The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, which ends Big Tech acquisitions, could backfire in several ways, like discouraging startups’ productive behavior — Congress wants to stop most Big Tech acquisitions. But that won’t neccesarily increase competition. — 5 hr ago Source
Q&A with EIC Nilay Patel on The Verge’s 10th anniversary, tech media’s advance from early breathless gadget reviews, subject-source relationships, and more — After a decade covering the Zucks, Googles, and Ubers of the scene, the Verge editor in chief reflects on tech’s troublesome relationship with the rest of the world. Source
Snapchat says it will permanently ban Trump’s account on January 20 in the interest of public safety and based on repeated violations of Snapchat’s guidelines — Snapchat will permanently ban President Trump’s account on Jan. 20, Axios has learned, after locking it indefinitely last week following the Capitol siege. Source
Meta introduces “Sharing to Reels”, an integration that lets developers add the ability to post videos directly to Facebook Reels from their third-party apps — Facebook is adding the ability to post Reels from third-party apps, its parent company Meta announced on Tuesday. Source
Google announces second-generation Nest Hub with sleep tracking, powered by a Soli radar chip, for $100, shipping on March 30 — In deciding to not put a camera on what was initially called the Home Hub, Google made its first Assistant Smart Display ideal for nightstands. Source
Cybersecurity company Rapid7 acquires Kubernetes security startup Alcide for $50M; Alcide had raised ~$12M to date according to Crunchbase data — Rapid7, the Boston-based security operations company, has been making moves into the cloud recently and this morning it announced … Source
MessageBird, a Twilio rival, says it has spent $100M+ buying three startups: video calling firm 24sessions, data management firm Hull, and API startup Pusher — – Dutch software company agrees to buy 24sessions and Hull — MessageBird valued at $3 billion during $200 million fundraise Source
Sources: NFT marketplace OpenSea is in talks to raise a round led by Coatue at a $13B valuation, with Kathryn Haun’s new crypto fund participating — Coatue expected to lead the round with Kathryn Haun’s new fund participating — The NFT-marketplace OpenSea is in talks to raise … Source
Built Robotics, which makes autonomous construction equipment, raises a $64M Series C led by Tiger Global, bringing its total funding to $112M — If you’re still wrapping your head around the idea of self-driving cars, get ready for something that might seem even wilder … Source
Internal documents: Amazon’s planned internal messaging app would block union-related words, including “union”, “grievance”, “pay raise”, and “compensation” — Amazon will block and flag employee posts on a planned internal messaging app … Source