Taylor Hatmaker
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Facebook starts prompting US users to fill out a COVID-19 survey to help track the virus
Starting today, some U.S. Facebook users will see a new pop-up on the app asking them to complete a survey about COVID-19. The survey, from Carnegie Mellon University’s Delphi epidemiological re
The pandemic is already reshaping tech’s misinformation crisis
Since 2016, social media companies have faced an endless barrage of bad press and public criticism for failing to anticipate how their platforms could be used for dark purposes at the scale of populat
CDC recommends Americans wear cloth masks to limit spread of COVID-19
A day after suggesting that it would soon change guidelines telling non-health workers not to wear face masks, the White House announced the new policy. “The CDC is recommending Americans wear a
White House says it is ordering more companies to make ventilators
With the national stockpile of inventory of life-saving healthcare equipment getting dangerously close to zero, President Trump on Thursday signaled that he will leverage a key national security provi
Palantir provides COVID-19 tracking software to CDC and NHS, pitches European health agencies
As the floor drops out from under many startups, some tech companies are finding a path forward by meeting new government needs. Among them is Palantir, a secretive government-friendly big data operat
Fauci: US can expect more than 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, millions of cases
On CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, the leading U.S. authority on the COVID-19 pandemic made some grim predictions about the course of the novel coronavirus as it rages through communities withi
House passes historic $2 trillion coronavirus economic rescue bill
A massive bipartisan effort to provide relief to a U.S. economy on ice just leapt over its last major hurdle. On Friday, the House of Representatives passed a historic stimulus package known as the Co
US now has the world’s most coronavirus cases
On Thursday, the United States crossed an unfortunate milestone in the global fight against the novel coronavirus: leading the world in confirmed cases. By Thursday afternoon around 3 p.m. PT, the U.S
Gig workers could get unemployment benefits under $2 trillion Senate stimulus bill
The Senate’s historic $2 trillion stimulus package will make history in one more way: by providing some financial assistance to gig workers. Late last night, the Senate passed a $2 trillion stim
People who mostly get news from social networks have some COVID-19 misconceptions
A new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center shows a COVID-19 information divide between people who mostly get their news from social networks and those who rely on more traditional news sources.
Watch Mark Zuckerberg talk live with epidemic expert Dr. Anthony Fauci
If there’s one face of scientific authority in the U.S. in the throes of COVID-19 chaos, it’s Dr. Anthony Fauci. One of the world’s top HIV/AIDS researchers, Dr. Fauci has served in
Here’s how TechCrunch is keeping our brains busy while we’re stuck at home
This is a difficult time. Whoever and wherever you are, your life is likely already changing in ways you never could have anticipated as the world grapples with the fast-spreading global outbreak of a
Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and UCSF will boost Bay Area COVID-19 tests by 1,000 per day
Bay Area coronavirus testing is about to get a boost from the private sector. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s philanthropic project the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is collaborating wit
Twitter broadly bans any COVID-19 tweets that could help the virus spread
You don’t have to go far to find someone online downplaying the severity of a global pandemic that’s shut down entire economies and ground everyday life to a halt. Knowing that, Twitter wi
Facebook will put a new coronavirus info center on top of the News Feed
In an effort to disseminate trustworthy health information on COVID-19, Facebook will roll out its own coronavirus information center, a central hub on the vast social network where the company will c
Trump admin wants to send American workers cash ‘immediately’
As the government takes drastic measures to calm markets in the economic fallout from COVID-19, individual Americans might soon be seeing some dramatic measures of their own. In a White House press co
COVID-19 delays Ohio primary while other states strategize to protect voters
This week brings another batch of Democratic primaries, this time in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio. But a lot has changed since Super Tuesday. Lately, a lot changes every hour. In a joint statem
With launch of COVID-19 data hub, the White House issues a ‘call to action’ for AI researchers
In a briefing on Monday, research leaders across tech, academia and the government joined the White House to announce an open data set full of scientific literature on the novel coronavirus. The COVID
Russian trolls are outsourcing to Africa to stoke US racial tensions
With tech companies wise to many of the tactics that Russia’s now-infamous troll farms used to seed disinformation during the 2016 election, those campaigns are getting creative. According to a
Senate bill seeks to ban Chinese app TikTok from government work phones
On Thursday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced legislation to further restrict the use of the popular viral video app TikTok on government devices. The bill seeks to expand