Techcrunch blog!: Daily Crunch - Twitter wants you to consider that retweet

Friday, October 09, 2020 • By Darrell Etherington

A militia group used Facebook groups (among other methods) to coordinate a planned kidnapping of a Democratic governor, Twitter and Facebook announced efforts to try to not ruin democracy more and Porsche pursues a different path for sustainable cars. This is your Daily Crunch for October 9, 2020.

The big story: Twitter changes a number of core features to fight election misinfo

Twitter made a number of relatively significant changes, including a switch to how retweets work on the platform. This shift will automatically prompt anyone smashing that retweet button to add their own commentary — a change that will remain in place at least until the election is done.

That could theoretically help slow the spread of potentially viral but inaccurate tweets around the election, of which I’m sure there will be very many. If people have to think about what they’re parroting and are hopefully convinced to say something about it, too, that could slow the speed of travel and clarity of message for dumb, dangerous shit. Maybe.

The big story: Twitter changes a number of core features to fight election misinfo image

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The tech giants

Facebook and Instagram are pinning vote-by-mail explainers to the top of TLs — How to vote by mail shouldn’t be a mystery, and Facebook and Instagram are implementing a pinned guide video with a roll-out varying state-by-state depending on when voting deadlines kick in. This could help ensure more people vote properly, reducing wasted ballots.

Meanwhile, Facebook groups proved a useful tool for domestic terrorists, until they got booted — The dangerous domestic terrorists masquerading as a militia group that were plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer were organizing using Facebook, before that platform removed its group as part of a boogaloo-associated purge.

Pakistan bans TikTok — Pakistan has banned TikTok entirely over what it termed “immoral and indecent” videos. The app had already received a “final warning” from the Pakistani government a few months prior, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to ByteDance.

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Startups, funding and venture capital

Hong Kong’s Lalamove enters the U.S. market — Logistics startup Lalamove is one of Hong Kong’s first unicorns, and now it’s beginning to offer its service in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with an expansion to Chicago and Houston planned soon.

New creator-focused startup CreatorOS debuts — A new Indian startup called CreatorOS hopes to provide influencers with more control over the stuff they make, and it’s got a number of high-profile angels on board already.

Startups, funding and venture capital image

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Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Female founders feel the brunt of VC market shake-up — Depending on who you feel like listening to, the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t impacted VC at all! But new data from PitchBook shows that actually, investors are shifting where they put their dollars, at least — and female-founded and led companies saw a significant drop, losing around four years of gains.

Mobility VCs talk risks and rewards of cozying up to Amazon and its ilk — Big-name tech partners can be immensely beneficial to startups, in terms of both funding and revenue potential, as well as just borrowing some brand-name recognition. But there’s a lot of potential danger there, too, since the slick, giant corporate monoliths care not for human kindness and morality.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our subscription membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch image

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Everything else

SPACs are everywhere, but women aren’t behind most of them — Connie delves into the gender imbalance in the current en vogue public exit vehicle. I’m still pretty sure SPACs are mostly just scams designed to engineer an exit event for startups without much in the way of other prospects, but I can’t prove it.

Porsche is doing R&D on synthetic fuels as a way to supplement EVs — Porsche doesn’t think fully electric vehicles can get us to a sustainable future fast enough, so it’s looking into synthetic fuel technology made from CO2 and hydrogen as an interim step along the way.