Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Monday.
1. Tesla had a turbulent weekend after its CEO Elon Musk smoked weed while recording a podcast late on Thursday. The firm’s stock dived after his podcast appearance and after Tesla’s chief accounting officer, Dave Morton, announced that he was leaving one month into the job.
2. Alibaba announced that its founder Jack Ma will be stepping down from the CEO role, and taking an executive chairman position. New CEO Daniel Zhang will take over in September 2019, according to CNBC.
3. Google removed a YouTube advert by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny after authorities complained. The series of YouTube videos featured Navalny inviting Russians to join demonstrations on Sunday, ahead of a vote for regional governors.
4. Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman has said it has been hard to hire engineers for the firm in recent years because its reputation was “in the dumps.” To solve the problem, Huffman said he began recruiting from more diverse places and the firm focused on ridding the site of abuse and harassment.
6. Verizon’s ad and media chief Tim Armstrong is in talks to leave the firm, a year after the telco acquired Oath. Armstrong helped drive the acquisition, which sources say has been dysfunctional.
7. Citigroup has created at direct way to invest in cryptocurrencies without owning them. The structure, called a Digital Asset Receipt, would place cryptocurrencies within existing regulatory regimes and give big Wall Street investors like asset managers and hedge funds a less risky way of investing in the fledgling asset class.
8. WhatsApp is hugely popular in India, but there’s evidence to suggest that people’s reliance on the service for news is resulting in major problems. There have been several cases of fake rumours starting on WhatsApp accusing people of being child kidnappers, leading to lynch mobs.
9. Tesla CEO Elon Musk railed against fossil fuel during his podcast appearance on Thursday. He called human use of fossil fuels “the dumbest experiment in human history.”
10. Certain Mac apps have been found to steal and upload users’ browser history, according to 9to5Mac. Apps such as Dr. Unarchiver and Dr. Cleaner scanned for users’ Safari, Chrome, and Firefox histories, as well as their Google searches.
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