Morgan Meaker / Wired:
Interview with Australia’s communications minister Paul Fletcher on the efficacy of the country’s year-old news bargaining code with Google and Meta  —  A year after Australia forced tech giants to pay news outl…

Kate Park / TechCrunch:
Singapore-based Volopay, which offers corporate cards and expense management software to startups and enterprises, raises a $29M Series A in equity and debt  —  Volopay, a Singapore-based fintech startup, raise…

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Social networks and the internet have been a valuable force multiplier for Ukraine and the allies of democracy during the early days of Russia’s invasion  —  How much will it matter?  Notes on the platf…

Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:
Waymo secures a permit to charge for ride-hailing trips in its autonomous vehicles in San Francisco with safety drivers present  —  Waymo, the self-driving unit of Alphabet, has scored a permit with the Ca…

Chris Prentice / Reuters:
SEC’s Gurbir Grewal says agency will not offer amnesty to crypto firms that self-report violations of securities laws, although they may face smaller penalties  —  The company and law firm names shown above a…

Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Toshiba CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa will step down, will be succeeded by Corporate Senior Vice President Taro Shimada  —  Outgoing leader has put together a corporate breakup plan

Bloomberg:
Sources: the Biden administration asks major crypto exchanges globally to help thwart Russian individuals and organizations from using crypto to avoid sanctions  —  The Biden administration is asking crypto exchanges to hel…

Washington Post:
TikTok confirms it has shut down access to Russian sites RT and Sputnik in Europe following requests from individual governments and the European Union  —  Facebook and TikTok said Monday that the companies would shut…

Mathew Di Salvo / Decrypt:
FTX announces Future Fund, planning to invest between $100M and $1B in 2022 in projects that “improve humanity’s long-term prospects”, like safer AI development  —  The new fund will invest in no…

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Meta says it will shut down Instagram’s standalone IGTV app in mid-March and will discontinue IGTV’s in-stream video ads as the company focuses on Reels  —  Instagram is ending support for its standalone app …