- Governing
- The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Twitter v. Taamneh, and appears unlikely to hand down a sweeping ruling about liability for terrorist content on social media.
- The US Copyright Office said AI-generated images that were created using Midjourney should not have been granted copyright protection.
- The Department of Justice is inching toward a lawsuit challenging Google’s dominant position in the market for digital maps and location information.
- The FTC won’t challenge Amazon’s $3.49 billion acquisition of One Medical parent company 1Life Healthcare, and the deal will close later this week.
- Federal officials are charging FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried with bank fraud and operating an unlicensed money transmitter in addition to the eight counts he already faced.
- The US Supreme Court declined to hear a bid from Wikipedia to resurrect its lawsuit against the National Security Agency challenging mass online surveillance.
- For all his talk about transparency, Elon Musk hasn’t published a Twitter transparency report detailing government content removal demands.
- The European Commission banned TikTok on government employee devices.
- A shadowy cybersecurity company called S2T Unlocking Cyberspace is marketing its services, which include accessing someone’s phone and turning on their camera without their knowledge, for use against journalists and activists.
- Chinese regulators told major Chinese tech companies they can’t offer ChatGPT services to the public.
- Industry
- Microsoft rolled out new safety measures for Bing that ends chats if prompted to talk about “feelings” or “Sydney.”
- Microsoft just expanded access to the new Bing on Android, iOS, Edge mobile, and Skype.
- Microsoft has been secretly testing its Bing chatbot “Sydney” for years.
- Microsoft Edge is running an aggressive ad on the Chrome download page to dissuade people from switching.
- TikTok stars are accusing Carter Agency, a talent agency for TikTok creators, of withholding money and concealing the rates of brand deals.
- Elon Musk laid off dozens of Twitter employees across sales and engineering last week, after telling people repeatedly layoffs were done.
- Russian propagandists are using Twitter’s new paid verification system to appear more prominently on the platform.
- Meta is planning more layoffs and will push some leaders into lower-level roles to flatten the layers of management.
- WhatsApp appears to be working on a “private newsletter tool.”
- Meta, the personalized news reader built by Instagram’s co-founders, is officially open to the public.
- Google is asking some employees to share desks and alternate days in the office, citing “real estate efficiency.”
- YouTube Music released a new feature to allow users to create custom radio stations with up to 30 artists.
- YouTube is rolling out access to multi-language audio tracks to more creators, allowing them to add dubbing to videos.
- Spotify announced a new AI feature called “DJ” that will deliver a curated selection of music alongside AI-powered commentary using a “stunningly realistic voice.”
- Social media is a major cause of depression and anxiety in teen girls, according to an analysis of major studies.
- Ben Rubin, the founder of Meerkat and Houseparty, launched a new project called Towns — a protocol and decentralized chat app designed to facilitate self-owned, self-governed online communities.
Published February 24, 2023
Visit Platformer to read Casey Newton’s original post New cracks emerge in Elon Musk’s Twitter