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- Facebook will prohibit all new political ads in the week before the November 3 US presidential election, as part of a wide range of measures the company is billing as an attempt to prevent misinformation and voter suppression. CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Thursday that he feared civil unrest as the election is finalized in November.
- The Trump campaign claimed Facebook's new election policies meant the president "would be silenced by the Silicon Valley mafia." Deputy spokeswoman Samantha Zager said: "In the last seven days of the most important election in our history, President Trump will be banned from defending himself on the largest platform in America."
- Beijing has successfully set roadblocks into the acquisition talks between TikTok and various prospective American buyers according to multiple reports from Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg. China's introduction of new export controls may give it veto power over any deal, and has slowed talks between TikTok's parent firm ByteDance and prospective buyers.
- Facebook claimed it removed en event encouraging violence against protesters in Kenosha, but a new BuzzFeed report reveals the event was actually removed by the its own organizers. That revelation contradicts Zuckerberg's remarks to Facebook staff, when he said Facebook should have removed the Kenosha Guard event sooner but failed to do so due to an "operational mistake."
- The Department of Justice is planning to file antitrust charges against Google as soon as this month, The New York Times reported Thursday.
- The Indian government has blocked 118 more Chinese apps, including Tencent-published video game "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," internet search engine Baidu, and Alibaba's payment app Alipay. India banned 59 Chinese apps in June, including TikTok, after its forces clashed with Chinese troops on the nations' Himalayan border.
- Brad Porter, Amazon's VP of robotics, wanted the pay range for his position to increase before he left for Scale AI, according to people familiar with the matter. While other factors, like the allure of working for a richly valued startup and moving back to the Bay Area where his family lives, were important motivators, Porter's failure to adjust his compensation structure at Amazon also played a role in his departure, these people said.
- Airbnb's Brian Chesky told Business Insider that nothing about being a public company CEO will be as tough as seeing revenue plunge 80% in 8 weeks. The experience "toughened us up ... And I think we're ready for whatever kind of challenge and opportunities come our way," Chesky told Business Insider in an interview.
- Facebook has banned a right-wing politician in India with a history of Islamophobic comments for violating its rules on promoting violence and hate. The politician, T Raja Singh, is a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party, the BJP.
- Israeli 'no code' startup Anima has raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round backed by Hetz Ventures. The firm was cofounded in 2016 by Or Arbel, who previously set up Yo – the app that only let you send the word "Yo" to your contacts.
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