What's Popular on Techmeme
Amazon's self-publishing arm gives white supremacists and neo-Nazis, often banned from other platforms, unprecedented access to a mainstream audience
propublica.org · 1 day ago
WhatsApp now limits forwarding of viral messages,which have been forwarded five or more times, to one group at a time, to fight fake news
Trump signs an executive order to formalize a committee for evaluating national security concerns that could stem from foreign ownership of US telecom assets
A look at Airbnb's challenges amid the pandemic crisis, as global bookings fall and prospects for the travel accommodation industry turn murky
Montreal-based WorkJam, which makes software that helps companies manage their frontline "non-desk" workers, raises $50M Series C led by Inovia Capital
Supervised autonomous shuttles from Beep are being used to transport COVID-19 tests to the Mayo Clinic's processing location in Jacksonville, Florida
Samsung forecasts Q1 2020 operating profit of $5.2B, up 2.7% YoY, beating analyst estimates, and consolidated sales of ~$44B; stock is up 3%+
GoDaddy is acquiring Neustar's domain name registry services business and renaming it GoDaddy Registry; Neustar has about 12M domains
Inside two weeks of turmoil at SoftBank, as Masayoshi Son was forced to take drastic action, including share buybacks, to shore up confidence in his tech empire
Interview with Masayoshi Son on WeWork and the role of the Vision Fund within SoftBank, says he expects 15 companies in the Vision Fund portfolio to go bankrupt
Google updates Pixel 4 to require open eyes to use the phone's face unlock feature by default, with the option to disable it
Microsoft hires former Apple exec Ruben Caballero to work on mixed reality hardware and AI; Caballero was in charge of wireless technologies at Apple
Uber says its app will list job openings in delivery, food production, and grocery industries that its US drivers can access, amid slump in ride-hailing demand
Airbnb raises $1B in debt and equity from Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners; source: the funding doesn't depend on its performance or a target date for IPO
SonderMind, a marketplace to find mental health services, raises $27M as demand grows during the pandemic
Google launches its Local Home SDK out of preview, to enhance smart home integration with Google Assistant by routing commands through local networks
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook review: excellent keyboard, beautiful display, thin and light design, and fast performance, but poor battery life and expensive
Researchers: Google searches about symptoms, like loss of smell, can help find places where positive COVID-19 cases were missed and reveal undetected symptoms
Faith leaders across the US have turned to virtual tools, through which they offer individual counseling and stream services, homilies, and text studies
After being put on the US trade blacklist, sources say Megvii Technology's revenue grew just 2.7% in H2 2019 after more than tripling sales in the H1 2019
Sources: EU is focusing the next stage of its Facebook competition probe on whether it is distorting the classified ads market by promoting Marketplace
PsiQuantum, which aims to build a commercial quantum computing machine with 1M qubits, raises $215M from Microsoft, Playground Global, and others
Pure Harvest Smart Farms, which is developing tech-powered greenhouses in the Middle East, raises $20.6M Series A and says it has $100M committed from Kuwait
London-based Privitar, which aims to help companies utilize big data without compromising privacy, raises $80M Series C led by Warburg Pincus
Interview with Atlassian co-CEO Scott Farquhar on bug-tracking tool Jira, the ongoing evolution of enterprise software, and future of the company
Foxconn reports ~$11.51B in March revenue, down 7.7% YoY, as January to March revenue dropped 12% YoY to ~$30.74B amid the COVID-19 pandemic
IBM names former Bank of America CTO Howard Boville as head of its cloud business, as Arvind Krishna takes over from long-time CEO Ginni Rometty
A look at law firm Keller Lenkner and startup FairShake, which file arbitration lawsuits against companies en masse, including 2K+ against DoorDash in one day
Interviews with over 30 sources highlight Amazon's struggle to combat COVID-19, under pressure as orders rise, as the virus spreads to more than 50 warehouses
nytimes.com · 2 days ago
Facebook says it's releasing new Data for Good tools including Disease Prevention Maps to help public health researchers track social distancing efforts
Yapily, which offers an API to let enterprises connect to banks offering open banking services, raises $13M Series A led by Lakestar
A look at how big tech companies and startups are helping governments around the world tackle Covid-19, with chatbots, supercomputers, hackathons, and more
Jeffery Katzenberg and Meg Whitman's Quibi short-video streaming service launches with $1.8B in funding amid the Covid-19 pandemic
nytimes.com · 3 days ago
Quibi app review: works reliably, auto-flips between landscape and portrait, but no tablet-optimized mode, no family member profiles, and lacks a TV experience
Execs at US digital banks say European challengers, like N26, are underestimating the hurdles they will face in the US, like regulation and cultural differences
PwC report: the total number of crypto M&A deals dropped from 189 in 2018 to 114 last year, while the value of M&A deals dropped from $1.89B to $451M
Skype no longer requires video call participants to have an account or to download software, letting users join a call via a link, similar to Zoom
Twice this week, traffic to 200+ of the world's largest CDNs and cloud hosts was redirected through Russia's telco Rostelecom in likely BGP hijacking attacks
YouTube says it will remove content spreading conspiracy theories linking 5G and coronavirus, but will leave content that is simply conspiratorial about 5G
Bengaluru-based digital payments startup JusPay raises $21.6M Series B led by Vostok Emerging Finance
Report: the live streaming e-commerce market in China saw more than $61B in transactions in 2019 and is expected to double this year due to the pandemic
Tim Cook says Apple has now sourced 20M+ masks for healthcare workers from its supply chain, has designed and is shipping face shields at a rate of 1M per week
NetMarketShare: Microsoft Edge becomes the second most popular desktop browser for the first time, with a market share of 7.59%, beating Mozilla Firefox's 7.19%
Uber Eats waived delivery fees in the name of supporting local restaurants, but some restaurants say Uber's 25% commission for take-out orders is too high
Washington state's facial recognition law, which is championed by Microsoft, was sponsored by State Sen. Joe Nguyen, who also is a program manager at Microsoft
How Silicon Valley food caterers, event planners, venue owners, models, DJs, and others who relied on tech parties and events are coping with the loss of income
India's Unified Payments Interface eliminated most of the fees apps like Paytm charged for transactions, forcing them to search for other sources of income
Some independent movie theaters are launching "virtual cinemas" to let patrons stream first-tier films from home as a temporary revenue source amid the pandemic
In internal email lists Amazon corporate employees express dismay over the firing of Christian Smalls and a report that management discussed a plan to smear him
vox.com · 3 days ago