The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Friday, July 17

Google reports strong earnings, but slowing growth

Google’s second quarter income of $3.93 billion reported Thursday was up 17 percent year-on-year, but its sales of $17.73 billion represented an 11 percent growth rate, the smallest revenue increase reported by the company since 2012. Google is struggling to grow its ad revenue on mobile devices: ads in mobile search results are smaller, and can yield fewer interactions from users, driving down their price.

Apple, Samsung may join in launch of embedded SIM cards

Apple and Samsung are deep in negotiations to join with mobile telecom operators in launching embedded SIM cards that can be used with multiple operators, the Financial Times reports. A standardized, embedded SIM in smartphones and other devices would give consumers the ability to change service providers easily rather than being locked to a provider the way current SIM cards operate. The FT said that any devices using the new standard are at least a year off.

Reddit’s new content rules stop short of kicking out racists, haters

Reddit’s new CEO Steve Huffman outlined new rules for posting content on the site on Thursday, but they don’t do enough to stamp out offensive material, critics tell re/code. By drawing a fine line between posts that are incitement to action and those that are opinion, Huffman’s new rules won’t ban overtly racist subreddits like r/CoonTown, according to Gawker.

Facebook’s Internet.org criticized by Indian regulator

Facebook’s Internet.org could face regulation in India after a government-appointed committee on net neutrality said that content and application providers cannot be allowed to act as gatekeepers to the Internet. The service aims to provide some free Internet access to the poor, but has been slammed for creating a “walled garden” that favored a few websites.

Xiaomi’s Barra says it’s building a ‘war chest’ before launching in U.S.

As it gets ready to launch in the U.S. market, Chinese smartphone upstart Xiaomi is building a “war chest” of patents, its international head Hugo Barra said on Thursday according to re/code. Barra didn’t say when it would enter the market, but made it clear it’s getting ready by having something to bargain with in the notoriously litigious mobile space.

Bogus news app used to deliver Hacking Team spy tool

Data stolen from Hacking Team has shed more light on how the company helped clients install its spyware onto targets’ computers. The latest find is a fake Android news app called BeNews, which contains a backdoor that appears to have been used to load the Android version of Hacking Team’s data-collecting tool. The company sold it to law enforcement and security agencies, including in countries with questionable human rights records, critics say.

Man who ran marketplace for stolen identity data sentenced to 13 years in U.S.

A Vietnamese man who sold stolen identity information that was likely used in the rampant filing of fraudulent U.S. tax returns has been sentenced to 13 years in jail, reports Krebs on Security. Hieu Minh Ngo sold personal information on more than 200 million Americans which he admitted to getting by illegally gaining access to databases belonging to major data brokers.

Uber thumbs its nose at New York mayor with in-app taunt

Uber has added a button to its app in New York City that is labeled “De Blasio” after the city’s mayor and delivers messages such as “no cars-see why,” according to a Bloomberg report. The move is in protest of a bill up for vote next week that seeks to cap Uber’s growth while traffic patterns are studied. The number of vehicles for hire on the city’s streets has grown by more than 60 percent since 2011, the New York Times reports.

Watch now

See what it takes to lay Google’s super-fast submarine Internet cable: the FASTER cable linking the U.S. and Japan will have a peak capacity of 60 terabits per second when it starts operating next year.

One last thing

Meet Moxie Marlinspike, the programmer behind encryption software used by Whatsapp and Twitter, via this Wall Street Journal profile.