Techmeme
July 25, 2025, 7:20 PM

Top News

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Meta will no longer accept political, election, or social issue ads in the EU from October, like Google, with both citing incoming regulation  —  Meta on Friday said starting in October it will no longer accept political, election or social issue ads in the European Union …
NBC News:
Tea says hackers accessed a database from more than two years ago, leaking 72,000 images, including 13,000 verification photos and images of government IDs  —  The viral app requires new users to take selfies, which it says it deletes after review.  —  Hackers have breached the Tea app …
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
Angela Yang / NBC News:
Reuters:
Michael Acton / Financial Times:
Reuters:
Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft is investigating whether a leak in its early alert system for cybersecurity companies let Chinese hackers exploit SharePoint flaws  —  A program to share information with cybersecurity companies may have exposed unpatched flaws in the company's SharePoint service.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Google is testing a vibe-coding tool called Opal that lets users create mini web apps using text prompts or remix existing apps, available in the US via Labs  —  AI-powered coding tools have become so popular over the past few months that almost every major tech company is either using one or making its own.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft previews Copilot Appearance, a virtual character with real-time expressions, voice, and conversational memory, for some users in the US, UK, Canada  —  Microsoft has a new Copilot Appearance virtual character that responds with real-time expressions.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Mark Zuckerberg names Shengjia Zhao, the former OpenAI researcher who co-created ChatGPT, as chief scientist at Meta's new superintelligence lab  —  Shengjia Zhao — formerly of OpenAI — will be chief scientist at Meta's new Superintelligence Lab, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Threads on Friday.
Morgan Sung / KQED:
Sen. Alex Padilla grants the Internet Archive federal depository status, making it a part of a network of over 1,100 libraries that archive government documents  —  The San Francisco-based Internet Archive now has federal depository status, joining a network of over 1,100 libraries …
Financial Times:
More: FlowingDataBluesky: @shlead, @mims, @dannygroner, and @jessefelderLinkedIn: Benjamin SteveninForums: Slashdot
The Information:
Sources: Ramp is in talks to raise $350M led by Iconiq at a ~$21B valuation, after raising $200M at a $16B valuation in June  —  Ramp, a six-year-old corporate card and expense management startup, is in discussions with investors to raise $350 million at a valuation of about $21 billion with the investment …
Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:
Sources: GPT-5 shows improved performance in coding, particularly in practical software engineering tasks, outperforming prior OpenAI models and Claude Sonnet 4  —  GPT-5 is almost here, and we're hearing good things.  The early reaction from at least one person who's used the unreleased version was extremely positive.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
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.
IDrive:
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.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Great Chat:
So what happens after AGI?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:20 PM ET, July 25, 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.

More News

Lauren Goode / Wired:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Reuters:

Earlier Picks

Meir Orbach / CTech:
Jonathan Greig / The Record:
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: