Network Support Blog

Matt Day / Bloomberg: Amazon's AWS unit expects to add employees in 2023 and will continue building data centers, despite the company's hiring freeze and cuts in other divisions  —  Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud unit plans to add employees next year and keep building new data centers, a sign that a hiring freeze elsewhere … https://bit.ly/3Uddk3a

Washington Post: Analysis: high-profile Republican members of Congress saw an uptick in Twitter followers in the first few weeks of Musk's reign, while Democrats lost followers  —  Shift in follower counts for Elizabeth Warren, Ted Cruz show how the platform is beginning to change under Musk https://bit.ly/3ioB9bf

Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review: A look at OpenAI's Minecraft bot, which has learned to complete complex tasks in Minecraft after being trained on 70K hours of video of people playing the game  —  Online videos are a vast and untapped source of training data—and OpenAI says it has a new way to use it. https://bit.ly/3OIHp9I

Eudora Wang / DealStreetAsia: Shanghai-based eRoad, which offers a cloud-based HR management service with a focus on payroll, raised a ~$140M Series D, after raising an ~$84M Series C  —  Chinese human resource technology firm eRoad on Tuesday announced the completion of its Series D funding round at 1 billion yuan … https://bit.ly/3Ue6BGn

Gené Teare / Crunchbase News: Analysis: AI startup funding has been around 9%-10% of global VC investment in recent years, led by robotics, autonomous vehicles, and enterprise software  —  Editor's note: In this four-part series, we explore the impact of artificial intelligence startups on multiple sectors. https://bit.ly/3V9HhCE

Alex Hern / The Guardian: The UK government says its Online Safety Bill will return to the parliament in December and will be expanded to criminalize nonconsensual “deepfake” pornography  —  Nonconsensual explicit images to be tackled in bill returning to parliament next month https://bit.ly/3ExjQvG

Aanu Adeoye / Financial Times: Jumia undergoes major restructuring after ousting its co-CEOs, including closing its Prime subscription program and its Logistics service in seven countries  —  Acting chief hunts for profits after continent's first ever tech unicorn plunges 70% in value since New York listing https://bit.ly/3U3N4rN

Will Jarrett / Mission Local: A San Francisco Police Department draft policy allowing police to apply lethal force using robots faces criticism from advocates opposing police militarization  —  “This is not normal.  No legal professional or ordinary resident should carry on as if it is normal.” https://bit.ly/3EXXu85

Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: SBF says FTX had ~$60B in collateral in spring 2022, but a credit squeeze, market selloff, and “run on the bank” reduced it to $9B ahead of the bankruptcy  —  The former FTX CEO did not address concerns about customer funds being misappropriated or other recent revelations about the company. https://bit.ly/3AFKu4F

Bloomberg: Sources: Genesis is struggling to raise funding for its lending unit and warns potential investors that it may need to file for bankruptcy if its efforts fail  —  Digital-asset brokerage Genesis is struggling to raise fresh cash for its lending unit, and it's warning potential investors … https://bit.ly/3UY3d3s

Alex Gabriel Simon / Bloomberg: A look at the growth of esports tournaments in India, which are attracting prime-time TV audiences with both players and viewers mostly using mobile phones  —  Next to a primary school and a shabby playground in India's financial capital Mumbai stands a plush four-story building that's home to the world's newest breed of athlete. https://bit.ly/3GtuK8x

Wall Street Journal: FTX says it has fired CTO Gary Wang, engineering director Nishad Singh, and Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison  —  The three executives and Mr. Bankman-Fried are said to have known FTX was using customer funds to plug a funding gap  —  FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange launched by Sam Bankman-Fried … https://bit.ly/3tIN0TJ

Paresh Dave / Reuters: Internal emails: Google sets rules for hosting HQ guest speakers, like making a business case and considering company goals, after row over an Indian historian  —  Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google this week introduced rules for inviting guest speakers to its offices, days after it canceled … https://bit.ly/3tIls0N

Jude Karabus / The Register: A New York judge issues a default ruling against two Russians Google accused of running a botnet infecting 1M+ devices, ordering them to pay Google's legal fees  —  Judge tells tale of two men, their lawyer, and a ‘willful campaign... to mislead the court’  —  A New York judge has issued … https://bit.ly/3Oi1OlL

Bloomberg: Sources: Elon Musk softens his remote work stance and tries to convince colleagues to stay, as more than anticipated opt to leave ahead of his 5pm ET deadline  —  Elon Musk gave Twitter Inc. employees an ultimatum to either commit to the company's new “hardcore” work environment or leave. https://bit.ly/3TNAIUA

Financial Times: Analysis: Masayoshi Son personally owes SoftBank close to $5B due to its growing losses; his stake in the Vision Fund 2 is worthless, down from $2.8B in 2021  —  Market crash also wipes out value of Japanese founder's stake in second Vision Fund  —  Masayoshi Son personally owes SoftBank close … https://bit.ly/3V2axdO

Kelsey Piper / Vox: A chat via DM with SBF on why regulators “make everything worse”, FTX and Alameda's “messy accounting”, why he regrets filing for bankruptcy, ethics, and more  —  The fallen crypto CEO on what went wrong, why he did what he did, and what lies he told along the way. https://bit.ly/3hLetS2

Jay Peters / The Verge: Elon Musk says the new Twitter Blue will relaunch on November 29 “to make sure that it is rock solid”, after pausing signups due to many fake verified accounts  —  Elon Musk says the new Twitter Blue, which lets you pay $7.99 per month for a blue verification check mark next to your name, will relaunch on November 29th. https://bit.ly/3UIqhTN

Seb Joseph / Digiday: Doc: GroupM warns its clients Twitter is a “high risk” media buy due to senior management resignations, Blue check abuse, and possible consent decree violations  —  The public boycott of advertising on Twitter is starting to look a lot like a long goodbye. https://bit.ly/3g7iLTo

Financial Times: A profile of Changpeng Zhao, as sources describe a divisive entrepreneur on a relentless drive to grow at all costs, including by ignoring regulatory compliance  —  The Binance founder's actions left Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX filing for bankruptcy  —  On Tuesday afternoon Changpeng Zhao … https://bit.ly/3hG4y07

Rest of World: Cambodia's online gambling and scam industries keep recruiting “cyber slave” workers via trafficking and misleading ads despite police raids and global pressure  —  Casual trafficking, calls to parents, misleading ads: even with global pressure, recruitment is rife.  —  • BAVET, CAMBODIA https://bit.ly/3Eq977w

Mia Sato / The Verge: Memo: Omnicom, one of the world's biggest ad firms, recommends its clients like Apple, PepsiCo, and others “pause activity on Twitter”, citing brand safety risk  —  Omnicom, one of the world's biggest ad firms, representing brands like McDonald's, Apple, and Pepsico … https://bit.ly/3UUNS3n

Bloomberg: Twitter's head of Trust & Safety Yoel Roth resigned on November 10; sources: head of ad sales Robin Wheeler also resigned, but Elon Musk convinced her to stay  —  Elon Musk, in his first address to Twitter Inc. employees since purchasing the company for $44 billion … https://bit.ly/3UQkPxU

Gillian Tan / Bloomberg: Source: Sam Bankman-Fried told investors that FTX needs a cash injection or the company would need to file for bankruptcy due to a shortfall of up to $8B  —  Sam Bankman-Fried told FTX.com investors on Wednesday that without a cash injection the company would need to file for bankruptcy … https://bit.ly/3WHP1wG

Sydney Morning Herald: Australia's top health insurer Medibank confirms a ransomware group began posting stolen data of its 9.7M current and former customers on a REvil dark web forum  —  Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size  —  A ransomware group has begun posting customer data stolen … https://bit.ly/3DVcZfd

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: End-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal launches its Stories feature out of beta on Android and iOS; users' Stories will automatically expire after 24 hours  —  End-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal is rolling out a new Stories feature to all users on Android and iOS, the company announced on Monday. https://bit.ly/3NOCaEP

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: An investigation details India's “hack-for-hire” industry that helps global corporate intelligence clients target businesses, journalists, and politicians  —  In a quiet alcove of the opulent Leela Palace hotel in Delhi, two British corporate investigators were listening intently … https://bit.ly/3zSeQQV

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: A Twitter product lead says the new Blue subscription isn't live yet, but some users may see updates “because we are testing and pushing changes in real-time”  —  Just days after newly minted Twitter CEO Elon Musk floated changes to Twitter's system for verifying user accounts … https://bit.ly/3FKvxS8

Jason Guerrasio / Insider: The US DOJ charges two former MoviePass executives in a securities fraud case for allegedly trying to artificially inflate parent company HMNY's stock price  —  - Lowe and Farnsworth have been charged in a securities fraud case by the Department of Justice. https://bit.ly/3fBVfO0

Wall Street Journal: General Mills and Audi paused Twitter ads, and sources say Pfizer and Mondelez have as well, as concern over content moderation grows  —  Advertisers are concerned about a flurry of executive departures at Twitter and new owner Elon Musk's plans for content moderation https://bit.ly/3fA5Ysk

Bloomberg: Sources: Twitter aims to charge for verification as soon as November 7, give current verified users a multi-month grace period, and make the edit button free  —  Twitter Inc. aims to start selling blue verification badges for user profiles as soon as next week, part of a plan by new owner Elon Musk … https://bit.ly/3haBzBr

Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch: Twitch launches Guest Star, which lets streamers pull other creators and fans into their streams for a talk show-like experience, out of beta for all users  —  With its biggest product launch in years, Twitch is betting on a near-future of the platform that features more dynamic conversations … https://bit.ly/3FBhAG1

Washington Post: Sources: the US is exploring whether it has legal authority to review Elon Musk's Twitter deal, which gives large foreign investors access to confidential data  —  Terms of the deal give large foreign investors access to confidential information about the social media platform https://bit.ly/3TYS0ix

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Sources: Apple VP of Online Retail Anna Matthiasson is leaving the company, to be replaced by Karen Rasmussen; CIO Mary Demby is retiring after three decades  —  Apple Inc.'s top executives in charge of its online retail store and information-systems divisions are stepping down … https://bit.ly/3frQUg7