Techmeme
June 16, 2025, 4:05 PM

Top News

New York Times:
WhatsApp rolls out ads in its Updates tab, a first for the app, and Meta will collect some data to target the ads, but says it has no plans to put ads in chats  —  They will appear in only one part of the Meta-owned messaging service, it said.  The move is potentially lucrative, while raising questions about user privacy.
Financial Times:
Digital asset platform Tron plans to go public via a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed SRM Entertainment, after the US paused a probe into founder Justin Sun  —  Deal involving Justin Sun's digital asset venture orchestrated by investment bank linked to Trump's sons
Todd Spangler / Variety:
The Trump Organization teases the $499 “T1 Phone”, a gold phone “designed and built” in the US, and Trump Mobile, an MVNO that uses AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile  —  President Trump and his family are getting into the wireless business, in partnership with the three major U.S. carriers.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Europol, Germany, and more dismantle Archetyp Market, a darknet drug marketplace active since May 2020 with 612K users processing €250M+ in Monero transactions  —  Law enforcement authorities from six countries took down the Archetyp Market, an infamous darknet drug marketplace that has been operating since May 2020.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
TikTok rolls out new AI ad features as part of its Symphony ad suite, including the ability for marketers to use text or images to generate five-second videos  —  TikTok is rolling out a set of new artificial intelligence-powered advertising features, including the ability for marketers …
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Amazon Ads and Roku sign an ad initiative that will give media buyers access to 80%+ of US connected-TV households, set to launch by Q4 2025, using Amazon's DSP  —  In a milestone agreement, Amazon Ads and Roku are teaming on a new advertising initiative that will give media buyers access …
Carl Benedikt Frey / Financial Times:
AI is just another productivity tool and the productivity gains will be limited; for lasting economic expansion, AI must catalyze new industries and initiatives  —  Economic miracles stem from discovery, not repeating tasks at greater speed  —  The writer is author of 'How Progress Ends …
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
PostHog, which offers dev tools to analyze, test, observe, and deploy new features, raised a $70M Series D led by Stripe at a $920M valuation  —  On June 9, PostHog, which aims to help developers build “successful products,” quietly announced it had raised $70 million in a Series D funding round led by digital payments giant Stripe.
More: FinSMEs and PostHog.  Bluesky: @kat.lol
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Patreon plans to consolidate its Pro and Premium plans starting August 5, taking a 10% commission, rather than the current 8% for Pro and 12% for Premium users  —  You have until August 4th to sign up and lock in the current rates instead. … Patreon has announced an update to its pricing …
Bloomberg:
A whistleblower provides nonpublic data revealing that 1M+ 2FA SMS messages from June 2023 passed via Fink Telecom, a small Swiss company linked to spy agencies  —  Every day, millions of people sign in to their email, banking app or social media accounts with both their password and a one-time login code they receive by text message.

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Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Michael Goodier / The Guardian:

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