10 things in tech you need to know today
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Tuesday.
- WeWork is set to evaluate rescue proposals from SoftBank and JPMorgan on Tuesday. SoftBank's offer is expected to have more favorable terms for WeWork and cofounder Adam Neumann than what JPMorgan could line up with its group of investors.
- Facebook just removed dozens of fake accounts based in Russia and Iran that were spreading misinformation and trying to meddle in elections. This included nearly 200 accounts with more than 250,000 followers around the world.
- WeWork has postponed thousands of layoffs because it's too broke to pay workers severance. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company could run out of cash by next month unless it gets new funding, and was planning on cutting jobs to save money.
- ISIS is using popular Gen Z app TikTok as its newest recruitment tool. TikTok has removed about two-dozen accounts that posted Islamic State propaganda, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
- Google hired a former Microsoft exec to spearhead G Suite, the productivity software that's going after one of Microsoft's biggest money makers. Google hired Javier Soltero, the former head of Microsoft's Cortana virtual assistant and the former head of strategy for Microsoft's Office suite of productivity tools.
- Toy brands are paying Amazon millions of dollars for the chance to be featured in its annual holiday gift guide. Brands pay as much as $2 million, and the more they pay, the more toys they can nominate, according to a report from Bloomberg.
- Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have been privately recommending hires for the Buttigieg campaign. According to Bloomberg, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan first reached out to the Pete Buttigieg campaign in April.
- Blizzard denied reports that it's banning Twitch viewers for pro-Hong Kong chat. Twitch viewers complained that they had received 24-hour bans from the "Play Hearthstone" Twitch channel after typing "Free Hong Kong."
- Amazon customers complained that they received packages of moldy or out-of-date food. A new investigation from CNBC revealed that Amazon's third-party sellers are shipping expired food items to customers.
- Professional hackers sneaked fake horoscope apps past Amazon and Google that spied on people's conversations with Alexa and Google Assistant. Whitehat hackers have proven that it's possible to develop malicious apps hosted by Google Home or Amazon Alexa that spy on users' conversations and phish for personal information like passwords.
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