10 things in tech you need to know today

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1. Facebook reversed its Australian news ban. The move comes after a weekend of negotiations with the government over its proposed media code.
2. Spotify will launch higher quality streaming. The firm announced a slew of updates, including new podcasts featuring Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen, plus CD-quality streaming.
3. New malware targets Apple’s new computers. The malware, nicknamed “Silver Sparrow,” specifically targets Apple computers with new M1 chips and 30,000 machines have been infected.
4. Microsoft’s Brad Smith wants more rules like Australia’s news code. “I’m hopeful that the Biden administration will support and embrace this kind of policy to redress the imbalance between something like a search service by Google and the position of the news publishers,” he told Insider’s Nicholas Carlson on Thursday.
5. Senators will question companies about the SolarWinds attacks. Senior representatives from SolarWinds, Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and FireEye are expected to attend.
6. Mark Zuckerberg intervened in Alex Jones’ ban. The Facebook CEO decided on a less comprehensive ban on the conspiracy theorist, effectively deviating from company policy, sources told BuzzFeed.
7. Tesla has profited from bitcoin to the tune of $1 billion. The company “is on a trajectory to make more from its Bitcoin investments than profits from selling its EV cars in all of 2020,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said.
8. Participants criticized a Google scheme for Black college students. They described the program as disorganized to CNBC, despite the underlying positive intent.
9. Premium: Olo is going public. Olo, founded in 2005, can best be described as a digital ordering and delivery enabling platform for restaurants.
10. Premium: We got hold of the pitch deck used by software startup Katana. The firm has raised $11 million backed by Atomico, the VC firm backed by Skype billionaire Niklas Zennström.