Network Support Blog

Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch: Facebook says a now-removed interview with Trump posted by daughter-in-law Lara Trump falls under its ban as it spoke “in the voice of President Trump”  —  Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump promoted a new interview with the former president on Facebook and Instagram Tuesday … https://bit.ly/39zzmJ3

Ted Chiang / New Yorker: For the foreseeable future, technological innovation will be driven by humans, not self-improving AI systems, so there won't be a “singularity”  —  We fear and yearn for “the singularity.”  But it will probably never come.  —  In the eleventh century, St. Anselm of Canterbury proposed … https://bit.ly/3sH6lT4

Bloomberg: Coursera prices its shares at the top of the IPO range, at $33, raising $519M and giving it a market value of ~$4.3B  —  Online education provider Coursera Inc. priced its shares at the top of a marketed range in an initial public offering to raise $519 million. https://bit.ly/3rBxxBp

Brandon Katz / Observer: LightShed Partners: SVOD subscribers will nearly double by 2024 to 1.25B from 650M at the end of 2020  —  Of the 11 major legacy media and tech companies that have a direct hand in Hollywood, all but one house some sort of over-the-top (OTT) streaming service. https://bit.ly/3fnIgwW

Hamish McKenzie / Substack Blog: Substack raises $65M Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz  —  When we started Substack to build an alternative media economy that unlocks the full potential of the internet and gives more power to writers and readers, we didn't know if the model would work.  A lot of people told us that no one would pay for newsletters. https://bit.ly/3cyyfem

Bloomberg: Sources: shares of ByteDance are trading at a $250B+ valuation in the secondary market; CB Insights said ByteDance's valuation was $140B in last fundraising  —  - Startup's valuation was $140 billion in last fundraising  —  Shares of ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese parent of hit video app TikTok … https://bit.ly/3dhH8rX

The Information: Sources: Ramp, a Brex rival offering corporate cards and tools to manage staff expenses, is close to raising two rounds, one led by Stripe valuing it at $1.6B  —  Ramp, a two-year-old startup that offers corporate cards and software tools for managing employee expenses … https://bit.ly/3cz0Xfj

Nikkei Asia: Source: Japan plans to issue digital certificates to those inoculated against COVID-19, joining China, the EU, and others embracing app-based vaccine passports  —  Certificate aims to enable travelers an easy way to prove they are inoculated  —  TOKYO — Japan will issue digital health certificates … https://bit.ly/3dl9xxc

Brian Heater / TechCrunch: Skycatch, which uses off-the-shelf drones and lidar to provide centimeter-accurate 3D scanning services for construction and mining operations, raises $25M  —  Skycatch today announced a $25 million raise, led by ADB Ventures and Wavemaker.  Founded in 2013, the Bay Area-based company … https://bit.ly/3rxEfZg

Aaron Sankin / The Markup: How Digital Advertising Alliance's AdChoices tool, which launched in 2010 to let users opt out of personalized ads, is undermined by its cookie-based approach  —  Let's just say it leaves a lot to be desired  —  Last year, while reporting a story about how the digital advertising industry burrowed … https://bit.ly/3fnBGGw

Lisa Ward / Wall Street Journal: Amid a shortage of therapists, experts discuss how AI can make mental health treatment cheaper and accessible, its privacy concerns, product efficacy, and more  —  Three experts discuss the promise—and problems—of relying on algorithms for our mental health  —  Could artificial intelligence reduce the need for human therapists? https://bit.ly/39mReGU

Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times: A look at Google's two-decade quest to compete with Amazon, as it now tries to present itself as a cheaper and less restrictive option for independent sellers  —  Google presents itself to independent sellers as cheaper and less restrictive.  But it is not clear whether it can change people's habits of going straight to Amazon. https://bit.ly/3u1PElD

Andrew Asmakov / Decrypt: Avanti, which wants to offer custody services for BTC and other digital assets as well as API-based payment services for wire transfers, raises $37M Series A  —  Avanti Financial Group, a fully compliant digital assets bank, has raised $37 million in a Series A funding round backed … https://bit.ly/3swxtnF

Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg: Report: Southeast Asian tech startups raised $8.2B in 2020, down 3.5% YoY, compared to a 31% drop in India and 38% in Africa; Indonesia drew 70% of the capital  —  - Fundraising remained at 2019 levels even as pandemic raged  — Indonesian startups drew 70% of region's investments last year https://bit.ly/3dbiSYD

Liam Tung / ZDNet: Microsoft says 92% of vulnerable Exchange servers had been patched/mitigated, and reiterates that patches do not necessarily remove the access of the attacker  —  If you're cleaning up a infected Exchange server, you need to look for traces of multiple threats, warns Microsoft. https://bit.ly/3sxIdCo

Kate Rooney / CNBC: Pilot, which helps SMBs outsource accounting tasks like payroll, raises $100M Series C led by Bezos Expeditions and Whale Rock Capital, at a valuation of $1.2B  —  - Pilot raised a $100 million funding round led by Jeff Bezos's venture capital firm Bezos Expeditions and hedge fund Whale Rock Capital … https://bit.ly/3ubXrxx

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE: Troy Hunt claims that Carding Mafia, a forum for stealing and trading credit cards, has been hacked, exposing emails, usernames, and passwords for ~300K hackers  —  Credit card hacking forum Carding Mafia is the latest victim of the age-old hackers on hackers crime.  —  Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai https://bit.ly/3rooweL

Brian Fung / CNN: In the hearing, lawmakers accused CEOs of being smug, evasive, and condescending; CEOs appeared barely to restrain their own exasperation with yes/no questions  —  Washington (CNN Business)The chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter faced withering criticism from members of Congress … https://bit.ly/3lTZWl9

Reuters: Sources: Robinhood is building a platform to let its users directly buy into IPOs of companies, including its own, in order to “democratize” IPOs  —  (Reuters) - Robinhood Markets Inc is building a platform to “democratize” initial public offerings (IPOs), including its own … https://bit.ly/3m3L6Zr

Kim Lyons / The Verge: Chrissy Teigen, who had 13.7M Twitter followers and was once called “unofficial mayor of Twitter” by the company, quits the platform after years of harassment  —  The former model and media personality was a prolific tweeter  —  Chrissy Teigen, a prolific tweeter the company once called … https://bit.ly/3tZwM6V

Benjamin Bain / Bloomberg: SEC starts implementing a law that would delist foreign companies like Alibaba and Baidu from US stock exchanges if they don't comply with US auditing standards  —  - Regulator takes initial step on requiring audit inspections  — Alibaba, Baidu among firms under pressure from Washington https://bit.ly/2QuLioA

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch: Sydney-based Baraja, which makes a Spectrum-Scan LIDAR with no moving parts, raises $31M Series B led by Blackbird Ventures, after $32M Series A two years ago  —  Lidar companies across the planet are going SPAC, but Baraja isn't in a hurry to go public.  The Australian lidar maker has raised … https://bit.ly/3fd6fio

Johana Bhuiyan / Los Angeles Times: A look at how Google handles user data requests from DHS, ICE, and other agencies, often giving users little time to obtain a court order quashing the request  —  You're scrolling through your Gmail inbox and see an email with a strange subject line: A string of numbers followed by “Notification from Google.” https://bit.ly/3vWcVqZ

Janice Min / TIME: Former Pinterest COO Françoise Brougher and two former employees, Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks, reflect on sexism and racism at the company  —  The day Françoise Brougher was fired from Pinterest began like so many of her workdays.  It was April 2, 2020 … https://bit.ly/3rm2OYN

Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech: CEO Pat Gelsinger says Intel will spend $20B on two new fabs in Ocotillo, Arizona and will reconfigure its external Foundry Services to serve new chip customers  —  The new CEO of Intel, Pat Gelsinger, has today outlined his vision for Intel over the coming years. https://bit.ly/39aJebY

Chris Burns / SlashGear: Review of the OnePlus 9 Pro, which will be available on April 2 for ~$969 for the 8GB RAM/128GB storage model and ~$1,069 for the 12GB RAM/256GB storage model  —  EDITORS' RATING: 9/10  —  PROS  — Brilliant professional display - Elegant industrial design - Extraordinary Hassleblad camera array … https://bit.ly/3tRBVO3

Joe Light / Bloomberg: Boston Fed officials and MIT researchers, who have been developing prototypes for a digital dollar platform, plan to unveil their research as soon as July  —  - Boston Fed, MIT researchers plan to unveil platform work soon  — Project could threaten banks, credit cards, cryptocurrencies https://bit.ly/3vUptyS

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: Sources say Discord is exploring a sale that could value it at $10B+, with one source saying it is in the final stage of negotiations  —  Discord is going through a sales process now that could result in a purchase of the communications and cha5t platform for much more than $10 billion, GamesBeat has learned. https://bit.ly/3lEGuZv

Danny Crichton / TechCrunch: Flex Logix, which designs AI chips for edge enterprise applications, including medical imaging equipment, raises $55M Series D led by Mithril Capital  —  The once untouchable semiconductor sector continues to attract fervent attention from VCs.  —  The latest news this morning is that Ajay Royan … https://bit.ly/2OZX8qv

Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch: Spark Capital decides to “sever all ties” with David Dobrik's photo sharing Dispo after claims of sexual assault emerged from past Vlog Squad videos  —  Dobrik departs from Dispo board and leaves company  —  Venture capital firm Spark Capital has decided to ‘sever all ties’ with Dispo … https://bit.ly/2Qt8iEB

Bloomberg: ironSource, which makes user acquisition tech for app devs, will go public through a merger with Thoma Bravo's SPAC that values the combined business at $11.1B  —  Thoma Bravo's blank-check firm has reached an agreement to take app software company ironSource public through a merger that values the combined business at $11.1 billion. https://bit.ly/3s5gKaW

Bloomberg: Texas jury finds Apple infringed a DRM patent held by Personalized Media, and orders Apple to pay $308.5M to the company  —  Apple must pay $308.5 million to closely held Personalized Media Communications after a federal jury in Marshall, Texas, decided on Friday that the tech giant infringed … https://bit.ly/3r1tjCU

Yumiko Sato / Slate: Misinformation and historical revisionism are widespread on some non-English editions of Wikipedia, such as Japanese, which is the most visited after English  —  During World War II, Unit 731 of the Japanese military undertook horrific medical experimentation in Manchukuo (Northeast China). https://bit.ly/3c2sQfs

Stephen Warwick / iMore: Brazilian state of São Paulo fines Apple $2M for selling iPhones without a charger, allegedly misleading customers about the water resistance of iPhones, more  —  “Apple needs to understand that in Brazil there are solid consumer protection laws and institutions. https://bit.ly/3c5VVXf

Gita Jackson / VICE: As videos from court hearings on Zoom go viral, a look at the debate over the privacy of citizens in those videos and judicial transparency on the internet  —  'People's worst day, which is often why they're in court, shouldn't be monetized for a global audience's benefit.' https://bit.ly/3lxzbTn

Bloomberg: Weee!, an online grocer specializing in Hispanic and Asian foods, has raised $315M Series D led by DST Global, source says at a $2.8B valuation  —  - Startup raised over $300 million from investors such as DST  — Online market for Asian and Hispanic foods is growing rapidly  —  Weee! https://bit.ly/3vS33yD

Sean Keane / CNET: Twitter confirms it's testing an “Undo Tweet” feature, first discovered by Jane Manchun Wong, who suggests it could be part of Twitter's planned subscriptions  —  An app researcher's screenshot shows that among the options for subscribers of an unrevealed service. https://bit.ly/3cMYi0w

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record: Verkada security camera hacker has been charged in the US for hacking into 100+ of the world's biggest companies since 2019 and leaking proprietary data online  —  The US Department of Justice has charged today a Swiss national for hacking into more than 100 companies and leaking proprietary data online on their personal website. https://bit.ly/3s7gRCM

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC: Mark Zuckerberg on Clubhouse says Facebook may be in a “stronger position” after Apple's IDFA changes and that Facebook Shops has 1M+ monthly active businesses  —  - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday said he is confident the social media company “will be able to manage through” Apple's upcoming privacy changes. https://bit.ly/3cRo1Vm

Lily Hay Newman / Wired: Apple's concession to Russia to prompt users to install state-approved apps sets a precedent that other authoritarian countries may seek to follow  —  Russian iPhone buyers will soon be prompted to install software developed in that country, setting a precedent that other authoritarian governments may follow. https://bit.ly/3eUjTXf

Brian Heater / TechCrunch: Google's Area 120 in-house incubator launches ThreadIt, a short video app for team collaborations, in beta, as a website and a Chrome plug-in  —  The team at Google's Area 120 in-house incubator says the idea for ThreadIt came well before COVID-19 made remote work a necessity for large swaths of the globe. https://bit.ly/2P61coK

Mike Masnick / Techdirt: A new version of the PACT Act, a bipartisan Section 230 reform bill, remains convoluted and bloated with destructive ideas that will spawn entirely new problems  —  Last summer we wrote about the PACT Act from Senators Brian Schatz and John Thune — one of the rare bipartisan attempts to reform Section 230. https://bit.ly/30WcKgU

Julia Alexander / The Verge: YouTube rolls out Checks, a creator tool that scans videos ahead of uploading for copyrighted material; the system relies on YouTube's Content ID  —  Theoretically, Checks will help with demonetization issues  —  In an effort to make the process of uploading a video and receiving ad revenue easier … https://bit.ly/3vE82m8

Natasha Singer / New York Times: CB Insights: education tech startups raised $12.58B globally in 2020, up from $4.81B in 2019; as in-person teaching returns, remote services may see usage drop  —  Start-ups hope there's no turning back for online learning, even as more students return to the classroom. https://bit.ly/30Vq1qd

Nilay Patel / The Verge: Interview with co-CEO of Atlassian Scott Farquhar on Australia as a test bed for tech regulation, the media bargaining code, running a global company, and more  —  A couple weeks ago, Facebook briefly turned off the ability for anyone in the world to post links from Australian news publishers. https://bit.ly/2OKs0el

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: Squarespace raises $300M in a round valuing it at $10B, two months after it filed confidentially to go public via a direct listing or an IPO  —  Squarespace has raised $300 million in a round of funding that values the company at a staggering $10 billion valuation. https://bit.ly/3qV9Q6X

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Overwolf raises $52.5M Series C to expand its third-party game modding service, says it has 18M MAUs and 90K mods and add-ons across thousands of games  —  Roblox, the gaming company that went public this month with a strong debut, changed the game (so to speak) for the role that creative input … https://bit.ly/3eN9rkC

Rita Liao / TechCrunch: Signal app and website are unavailable in China but the app is still available in the App Store; Greatfire says Signal's website was banned on March 15  —  Chinese users of the instant messenger Signal knew that the good times wouldn't last long.  The app, which is used for encrypted conversations … https://bit.ly/3eJVbsw

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Adobe data on US e-commerce: consumers spent $844B online from March 2020 to February 2021, up $183B YoY, and are on track to spend over $1T annually by 2022  —  The COVID-19 pandemic boosted U.S. online shopping by $183 billion, according to a new report by Adobe's e-commerce division, released this morning. https://bit.ly/3rXOrLK

Steven Bertoni / Forbes: Low-code database service Airtable raises $270M Series E at a $5.77B valuation led by Greenoaks Capital, following $185M Series D at a $2.5B valuation last year  —  Howie Liu, the cofounder and CEO of cloud software start-up Airtable, has raised a $270 million Series E round at a valuation of $5.77 billion. https://bit.ly/3qN2Ngl

Hannah Kuchler / Financial Times: Insitro, which uses machine learning to speed up drug discovery, raises $400M led by Canada Pension Plan; other investors include SoftBank, Temasek, and a16z  —  Start-up run by former Stanford professor uses AI to analyse human genetics and work out where to target drugs https://bit.ly/30PGPi5