Meta revamping its content moderation systems with Community Notes is good, but Zuckerberg pretending it's about free speech is bad, and the timing is stupid
from the misinformation-about-disinformation dept — When the NY Times declared in September that “Mark Zuckerberg is Done With Politics …
Apple says it “has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles” and never sold it for advertising or other purposes, after paying $95M to settle a lawsuit
A Siri lawsuit settlement over privacy issues has dredged up old rumors about iPhone ad targeting …
Ivanti warns that threat actors exploited a critical-rated zero-day in its widely used Connect Secure VPN tool to compromise its corporate customers' networks
U.S. software giant Ivanti has warned that a zero-day vulnerability in its widely-used enterprise VPN appliance has been exploited …
Analysis: Elon Musk's UK obsession is driven by a few X accounts; an ex-Twitter exec says Musk may be the first tech leader to be radicalized by his own product
Tech billionaire's posts about grooming gangs scandal have elevated issue — Elon Musk's recent obsession with UK politics …
Google donates $1M to Trump's inauguration, saying the donation, a YouTube livestream, and a homepage link to the event are in line with previous inaugurations
Google donated $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration fund, becoming the latest major tech company to try …
Filing: the Northern District Court of California gives the US government final approval to sell 69,370 BTC, worth $6.5B, seized in its Silk Road investigation
The ruling does not ensure immediate liquidation of the seized Bitcoin, as federal asset forfeiture requires several administrative processes.
December court filing: Activision revealed that Call of Duty: Black Ops III cost $450M+ to make, Modern Warfare cost $640M+, and Black Ops Cold War cost $700M+
The biggest development budgets ever disclosed by a game company, buried in a court filing (but found by Game File), along with updated sales figures.
Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko says Meta's moderation changes are “deeply troubling”, and Mastodon will take action on Threads accounts violating Mastodon's policies
Today Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta is bending the knee … Wall Street Journal : Sources: Zuckerberg demanded a review of an algorithm change after his 2023 knee surgery Facebook post got anemic ...
xAI is testing a standalone iOS app for its chatbot Grok in several countries, like the US, Australia, and India; Grok was available only to X users until now
Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, is testing out a standalone iOS app for its chatbot, Grok, which was available only to X users until now.
Google rolls out Daily Listen, which uses AI to generate a five-minute personalized audio overview of stories and topics that a user follows, to its mobile app
Google is kicking off a new experiment in Search Labs today called “Daily Listen.” It's a bit like NotebookLM's Audio Overviews, while there are also podcast parallels.
A look at AI-enabled wearables like Bee AI and Omi that have embedded always-on microphones to record conversations around the user and give actionable insights
The latest crop of AI-enabled wearables like Bee AI and Omi listen to your conversations to help organize your life.
US dockworkers and shipping industry officials reach a tentative labor agreement, overcoming their differences over automated cargo-moving machinery at ports
Dockworkers and employers on the East and Gulf Coasts had until Jan. 15 to reach a new agreement that settled differences over automation.
Frank McCourt's Project Liberty says it made a formal bid to ByteDance to buy TikTok's US assets and keep the app alive without its current algorithm
Entrepreneur and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's Project Liberty and its consortium of partners in The People's Bid …
Analysts say that contract negotiations between US dockworkers and the shipping industry over automation could help provide a template for agreements nationwide
Taylor Nicole Rogers / Financial Times :
Disney says it has an estimated 157M global MAUs watching ad-supported content across its streaming services Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, including 112M US users
Lillian Rizzo / CNBC :
Sources: SoftBank and its majority-owned Arm are weighing acquiring Oracle-backed Ampere, which designs ARM-based server CPUs; Ampere is exploring its options
Talks could still fall apart, the people cautioned. It's also possible Ampere could end up being bought by another suitor.
Israeli cybersecurity startup Wiz names veteran exec Fazal Merchant as president and CFO to prepare for a US IPO; sources: Wiz has annual revenues of ~$500M
Israeli startup Wiz said on Thursday it had named veteran executive Fazal Merchant as president and chief financial officer …
Amazon launches Amazon Retail Ad Service to let companies show ads in search results, product pages, and other areas of their own websites, initially in the US
Amazon has turned into an online ad juggernaut in recent years, with brands paying big bucks for premium placement on the retailer's websites.
Innovaccer, which aggregates medical data and plans to introduce multiple AI co-pilots and agents for the healthcare industry, raised a $275M Series F
When it comes to data, perhaps no sector has as much of it and in as many distinct silos as the healthcare industry.
Adam Mosseri says Meta is adding political content recommendations to Instagram and Threads; Threads' political content control setting will have three options
Richard Lawler / The Verge :
Putin, a new English-language Polish film about Vladimir Putin in which AI is used to superimpose his real face onto an actor, sparks a debate about AI use
Alicja Ptak / Notes From Poland :
Do Kwon's criminal fraud trial in the US is scheduled for January 2026; prosecutors expect challenges accessing encrypted devices and translating communications
After the collapse of the crypto firm Terraform Labs, Inner City Press covered … Naga Avan-Nomayo / crypto.news : Do Kwon's fraud trial scheduled for 2026 Estefano Gomez / Crypto Briefing : Do Kwon's ...
A US judge rules that Google must face a class action claiming Google collected users' personal data from their phones after switching off Web & App Activity
Forget Chrome And Android Wendy Davis / MediaPost : Google Can't Shake Privacy Suit Over App Data Isaiah Poritz / Bloomberg Law : Google to Face Trial in Class Action Over Privacy On/Off Switch
Taiwan's National Security Bureau says daily average cyberattacks on government departments doubled YoY to 2.4M in 2024, and most were by Chinese cyber forces
Yimou Lee / Reuters :
Istanbul-based gaming startup Grand Games, the publisher behind Magic Sort and Car Match, raised a $30M Series A led by Balderton, after a $3M seed in 2024
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch :
Japan says Chinese hacking group MirrorFace is linked to 200+ cyberattacks from 2019 to 2024 targeting the country's national security and advanced tech data
Mari Yamaguchi / Associated Press :
Dublin-based Xocean, which provides ocean data to the energy and hydrography industries using uncrewed surface vessels, raised €115M, taking its total to ~$189M
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch :
How wartime GPS jamming has negatively impacted agriculture in Israel; in 2021, ~70% of Israeli farmers used GPS-guided equipment and precision-farming tech
Marissa Newman / Bloomberg : X: @oliviasolon . LinkedIn: Dror Meiri X: Olivia Solon / @oliviasolon : Super interesting story about how wartime GPS jamming has affected farmers whose tractors have his...
Microsoft is reverting to an older DALL-E 3 model version for Bing Image Creator, after the latest version, codenamed PR16, got many complaints on X and Reddit
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch :
Source: Flipkart hires Kabeer Biswas, co-founder of Dunzo, an Indian delivery startup that had raised $500M+, to lead its quick commerce unit, Flipkart Minutes
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
YL Ventures: Israeli cybersecurity firms raised $4B in 2024, up 100%+ YoY from $1.89B, across 89 rounds, including 50 seed or early stage that totaled $400M
The Israeli #cybersecurity ecosystem has achieved unprecedented milestones this year …
Blackstone invests $300M in DDN, which helps firms more efficiently store and analyze data for AI and HPC, at a $5B valuation; it is DDN's first outside funding
Wall Street Journal :
Sources: Eric Schmidt has spent the last few months working on Hooglee, an AI startup that describes its mission as “democratizing video creation with AI”
Sarah Emerson / Forbes : Bluesky: @criticismkumar , @tompaine1776 , and @lauridonahue . X: @mathewi Bluesky: @criticismkumar : Close enough, welcome back Gavin belson [embedded post] @tompaine1776 : ...
Infinite Reality, which is building an engine for creating immersive web content, says it has raised $3B from an unnamed private investor at a $12.25B valuation
Ben Lang / Road to VR :
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26
Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.