Facebook says, after an FBI tip, it took down several Pages and accounts pushing a fake left-wing news outlet made by people linked to Russian troll group IRA
New York (CNN Business)People associated with the infamous St. Petersburg troll group that was part of Russia's attempt to interfere …
India bans another 188 Chinese apps, including PUBG, Baidu, and Alipay, saying widespread concerns were flagged against the blocked apps
India on Wednesday banned 118 more apps, including popular gaming app PUBG, for allegedly being engaged in activities which are “prejudicial to sovereignty …
Amazon had job listings, now removed, for “intelligence analysts” who would assess “labor organizing threats” and contribute to filings like restraining orders
Open Markets Institute Nandita Bose / Reuters : Amazon's surveillance can boost output and possibly limits unions: study Bloomberg : Amazon Posts, Then Pulls Job Listing to Probe Union Threats Nick St...
Amazon is spying on private Facebook Groups for Flex drivers in US, UK, and Spain, monitoring for complaints and labor actions, per internal reports left online
The company has a sophisticated and secret program that is surveilling dozens of private Facebook groups set up by workers, internal documents and reports show.
In response to UK's “digital services tax”, Apple says it will raise UK developer fees by 2% and Amazon says it will increase third-party seller fees by 2%
Developers, ad buyers, and third-party sellers are all affected — For many years, Europe has been unhappy with the tax habits of US tech giants.
Microsoft says it will bring its DirectStorage API from the Xbox to PCs, to reduce IO bottlenecks and improve game loading times and graphics details
When Microsoft announced the next Xbox console some time ago, it highlighted some features of the console's underlying architecture to demonstrate its power.
Google says it will raise the price for ads by 2% in UK and 5% in Turkey and Austria to cover the cost of European digital services taxes, starting in November
Alex Barker / Financial Times :
Apple says the iOS app economy created 300,000 new US jobs since April 2019 and now supports 2.1M+ US jobs across all 50 states, up 15% YoY
App Store ecosystem now supports over 2.1 million jobs across all 50 states — The iOS app economy has created nearly 300,000 new jobs since April 2019 …
Sources: TikTok sale talks have been complicated by China's new AI export restrictions, with parties unsure whether TikTok's algorithms can be included
Complexity of new Chinese export restrictions has reduced the chances of a sale occurring soon — Deal talks for TikTok's U.S. operations …
Twitter says it plans to add context to trending topics, including picking a “representative tweet” for trends, amid criticism that the feature amplifies hoaxes
Twitter announced Tuesday that it plans to make a series of small changes to its trending topics feature to try …
Patreon says it has raised $90M at a $1.2B+ pre-money valuation, nearly twice the $660M valuation it had prior to a funding round last year
New Enterprise Associates and Wellington Management led the $90 million funding round — Membership platform Patreon Inc., which enables musicians …
Microsoft unveils new tools to identify deepfake videos and launches an interactive quiz at SpotDeepfakes.org to combat disinformation
Today, we're announcing two new technologies to combat disinformation, new work to help educate the public about the problem, and partnerships to help advance …
Google updates Your News Update, its Assistant-powered audio news service, with new features including its own “newscaster voice”
The company's latest news product is an ever-replenishing playlist of audio stories—curated, in part, by the wealth of data it has on you.
Sources: AT&T decides not to sell its Warner Bros. gaming division, deciding to abandon a potential ~$4B deal once it realized the division's growth potential
- Boom in gameplay takes unit off list of assets to jettison — ‘No sacred cows,’ said Stankey, but this could be an exception
Facebook updates its terms of service globally, effective Oct. 1, allowing it to block content amid proposed Australian law that would force it to pay for news
- Change will give Facebook powers to remove or block content — Mark Zuckerberg has long publicly championed free speech
US appeals court affirms a lower court ruling rejecting Oracle's challenges to the Pentagon's $10B JEDI contract, arguing Oracle does not qualify anyway
- Appeals court affirmed ruling that Oracle wasn't harmed — Oracle is fighting exclusion from contract given to Microsoft
Report: Canadian police are turning more to predictive policing algorithms, using tools like GeoDASH and Palantir's Gotham, raising civil liberty concerns
Police across Canada are increasingly adopting algorithmic technology to predict crime. The authors of a new report say human rights are threatened by the practice.
Sources: dating app Bumble is preparing for an IPO sometime in early 2021, seeking a valuation between $6B and $8B
- Bumble in talks with banks about an IPO early next year — Blackstone Group bought majority stake in Bumble last year — Bumble, a dating app that lets women …
Skillz, which develops competitive mobile games, announces it is going public with an IPO at a $3.5B pre-money valuation
Skillz has announced it is going public through a quick initial public offering process, raising an estimated $849 million in cash from investors at a $3.5 billion pre-money valuation.
Driven by the popularity of Cash App, Square's stock is up 28% in the past month and 166% in the past year; Cash App saw revenue double to $325M in Q2 2020
Users have flocked to Cash App, which made it easy for people to accept stimulus checks and unemployment benefits Tweets: @patrickmcgee_ , @unhedgedchatter , and @rabois Tweets: Patrick McGee / @patri...
Nvidia announces $699 RTX 3080 GPU, launching on Sept. 17, boasting up to two times the performance of the RTX 2080, as well as a $499 RTX 3070
the RTX 3070 is 50% faster than an RTX 2080 Ti on raw compute power. RTX 3080 is 120% faster. Insane. https://www.anandtech.com/... Sebastian Aaltonen / @sebaaltonen : DirectStorage: https://devblogs....
Brazilian digital bank Neon Pagamentos raises $300M Series C led by General Atlantic, bringing its total raised to over $400M
The new funding round for Neon Pagamentos comes less than a year after the company announced it had raised $92 million for a previous financing round
Government of Bermuda announces a pilot program for a digital stimulus token, based on Blockstream's Liquid, which lets users buy essential goods and services
Bermuda wants to use a digital token to stimulate its economy. — The government of Bermuda announced Tuesday it has started …
Biden campaign releases official yard signs for Animal Crossing that players can use to decorate their virtual homes, as politicians try to reach voters online
Makena Kelly / The Verge :
Indonesia-based PasarPolis, an insurance marketplace aimed at those who have never purchased policies before, raises $54M Series B from LeapFrog and others
PasarPolis, the Indonesian-based startup focused on making insurance policies more accessible in Southeast Asia, has closed a Series B round totaling $54 million.
Donald Trump, his campaign's “War Room” account, Steve Scalise, and Dan Scavino recently shared misleading videos; Twitter labeled three as “manipulated media”
India-based online learning service Unacademy raises $150M Series F led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 at a $1.45B valuation, tripling a $510M valuation from Feb.
Saritha Rai / Bloomberg :
Sources: US believes another teen, age 16, was involved in the July 15 Twitter hack and conducted a search of his home; warrant and other docs are under seal
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times :
Illegal drug trade in Ukraine is thriving on Telegram, which reportedly accounts for 90% of the drug sales in the country, helped by its end-to-end encryption
In February 2019, Amos Dov Silver, a slight man in his mid-30s who often wears his shoulder-length hair in a bun … Tweets: @anupkaphle Tweets: Anup Kaphle / @anupkaphle : Ukraine has long been a testi...
VoIP provider Dialpad has acquired video conferencing startup Highfive, which had raised $77.4M from Lightspeed Venture Partners, a16z, and others
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch :
India's Supreme Court gives telecom operators 10 years to clear government dues totaling $19B, a significant concession from the original three month deadline
Upmanyu Trivedi / Bloomberg :
Interview with cryptographer Seny Kamara, who argues that to aid marginalized groups, cryptography research must be motivated by specific, on-the-ground needs
Lily Hay Newman / Wired : Tweets: @wired , @senykam , @lokmantsui , and @hypervisible Tweets: @wired : Even when encryption technologies are brought to underserved communities, they arrive retrofitte...
Twitch makes Prime Video Watch Parties, previously confined to top US Twitch creators, available to every creator and viewer on the platform globally
Nick Summers / Engadget :
Legion, which develops retail scheduling and analytics software, raises $22M Series B led by Stripes, bringing its total raised to $35.5M
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
PropertyGuru, which runs real estate rental and sale listing sites in SE Asia, raises $220M from KKR and TPG, following its cancelled Australia IPO last year
Aradhana Aravindan / Reuters :
Apple allows Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to sell ads, which are digital goods, in their iOS apps via direct transactions, avoiding IAP and the 30% cut
the biggest beneficent of the iPhone, its tools, and its infrastructure—pay nothing, when small developers have to pay tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars? https://ia.net/...
Pakistan says it has blocked dating apps Tinder, Grindr, Tagged, Skout, and SayHi for violating local laws and streaming “immoral content”
Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam / Reuters :
Facebook could create much-needed goodwill by publishing reports into its high-profile missteps, like failing to remove posts inciting violence in Kenosha, WI
The Verge : Tweets: @caseynewton Tweets: Casey Newton / @caseynewton : Talked to a former Facebook moderator and some other folks about the Kenosha situation and why that page didn't come down until ...
Lunchclub, a service that facilitates virtual introductions, raises ~$24M led by Coatue and Lightspeed at a $100M+ valuation, says usage is up 10x amid pandemic
Jordan Novet / CNBC : Tweets: @nmasc_ , @jaycuthrell , and @jordannovet Tweets: Natasha Mascarenhas / @nmasc_ : A startup that connects you to other smart people through 1:1 sessions and social dinne...
South Korea-based Toss Lab, maker of enterprise collaboration platform JANDI, raises $13M Series B led by SoftBank Ventures Asia, bringing total raised to $20M+
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch :
Shopify's new AI commerce stack
Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.