Techmeme
February 19, 2026, 8:00 AM

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:
Cherylann Mollan / BBC:
Bloomberg:
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
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 …
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 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.
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 …
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 …
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.
OpenAI:
OpenAI and Paradigm announce EVMbench, a benchmark that measures how well AI agents can detect, exploit, and patch high-severity smart contract vulnerabilities  —  Making smart contracts safer by evaluating AI agents' ability to detect, patch, and exploit vulnerabilities in blockchain environments.

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Earlier Picks

New York Times:
Alicia Tang / Bloomberg: