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Twitter flags Republican leader’s video as ‘manipulated’ for altering disabled activist’s words Twitter flagged an inflammatory video by House Republican Whip Steve Scalise on Sunday for altering footage of a conversation between progressive activist Ady Barkan and Joe Biden. The video is now labeled as “manipulated media” in a tweet from Scalise, though remains online. The inflammatory video pulls in out-of-context quotes from a number of Democrats […] Social – TechCrunch - Twitter flags Republican leader’s video as ‘manipulated’ for altering disabled activist’s words September 1, 2020 at 05:00AM

Facebook partially documents its content recommendation system Algorithmic recommendation systems on social media sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, have shouldered much of the blame for the spread of misinformation, propaganda, hate speech, conspiracy theories and other harmful content. Facebook, in particular, has come under fire in recent days for allowing QAnon conspiracy groups to thrive on its platform and for helping […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook partially documents its content recommendation system September 1, 2020 at 02:00AM

TikTok’s rivals in India struggle to cash in on its ban For years, India has served as the largest open battleground for Silicon Valley and Chinese firms searching for their next billion users. With more than 400 million WhatsApp users, India is already the largest market for the Facebook-owned service. The social juggernaut’s big blue app also reaches more than 300 million users in the country. […] Social – TechCrunch - TikTok’s rivals in India struggle to cash in on its ban August 29, 2020 at 07:00AM

Steno raises $3.5 million led by First Round to become an extension of law offices The global legal services industry was worth $849 billion dollars in 2017 and is expected to become a trillion dollar industry by the end of next year. Little wonder that Steno, an L.A.-based startup, wants a piece. Like most legal services outfits, what it offers are ways for law practices to run more smoothly, including […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Steno raises $3.5 million led by First Round to become an extension of law offices August 29, 2020 at 07:00AM

Facebook tests linking your FB account to your news subscriptions Facebook is testing out a new feature that could help news publishers create a better experience for paying subscribers on the social network. The idea is that when Facebook identifies a subscriber from one of its publisher partners, that subscriber will be invited to link their news account to their Facebook account. Once they’re linked, […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook tests linking your FB account to your news subscriptions August 29, 2020 at 01:00AM

Daily Crunch: TikTok’s CEO resigns Turmoil continues at TikTok, Salesforce lays off 1,000 people and Warby Parker is now valued at $3 billion. This is your Daily Crunch for August 27, 2020. The big story: TikTok’s CEO resigns Kevin Mayer, the former Disney executive who joined TikTok as CEO just over 100 days ago, announced yesterday that he’s resigning. While […] Social – TechCrunch - Daily Crunch: TikTok’s CEO resigns August 28, 2020 at 08:00AM

Facebook isn’t happy about Apple’s upcoming ad tracking restrictions Apple’s upcoming operating system iOS 14 (currently in public beta) could have a big impact on publishers who work with Facebook’s  ad network — at least, according to Facebook. The company published a couple of blog posts yesterday outlining the potential impact of a major privacy change that Apple announced at WWDC — namely, the […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook isn’t happy about Apple’s upcoming ad tracking restrictions August 28, 2020 at 06:03AM

Facebook sues developers who violated terms to collect user data, sell fake ‘likes’ Facebook announced today it’s suing multiple developers in the U.S. and, for the first time, in the U.K., for violations of its policies. In the U.K., both Facebook Inc. and Facebook Ireland are suing MobiBurn, parent company OakSmart Technologies and its founder Fatih Haltas, in the High Court of Justice for failing to comply with […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook sues developers who violated terms to collect user data, sell fake ‘likes’ August 28, 2020 at 06:03AM

Box benefits from digital transformation as it raises its growth forecast Box has always been a bit of an enigma for Wall Street and perhaps for enterprise software in general. Unlike vendors who shifted tools like HR, CRM or ERP to the cloud, Box has been building a way to manage content in the cloud. It’s been a little harder to understand than these other enterprise […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Box benefits from digital transformation as it raises its growth forecast August 28, 2020 at 06:03AM

Facebook removes ‘Kenosha Guard’ militia account after shooter kills two at protest Facebook has removed a local self-declared militia’s page and a related event following the events that unfolded last night in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Two people were killed and another was wounded when a man believed to be 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse allegedly began firing on a group protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook removes ‘Kenosha Guard’ militia account after shooter kills two at protest August 28, 2020 at 01:00AM

How Salesforce beat its own target to reach $20B run rate ahead of schedule Salesforce launched in 1999, one of the early adherents to what would eventually be called SaaS and cloud computing. On Tuesday, the company reached a huge milestone when it surpassed $5 billion in revenue, putting the SaaS giant on a $20 billion run rate for the first time. Salesforce revenue has been on a firm […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - How Salesforce beat its own target to reach $20B run rate ahead of schedule August 28, 2020 at 01:00AM

COVID-19 is driving demand for low-code apps Now that the great Y Combinator rush is behind us, we’re returning to a topic many of you really seem to care about: no-code and low-code apps and their development. We’ve explored the theme a few times recently, once from a venture-capital perspective, and another time building from a chat with the CEO of Claris, […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - COVID-19 is driving demand for low-code apps August 28, 2020 at 12:03AM

Salesforce confirms it’s laying off around 1000 people in spite of monster quarter In what felt like strange timing, Salesforce has confirmed a report in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal that it was laying off around 1000 people or approximately 1.9% of the company’s 54,000 strong workforce. This news came in spite of the company reporting a monster quarter on Tuesday in which it passed $5 billion in quarterly […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Salesforce confirms it’s laying off around 1000 people in spite of monster quarter August 27, 2020 at 11:00PM

Instagram Guides may soon allow creators to recommended places, products and more Instagram is working to expand its recently launched “Guides” feature which initially debuted with a specific focus on wellness content. The feature, which launched in May, has allowed select organizations and experts to share resources related to managing your mental health — including things like handling anxiety or grief amid the COVID-19 pandemic, for example. […] Social – TechCrunch - Instagram Guides may soon allow creators to recommended places, products and more August 27, 2020 at 07:00AM

Twitter experiments with adding a ‘Quotes’ count to tweets Twitter wants to make it easier to see the conversations taking place around a tweet. This May, the company rolled out a change to its user interface that allowed users who clicked on the “Retweets” metric beneath a tweet to view both those Retweets with comments and those without all on one screen. But a […] Social – TechCrunch - Twitter experiments with adding a ‘Quotes’ count to tweets August 27, 2020 at 04:00AM

Facebook updates Messenger Rooms as Zoom sits at top of the App Store Messenger Rooms, Facebook’s social Zoom competitor, is today rolling out new features aimed at making Rooms easier to both create and discover, as well as those for further personalizing your Rooms experience. The changes follow Messenger’s recent slight dip from the top of the U.S. App Store charts, where typically it ranks in the top […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook updates Messenger Rooms as Zoom sits at top of the App Store August 27, 2020 at 03:00AM

LaunchNotes raises a $1.8M seed round to help companies communicate their software updates LaunchNotes, a startup founded by the team behind Statuspage (which Atlassian later acquired) and the former head of marketing for Jira, today announced that it has raised a $1.8 million seed round co-led by Cowboy Ventures and Bull City Ventures. In addition, Tim Chen (general partner, Essence Ventures), Eric Wittman (chief growth officer, JLL Technologies), […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - LaunchNotes raises a $1.8M seed round to help companies communicate their software updates August 27, 2020 at 02:00AM

Cisco acquiring BabbleLabs to filter out the lawn mower screeching during your video conference We’ve all been in a video conference, especially this year, when the neighbor started mowing the lawn or kids were playing outside your window — and it can get pretty loud. Cisco, which owns the WebEx video conferencing service wants to do something about that, and late yesterday it announced it was going to acquire […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Cisco acquiring BabbleLabs to filter out the lawn mower screeching during your video conference August 26, 2020 at 11:00PM

Max Schrems on the EU court ruling that could cut Facebook in two Last month’s ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), ripping up the EU-US Privacy Shield and sewing doubt over alternative mechanisms, has put a cat among the pigeons of international data transfers. For Facebook the impact could fall like a cleaving sword as its business is front and center following the […] Social – TechCrunch - Max Schrems on the EU court ruling that could cut Facebook in two August 26, 2020 at 09:00AM

Facebook News to expand internationally to the U.K., Germany, France, India and Brazil Facebook News, the social network’s dedicated news section launched to U.S. audiences in June, is soon expanding to international markets. The company announced today it plans to accelerate its plans to bring the product to non-U.S. markets, including the U.K., Germany, France, India and Brazil, within the time frame of six months to a year. […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook News to expand internationally to the U.K., Germany, France, India and Brazil August 26, 2020 at 05:00AM

Industry experts say it’s full speed ahead as Snowflake files S-1 to go public When Snowflake filed its S-1 to go public yesterday, it wasn’t exactly a shock. The company which raised $1.4 billion had been valued at $12.4 billion in its last private raise in February. CEO Frank Slootman, who had taken over from Bob Muglia in May last year, didn’t hide the fact that going public was […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Industry experts say it’s full speed ahead as Snowflake files S-1 to go public August 26, 2020 at 05:00AM

New Zendesk dashboard delivers customer service data in real time Zendesk has been offering customers the ability to track customer service statistics for some time, but it has always been a look back. Today, the company announced a new product called Explore Enterprise that lets customers capture that valuable info in real time, and share it with anyone in the organization, whether they have a […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - New Zendesk dashboard delivers customer service data in real time August 26, 2020 at 02:00AM

Eden intros SaaS tools in a bid to become a more comprehensive office management platform Eden, the office management platform founded by Joe du Bey and Kyle Wilkinson, is today announcing the launch of several new enterprise software features. The company, which offers a marketplace for office managers to procure services like office cleaning, repairs, etc., is looking to offer a more comprehensive platform. The software features include a COVID […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Eden intros SaaS tools in a bid to become a more comprehensive office management platform August 26, 2020 at 02:00AM

Facebook is bringing a Shop section to its app, while Instagram expands Live Shopping Facebook is announcing a number of new e-commerce features both within the main Facebook app and on Instagram. The pandemic has forced many businesses to shift online, and Facebook made a big announcement in May around the ability of merchants to create Facebook Shops that are viewable on both Facebook and Instagram. More recently, Instagram […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook is bringing a Shop section to its app, while Instagram expands Live Shopping August 26, 2020 at 01:00AM

After restricting a group critical of Thailand’s monarchy, Facebook says it will take legal action against the government After restricting access to a popular group with posts critical of Thailand’s monarchy, Facebook is planning legal action against the Thai government, which the social media giant says forced it to restrict content deemed to be illegal. On Monday, Reuters reported access to Royalist Marketplace had been blocked within Thailand. Users there who try to […] Social – TechCrunch - After restricting a group critical of Thailand’s monarchy, Facebook says it will take legal action against the government August 26, 2020 at 01:00AM

Microsoft brings transcriptions to Word Microsoft today launched Transcribe in Word, its new transcription service for Microsoft 365 subscribers, into general availability. It’s now available in the online version of Word, with other platforms launching later. In addition, Word is also getting new dictation features, which now allow you to use your voice to format and edit your text, for […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Microsoft brings transcriptions to Word August 26, 2020 at 01:00AM

MIT CSAIL grad launches machine learning platform with $10M Series A Manasi Vartak, founder and CEO of Verta, conceived of the idea of the open source project ModelDB database as a way to track versions of machine models while she was still in grad school at MIT. After she graduated, she decided to expand on that vision to build a product that could not only track […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - MIT CSAIL grad launches machine learning platform with $10M Series A August 25, 2020 at 11:00PM

Google Cloud Anthos update brings support for on-prem, bare metal When Google announced Anthos last year at Google Cloud Next, it was a pretty big deal. Here was a cloud company releasing a product that purported to help you move your applications between cloud companies like AWS and Azure  — that would be GCP’s competitors — because it’s what customers demanded. Google tapped into genuine […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Google Cloud Anthos update brings support for on-prem, bare metal August 25, 2020 at 11:00PM

Palo Alto Networks to buy digital forensics consulting firm for $265M It’s been quite a day in the tech world with a bushel of S-1s being filed to go public. Not to be left out the ever acquisitive Palo Alto Networks announced its intent to acquire The Crypsis Group, an incident response, risk management and digital forensics consulting firm for a crisp $265 million. Nikesh Arora, […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Palo Alto Networks to buy digital forensics consulting firm for $265M August 25, 2020 at 08:00AM

Daily Crunch: TikTok sues the US government TikTok fights its U.S. ban, Twitter takes action against another Trump tweet and Unity files to go public. This is your Daily Crunch for August 24, 2020. The big story: TikTok sues the U.S. government TikTok is fighting back against the Trump administration’s decision to ban the popular video app in the U.S. market (unless […] Social – TechCrunch - Daily Crunch: TikTok sues the US government August 25, 2020 at 08:00AM

Sutter Hill strikes ice-cold, $2.5B pre-market return with Snowflake’s IPO filing Today is the day for huge VC returns. We talked a bit about Sequoia’s coming huge win with the IPO of game engine Unity this morning. Now, Sequoia might actually have the second largest return among companies filing to go public with the SEC today. Sequoia strikes gold with Unity’s IPO filing Snowflake filed its […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Sutter Hill strikes ice-cold, $2.5B pre-market return with Snowflake’s IPO filing August 25, 2020 at 08:00AM

TikTok-rival Triller inks deal with Reliance’s JioSaavn in India push Triller, an app that functions similarly to TikTok, has inked a strategic partnership with a platform owned by India’s richest man to cash in on the Chinese app’s ban in its biggest international market. The Los Angeles-headquartered firm said on Monday it has partnered with Reliance’s JioSaavn music app to embed Triller videos into the […] Social – TechCrunch - TikTok-rival Triller inks deal with Reliance’s JioSaavn in India push August 25, 2020 at 07:00AM

Facebook to pay $125 million in back taxes in France, report says Facebook France is going to pay $125 million (€106 million) in back taxes according to business magazine Capital — Facebook confirmed the agreement to both Capital and Reuters. French tax authorities raided Facebook’s offices in Paris in 2012 and later opened an investigation on unpaid taxes covering activities between 2009 and 2018. According to the […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook to pay $125 million in back taxes in France, report says August 25, 2020 at 04:00AM

Meet the anti-antitrust startup club More entrepreneurs and investors are willing to throw caution to the wind and go after core segments like search, email and video conferencing with gusto. Enterprise – TechCrunch - Meet the anti-antitrust startup club August 25, 2020 at 01:00AM

Box CEO Aaron Levie says thrifty founders have more control Once upon a time, Box’s Aaron Levie was just a guy with an idea for a company: 15 years ago as a USC student, he conceived of a way to simply store and share files online. It may be hard to recall, but back then, the world was awash with thumb drives and moving files […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Box CEO Aaron Levie says thrifty founders have more control August 22, 2020 at 04:00AM

This subscription social network is happy to be an Albatross in a pandemic In discussions of ethically dubious social networks Facebook is the usual reference choice. But spare a thought for subscribers of InterNations, a Munich-based social networking community for expats, who have found themselves unable to obtain refunds for full-year payments charged in the middle of the coronavirus crisis. InterNations has operated an expat networking experience since […] Social – TechCrunch - This subscription social network is happy to be an Albatross in a pandemic August 22, 2020 at 03:00AM

As the pandemic creates supply chain chaos, Craft raises $10M to apply some intelligence During the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains have suddenly become hot. Who knew that would ever happen? The race to secure PPE, ventilators and minor things like food was and still is an enormous issue. But perhaps, predictably, the world of “supply chain software” could use some updating. Most of the platforms are deployed “empty” and […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - As the pandemic creates supply chain chaos, Craft raises $10M to apply some intelligence August 22, 2020 at 02:00AM

Facebook trails expanding portability tools ahead of FTC hearing Facebook is considering expanding the types of data its users are able to port directly to alternative platforms. In comments on portability sent to US regulators ahead of an FTC hearing on the topic next month, Facebook says it intends to expand the scope of its data portability offerings “in the coming months”. It also offers […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook trails expanding portability tools ahead of FTC hearing August 21, 2020 at 08:00PM

Overlooked teams up with college newspapers to build a news-focused social network George Sehremelis is building what he calls a “social news network,” with the aim of combating the spread of misinformation and fake news online. “My goal has always been to make an impact on the 2020 election,” Sehremelis told me — a tall order, particularly when the big social networks are struggling to solve these […] Social – TechCrunch - Overlooked teams up with college newspapers to build a news-focused social network August 21, 2020 at 05:00AM

Zoom UX teardown: 5 fails and how to fix them Valued at over $60 billion and used by millions each day for work and staying in touch with friends and family, the COVID-19 pandemic has helped make Zoom one of the most popular and relevant enterprise applications. On one level, its surge to the top can be summed up in three words: “It just works.” […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Zoom UX teardown: 5 fails and how to fix them August 21, 2020 at 04:00AM

Figma CEO Dylan Field discusses fundraising, hiring and marketing in stealth mode You’d be hard pressed to hang out with a designer and not hear the name Figma . The company behind the largely browser-based design tool has made a huge splash in the past few years, building a massive war chest with more than $130 million from investors like A16Z, Sequoia, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins and Index. […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Figma CEO Dylan Field discusses fundraising, hiring and marketing in stealth mode August 21, 2020 at 03:00AM

Author and former professional poker player Annie Duke on how conspiracy theories gain ground Earlier today, Facebook said it had removed hundreds of QAnon groups from its site, and that it’s restricting many more groups, along with hundreds of pages and more than 10,000 Instagram accounts. As The New York Times observed in its report about the maneuvers, four-year-old QAnon, once a fringe phenomenon, has gone mainstream in recent […] Social – TechCrunch - Author and former professional poker player Annie Duke on how conspiracy theories gain ground August 21, 2020 at 01:00AM

Further delay to GDPR enforcement of 2018 Twitter breach Twitter users have to wait to longer to find out what penalties, if any, the platform faces under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for a data breach that dates back around two years. In the meanwhile the platform has continued to suffer security failures — including, just last month, when hackers gained […] Social – TechCrunch - Further delay to GDPR enforcement of 2018 Twitter breach August 20, 2020 at 11:00PM

Just what would an enterprise company like Microsoft or Oracle do with TikTok? By now you’ve probably heard that under pressure from the current administration, TikTok owner ByteDance is putting the viral video service up for sale, and surprisingly a couple of big name enterprise companies are interested. These organizations are better known for the kind of tech that would bore the average TikTok user to tears. Yet, […] Social – TechCrunch - Just what would an enterprise company like Microsoft or Oracle do with TikTok? August 20, 2020 at 06:02AM

Just what would an enterprise company like Microsoft or Oracle do with TikTok? By now you’ve probably heard that under pressure from the current administration, TikTok owner ByteDance is putting the viral video service up for sale, and surprisingly a couple of big name enterprise companies are interested. These organizations are better known for the kind of tech that would bore the average TikTok user to tears. Yet, […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Just what would an enterprise company like Microsoft or Oracle do with TikTok? August 20, 2020 at 06:02AM

Twitter claims increased enforcement of hate speech and abuse policies in last half of 2019 Twitter has given its biannual transparency reports a new home with today’s launch of the Twitter Transparency Center, which the company says was designed to make the reporting more easily understood and accessible. The launch was timed alongside the belated release of Twitter’s latest transparency report covering the second half of 2019. The company attributed […] Social – TechCrunch - Twitter claims increased enforcement of hate speech and abuse policies in last half of 2019 August 20, 2020 at 05:00AM

Top Facebook executive in India files criminal complaint against a journalist for sharing news report Ankhi Das, a top Facebook executive in India, has filed a criminal complaint against a journalist who she alleges attempted to defame her in a public Facebook post and made “sexually coloured remarks.” A review of the journalist Awesh Tiwari’s post, written in Hindi (the most widely spoken language in India), finds that it was […] Social – TechCrunch - Top Facebook executive in India files criminal complaint against a journalist for sharing news report August 20, 2020 at 03:00AM

A pandemic and recession won’t stop Atlassian’s SaaS push No company is completely insulated from the macroeconomic fallout of COVID-19, but we are seeing some companies fare better than others, especially those providing ways to collaborate online. Count Atlassian in that camp, as it provides a suite of tools focused on working smarter in a digital context. At a time when many employees are […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - A pandemic and recession won’t stop Atlassian’s SaaS push August 20, 2020 at 02:00AM

Cloudflare’s Michelle Zatlyn to discuss building a company with a bold idea at TechCrunch Disrupt When you start a company, it can be tempting to keep it simple. You want something that investors and customers can easily understand. While it might be easier to go that route, that is not something that CloudFlare did when it launched a decade ago at TechCrunch Disrupt. Instead, the company decided to go big […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Cloudflare’s Michelle Zatlyn to discuss building a company with a bold idea at TechCrunch Disrupt August 20, 2020 at 01:00AM

Piggyback on popular Tweets to get brand awareness You can grow your following, increase your brand awareness and get website traffic by simply piggybacking off popular Tweets. Social – TechCrunch - Piggyback on popular Tweets to get brand awareness August 19, 2020 at 04:00AM

Decrypted: The block clock tick-tocks on TikTok In less than three months and notwithstanding intervention, TikTok will be effectively banned in the U.S. unless an American company steps in to save it, after the Trump administration declared by executive order this week that the Chinese-built video sharing app is a threat to national security. How much of a threat TikTok poses exactly […] Social – TechCrunch - Decrypted: The block clock tick-tocks on TikTok August 19, 2020 at 01:00AM

Melbourne-based CI/CD platform Buildkite gets $28 million AUD Series A led by OpenView Buildkite, a Melbourne-based company that provides a hybrid continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform for software developers, announced today that it has raised AUD $28 million (about USD $20.2 million) in Series A funding, bring its valuation to more than AUD $200 million (about USD $145 million). The funding was led by OpenView, an […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Melbourne-based CI/CD platform Buildkite gets $28 million AUD Series A led by OpenView August 19, 2020 at 01:00AM

Wix unifies customer support channels with Wix Answers Website-building platform Wix is expanding its platform today with the launch of a customer support product called Wix Answers. Joe Pollaro, the general manager of Wix’s U.S. business, said that while the company has “been expanding into much larger types of users, enterprise-class users,” Wix Answers wasn’t part of that grand strategy. Instead, it’s a product […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Wix unifies customer support channels with Wix Answers August 18, 2020 at 11:00PM

Movable Ink raises $30M as it expands its personalization technology beyond email marketing Movable Ink, a company that helps businesses deliver more personalized and relevant email marketing, is announcing that it has raised $30 million in Series C funding. The company will be 10 years old in October, and founder and CEO Vivek Sharma told me that it’s always been “capital efficient” — even with the new round, […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Movable Ink raises $30M as it expands its personalization technology beyond email marketing August 18, 2020 at 11:00PM

Deepfake video app Reface is just getting started on shapeshifting selfie culture A bearded Rihanna gyrates and sings about shining bright like a diamond. A female Jack Sparrow looks like she’d be a right laugh over a pint. The cartoon contours of The Incredible Hulk lend envious tint to Donald Trump’s awfully familiar cheek bumps. Selfie culture has a fancy new digital looking glass: Reface (previously Doublicat) […] Social – TechCrunch - Deepfake video app Reface is just getting started on shapeshifting selfie culture August 18, 2020 at 03:00AM

Canalys: Google is top cloud infrastructure provider for online retailers While Google Cloud Platform has shown some momentum in the last year, it remains a distant third behind Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud infrastructure market. But Google got some good news from Canalys today when the firm reported that GCP is the number one cloud platform provider for retailers. Canalys didn’t provide specific numbers, […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Canalys: Google is top cloud infrastructure provider for online retailers August 18, 2020 at 02:00AM

SUSE contributes EiriniX to the Cloud Foundry Foundation SUSE today announced that it has contributed EiriniX, a framework for building extensions for Eirini, a technology that brings support for Kubernetes-based container orchestration to the Cloud Foundry platform-as-a-service project. About a year ago, SUSE also contributed the KubeCF project to the foundation, which itself allows the Cloud Foundry Application Runtime — the core of […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - SUSE contributes EiriniX to the Cloud Foundry Foundation August 18, 2020 at 02:00AM

Indian lawmakers accuse Facebook of political bias Facebook is facing heat in India, its biggest market by users, over a report that claimed the company compromised its hate speech policy to favor the ruling party. Politicians from both Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules the government in India, and opposition Indian National Congress lambasted Facebook for its supposed favoritism to the other and […] Social – TechCrunch - Indian lawmakers accuse Facebook of political bias August 17, 2020 at 06:00PM

Facebook pushes back against Apple’s App Store fees Facebook joined the growing ranks of companies publicly complaining about the 30% fee that Apple collects on payments made through its App Store. Those complaints came midway through a blog post about the social network’s new feature supporting paid online events. Facebook said that to support struggling businesses, it won’t be collecting any fees on those […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook pushes back against Apple’s App Store fees August 15, 2020 at 06:03AM

Facebook launches support for paid online events Businesses will now be able to monetize online events on Facebook, thanks to a new feature that the social network is launching in the United States and 19 other countries today. In a call with reporters, Head of Facebook App Fidji Sumo said that Facebook’s Events feature was designed for in-person events, but with the […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook launches support for paid online events August 15, 2020 at 05:00AM

Warner Music acquires IMGN, a social media publishing platform, for under $100M It’s a whole new playing field these days for music labels and publishers, and today one of the biggies made an acquisition to help it sharpen up its strategy to better understand what people want to see and hear online today. Warner Music — with a market cap of $15.4 billion, one of the big three […] Social – TechCrunch - Warner Music acquires IMGN, a social media publishing platform, for under $100M August 15, 2020 at 04:00AM

Facebook tests TikTok-style video format on its main app in India Facebook is going all in on short-form videos. After flirting with the idea in Lasso, a TikTok-clone it tested in select markets, and adding a similar feature called Reels to Instagram recently, the company is exploring a new venue for this TikTok-esque experience: The big blue app. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it is […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook tests TikTok-style video format on its main app in India August 15, 2020 at 02:00AM

Facebook users are pretty bad at telling how much time they spend on it A lot of studies and discussion of social media use time spent on the platforms as evidence for various theories and conclusions — but it turns out that people are actually super bad at telling how long they spend on them, according to research from Facebook. If you were conducting a study that was looking […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook users are pretty bad at telling how much time they spend on it August 14, 2020 at 08:00AM

Instagram wasn’t deleting photos and direct messages off its servers A security researcher was awarded a $6,000 bug bounty payout after he found Instagram retained photos and private direct messages on its servers long after he deleted them. Independent security researcher Saugat Pokharel found that when he downloaded his data from Instagram, a feature it launched in 2018 to comply with new European data rules, […] Social – TechCrunch - Instagram wasn’t deleting photos and direct messages off its servers August 14, 2020 at 04:00AM

TikTok rival Likee reaches 150M monthly users worldwide As TikTok’s fate remains in flux, its smaller rival Likee has been making waves around the world, garnering 150 million monthly active users as of this June. That’s according to the earnings report of Chinese internet company Joyy, the owner of Likee. For comparison, TikTok recorded about 200 million daily active users in early 2020, […] Social – TechCrunch - TikTok rival Likee reaches 150M monthly users worldwide August 14, 2020 at 02:00AM

Mirantis acquires Lens, an IDE for Kubernetes Mirantis, the company that recently bought Docker’s enterprise business, today announced that it has acquired Lens, a desktop application that the team describes as a Kubernetes integrated development environment. Mirantis previously acquired the team behind the Finnish startup Kontena, the company that originally developed Lens. Lens itself was most recently owned by Lakend Labs, though, […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Mirantis acquires Lens, an IDE for Kubernetes August 14, 2020 at 02:00AM

Slack and Atlassian deepen their partnership with deeper integrations A lot of “partnerships” between tech companies don’t get very far beyond a press release and maybe some half-hearted co-selling attempts. When Atlassian sold its chat services to Slack in 2018, the two companies said they would form a new partnership and with Atlassian leaving the chat space, a lot of people were skeptical about […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Slack and Atlassian deepen their partnership with deeper integrations August 14, 2020 at 01:00AM

Twitter pledges to dial up efforts to combat election misinformation In the latest sign of US platforms bracing for the 2020 US presidential election in November, Twitter has said it will step up efforts to prevent its service from being used to target voters with false information around election participation. Earlier today Facebook announced the launch of a voting hub aimed at combating election misinformation […] Social – TechCrunch - Twitter pledges to dial up efforts to combat election misinformation August 14, 2020 at 12:02AM

Bracing for election day, Facebook rolls out voting resources to U.S. users Eager to avoid a repeat of its disastrous role as a super-spreader of misinformation during the 2016 election cycle, Facebook is getting its ducks in a row. Following an announcement earlier this summer, the company is now launching a voting information hub that will centralize election resources for U.S. users and ideally inoculate at least […] Social – TechCrunch - Bracing for election day, Facebook rolls out voting resources to U.S. users August 13, 2020 at 06:00PM

ByteDance in talks with India’s Reliance for investment in TikTok Chinese giant ByteDance is engaging with India’s Reliance Industries Limited, the parent firm of telecom giant Jio Platforms, for financially backing TikTok in a move to potentially save the popular video app’s fate in its biggest market by users, two people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The two companies began conversations late last month […] Social – TechCrunch - ByteDance in talks with India’s Reliance for investment in TikTok August 13, 2020 at 09:00AM

Digitizing Burning Man For decades, Burning Man has represented an escape from the current reality. An event for free-er spirits to rethink new age ideals inside a stateless entity where art, music and partying reign supreme on the desert plains. Over the years, the Bay Area-founded event has dealt with an internal clash as the gathering has grown […] Social – TechCrunch - Digitizing Burning Man August 13, 2020 at 07:00AM

When you need content to build links, use social proof of concept Look at what type of topics, methodologies, designs, etc. have performed impressively in the past, learn from what they did and didn’t do well — then create something even better. Social – TechCrunch - When you need content to build links, use social proof of concept August 13, 2020 at 03:00AM

Former COO sues Pinterest, accusing it of gender discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination Pinterest’s former chief operating officer has filed a lawsuit accusing the company of gender discrimination. Françoise Brougher, who says she was abruptly fired from the company in April, is suing the company to hold it “accountable for discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), and the Labor […] Social – TechCrunch - Former COO sues Pinterest, accusing it of gender discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination August 13, 2020 at 01:00AM

Stacklet launches cloud governance platform with $4.4M seed investment Stacklet co-founders Travis Stanfield and Kapil Thangavelu met while both were working at Capital One several years ago. Thangavelu helped create the Cloud Custodian open source cloud governance project. The two eventually got together and decided to build a startup based on that project and today the company launched out of stealth with a $4.4 […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Stacklet launches cloud governance platform with $4.4M seed investment August 13, 2020 at 01:00AM

UK eyeing disclosure labels for online political campaigning The UK government is considering changes to the law that would require online political campaign material to carry labels disclosing who is promoting and funding the messaging. The proposal, which is being put through a public consultation until November, follows years of warnings over the lack of regulation around online political ads. The government said […] Social – TechCrunch - UK eyeing disclosure labels for online political campaigning August 13, 2020 at 12:02AM

Gong raises another $200M on $2.2B valuation For the third time since last February, Gong has raised a significant sum. In February, the company scored $40 million. In December, it grabbed another $65 million, and today it was $200 million on a $2.2 billion valuation. That’s a total of $305 million in less than 18 months. Coatue led today’s cash infusion with […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Gong raises another $200M on $2.2B valuation August 12, 2020 at 11:00PM

Adaptive Shield raises $4M for its SaaS security platform Adaptive Shield, a Tel Aviv-based security startup, is coming out of stealth today and announcing its $4 million seed round led by Vertex Ventures Israel. The company’s platform helps businesses protect their SaaS applications by regularly scanning their various setting for security issues. The company’s co-founders met in the Israeli Defense Forces, where they were […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Adaptive Shield raises $4M for its SaaS security platform August 12, 2020 at 11:00PM

TikTok found to have tracked Android users’ MAC addresses until late last year Until late last year social video app TikTok was using an extra layer of encryption to conceal a tactic for tracking Android users via the MAC address of their device which skirted Google’s policies and did not allow users to opt out, The Wall Street Journal reports. Users were also not informed of this form […] Social – TechCrunch - TikTok found to have tracked Android users’ MAC addresses until late last year August 12, 2020 at 09:00PM

Twitter now lets everyone limit replies to their tweets Twitter may describe itself as the town square, but that doesn’t mean you have to talk to everyone walking past your seat at the cafe. Today, to increase the amount of “meaningful conversations” that take place on Twitter, and to help people weed out abuse and spam in their replies, the company announced that it […] Social – TechCrunch - Twitter now lets everyone limit replies to their tweets August 12, 2020 at 04:00AM

Emergence’s Jason Green still sees plenty of opportunities for enterprise SaaS startups Jason Green, co-founder and partner at Emergence, has made some solid enterprise SaaS bets over the years, long before it was fashionable to do so. He invested early in companies like Box, ServiceMax, Yammer, SteelBrick and SuccessFactors. Just those companies alone would be a pretty good track record, but his firm also invested in Salesforce, […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Emergence’s Jason Green still sees plenty of opportunities for enterprise SaaS startups August 12, 2020 at 04:00AM

TikTok is being investigated by France’s data watchdog More worries for TikTok: A European data watchdog that’s landed the biggest blow on a tech giant to date — slapping Google with a $57M fine last year (upheld in June) — now has an open investigation into the social video app du jour, TechCrunch has confirmed. A spokeswoman for France’s CNIL told us it […] Social – TechCrunch - TikTok is being investigated by France’s data watchdog August 12, 2020 at 12:02AM

Parsable scores $60M Series D as pandemic forces faster digitization of industrial sector It seems the pandemic has forced the business world to digitize faster, and the industrial sector is no different. Parsable, a San Francisco startup that is helping digitize industrial front line workers, announced a $60 million Series D today. Activate Capital and Glade Brook Capital Partners co-led the round. They got help from new investors […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Parsable scores $60M Series D as pandemic forces faster digitization of industrial sector August 11, 2020 at 10:00PM

TikTok is reportedly planning to challenge the Trump administration ban TikTok, the video-sharing app that’s moved to the center of the economic conflict between the U.S. and China, is planning to challenge the executive order issued by President Donald Trump that would force the sale or ban the service in the United States. According to a report from National Public Radio yesterday, TikTok could file […] Social – TechCrunch - TikTok is reportedly planning to challenge the Trump administration ban August 11, 2020 at 10:00AM

ByteDance valuation under huge pressure as TikTok sale nears As it reached an estimated valuation of $100 billion this year, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance solidified its status as the most valuable startup in private markets. Its success outside China has also become a source of envy and inspiration among its local peers. Now, the company’s price tag is under tremendous pressure as it’s set […] Social – TechCrunch - ByteDance valuation under huge pressure as TikTok sale nears August 11, 2020 at 03:00AM

Beware bankers talking TikTok The next few weeks is going to be a critical time for ByteDance-owned TikTok. The company is weeks away from a ban signed by President Trump, and while the company is expected to sue the U.S. federal government this week to block it, clearly the company’s future has at least storm clouds on the horizon. […] Social – TechCrunch - Beware bankers talking TikTok August 11, 2020 at 01:00AM

Wendell Brooks has resigned as president of Intel Capital When Wendell Brooks was promoted to president of Intel Capital, the investment arm of the chip giant in 2015, he knew he had big shoes to fill. He was taking over from Arvind Sodhani, who had run the investment component for 28 years since its inception. Today, the company confirmed reports that he has resigned […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Wendell Brooks has resigned as president of Intel Capital August 8, 2020 at 02:00AM

Facebook extends coronavirus work from home policy until July 2021 Facebook has joined Google in saying it will allow employees to work from home until the middle of next year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. “Based on guidance from health and government experts, as well as decisions drawn from our internal discussions about these matters, we are allowing employees to continue voluntarily working […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook extends coronavirus work from home policy until July 2021 August 7, 2020 at 07:00PM

Daily Crunch: Twitter and Facebook take action against Trump Facebook and Twitter are taking a stronger stand against pandemic misinformation, we preview the latest version of macOS and a mental health startup raises $50 million. Here’s your Daily Crunch for August 6, 2020. The big story: Twitter, Facebook take action against Trump misinformation Facebook and Twitter both took action against a post from President […] Social – TechCrunch - Daily Crunch: Twitter and Facebook take action against Trump August 7, 2020 at 08:00AM

Twitter adds labels for government officials and state-controlled media Twitter is introducing new labels for accounts and tweets tied to government officials and “state-affiliated media.” “Twitter provides an unmatched way to connect with, and directly speak to public officials and representatives,” the company wrote in the blog post announcing these changes. “This direct line of communication with leaders and officials has helped to democratize […] Social – TechCrunch - Twitter adds labels for government officials and state-controlled media August 7, 2020 at 02:00AM

Attorneys general from twenty states call on Facebook to do more to fight discrimination, disinformation and harassment In an open letter to Facebook’s leadership posted earlier today, the attorneys general from 20 states called on the company to do more to fight intimidation, discrimination, disinformation, harassment and hate speech on the platform. “Although Facebook has made some progress in counteracting the use of its platform to dehumanize and demean, that is just […] Social – TechCrunch - Attorneys general from twenty states call on Facebook to do more to fight discrimination, disinformation and harassment August 7, 2020 at 01:00AM

Mode raises $33M to supercharge its analytics platform for data scientists Data science is the name of the game these days for companies that want to improve their decision making by tapping the information they are already amassing in their apps and other systems. And today, a startup called Mode Analytics, which has built a platform incorporating machine learning, business intelligence and big data analytics to […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Mode raises $33M to supercharge its analytics platform for data scientists August 7, 2020 at 01:00AM

Crossbeam announces $25M Series B to keep growing partnerships platform As sales teams partner with other companies, they go through a process called account mapping to find common customers and prospects. This is usually a highly manual activity tracked in spreadsheets. Crossbeam, a Philadelphia startup, has come up with a way to automate partnership data integration. Today the company announced a $25 million Series B […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Crossbeam announces $25M Series B to keep growing partnerships platform August 6, 2020 at 11:00PM

WordPress.com launches new P2 to take on internal communication tools WordPress.com, a division of Automattic, is launching a new product called P2. And this time, it’s all about improving internal communications for private groups. As a remote company, Automattic has been using P2 internally for years to communicate asynchronously. It’s a place to share long-form posts, a repository to keep onboarding documents and other important […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - WordPress.com launches new P2 to take on internal communication tools August 6, 2020 at 11:00PM

TikTok announces first data center in Europe TikTok, the Chinese video sharing app that’s found itself at the center of a geopolitical power struggle which threatens to put hard limits on its global growth this year, said today it will build its first data center in Europe. The announcement of a TikTok data center in the EU also follows a landmark ruling […] Social – TechCrunch - TikTok announces first data center in Europe August 6, 2020 at 09:00PM

Facebook just took down a Trump post that claimed kids are immune to COVID-19 Facebook took down a video President Trump posted to his account Wednesday, citing its rules against false claims about the coronavirus. The decision to remove the video signals a new direction for Facebook, which has been taking incremental steps recently to distance itself from the perception that the company deliberately turns a blind eye to […] Social – TechCrunch - Facebook just took down a Trump post that claimed kids are immune to COVID-19 August 6, 2020 at 10:00AM

Microsoft launches Open Service Mesh Microsoft today announced the launch of a new open-source service mesh based on the Envoy proxy. The Open Service Mesh is meant to be a reference implementation of the Service Mesh Interface (SMI) spec, a standard interface for service meshes on Kubernetes that has the backing of most of the players in this ecosystem. The […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Microsoft launches Open Service Mesh August 6, 2020 at 03:00AM

TikTok updates policies to ban deepfakes, expand fact-checks, and flag election misinfo As uncertainty swirls around TikTok’s future in the U.S., the company this morning announced new Community Guidelines focused on helping keep misleading and deceptive content off its platform. The new rules aim to better clarify what’s allowed and not allowed on TikTok, broaden the app’s fact-checking partnerships ahead of the U.S. election, and ban the […] Social – TechCrunch - TikTok updates policies to ban deepfakes, expand fact-checks, and flag election misinfo August 6, 2020 at 02:00AM

Datafold is solving the chaos of data engineering It seemed so simple. A small schema issue in a database was wrecking a feature in the app, increasing latency and degrading the user experience. The resident data engineer pops in a fix to amend the schema, and everything seems fine — for now. Unbeknownst to them, that small fix completely clobbered all the dashboards […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Datafold is solving the chaos of data engineering August 6, 2020 at 02:00AM

PandaDoc announces second Series B extension worth $30M PandaDoc, the startup that provides a fully digital sales document workflow from proposal to electronic signature to collecting payment, announced a $30 million Series B extension today, making it the the second such extension the company has taken since taking its original $15 million Series B in 2017. The total for the three B investments […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - PandaDoc announces second Series B extension worth $30M August 6, 2020 at 01:00AM

Instagram Reels launches globally in over 50 countries, including US Instagram Reels, the company’s significant effort in challenging TikTok on short-form creative content, is launching globally, starting today. The feature is being made available across 50 countries, including the U.S., as TechCrunch had previously reported. The expansion means Reels will now be available in key international markets, such as India, Brazil, France, Germany, the U.K., […] Social – TechCrunch - Instagram Reels launches globally in over 50 countries, including US August 5, 2020 at 11:00PM

Kubermatic launches open source service hub to enable complex service management As Kubernetes and cloud native technologies proliferate, developers and IT have found a growing set of technical challenges they need to address, and new concepts and projects have popped up to deal with them. For instance, operators provide a way to package, deploy and manage your cloud native application in an automated way. Kubermatic wants […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Kubermatic launches open source service hub to enable complex service management August 5, 2020 at 11:00PM

Harness makes first acquisition, snagging open source CI company Drone.io Harness has made a name for itself creating tools like continuous delivery (CD) for software engineers to give them the kind of power that has been traditionally reserved for companies with large engineering teams like Google, Facebook and Netflix. Today, the company announced it has acquired Drone.io, an open source continuous integration (CI) company, marking […] Enterprise – TechCrunch - Harness makes first acquisition, snagging open source CI company Drone.io August 5, 2020 at 11:00PM