave by roughly 25%, averting ~594,000 out of 1.89M cases from October-December 2020
Substack acquires People & Company, which focuses on community building, to expand its support infrastructure for writers, including workshops and legal support
Chemical distributor Brenntag paid a $4.4M ransom in bitcoin to the DarkSide ransomware gang, who claimed to have stolen more than 150 GB of sensitive data
Disney+ misses on Q1 subscriber estimates, reaching 103.6M subscribers vs. 109.3M expected; ESPN+ subscribers rose 75% YoY to 13.8M, Hulu grew 30% YoY to 41.6M
Actor claiming to be voice behind TikTok's text-to-speech feature sues TikTok for "irreparable harm"; says recordings she made were never authorized for TikTok
MasterClass, which offers celebrity-taught online classes, raises $225M Series F led by Fidelity Management, sources say at a $2.75B valuation
Collective, a subscription-based service that handles back office tasks like accounting for the self-employed, raises $20M Series A led by General Catalyst
Bumble stock falls 14%+ on Thursday to $40.48, below its IPO price, after beating Q1 revenue expectations Wednesday but issuing a more cautious Q2 guidance
Coinbase reports Q1 revenue of $1.8B, up 207% QoQ, monthly transacting users of 6.1M, up from 2.8M last quarter, says it plans to list dogecoin in 6-8 weeks
Jeff Blackburn, an S-team Amazon exec who had departed in February, is returning as SVP of Global Media and Entertainment, overseeing Prime Video, Twitch, more
variety.com · 17 hours ago
Vitalik Buterin sells large amounts of SHIB, AKITA, and ELON tokens, sent to him by coin creators, for ~$60M worth of ETH, and donates the proceeds to charities
Pinterest says it will test livestreaming events this month through a three-day virtual event featuring sessions with around 21 top creators
Airbnb reports Q1 revenue of $886.9M, up 5% YoY, gross booking value of $10.3B, up 52% YoY, but net loss tripled to $1.1B, largely due to debt repayments
Tether, which claimed at launch that each tether was backed 1:1 with USD, releases a breakdown of its reserves, revealing that only 3.87% are in actual cash
DoorDash reports Q1 revenue of $1.08B, up 198% YoY, and a net loss of $110M, blaming a shortage of drivers, but raises forecasts; stock up 8%+ after hours
Roku announces launch of its original programming, including the Quibi content it acquired, on the Roku Channel, starting May 20
Amazon Echo Buds review: affordable, better sound, smaller, True ANC, optional wireless charging, but middling battery life and mediocre call quality
engadget.com · 22 hours ago
Michigan GOP lawmaker introduces a bill that requires fact checkers to register with the state using a $1M fidelity bond, and levies $1K/day fine for violations
YouTube has banned almost 40 QAnon channels that are deleting their own videos after a few days in order to evade YouTube's policies and escape violations
Sources: Colonial paid ~$5M ransom in cryptocurrency within hours of the attack, but the hackers' decrypting tool was so slow that it had to use its own backups
SpaceX signs a satellite connectivity deal with Google Cloud, as part of which SpaceX will install Starlink terminals at Google's data centers around the world
Global notebook PC shipments grew 81% YoY in Q1; both Apple, with 5.7M shipments, and Acer, with 4.9M shipments, grew 94% as HP grew 91% with 15.4M shipments
Axtria, which makes data analytics software for life sciences companies, raises $150M, sources say at a valuation close to $1B
Amazon says it is hiring 75,000 workers, representing 8% of its US workforce, and offering an average of $17/hour, above its typical $15/hour starting wage
wsj.com · 22 hours ago
Discord announces Stage Discovery, a tool to help people find communities through live audio events, and says it will soon test paid, ticketed audio events
Ford says it will start rolling out OTA updates to its vehicles at scale, including adding Alexa later this year to 700K eligible vehicles
theverge.com · 22 hours ago