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👋 Good morning! It’s Thanksgiving, there is no news, everyone can go back to sleep until lunch/the football starts. What is happening though, we have for you!
This is fascinating: France asks search engines and app stores to remove Wish, reports TechCrunch, a shadowbanning as such.
- Just as we’re rolling the sleeves up to do a bit of shopping, Wish has been yanked in France, with several French ministers issuing a statement (er, in French).
- Why? Read on, it’s gold:
- “The French administration ordered 140 different goods on Wish — most of them were imported products.
- “95% of toys that they acquired on the platform didn’t comply with European regulation — 45% of them were deemed dangerous. When it comes to electronics goods, 95% of them also shouldn’t be available in Europe, and 90% of them were dangerous in one way or another.”
- Not only are the products cheap and often bad, they’re also cheap and dangerous.
- Big Clive, a Scotsman on YouTube, pulls apart various bits and pieces, including dangerous Chinese junk for fun and interest. It’s a mix of stuff from eBay, Wish, and other sites, with descriptions like: “another glorious piece of mass produced landfill for exploration.”
Anyway, back to the story. In response to this dangerous junk, French authorities reported the products. Wish duly removed them, and all was well.
Sort of?:
- “When Wish is notified that it is selling a dangerous good, those products are removed from the marketplace within 24 hours as expected.
- And yet, “in most cases, those products remain available under a different name, and sometimes even from the same seller. The company doesn’t keep any log related to transactions of non-compliant and dangerous products,” France’s Ministry of the Economy says in its statement.”
Wish says: you can’t shadowban us, we’ll sue!
- So first, TechCrunch was sent a statement from Wish, saying, among other things, “While, as a marketplace platform, we are under no legal obligation to carry out checks on the 150 million products offered for sale on the platform, we invest in a wide range of programs designed to attract and reward sellers that offer quality items, and limit the exposure of those offering lower quality items.”
- Wish also said it’d take legal action against the French government.
- It’s a big deal: Wish is a listed company in the US, listed as ContextLogic, and founder Piotr Szulczewski left two weeks ago. He said: “My vision in creating Wish was to bring affordable and accessible goods to a consumer population that has been neglected by existing e-commerce offerings.”
🔥 Of course, tech deals for Black Friday are being compiled and examined — tomorrow, Nick Fernandez takes the wheel of the newsletter to dive into some good deals. (Android Authority).
📸 Motorola could one up its rivals with first 200MP camera phone (Android Authority).
🍎 Here is the worst Apple notification: Apple will now let you know when sophisticated, state-sponsored hackers have targeted you. Yay! (Gizmodo). Look, it already happened to a state-opposed Polish prosecutor (Twitter).
📸 Instagram head Adam Mosseri agrees to testify before the Senate to talk the app and kids (Engadget).
📏 Cast your eyes upon this ultra-tall 7:32 monitor, the EK-MD088, ready for your never-ending newsfeed and scrolling. It’s 10 inches tall, and just 3 inches wide. Given it’s Japan-only, you might need to cast your eyes to other options for now… (Gizmodo).
🎶 Spotify tests a TikTok-like vertical video feed in its app (TechCrunch).
🚲 What Peloton’s growing pains mean for at-home fitness (The Verge).
📚 “NFT” picked as word of the year—deal with it (Ars Technica).
📶 AT&T and Verizon agree to 5G power limits to resolve FAA safety concerns. There’s no “credible evidence” of potential interference, but keeping 5G on track is important enough to take voluntary measures (CNET).
🔋 The world needs to crack battery recycling, fast (Wired).
🤔 “People with “street smarts” what is your most street tip?” (“Act like you’re in a hurry and less people will want to bother you.”) (r/askreddit)
Continuing our throwback Thanksgiving tradition, advice for simply eating as much as you can is the speciality. (The above image will not be you. You will not be distracted.)
Once a year, re-reading the perfect guide was written back in 2012: “Tips from professional eaters on maximizing your Thanksgiving meal”, where professional eaters who truly eat bizarre amounts of food give tips to regular people.
- Notorious B.O.B., who still is busily attempting and setting world records for the most amount of food ever consumed, ever, has tips.
- His advice for the Thanksgiving table is about setting yourself up for success. Bob talked to us last year about sitting position, telling this newsletter: “I would like to stress sitting in the middle of the table though. Controlling the flow of food is critical to winning Thanksgiving.”
- And remember: “Food knowledge is key here, this is what separates the big eaters from the really big eaters. Are the mashed potatoes very light and fluffy? If so this will be your year. Most people will tend to wait on them as they think the starches will fill them up.
- “In truth, the light, mashed potatoes will actually go down easy and they can quickly break down and leave your stomach. This will allow for even more food.
- “So I like to get in a quick 2 – 3 pounds of mashed potatoes before anyone else senses what is going on.”
- Ah, the sacred text: a ‘quick’ 2-3 pounds.
- One other tip: “Whenever someone asks for some items from the other side of the table, I make sure I am the one that passes the food. I take some of the items as I pass the food. This goes on the entire meal.”
More of Bob’s work can be found at NotoriousBOB on YouTube and if you like eating quantity over quality, Bob’s your guy.
Cheers – catch you next week!
Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.