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January 16, 2025, 8:05 AM
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Top News

Washington Post:
Sources: Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order once in office that would suspend enforcement of the TikTok sale-or-ban law for 60 to 90 days  —  Trump, the infamous dealmaker, is exploring unconventional ways to rescue the Chinese-owned video app from a nationwide ban …
NBC News:
An official says the Biden administration is “exploring options” to implement the law without causing TikTok to go dark for US users on January 19  —  Barring action by the Supreme Court, a ban in the U.S. on the popular app is set to begin on Sunday.
New York Times:
Sources: TikTok CEO Shou Chew plans to attend Trump's inauguration after being invited to sit on the dais, joining Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk at the event  —  Shou Chew will join tech moguls like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk at President-elect Donald J. Trump's inauguration as the fate of the app hangs in the balance.
Reuters:
Source: over 700K new users joined Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, in just two days; Sensor Tower: the app's US downloads were up more than 200% YoY this week  —  New users have piled in to Chinese social media app RedNote just days before a proposed U.S. ban on the popular social media app TikTok …
Lindsay Whitehurst / Associated Press:
During oral arguments, SCOTUS seemed open to a Texas law requiring age checks to view online porn, but could send the case back to a lower court  —  The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed open to a Texas law aimed at blocking kids from seeing online pornography, though the justices could still send …
Daniel Kuhn / The Block:
BitMEX is fined an additional $100M for US Bank Secrecy Act violations between 2015 and 2020; it pleaded guilty in July 2024 and previously agreed to pay $110M  —  - BitMEX has been slapped with an additional $100 million fine for Bank Secrecy Act violations between 2015 and 2020.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
AI researcher François Chollet and Zapier co-founder Mike Knoop launch Ndea, an AI research and science lab focused on “developing and operationalizing AGI”  —  François Chollet, an influential AI researcher, is launching a new startup that aims to build frontier AI systems with novel designs.
Jane Lanhee Lee / Bloomberg:
TSMC reports Q4 sales up 38.8% YoY to ~$26.38B, net income up 57% YoY to ~$11.4B, both above estimates; stock jumped 80%+ in 2024, its biggest gain since 1999
Karen Freifeld / Reuters:
The US Commerce Department adds 25 China-based companies, including Alibaba-backed LLM developer Zhipu AI and chip designer Sophgo, to its restricted trade list  —  The Biden administration added more than two dozen Chinese entities to a U.S. restricted trade list on Wednesday, including Zhipu AI …
Mackenzie Hawkins / Bloomberg:
The US unveils new rules calling for TSMC, Samsung, and other chip producers to step up their scrutiny and due diligence of customers, especially Chinese firms
Paresh Dave / Wired:
Four current Meta employees, citing internal discussions, say the actual number of full-time staff who will have to relocate from California to Texas is limited  —  Mark Zuckerberg said content moderation teams in California will relocate to Texas to help reduce bias.
Omkar Godbole / CoinDesk:
Jio Platforms partners with Polygon Labs to integrate Web3 and blockchain services into Jio's apps and services; Jio Platforms has over 450M users in India  —  Indian telecom and technology company Jio Platforms (JPL) is taking significant steps to enhance the digital experience for its more than 450 million users.
Pete Schroeder / Reuters:
Block agrees to pay $80M to a group of 48 US state financial regulators that say it had insufficient policies for policing money laundering through Cash App  —  Block Inc (SQ.N) has agreed to pay a fine of $80 million to a group of 48 state financial regulators after the agencies determined …
Maggie Eastland / Bloomberg:
E-commerce marketing startup Rokt agrees a secondary share sale at a $3.5B valuation ahead of a 2026 IPO, and acquires customer data startup mParticle for $300M  —  - Rokt separately agrees to $300 million purchase of mParticle  — E-commerce group has plans to go public in first half of 2026
Allie Garfinkle / Fortune:
Eve, which makes AI tools for law firms, raised a $47M Series A led by a16z, and says its revenue has grown by 5x over the past eight months  —  For about a year, I've been hearing that lawyers are using AI in droves.  But it wasn't until I talked to Jennifer Gore last week that I started to understand what that meant in practice.
Bloomberg:
Official report: Chinese hackers who breached the US Treasury accessed 400+ computers and stole over 3K files; classified data and email systems were safe  —  - Hackers likely stole more than 3,000 files from department  — Treasury found no evidence of lingering access or malware

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:05 AM ET, January 16, 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.

From Mediagazer

Alex Woodward / The Independent:
A federal judge in Illinois temporarily blocks federal officers from using riot control weapons or other force against members of the press and others

Kristina Millare / Catholic World Report:
In a meeting with news agencies, Pope Leo XIV urged journalists to stand firm against manipulation of information, conveyed respect for war reporters, and more

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
DC Comics President and Publisher Jim Lee says the company won't support AI-generated storytelling or artwork, as long as he and SVP Anne DePies are in charge

More News

Earlier Picks

Jesse Coghlan / Cointelegraph:
DappRadar: NFT trading volumes in 2024 fell 19% YoY to $13.7B and sales counts fell 18% YoY to just under 50M, making 2024 the worst performing year since 2020
Kate Knibbs / Wired:
DoubleVerify says there is a jump in AI click farms, including a network of 200+ websites called Synthetic Echo, designed to siphon ad revenue from real outlets
Jaffer Zaidi / The Keyword:
Google says it has partnered with the AP to deliver a feed of real-time information to enhance the usefulness of results displayed in the Gemini app
Reuters:
The FTC sues John Deere, alleging it illegally drove up repair costs by making its software repair tool available only to its authorized dealers
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