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Techmeme
February 19, 2026, 9:00 AM
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Top News

Reuters:
Sources: the US State Department is building an online portal at freedom.gov that will let users in Europe and elsewhere see 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 …
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  —  Bill Gates will not deliver his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi, his philanthropic organisation …
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 refused to clasp hands
Bloomberg:
Indian conglomerate Reliance plans to invest up to ~$110B to build AI-related infrastructure over the next seven years, and JioHotstar plans a ChatGPT-based 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.
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 …
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:00 AM ET, February 19, 2026.

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From Mediagazer

Lucia Moses / Business Insider:
WaPo opinion editor Adam O'Neal says he's stepping down after a year in the role; his hiring was part of a push to promote “personal liberties and free markets”

Minho Kim / New York Times:
Sarah B. Rogers, Trump's nominee to lead USAGM, says she would reinstate some agency employees; if confirmed, she would still serve in the State Department

Matt Stout / The Boston Globe:
The Massachusetts Senate passes an amendment that would in many instances bar judges, grand juries, and others from forcing reporters to identify their sources

More News

Earlier Picks

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
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
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
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