Techmeme
January 9, 2025, 10:30 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Meta's new policies for contractors and staff moderating Facebook and Instagram allow dehumanizing speech, like “a trans person isn't a he or she, it's an it”  —  “A trans person isn't a he or she, it's an it,” reads a new guideline telling moderators what is now allowed on Facebook and Instagram
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Sources: many of Meta's employees are furious about its moderation changes allowing “allegations of mental illness” when based on “gender or sexual orientation”  —  Meta's decision to specifically allow users to call LGBTQ+ people “mentally ill” has sparked widespread backlash at the company.
Colby Hall / Mediaite:
More: The National Pulse, Salon, Gizmodo, and The Hill
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Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat / Reuters:
Frank McCourt's Project Liberty says it made a formal bid to ByteDance to acquire TikTok's US assets, aiming to keep the app alive without its current algorithm  —  Entrepreneur and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's Project Liberty and its consortium of partners in The People's Bid …
Financial Times:
Sources: Elon Musk and his right-wing allies discussed how to destabilize the UK Labour government and remove PM Keir Starmer, beyond Musk's aggressive X posts  —  Technology billionaire interested in building support for another political party, notably Reform UK
Financial Times:
Analysis: Elon Musk's UK obsession is driven by a few X accounts; an ex-Twitter exec says Musk may be the first tech leader to be radicalized by his own product  —  Tech billionaire's posts about grooming gangs scandal have elevated issue  —  Elon Musk's recent obsession with UK politics …
Kevin Purdy / Ars Technica:
The Linux Foundation launches an initiative to fund developing Chromium projects in a “neutral space”, with support from Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Opera  —  But it's really a “neutral space” for funding and support, corralling together some big names with a stake in the future of Chrome's open source roots, Chromium.
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Google and Microsoft donate $1M to Trump's inauguration; Google says the donation, a YouTube livestream, and a homepage event link align with past inaugurations  —  Google donated $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration fund, becoming the latest major tech company to try …
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
Ivanti warns that threat actors exploited a critical-rated zero-day in its widely used Connect Secure VPN tool to compromise its corporate customers' networks  —  U.S. software giant Ivanti has warned that a zero-day vulnerability in its widely-used enterprise VPN appliance has been exploited …
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A US judge rules that Google must face a class action claiming Google collected users' personal data from their phones after they turned off Web & App Activity  —  Google failed to persuade a federal judge to dismiss a privacy class action claiming it collected personal data …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Ubisoft says it is appointing advisers to review and pursue strategic options after an October 2024 report said its majority backers were considering a buyout  —  French video game publisher Ubisoft said Thursday it's appointing advisors to review and pursue strategic options after a report …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Court docs: Mark Zuckerberg approved the Meta team that trains AI Llama models to use data from LibGen, a “links aggregator” to pirated, copyrighted material  —  Counsel for plaintiffs in a copyright lawsuit filed against Meta allege that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave the green light …
Heather Landi / Fierce Healthcare:
Hippocratic AI, which is building an LLM for health care use cases, raised a $141M Series B at a $1.64B valuation, and launches a health care AI agent app store  —  Hippocratic AI funding round generative AI Kleiner Perkins  —  Hippocratic AI is kicking off 2025 with a bang.
Marina Temkin / TechCrunch:
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
xAI launches a Grok app in beta for iOS in multiple countries, including the US, Australia, and India, and is preparing a dedicated Grok.com website  —  Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, is testing out a standalone iOS app for its chatbot, Grok, which was available only to X users until now.
Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
Disney says it has an estimated 157M global MAUs watching ad-supported content across its streaming services Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, including 112M US users  —  Disney said Wednesday it has an estimated 157 million global monthly active users watching ad-supported content across its streaming platforms — Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.

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More News

Stephen Totilo / Game File:
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Richard Lawler / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Sarah Emerson / Forbes:
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