The Latest from Amanda Silberling
Celebrities don’t want to pay Elon for a blue check
April 1 is the dumbest day on the internet, and this year, it’s not just because brands will try to prank you by selling “hot iced coffee.” Starting on Saturday, Twitter will begin r
Pokémon GO will raise the price of remote raid passes
Pokémon GO is raising the price of remote raid passes, the mobile game announced today. Players used to be able to buy one pass for 100 coins (about $1) or three passes for 250 coins (about $2.50), b
I played the anime dating sim that does your taxes for you
Yes, there is an anime dating sim that does your taxes, and it actually works. Tax Heaven 3000 is a game produced by MSCHF, the venture-funded creative studio behind projects like Push Party, the Lil
From Balenciaga Pope to the Great Cascadia Earthquake, AI images are creating a new reality
Last fall, Tumblr users raved about Martin Scorsese’s 1973 film “Goncharov,” starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. They hailed the lesser-known Scorsese classic as the greatest mafia movie ever
‘So infuriating’: TikTokers are fuming over potential ban
In the aftermath of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s brutal five-hour Congressional hearing on Thursday, TikToker and disinformation researcher Abbie Richards summed up what so many creators were think
TikTok called out for misusing Citizen Lab research
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was questioned in a U.S. government hearing on Thursday over the relationship between the fast-growing social media platform and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. In Chew&
Epic launches Unreal Editor for Fortnite, will give 40% of all revenue to creators
Epic Games announced a new system for paying creators on Fortnite, the ultra-popular, free-to-download battle royale game. Announced on Wednesday at the Game Developers Conference, Epic will now share
Job listing platform Indeed lays off 2,200 employees
At a company that helps people find jobs, 2,200 employees will now have to embark on a job search of their own. Indeed laid off 15% of employees today, CEO Chris Hyams announced in an all-hands meetin
Podcast network Maximum Fun is becoming a worker-owned co-op
Maximum Fun owner Jesse Thorn is selling the podcast company that he founded almost 20 years ago. Rather than surrendering the network to a big tech company or media conglomerate, he is selling it bac
YouTube reinstates Donald Trump’s account
YouTube announced today that former President Donald Trump’s YouTube channel will no longer be suspended. The account had been restricted in the week after the January 2021 riot on the U.S. Capi
Pornhub owner MindGeek sold to private equity firm
MindGeek — owner of several adult entertainment sites, including Pornhub, Brazzers and Redtube — was acquired by a Canadian private equity firm, Ethical Capital Partners (ECP). ECP, which
Finance YouTubers sued over promotion of FTX
A new class action lawsuit alleges that several well-known finance YouTubers, including Graham Stephan, Andrei Jikh, Jaspreet Singh and others, should be held responsible for promoting now-disgraced c
Employees at Epic-owned Bandcamp form union
U.S. employees at Bandcamp, an online audio distributor, have announced their formation of a union. Last year, the platform was acquired by Epic Games, the multibillion-dollar company behind games lik
A retiree’s group for cheese toast lovers is an earnest glimpse of Weird Facebook
Scott Kominkiewicz suddenly had a lot of time on his hands. After retiring from a career as a copywriter and high school English teacher, the 60-year-old found a new mission: to perfect the best techn
Meta winds down support for NFTs on Instagram and Facebook
Looks like Meta is NGMI, as some might put it. Meta’s head of commerce and financial technologies Stephane Kasriel posted on Twitter that the company will sunset its NFT and digital collectibles
BetterHelp owes customers $7.8M after FTC alleges data mishandling
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is requiring online therapy company BetterHelp to pay $7.8 million to consumers in a settlement over alleged data mishandling between 2017 and 2020. This marks the f
Senators urge Zuckerberg to keep teens out of the metaverse
Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA) wrote a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging him to halt Meta’s plans to open Horizon Worlds to teens. Per a leaked memo, Meta may op
Proposed bill would give Biden the power to ban TikTok
The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted in favor of a bill that could give President Joe Biden the ability to ban TikTok. This bill, known as the Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries
TIDAL will cut ‘direct artist payout’ program to invest more in emerging artists
The Block-owned music streaming service TIDAL is shifting the way it pays artists after an experimental program failed to generate results. Unlike Spotify and other market leaders, which pay musicians
Senator Markey calls on Elon Musk to reinstate Twitter’s accessibility team
After several rounds of layoffs, Twitter’s staff is down from about 7,500 employees to less than 2,000 — and one of the numerous cuts across the company eliminated the platform’s ent