10 things in tech you need to know today
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Friday.
- Leaked emails show Amazon is delaying Prime Day again to October as concerns grow that a new COVID-19 demand spike may hit supply chains. Amazon is postponing its annual Prime Day shopping event to October, the third delay this year.
- A Facebook recruiter filed a federal complaint alleging the company is biased against Black employees and job candidates. The recruiter and two rejected job applicants filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing the company of discriminating against Black workers.
- Police say they cracked a secret, global chat system used to plot murders and money laundering and have made hundreds of arrests. The UK's National Crime Agency on Thursday said it had made 746 arrests and seized £54 million in cash, 77 firearms, and 2 metric tons of drugs.
- Elon Musk thinks the surge in coronavirus cases is due to testing errors, but a virologist is debunking that as 'dangerous misinformation.' The Tesla boss said on Twitter that testing errors, rather than new infections, are causing the new surge of coronavirus cases.
- Palantir has raised more than $500 million in fresh funding as the secretive and controversial startup works toward a possible IPO. The company was said to be preparing for a September IPO, and it's unclear how the new funding affects those plans.
- UK investors are betting on a deep tech boom after startups across automation, AI, and quantum computing raised $3.3 billion in 2019. Venture capital investors say cheaper access and improvements in underlying technology make it easier to bet on deep technology startups.
- The UK's Future Fund bailout package for startups during COVID-19 is being extended and won't have a formal cap either on amount or the number of companies who can receive aid. One startup founder told Business Insider that it took around ten days from applying to the fund to receiving the money.
- India's Reliance Jio is launching a video chat service called JioMeet to compete with Zoom. The Facebook-backed company, which recently raised $15.2 billion, will let up to 100 users onto calls in HD quality, TechCrunch reported.
- Ethiopia's government shut down the entire country's internet and 80 people have been killed in protests following the assassination of a popular musician. The subsequent protests have resulted in an internet shutdown for around 102 million people.
- Social care startup Lifted has almost $2 million in seed funding from Fuel Ventures. Lifted's app tells users who will be providing their care and lets them leave feedback.
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