10 things in tech you need to know today

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1. Facebook and Google extended a ban on political ads. In a memo to political-ad buyers obtained by Business Insider, Facebook said the ban could last another month “to help prevent confusion or abuse on our platform” regarding the presidential election.

2. President-elect Joe Biden has turned to Big Tech for staffers. His transition team features many senior people from the tech industry, including executives from Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb but there are no names from Facebook, Google, Apple, or Twitter on the list.

3. SoftBank has unveiled a new tech stock trading unit. SB Northstar invests in publicly listed stocks and has racked up $3.7 billion in losses so far, according to the FT.

4. Conservatives are hot for Parler. The social-media app istouted by Republican politicians and right-wing pundits, and made it to the top of the App Store in the days following the 2020 election.

5. The UK will block takeovers that pose a national security risk. Proposed new legislation would require foreign buyers in 17 key industries, including AI, quantum computing, and autonomous robots, to check in with a newly-formed government department.

6. Alibaba’s Singles Day surpassed $74 billion. The major shopping holiday is usually bigger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

7. Some Ring doorbells caught fire. Around 350,000 second-generation Ring doorbells sold in the US, and roughly 8,700 sold in Canada, have a potential fire hazard linked to their batteries, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said Tuesday.

8. Hopin is the major success of the pandemic. The UK startup is only 8 months old, but has raised at a $2.1 billion valuation to run conferences and events online.

9. Cloud service Fastly is caught up in TikTok geopolitics. ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, isFastly’s single largest client and the saga with Trump forcing a sale sent Fastly’s stock plunging.

10. Twitch apologized for the way it handled music copyright. The streaming service apologized for removing streams and clips after an onslaught of takedown notices.