Facebook adds a personal off switch for political ads, T-Mobile lays off hundreds of Sprint employees and a content management platform raises $80 million.
Here’s your Daily Crunch for June 17, 2020.
1. Facebook adds option for US users to turn off political ads, launches voting info hub
Facebook made the controversial decision not to fact-check or otherwise moderate political ads last year, but the new feature will give users more control over what they see — at least for those who decide to flip the new setting to “off.”
Facebook isn’t the only company wrestling with the political implications of advertising. Google also made news by removing right-wing website ZeroHedge from its ad platform for publishing content that “promotes hatred, intolerance, violence or discrimination based on race,” and it issued a warning against The Federalist.
2. After merger, T-Mobile lays off hundreds of Sprint employees
In a conference call on Monday, T-Mobile vice president James Kirby told hundreds of Sprint employees that their services were no longer needed. He declined to answer his employees’ questions, citing the “personal” nature of employee feedback, and ended the call.
3. Contentful raises $80M Series E round for its headless CMS
Currently, 28% of the Fortune 500 use Contentful to manage their content across platforms. The company says it has a total of 2,200 paying customers right now, including Spotify, ITV, the British Museum, Telus and Urban Outfitters.
4. Y Combinator’s Startup School relaunches to be ready when you are
Like most accelerators, Y Combinator is an exclusive organization by design. But to help more founders get access to startup advice, YC launched Startup School in 2017 as a free 10-week online course. Now it’s relaunching as a continuous, year-round program.
5. As layoffs slow and churn improves, is startup health improving?
According to several metrics tracked by TechCrunch throughout the COVID-19 era, the fortunes of some startups appear to have bounced off lows set in March and April. Layoffs, software revenue and customer losses all suggest that many firms have stopped making aggressive staffing cuts and are shedding fewer customers than earlier in the pandemic. (Extra Crunch membership required.)
6. San Francisco DA sues DoorDash for classifying delivery workers as independent contractors
DoorDash is facing a lawsuit from San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin for “illegally misclassifying employees as independent contractors,” Boudin tweeted today. In the complaint, Boudin argues DoorDash misclassified its workers and in doing so, engages in unfair labor practices.
7. Unbounce raises $38.4M to build better landing pages with automation
Aside from a small seed round in 2011, CEO Rick Perreault said Unbounce has not taken on any outside funding. Apparently it raised a big round now in order to invest in technology that can bring more automation to the process.
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Anthony Ha
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