10 things in tech you need to know today, October 15

Elon Musk said it’s time
for giant fighting robots.

Universal

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Monday.

1. 
   SoftBank shares have fallen dramatically, slashing its value by
   $20 billion. Bloomberg ascribes the dive to a
   rocky few weeks for tech companies and the outcry at Saudi
   Arabia — SoftBank’s biggest outside investor — following the
   disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 
2. 
   Chinese regional authorities laid out the kind of speech
   suppression that Google will likely have to facilitate for the
   country’s persecuted Muslim ethnic minority to launch its new
   product in China. Regional authorities in
   China passed new laws on how to crack down on its Uighur ethnic
   minority, which includes heavy surveillance, policing, and
   censorship from tech companies.
3. 
   Tech billionaires Marc Benioff and Jack Dorsey are clashing
   over a key law that could seriously impact the San Francisco
   homelessness crisis. Proposition C would tax
   the largest businesses in the city to fund homelessness
   services, and it could bring in $250 million to $300 million in
   revenue annually.
4. 
   Two US senators encouraged the Indian Prime Minister to adopt a
   more lenient stance towards data localization.
   Reuters obtained a letter in which Senators John Cornyn
   and Mark Warner encouraged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to
   adopt a “light touch” so data can easily cross national
   borders.
5. 
   An ex-Googler who was part of a Noble Peace Prize-nominated
   project wants to reinvent the photography
   market. Patrick Ip, an ex-Googler who was
   involved in a Nobel Peace Prize nominated project, has a new
   startup called Catalog.
6. 
   Reddit’s former product chief said he made the world “a worse
   place” in his pursuit of growth at all
   costs. Former Reddit head of product Dan
   McComas told New York magazine that he believes a
   relentless pursuit of growth led to user safety and wellbeing
   being sacrificed.
7. 
   An intelligence group has found that Islamic extremists are
   using YouTube less. New analysis from the Site
   Intelligence Group indicates that organisations
   like Islamic State and al-Qaeda are using YouTube much
   less to spread propaganda.
8. 
   The latest spammy viral Facebook post warns users about account
   “cloning,” but it’s nothing to worry about.
   A chain-mail-esque post has been spreading in recent
   weeks, warning of the purported dangers of cloning and asking
   people who read it to copy and paste it into their own posts,
   so other users can be warned.
9. 
   A British startup will let people buy shares in pilot TV series
   and film. Bombay Sour describes its platform as a
   “crowdfunded Netflix,” and has brought the producer of “The
   King’s Speech” onto its management team.
10. 
    Elon Musk says it’s time to create a “mecha” or giant fighting
    anime robot. Elon Musk tweeted about his love
    for a 2016 anime film and followed it up by saying it was time
    to create a “mecha,” or giant fighting anime robot in the wee
    hours of Sunday morning.

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