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Techmeme
January 15, 2025, 8:30 AM
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Top News

Nicola M White / Bloomberg:
The US SEC sues Elon Musk, claiming he failed to timely disclose a 5%+ purchase of Twitter's stock ahead of his takeover of the social media platform in 2022  —  - Agency alleges billionaire ignored disclosure deadline in 2022  — Musk's lawyer says he did ‘nothing wrong’ and SEC has no case
The Information:
Sources: TikTok plans to switch off its app in the US on January 19 unless SCOTUS blocks the ban; the law only requires app stores to stop TikTok app downloads  —  TikTok plans to shut off its app for U.S. users on Sunday, the day a federal law will ban the app, unless the Supreme Court intervenes …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Sources and docs: Meta has dismantled its system for identifying and limiting viral hoaxes, and told content-ranking teams to stop penalizing misinformation  —  The company built effective systems to reduce the reach of fake news.  Last week, it shut them down  —  I.
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Tether plans to relocate its corporate entity and subsidiaries to El Salvador after obtaining a digital asset service provider license in the country  —  - Company and all subsidiaries will relocate to El Salvador  — Stablecoin firm incorporated in the British Virgin Islands
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Decentralized Instagram alternative Pixelfed debuts iOS and Android apps; its Android app is the top Social app on Google Play in some markets, including the US  —  Pixelfed, a decentralized alternative to Instagram, has launched its official mobile apps.  The service today runs …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
DJI removes its geofence around US “No-Fly Zones”, replacing it with a warning, saying the update “aligns” with FAA rules and follows similar changes in the EU  —  For over a decade, you couldn't easily fly a DJI drone over restricted areas in the United States.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Email: Sonos CPO Maxime Bouvat-Merlin is leaving; some employees say he shares a significant amount of blame for the brand damage after the botched app revamp  —  A day after Sonos announced a CEO transition, the company is making more moves.  Chief product officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin will also be leaving his position.
The Verge:
Court docs: internal messages suggest Meta used data from piracy site LibGen to train AI Llama models and worked to conceal it, as Meta raced to beat rivals  —  A major copyright lawsuit against Meta has revealed a trove of internal communications about the company's plans to develop …
Elliptic:
Huione Guarantee, a Telegram marketplace that facilitates “pig butchering” and other scams, recently launched several crypto products, including a stablecoin  —  - Huione Guarantee is a Telegram-based marketplace serving fraudsters in South East Asia, including those responsible for so-called “pig butchering” scams.
Matthew Ball / MatthewBall.co:
An in-depth look at the state of video gaming in 2025, including why gaming soared from 2011-2021 then stalled, China's global rise, and mobile gaming growth  —  Please note, this deck is in Early Access and will release in PDF shortly.  There are two versions below based on your preference …
Steven J. Horowitz / Variety:
Drake withdraws petition accusing UMG and Spotify of inflating Kendrick Lamar's “Not Like Us” with bots and payola; the diss track accused Drake of pedophilia  —  Drake has withdrawn his petition against Spotify and Universal Music Group after accusing the entities of launching an illegal …
Bloomberg:
The Philippines' decision to supercharge its online gambling sector has been disastrous, opening the door to crimes, including money laundering, in the country  —  A casino raid in a sleepy town revealed the mayor's business connections to Singapore's $2 billion money-laundering scandal, and sparked allegations of Chinese espionage.
Reeta Raman / Rest of World:
Authorities in Singapore, which has a dire shortage of nurses, see the potential in AI tools to assist in preventive illness care, especially for the elderly  —  The country has a dire shortage of nurses, so to fill the manpower gap, it's using AI for preventive care.  —  • SINGAPORE
Forums: Hacker News
New York Times:
Brazilian nonprofit Legal Games Institute estimates betting apps draw over $23B in wagers annually, nearly 10 times the Mafia-run animal lottery in the country  —  Digital gambling could spell the end for a lottery run by criminal gangs that has been a fixture of Brazilian life for decades.
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Quantum Brilliance, which makes quantum computing hardware using synthetic diamond qubits that work at room temperature in any setting, raised a $20M Series A  —  Quantum Brilliance GmbH said today it's ready to begin mass production of its diamond-based quantum computers after closing on a $20 million early-stage round of funding.
Dan Primack / Axios:
Intel Capital plans to split off from its parent into a standalone fund with a new name in H2 2025; Intel Capital has invested $20B+ into over 1,800 companies  —  - It was founded in 1991, and has invested more than $20 billion into over 1,800 companies.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:30 AM ET, January 15, 2025.

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

New York Times:
Sources: CNN CEO Mark Thompson told Paramount he would not share oversight of CNN with another exec, as David Ellison weighs whether to put Bari Weiss in charge

Washington Post:
The US Supreme Court paused a lower court order that would have forced ex-Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge to reveal a source or pay $800 a day in sanctions

Ryan McGrady / The Conversation:
An analysis of 20M blocks of users of English language Wikipedia shows a shrinking number of administrators relying on more-frequent blocks, to raise efficiency

More News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Synthesia, a London-based B2B startup building products around highly realistic AI avatar technology, raised a $180M Series D led by NEA at a $2.1B valuation
CyberScoop:
Experts say Donald Trump and others pushing for stronger US cyber offense must clarify if escalation is a proper response to recent Chinese cyber breaches
Steven Vaughan-Nichols / ZDNET:
Red Hat acquires Neural Magic, which has built tools to boost generative AI inference workloads and raised $50M from a16z and others, for an undisclosed sum

Earlier Picks

Josh Russell / Courthouse News Service:
In federal court, lawyers for Microsoft and OpenAI defended the scraping of news stories to train LLMs and urged the dismissal of news outlets' copyright claims
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
The US says the FBI hacked ~4.2K devices in the US to delete PlugX, malware used by China-backed hackers since 2014, after obtaining warrants in August 2024
Kylie Robison / The Verge:
OpenAI launches Tasks, rolling out in beta to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro subscribers, to let users schedule reminders, with up to ten active at any given time
Riley Griffin / Bloomberg:
Internal memo: Meta is cutting roughly 5% of its staff through performance-based terminations and plans to hire new people to fill their roles this year
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