10 things in tech you need to know today
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Tuesday.
- Reddit banned r/The_Donald, the largest pro-Trump subreddit, as it cracks down on hate speech and targeting. The subreddit was one of roughly 2,000 communities that were banned across Reddit on Monday, CEO Steve Huffman said.
- Amazon's live streaming service Twitch suspended President Trump's channel for violating 'hateful conduct' policies and cited his campaign speeches as the reason. Twitch said Trump's words at campaign rallies violated the company's hateful-conduct rules.
- Microsoft paused ad spending on Facebook and Instagram over concerns about 'inappropriate content.' The news comes as other major advertisers halt ad spending on Facebook to protest the way the company moderates hate speech.
- India has blocked TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps that the government says pose a security threat. The move banning 59 apps follows major clashes between India and China earlier this month along a disputed border shared between the two countries.
- Uber is in discussions to buy Postmates for about $2.6 billion as it looks to consolidate its position in the food delivery market. A deal, which could be announced in the next week, marks a different direction for Postmates which had been planning to file for an IPO, the Wall Street Journal reported.
- YouTube has banned white supremacist channels including those of Richard Spencer, David Duke, and Stefan Molyneux. "We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies," a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement.
- Google will expand free retail listings to its main search page in a bid to fend off a growing ad rivalry with Amazon. Merchants will soon be able to advertise products at the top of Google's search pages for free, which could help Google lure over more retailers.
- Elon Musk said in a leaked email that Tesla may break even during Q2 despite its US car factory closing for 2 months. "Breaking even is looking super tight," he said. "Really makes a difference for every car you build and deliver. Please go all out to ensure victory!"
- Tech employees are selling referrals online to job candidates for under $50 to help them get hired at Google, Facebook, and other industry giants. Job candidates have purchased more than 11,000 job referrals through the online marketplace Rooftop Slushie since the website was launched in 2019,
- Twitter has apologized for slapping a COVID-19 label on tweets about 5G, but experts say the platform's algorithm could be encouraging the spread of conspiracy theories. Twitter users noticed that the platform was marking tweets mentioning "5G" or "oxygen" with a warning about COVID-19 misinformation.
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