The 59 Best Technology Journalism Stories Published in 2020

December 14th 2020 new story

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In a year dominated by pandemic, there was also a lot of notable technology news and analysis.

Take a stroll back through a year that felt like a century with my compendium of the best tech reporting, writing, and commentary of 2020:

January

Sonos said what every smaller tech company was thinking: working with big tech sucks
Dieter Bohn, The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/8/21056198/sonos-google-statement-lawsuit-ces-reaction-big-tech

We’re fighting fake news AI bots by using more AI. That’s a mistake.
Samuel Woolley, MIT Technology Review
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/01/08/130983/were-fighting-fake-news-ai-bots-by-using-more-ai-thats-a-mistake/

YouTube moderators are being forced to sign a statement acknowledging the job can give them PTSD
Casey Newton, The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/24/21075830/youtube-moderators-ptsd-accenture-statement-lawsuits-mental-health

February

Why Facebook’s data-sharing project ballooned into a 2-year debacle
Issie Lapowsky, Protocol
https://www.protocol.com/facebook-data-sharing-researchers

Here’s the File Clearview AI Has Been Keeping on Me, and Probably on You Too
Anna Merlan, Motherboard/VICE
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dmkyq/heres-the-file-clearview-ai-has-been-keeping-on-me-and-probably-on-you-too

Big Tech’s Takeovers Finally Get Scrutiny
Kara Swisher, The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/opinion/ftc-investigation-google-facebook.html

Why Your State Has Terrible Internet Access
Karl Bode, Motherboard/VICE
https://www.vice.com/en/article/v74pda/why-your-state-has-terrible-internet-access

March

Pixar’s computer graphics pioneers have won the $1 million Turing Award
Charlotte Jee, MIT Technology Review
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/03/18/905239/pixars-computer-graphics-pioneers-have-won-the-1-million-turing-award/

Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?
Gilad Edelman, Wired
https://www.wired.com/story/why-dont-we-just-ban-targeted-advertising/

April

How a nonprofit you’ve never heard of made the web safer for everyone
Glenn Fleishman, Fast Company
https://www.fastcompany.com/90467660/how-a-nonprofit-youve-never-heard-of-made-the-web-safer-for-everyone

You Can Now Check If Your ISP Uses Basic Security Measures
Lily Hay Newman, Wired
https://www.wired.com/story/cloudflare-bgp-routing-safe-yet/

Another pandemic woe: Zoom fatigue
Scott Rosenberg, Axios
https://www.axios.com/zoom-fatigue-coronavirus-teleconferencing-f5c0ce17-483f-4c71-9a7d-f023d7e7a45b.html

May

Poynter Institute launches WhatsApp chatbot to debunk coronavirus-related hoaxes
Manish Singh, TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/04/poynter-institutes-international-fact-checking-network-launches-chatbot-on-whatsapp-to-debunk-thousands-of-coronavirus-related-hoaxes/

Facebook will pay $52 million in settlement with moderators who developed PTSD on the job
Casey Newton, The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/12/21255870/facebook-content-moderator-settlement-scola-ptsd-mental-health

Chrome will start blocking resource-heavy ads in August
Emil Protalinski, VentureBeat
https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/14/chrome-will-start-blocking-resource-heavy-ads-in-august/

Microsoft: We were wrong about open source, but luckily you can change
Liam Tung, ZDNet
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-we-were-wrong-about-open-source-but-luckily-you-can-change/

June

DOD's third attempt to implement IPv6 isn't going well
Catalin Cimpanu, ZDNet
https://www.zdnet.com/article/dods-third-attempt-to-implement-ipv6-isnt-going-well/#ftag=RSSbaffb68

Amazon sues former AWS marketing VP Brian Hall after he takes Google Cloud job
Todd Bishop, GeekWire
https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazon-sues-former-aws-marketing-vp-brian-hall-accepts-google-cloud-job/

IBM will no longer offer, develop, or research facial recognition technology
Jay Peters, The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21284683/ibm-no-longer-general-purpose-facial-recognition-analysis-software

AWS said it mitigated a 2.3 Tbps DDoS attack, the largest ever
Catalin Cimpanu, ZDNet
https://www.zdnet.com/article/aws-said-it-mitigated-a-2-3-tbps-ddos-attack-the-largest-ever/

The FBI said it used Instagram, Etsy, and LinkedIn to track down a protester in Philadelphia accused of setting a police car on fire
Lisa Eadicicco, Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-uses-instagram-etsy-linkedin-to-find-george-floyd-protester-2020-6

Why tech didn’t save us from covid-19
David Rotman, MIT Technology Review
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/17/1003312/why-tech-didnt-save-us-from-covid-19/

July

China’s Software Stalked Uighurs Earlier and More Widely, Researchers Learn
Paul Mozur and Nicole Perlroth, The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/technology/china-uighurs-hackers-malware-hackers-smartphones.html

Inside Facebook’s exclusive clubs for its top advertisers
Hannah Murphy, Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/content/89a89532-2be4-47a0-b79a-841421532c0e

Facebook gets in a Twitter tangle
Casey Newton, The Interface
https://www.getrevue.co/profile/caseynewton/issues/facebook-gets-in-a-twitter-tangle-265375

The Work-From-Home Shift Shocked Companies—Now They’re Learning Its Lessons
Christopher Mims, The Wall Street Journal
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-work-from-home-shift-shocked-companiesnow-theyre-learning-its-lessons-11595649628

Microsoft Said to Be in Talks to Buy TikTok, as Trump Weighs Curtailing App
Mike Isaac, Ana Swanson, and Alan Rappeport, The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/technology/tiktok-microsoft.html

Nvidia in talks to buy Arm from SoftBank for more than $32bn
Arash Massoudi, Tim Bradshaw, and James Fontanella-Khan, Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/content/4ed67726-1a56-4ce2-9d62-a5ec2a8f35b5

August

The Pandemic Workday Is 48 Minutes Longer and Has More Meetings
Jeff Green, Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-03/the-pandemic-workday-is-48-minutes-longer-and-has-more-meetings

TikTok Ban? Creators and Fans Are Big Mad
Taylor Lorenz, The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/02/style/tiktok-ban-threat-trump.html

Insecure satellite Internet is threatening ship and plane safety
Dan Goodin, Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/insecure-satellite-internet-is-threatening-ship-and-plane-safety/

Why quantum computing matters
Bryan Walsh, Axios
https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-future-44b480f7-05cf-4c98-8ae4-871f04f1cec2.html

September

Wirecard and me: Dan McCrum on exposing a criminal enterprise
Dan McCrum, Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/content/745e34a1-0ca7-432c-b062-950c20e41f03

Unlimited Information Is Transforming Society
Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Scientific American
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/unlimited-information-is-transforming-society/

Apple v. Epic — a briefing on the antitrust arguments and interesting facts
Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat
https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/11/the-deanbeat-apple-v-epic-a-briefing-on-the-antitrust-arguments-and-interesting-facts/

"I Have Blood On My Hands": A Whistleblower Says Facebook Ignored Global Political Manipulation
Craig Silverman, Ryan Mac, and Pranav Dixit, BuzzFeed News
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/facebook-ignore-political-manipulation-whistleblower-memo

Ransomware attack at German hospital leads to death of patient
Lawrence Abrams, BleepingComputer
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-attack-at-german-hospital-leads-to-death-of-patient/#.X2ORHzTKn58.twitter

Can Big Tech save the planet? Maybe not, but it won't be for lack of trying
Jerry Bowles, Diginomica
https://diginomica.com/can-big-tech-save-planet-maybe-not-it-wont-be-lack-trying

Amazon details its low-bandwidth Sidewalk neighborhood network, coming to Echo and Tile devices soon
Frederic Lardinois, TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/21/amazon-details-its-low-bandwidth-sidewalk-neighborhood-network-coming-to-echo-and-tile-devices-soon/

How Work Became an Inescapable Hellhole
Anne Helen Petersen, Wired
https://www.wired.com/story/how-work-became-an-inescapable-hellhole/

October

The Eighth Wonder of the World
Josh Dzieza, The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/21507966/foxconn-empty-factories-wisconsin-jobs-loophole-trump

Artificial intelligence and the antitrust case against Google
Khari Johnson, VentureBeat
https://venturebeat.com/2020/10/21/artificial-intelligence-and-the-antitrust-case-against-google/

Governments are using the pandemic as an excuse to restrict internet freedom
Charlotte Jee, MIT Technology Review
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/14/1010361/governments-are-using-the-pandemic-as-an-excuse-to-restrict-internet-freedom/

25 moments in tech that defined the past 25 years
Fast Company Staff, Fast Company
https://www.fastcompany.com/90565059/25-moments-in-tech-that-defined-the-past-25-years

The Justice Dept.’s Lawsuit Against Google: Too Little, Too Late
Kara Swisher, The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/opinion/google-justice-lawsuit.html

Quibi Is Shutting Down Barely Six Months After Going Live
Benjamin Mullin, Joe Flint, and Maureen Farrell, The Wall Street Journal
https://www.wsj.com/articles/quibi-weighs-shutting-down-as-problems-mount-11603301946

Taking Back Our Privacy
Anna Wiener, The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/26/taking-back-our-privacy

November

Someone has transferred ~$1 billion from a bitcoin wallet quiet since 2015
Dan Goodin, Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/11/someone-has-withdrawn-1-billion-from-a-bitcoin-wallet-dormant-since-2015/

Marissa Mayer wants to clean up your contacts, and that’s just for starters
Harry McCracken, Fast Company
https://www.fastcompany.com/90576544/marissa-mayer-enrique-munoz-torres-sunshine-lumi-labs

CVS becomes first national retailer to offer support for PayPal and Venmo QR codes at checkout
Sarah Perez, TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/16/cvs-becomes-first-national-retailer-to-offer-support-for-paypal-and-venmo-qr-codes-at-checkout/

Trump Fires Security Chief Christopher Krebs
Brian Krebs, Krebs on Security
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/11/trump-fires-security-chief-christopher-krebs/

Amazon Works to Avoid Google’s Fate With EU Antitrust Regulators
Aoife White, Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-01/amazon-amzn-works-to-avoid-eu-antitrust-fines-placed-on-google-googl

Apple to pay $113M settlement over its iPhone 'batterygate' slowdowns
Ian Sherr, CNET
https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-to-pay-113-million-settlement-over-its-iphone-batterygate-slowdowns/

London A.I. Lab Claims Breakthrough That Could Accelerate Drug Discovery
Cade Metz, The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/technology/deepmind-ai-protein-folding.html

December

Google AI ethics co-lead Timnit Gebru says she was fired over an email
Khari Johnson, VentureBeat
https://venturebeat.com/2020/12/03/google-ai-ethics-co-lead-timnit-gebru-says-she-was-fired-over-an-email/

Here’s the NLRB Complaint Alleging Google Illegally Fired and Surveilled Workers
Lauren Kaori Gurley, Motherboard/VICE
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgzg8n/heres-the-nlrb-complaint-alleging-google-illegally-fired-and-surveilled-workers

In 2020, Disinformation Broke the US
Jane Lytvynenko, BuzzFeed News
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/disinformation-broke-us

Armed police raid home of Florida scientist fired over Covid-19 data
Ed Pilkington, The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/07/florida-police-raid-data-scientist-coronavirus

Huawei tested AI software that could recognize Uighur minorities and alert police, report says
Drew Harwell and Eva Dou, The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/08/huawei-tested-ai-software-that-could-recognize-uighur-minorities-alert-police-report-says/

Image courtesy of Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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