Publishers of what Facebook considers to be subpar content have found a way to bypass the platform’s quality standards, The Daily Beast reports. “Viral meme pages have developed a new trick to reach millions of users and generate big money from publishers and brand pages,” it writes. “By doctoring videos to skirt Facebook’s sophisticated spam detection software, some of the platform’s biggest meme pages have grown their audience and generated millions of Facebook video views.&rdquo

Apple’s profit margins from its new HomePod are much less than that of rivals' smart speakers, Bloomberg reports. “Given the HomePod’s $349 price, that $216 cost suggests Apple is generating margins of about 38 percent,” it writes, citing analysis by TechInsights. “That compares with margins of 66 percent and 56 percent for the Google Home and Amazon Echo.”

Investor Peter Thiel may leave Facebook’s board of directors, The Wall Street Journal reports. Beyond that, Thiel is apparently “relocating his home and personal investment firms to Los Angeles from San Francisco and scaling back his involvement in the tech industry,” The Journal writes.

Speaking from personal experience, Bill Gates is warning today’s tech giants not to fight government oversight. “The companies need to be careful that they’re not ... advocating things that would prevent government from being able to, under appropriate review, perform the type of functions that we’ve come to count on,” Microsoft’s co-founder tells Axios.

As part of an aggressive AI strategy, eBay just hired Jan Pedersen -- a data scientist who most recently worked as vice president of data science at Twitter. With Pedersen’s help, “eBay will roll out new augmented reality features this year to make buying and selling goods on the website more engaging, and is exploring a credit program for sellers to encourage them to keep their money on the platform,” Bloomberg reports.

Tinder plans to give female users more power over their interactions on the dating app, reports MarketWatch. “Tinder users of either gender can make the first move now, but a future update …will let women choose to receive messages only from men they choose,” MarketWatch writes. As MW notes, the forthcoming change was likely inspired by Tinder rival Bumble.

Wired reports that Facebook has financial ties at least seven bodies of the 13-person board tasked with overseeing its Messenger Kids service. For example, “In 2017, Facebook donated money to Family Online Safety Institute, which has two representatives on the board, as well as Connect Safely, the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and Telefono Azzurro, which each have one representative on the board,” Wired writes.  

Susan Wojcicki doesn’t appear to be taking Facebook’s video strategy serious. At a conference this week, YouTube’s CEO said Facebook should “get back to baby pictures,” CNBC reports. Assuming a slightly more diplomatic position, Wojcicki said “You always have to take your competitors seriously, but you don’t win by looking backwards and looking around.”

Essential -- Android co-founder Andy Rubin’s smartphone venture -- is not breaking any sales records. “Essential sold fewer than 90,000 units in its first six months on the market,” The Verge reports, citing fresh figure from IDC. As such, the device is “still a long way from becoming a successful venture,” in the words of IDC research director Francisco Jeronimo.

Facebook is adding Lists to users’ status update boxes. “The feature, like it sounds, lets users make lists of anything they choose,” TechCrunch reports. “The lists are also designed with the idea that friends could copy each other’s lists to share their own opinions about the subject at hand.”