Techmeme: Pornhub blocks access in two more states, Montana and North Carolina, in protest of the states' age verification laws that went into effect on January 1 (Samantha Cole/404 Media)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

Techmeme

January 3, 2024, 10:05 AM

Top News

Thomas Germain / Gizmodo:

Facebook rolls out Link History, an opt-out setting that tracks all the links a user clicked in the mobile app, and plans to use the data for targeted ads — Facebook introduces a confusing new setting as the walls close in on Zuckerberg's data machine. — Facebook recently rolled out a new …

More: 9to5Mac, ChannelX, The Verge, BGR, PhoneArena, and Social Media Today

Bluesky: @tylerking.bsky.social. X: @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @thomasgermain, @brendaneich, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @awinston, and @lmholliday. Forums: Slashdot

Leo Schwartz / Fortune:

Fidelity and other spot bitcoin ETF issuers jockey for an early advantage to attract investors, ahead of reported SEC approvals to launch as soon as January 10 — As the Securities and Exchange Commission appears on the precipice of approving the first wave of Bitcoin ETFs …

Iyaz Akhtar / PCMag:

Samsung plans to hold its next Galaxy Unpacked event on January 17 at 10am PT in San Jose, and streamed on YouTube, to showcase new Galaxy devices and Galaxy AI — ‘Galaxy AI is coming,’ reads the tagline, so get ready for Samsung-developed artificial intelligence.

Krisztian Sandor / CoinDesk:

SEC filing: MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor begins selling $216M worth of shares; Saylor remains “optimistic about MicroStrategy's prospects” — Saylor said earlier that he would use the proceedings from the sales to address personal obligations and buy more bitcoin to his personal account.

More: MicroStrategy, Decrypt, CoinGape, Bloomberg, CryptoSlate, Cryptonews, Bitcoin Insider, Cointelegraph, Coinspeaker, crypto.news, Cryptopolitan, Coinpedia Fintech News, and The Block

X: @saylor and @e_liminat_e

Fred Wilson / AVC:

2024 predictions: AI will help make Web3 usable in mainstream applications and Web3 will help us trust AI, Web3 regulatory clarity, flat VC investing, and more — As we enter 2024, the capital markets have found their footing and are moving higher. The Fed has taken interest rates as far …

More: GeekWire. X: @antoniogm, @yuris, @rachaelrad, @zoescaman, and @c00v

Ava Benny-Morrison / Bloomberg:

US federal prosecutors charge Tingo Group founder Mmobuosi Odogwu Banye with securities fraud in New York for allegedly inflating Tingo's financial statements — - Criminal charges follow SEC lawsuit against Dozy Mmobuosi — Mmobuosi is still ‘at large,’ federal prosecutors in NY said

More: US Department of Justice, TechCabal, and Techpoint Africa

X: @hindenburgres, @sdnynews, and @uglygame

Jay Peters / The Verge:

X launches a Verified Organizations Basic tier for $200/month or $2,000/year, in addition to Full Access for $1,000/month and $50/month for each US affiliate — X (formerly Twitter) now has a “basic” tier for Verified Organizations, which gets you a gold checkmark badge (and a few other benefits) …

More: TechRadar, iPhone in Canada Blog, WinBuzzer, and X

X: @verified, @x, and @adrianpcarbone

Wall Street Journal:

A look at Shein's and Temu's Chinese supply chain: a lifeline to suppliers, but the margins are razor-thin, prices must stay low, and some drown in unsold stock — Shopping apps throw a lifeline to Chinese exporters, but it is a trade-off — SHENZHEN, China—E-commerce sellers Shein …

Parmy Olson / Bloomberg:

A profile of Midjourney founder David Holz, who co-founded Leap Motion in 2008 before a $30M sale in 2019, as the AI art tool prepares for the 2024 US elections — David Holz built a tool for human imagination. What happens if that turns into a propaganda engine in 2024?

X: @bobonmarkets

Hannah Devlin / The Guardian:

A UK study of 7,000 people aged 16 to 18: 48% agreed with the statement “I think I am addicted to social media”; 57% of girls agreed, compared to 37% of boys — Exclusive: Millennium Cohort's finding raises questions about why a large proportion has a difficult relationship with social media

X: @soundmigration. Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot

Stephen Nellis / Reuters:

Intel forms Articul8 AI, an AI company with backing from DigitalBridge and others; executives did not give the deal's value or say if Intel had a majority stake — Intel (INTC.O) on Wednesday said it was forming a new independent company around its artificial intelligence software efforts …

More: Intel, TechStartups, and Phoronix

Rasmus Nielsen / Financial Times:

Despite the focus on generative AI misinformation, policy discourse ignores that politicians pose the gravest misinformation threat, ahead of big 2024 elections — As we head into a big election year, beware the risks of misleading statements from those at very top

X: @fascinatorfun, @jpeterburger, @prateekwaghre, @katray, @rasmus_kleis, @risj_oxford, @acerbialberto, @nivincent, @mr_james_c, @jburnmurdoch, @1br0wn, @jason_kint, and @whotargetsme. LinkedIn: Lars Boering

Sponsor Posts

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI.

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Uncapped with Jack Altman:

Saam Motamedi from Greylock Partners

Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.

Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.

Invest Like the Best:

Henry Ellenbogen - Man Versus Machine

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

How Evan Spiegel Is Building the Future of Computing

Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.

Subscribe to Grit.

10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)

Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.

Subscribe to Acquired.

Lenny's Podcast:

Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI Codex Product Lead)

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:05 AM ET, January 3, 2024.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Dan Mangan / CNBC:

President Trump files a $10B defamation lawsuit against the BBC, alleging it intentionally doctored a Panorama documentary to misrepresent his January 6 speech

Jem Bartholomew / Columbia Journalism Review:

US Press Freedom Tracker: 32 journalists arrested or charged in 2025, vs. 50 in 2024, and 170 assaulted, nearly as many as the previous three years combined

Byron Tau / Associated Press:

Sources: Bay Area radio station KCBS-AM, which faced MAGA backlash over ICE coverage, scaled back political reporting after Brendan Carr's threats of a probe

Upcoming Tech Events

Samsung "The First Look" media event

CES REGISTER NOW

World Economic Forum

AI Impact Summit

Game Developers Conference

HYBRID: Nvidia GTC

View all events

Add your event here

Add to your calendar

More News

Shelly Banjo / Bloomberg:

SpaceX launches its first six Starlink satellites capable of offering mobile phone service, as part of its Direct to Cell service with T-Mobile US

More: Reuters, DatacenterDynamics, Forbes, T-Mobile, Techpoint Africa, Livemint, Nairametrics, The Verge, Cord Cutters News, The Messenger, and DigiTimes. X: @spacex

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Roku plans to launch its first high-end TVs in spring 2024, including the 55-inch, 65-inch, and 75-inch Pro Series for up to $1,500

Peggy Hollinger / Financial Times:

A look at the battle brewing between satellite operators over the use of orbit spectrum, as SpaceX's Starlink, Project Kuiper, and others push for looser rules

Financial Times:

Former employees at IRL, which is being sued by SoftBank for fraud, detail several problems that were apparent from the start, including inflated user metrics

Airbus begins talks to acquire Atos' cybersecurity and data unit, in a deal that could be valued up to €1.8B; Atos says another company had also made an offer

More: Atos, Tech Monitor, and Financial Times

Sun Yu / Financial Times:

Sources: the Cybersecurity Administration of China approved only ~25% of data export applications since data security laws came into effect in September 2022

X: @nickm4rro and @alecolarizi

Laurie Clarke / Politico:

Critics and tech firms worry that the UK's Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill, a surveillance law now whisking through parliament, undermines user privacy

More: 9to5Mac and The UK's technology …

X: @llaurieclarke, @llaurieclarke, @paulfscott, and @webdevlaw. Forums: Hacker News

James Shotter / Financial Times:

Israel, which has so far set aside $100M to shield its tech startups from the fallout of its war with Hamas, calls on private investors to help the sector

Earlier Picks

Paul Gillin / SiliconANGLE:

London-based Robin AI, which develops a free Microsoft Word add-in for creating and reviewing legal contracts using Anthropic's Claude, raised a $26M Series B

More: FinSMEs, PR Newswire, Tech Funding News, EU-Startups, Tech.eu, Silicon Canals, Neowin, Metaverse Post, Cryptopolitan, LAW.com, and UKTN

Sarah Krouse / Wall Street Journal:

Antenna: US customer cancellations at major streamers rose to 6.3% in November, up from 5.1% YoY; 24% of users canceled 3+ subscriptions over the past two years

More: The Hill, Digiday, On my Om, PYMNTS.com, The Streamable, Engadget, and The Messenger

Threads: @gergelyorosz_. X: @albertfong98, @c_garthwaite, @bysarahkrouse, @antennadata, @trengriffin, and @sportstvratings

See also Mediagazer

Samantha Cole / 404 Media:

Pornhub blocks access in two more states, Montana and North Carolina, in protest of the states' age verification laws that went into effect on January 1

More: Engadget, The Verge, TechSpot, Mashable, Courthouse News Service, Newsweek, WXII-TV, and Gizmodo

Threads: @alexhcranz, @carnage4life, @carnage4life, and @jacaranda7

Mastodon: @xor@tech.intersects.art, @MichaelTBacon@social.coop, and @MichaelTBacon@social.coop

X: @samleecole, @robleathern, and @samleecole

Forums: r/Montana, r/NorthCarolina, and r/NorthCarolina

Oliver Knight / CoinDesk:

Orbit Chain, which facilitates cross-blockchain transactions, loses ~$81M after an attack on its cross-chain bridge protocol, reminiscent of Lazarus Group hacks

Sean Endicott / Windows Central:

Valve ended Steam support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 on January 1, saying the app used a now-defunct embedded Chrome version; <1% of Steam users have those OSes

More: MSPoweruser, TechRadar, Thurrott, Sam Lover, Wccftech, KitGuru, TweakTown, Android Headlines, BleepingComputer, ExtremeTech, The Register, guru3d.com, HotHardware, Tom's Hardware, Digital Trends, PCMag, PCWorld, TechPowerUp, OC3D, TechSpot, BetaNews, SamMobile, VideoCardz.com, iThinkDifferent, Gizmochina, Ghacks, and Notebookcheck. Mastodon: @bazkie@mstdn.social

Harry Wilson / Bloomberg:

HSBC plans to launch international payments app Zing in the UK in the coming days before a wider rollout, seeking to compete with Revolut and Wise

More: FinTech Global, UKTN, Tech Monitor, SiliconANGLE, American Banker, PYMNTS.com, City A.M., Financial Times, Financial Times, AltFi, Bloomberg Law, and Finextra

BBC:

After UK regulators approved Microsoft's Activision deal in October 2023, Brad Smith rows back his criticism of the UK, saying the CMA had been “tough and fair”

More: The Verge, BBC, ITPro, WinBuzzer, MSPoweruser, TechRadar, Gameranx, Android Headlines, MobileSyrup, Dot Esports, Wccftech, Video Games Chronicle, Pure Xbox, Windows Central, and UKTN. X: @florian4gamers

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:

Telegram rolls out version 10.5 of its app, offering “totally redesigned” voice and video calls with new animations and backgrounds

More: TechCrunch, Business Today, MobileSyrup, iThinkDifferent, Telegram, New.blicio.us, HotHardware, Android Headlines, Neowin, MSPoweruser, Android Police, SamMobile, PhoneArena, Sammy Fans, and SamNews 24