10 things in tech you need to know today
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Monday.
- Facebook has rejected a proposed code of conduct from an Australian watchdog that would make it pay for news links, the Guardian reports. Facebook said there would be no "significant" effect on its business model if it stopped sharing newslinks.
- US states appear to be backing off using contact tracing apps to monitor the spread of COVID-19, NBC reports. The states that have rolled them out have not had great success in getting significant portions of the population to download them.
- Germany is launching its own COVID-19 contact tracing app this week, Engadget reports. Originally the country said it would make its app without Google and Apple's specialized API, but it later reversed its position.
- Sources told the Wall Street Journal that short video streaming app Quibi is on track to sign up 2 million subscribers by the end of this year, far less than original target of 7.4 million. Daily downloads have not topped 379,000 since its launch day on April 6.
- SoftBank has invested roughly $500 million in Credit Suisse funds that invest in some of its own startups, The Financial Times reports. The funds have latterly increased their exposure to several startups in SoftBank's portfolio.
- SpaceX launched 58 of its Starlink satellites on Saturday, leaving a rainbow-colored cloud in the Florida sky. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the mission to orbit lifted off just before dawn from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
- A US antitrust probe into big tech wants the CEOs of Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Facebook to testify before the House in July, Axios reports. Letters were reportedly sent to the CEOs requesting their attendance last week, and suggested subpoenas could be used to compel them.
- Google apologized after search results failed to automatically bring up an image of Winston Churchill. Google said this was the result of a technical glitch, not a conscious decision to remove the image of the former British prime minister.
- Facebook released a trove of 100,000 deepfake videos as a resource to help train algorithms to spot them better, MIT Tech Review reports. The faces of 3,426 actors were used to build the dataset.
- Tesla is adding wireless phone chargers and USB-C ports to some of its US Model 3s, Elektrek reports. The upgrade is coming to cars made in its Fremont, California factory after appearing in its Shanghai factory.
Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.
You can also subscribe to this newsletter here — just tick "10 Things in Tech You Need to Know.