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- Palantir Technologies is preparing to go public but behind the cloak-and-dagger image, insiders and investors say, it's struggled to build a steady revenue model. As its long-awaited public listing approaches, much of Palantir's bread-and-butter work has transitioned to mundane enterprise software contracting.
- Pinterest's former COO Francoise Brougher has filed a gender discrimination suit against the company. The lawsuit explains why Brougher left the company suddenly in April without explanation after two years in the No. 2 role.
- Facebook says it will now ban 'implicit hate speech' like blackface and anti-Semitic stereotypes. Facebook has faced mounting pressure from civil rights groups to ramp up its enforcement of anti-hate speech policies, culminating in an advertiser boycott last month over hate speech on the platform.
- Leaked Microsoft internal discussions show employee opposition to any TikTok deal, with some calling it 'unethical' and saying it could call the company's integrity into question. In one internal employee poll, titled "Should Microsoft buy TikTok?," 63% of the 250 respondents said "no."
- Airbnb reportedly plans to confidentially file for an IPO later this month. The company had previously planned to go public this year, but postponed the effort when the onset of the coronavirus crisis crushed its business.
- TikTok reportedly violated Google's data collection policies by tracking the individual identifiers of Android users' smartphones. Google and Apple have both banned apps from collecting MAC addresses, but researchers told The Wall Street Journal that TikTok did so until November last year by exploiting a bug.
- The Mozilla Corporation will lay off 250 staff as it looks to invest more in revenue generating products. The company behind the Firefox browser also indicated it would close its operations in Taiwan.
- Berlin-based VC fund La Famiglia has raised a fresh $59 million fund to invest in early-stage enterprise startups. The company's previous fund invested in Berlin's freight forwarding platform Forto, modular production platform Arculus, contractor payment platform Deel, and data collaboration platform Graphy.
- The world's first university dedicated to the field of artificial intelligence is set to open its doors to students in Abu Dhabi in January 2021. The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence is part of the Emirati city state's 50-point plan to diversify its economy beyond oil.
- Microsoft has delayed the launch of 'Halo Infinite' to 2021. The game was set to be the biggest launch for the new Xbox's November launch but coronavirus and remote working delays will see its release pushed past the holiday shopping season, per Bloomberg.
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