Recode Daily: The ongoing cyber attack first targeted Ukrainian tax accountants, and experts suspect Russia

The continuing wave of cyber attacks that crippled businesses and utilities in Europe may have had a more sinister motive than ransom money — paralysis of vital computer systems. Because the attack initially targeted Ukrainian tax accountants, cyber security experts suspect Russia. [The New York Times]

President Trump attacked Amazon in a tweet, incorrectly claiming that it owns The Washington Post in a scheme to dodge “internet taxes.” And the Trump administration is threatening to expand its “laptop ban” to all airlines that do not improve security along new guidelines. [Tony Romm / Recode]

U.K. regulators delayed Fox’s proposed takeover of satellite broadcaster Sky. They’re concerned the deal would increase Rupert Murdoch and his family’s ability to “influence the overall news agenda and their ability to influence the political process.” [Variety]

Trump nominated Brendan Carr to fill the final Republican slot at the FCC. Carr is an ally of agency chairman Ajit Pai, and previously worked in the telecom industry. And former Uber exec Raffi Krikorian was hired as the chief technology officer of the Democratic National Committee. [Tony Romm / Recode]

Internal documents show how Facebook’s algorithms inconsistently police offensive speech, at times unfairly punishing and censoring black users or those in disputed territories like Palestine. [Julia Angwin / ProPublica]

Uber denied Alphabet’s claim that it attempted to steal proprietary files, stating that no one knew that self-driving-tech engineer Anthony Levandowski allegedly downloaded files from Alphabet before joining Uber. In response, Alphabet said Uber is engaging in a cover-up, and that it knew it was hiring an engineer who had stolen internal information from Alphabet (read to the end for Uber’s reply to that). [Johana Bhuihan / Recode]

Uber is losing its longtime lead in app downloads over rival ride-hailing service Lyft. Meanwhile, Lyft’s co-founder and president John Zimmer says he’s not going to gloat about his main competitor’s misfortunes during its scandal-filled year. [Rani Molla / Recode]

Top stories from Recode

Watch Walt Mossberg review the very first iPhone, 10 years ago.

And trace the impact of the iPhone on — well, everything — in these 10 charts.

How New York Magazine’s Rebecca Traister convinced Hillary Clinton to start talking.

Traister, who profiled Clinton twice for the magazine, talks about how those stories got made on the latest Recode Media.

This is cool

Meet the women behind Amazon’s Alexa

The company’s buzziest product is all thanks to Toni Reid and her female-driven team.[Carmel DeAmicis / Marie Claire]

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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