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February 19, 2026, 8:25 AM
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Top News

Reuters:
Sources: the US State Department is building an online portal at freedom.gov to let users in Europe and elsewhere view content banned by their governments  —  The U.S. State Department is developing an online portal that will enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned …
New York Times:
Inside India's AI Impact Summit: 300+ exhibitors, 500 sessions, 250K visitors, billions in investment, and entrepreneurs touting solutions to real-world issues  —  The event promised to be a global coming-out party for India's artificial intelligence aspirations.
Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
India's AI Summit: Modi orchestrated a photo op with tech and business leaders holding hands in a line, but Sam Altman and Dario Amodei awkwardly refused  —  Once a rival, always a rival.  —  As Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off the busiest day of India's AI Summit in New Delhi …
Cherylann Mollan / BBC:
The Gates Foundation says Bill Gates will not deliver his keynote at India's AI Summit after “careful consideration” amid controversy over his Epstein ties
Bloomberg:
Indian conglomerate Reliance plans to invest up to $110B in building AI-related infrastructure over the next seven years, and JioHotstar plans a ChatGPT bot
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
India's TCS signs OpenAI as its first data center customer, starting with 100MW of capacity; Tata Group plans to deploy ChatGPT Enterprise, starting with TCS
CNBC:
Social media addiction trial: Mark Zuckerberg says increasing engagement on Instagram is not a company goal and that Meta removes underage users it identifies  —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushed back against the notion that the social media company made increasing time spent on Instagram a company goal.
Gayoung Lee / Gizmodo:
Microsoft's Project Silica team details its laser-modified glass storage tech, saying tests suggest that it can preserve information for at least 10,000 years  —  “This will change the way we think about keeping data and archival preservation.”  —  Our knowledge of the past comes from stone tablets and old parchment.
Niko Gallogly / New York Times:
eBay agrees to acquire secondhand clothing app Depop from Etsy for ~$1.2B in cash; Etsy bought Depop, popular with Gen Z, in 2021 for $1.6B; ETSY jumps 17%+  —  The $1.2 billion deal comes as eBay looks to expand its appeal among younger users.  —  Secondhand clothing apps hit a stride during …
Bloomberg:
Sources: OpenAI is close to finalizing the first phase of its $100B round; its overall valuation, including the eventual funding, could exceed $850B  —  OpenAI is close to finalizing the first phase of a new funding round that is likely to bring in more than $100 billion …
The Guardian:
The UK proposes new rules requiring tech firms to remove nonconsensual abusive content within 48 hours or risk blocking and fines of up to 10% of global revenue  —  PM says measure, also applied to deepfake nudes, is needed owing to a ‘national emergency’ of online misogyny
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple adds support for third-party voice-based conversational apps in CarPlay starting with iOS 26.4, letting CarPlay users access apps like AI chatbots  —  With iOS 26.4, CarPlay users will be able to use third-party chatbots with CarPlay.  AI services like Claude, Gemini …
Ece Yildirim / Gizmodo:
An experiment finds X's feed algorithm favored conservative content, and switching to the For You feed shifted users' views toward more conservative positions  —  The algorithm also doesn't like posts by traditional news media, the researchers found.  —  In case you had any doubt …
The Record:
Texas AG Ken Paxton sues TP-Link, alleging it deceptively markets its products as secure while allowing the CCP to hack into consumers' devices  —  Texas is suing networking equipment company TP-Link Systems for allegedly allowing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to hack into consumers' devices …
Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg:
ByteDance is currently hiring for nearly 100 US-based roles within its Seed AI team across San Jose, LA, and Seattle to develop LLMs, drug discovery, and more  —  Chinese tech giant ByteDance Ltd. is hiring in the US for nearly 100 open roles within its artificial intelligence division …
Bloomberg:
Atlassian's founders lost ~$7.2B in wealth in 2026, behind AppLovin's three founders, amid an SaaS rout; TEAM dropped ~48% YTD, the Nasdaq 100's worst performer  —  Michael Cannon-Brookes became a billionaire in his 30s and one of Australia's richest tech executives with the initial public offering …
The Keyword:
Google rolls out Lyria 3, a generative music model to make 30-second tracks with Nano Banana-generated cover art, in beta in the Gemini app in eight languages  —  The Gemini app now features our most advanced music generation model Lyria 3, empowering anyone to make 30-second tracks using text or images in beta.
Jyoti Mann / The Information:
Sources: Meta has revived a previously shelved smartwatch project, now code-named Malibu 2, and plans to release it in 2026 with health features and Meta AI  —  Meta Platforms plans to release its first smartwatch in 2026, according to two people familiar with the matter.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:25 AM ET, February 19, 2026.

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

Julianna Bragg / Axios:
Stephen Colbert's interview on YouTube with US Senate candidate James Talarico draws 7M+ views after it was posted on Monday, bypassing TV restrictions

Rob Tornoe / Editor and Publisher:
Q&A with Walt Handelsman, who retired at the end of 2025 as an editorial cartoonist at New Orleans' Times-Picayune, on the changes in a dwindling profession

Pranav Baskar / New York Times:
Journalists say an AP reporter and three other journalists were detained in Cameroon while probing a secretive US program that deports migrants to Cameroon

More News

Earlier Picks

OpenAI:
OpenAI and Paradigm announce EVMbench, a benchmark that measures how well AI agents can detect, exploit, and patch high-severity smart contract vulnerabilities
New York Times:
Meta plans to spend $65M in 2026 to boost AI-friendly state politicians; filings show Meta started two super PACs, one backing the GOP and another for Democrats
Alicia Tang / Bloomberg:
Fei-Fei Li's World Labs raised $1B from Autodesk, a16z, Nvidia, AMD, Sea, and others to build its world models for robotics, scientific discovery, and more
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