Taylor Hatmaker
Senior Reporter
The Latest from Taylor Hatmaker
Facebook knows Instagram harms teens. Now, its plan to open the app to kids looks worse than ever
Facebook is in the hot seat again. The Wall Street Journal published a powerful multi-part series on the company this week, drawing from internal documents on everything from the company’s secre
TikTok is hiding a viral challenge that has kids stealing their school’s soap dispensers
It’s back to school season and on TikTok, that means students are inexplicably stealing everything that isn’t bolted down. The latest TikTok trend to generally wreak social havoc sees stud
Clubhouse hires a head of news from NPR to build out publisher relationships
Clubhouse has hired a veteran editor from NPR to lead news publishing for the app. Nina Gregory will serve as Clubhouse’s head of News and Media Publishers, working as a liaison between news pub
Biden’s new FTC nominee is a digital privacy advocate critical of Big Tech
President Biden made his latest nomination to the Federal Trade Commission this week, tapping digital privacy expert Alvaro Bedoya to join the agency as it takes a hard look at the tech industry. Bedo
Twitch sues two users for harassing streamers with hate raids
Twitch filed a lawsuit late last week against two people on its own platform for running automated hate and harassment campaigns. The harassment, often targeted at Black and LGBTQ streamers, manifests
Twitter wants you to tweet to interest-based communities, not just followers
Twitter is a useful place for following breaking news and keeping up with what the people you’re already interested in are doing, but its relative dearth of discovery features and a lack of orga
Twitter is testing big ol’ full-width photos and videos
Twitter is exploring ways to build a more visually immersive experience with its latest test, which brings edge-to-edge tweets to the app on iOS. Full-width images and videos track for the direction t
Voice chat is coming to Roblox
As one of the frontrunners in the race to build the metaverse, Roblox is thinking ahead to what virtual worlds really need. And while the platform has had no shortage of growth on its current path —
Twitter rolls out paid subscription ‘Super Follows’ to let you cash in on your tweets
After opening applications in June, Twitter is rolling out Super Follows, its premium subscription option, starting today. The feature, first revealed in February, will allow users to subscribe to acc
Twitter is testing a new anti-abuse feature called ‘Safety Mode’
Twitter’s newest test could provide some long-awaited relief for anyone facing harassment on the platform. The new product test introduces a feature called “Safety Mode” that puts up
CryptoPunks creator inks representation deal with major Hollywood talent agency
One of Hollywood’s biggest talent agencies is getting into the NFT game. Larva Labs, the creator of CryptoPunks, just signed with United Talent Agency (UTA) in a representation deal that will br
Clubhouse is adding spatial audio effects to make users feel like they’re really in the room
It’s been a busy summer for Clubhouse. The hit social audio app rolled out new messaging features and an Android app over the last few months and now the company is turning its attention to enhancin
Stipop offers developers instant access to a huge global sticker library
With more than 150,000 stickers, Stipop’s library of colorful, character-driven expressions has a little something for everyone. The company offers keyboard and social app stickers through ad-su
Facebook will reportedly launch its own advisory group for election policy decisions
Facebook is looking to create a standalone advisory committee for election-related policy decisions, according to a new report from The New York Times. The company has reportedly approached a number o
Infinite Canvas raises $2.8M for a metaverse creator group modeled after esports teams
With the promise of an interconnected virtual world coming into focus and user-crafted gaming content exploding, Infinite Canvas is looking to apply lessons learned from the esports boom to the metave
Social platforms wrestle with what to do about the Taliban
With the hasty U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan underway after two decades occupying the country, social media platforms have a complex new set of policy decisions to make. The Taliban has be
Facebook releases a glimpse of its most popular posts, but we don’t learn much
Facebook is out with a new report collecting the most popular posts on the platform, responding to critics who believe the company is deliberately opaque about its top-performing content. FacebookR
Fortnite adds a new mode that’s basically Among Us
Fortnite now boasts its own version of one of the pandemic’s hottest games. Fortnite-maker Epic just introduced into the game a new limited-time mode called Impostors; it follows the hit format
Twitter asks users to flag COVID-19 and election misinformation
Twitter introduced a new test feature Tuesday that allows users to report misinformation they run into on the platform, flagging it to the company as “misleading.” The test will roll out starting
Yik Yak returns from the dead
After meeting an ignominious end in 2017, the anonymous gossip app once popular with college students lives again. Yik Yak returned to the iOS App Store on Monday (sorry, Android users) under new owne