Taylor Hatmaker
Senior Reporter
The Latest from Taylor Hatmaker
Juul can keep selling vaping products in the US for now
A federal appeals court froze the FDA’s ban on Juul products Friday after the company sought an emergency administrative stay. On Thursday, the U.S. regulator took sweeping action against the e-
FDA orders Juul to stop selling its vaping products in the US
The axe has fallen for e-cigarette maker Juul. The FDA ordered the company to stop selling and distributing its ubiquitous vaping devices in the U.S. Thursday, a dramatic end for a company that domina
The Oversight Board’s annual report tracks how often Meta follows its advice
The advisory group reviewing Facebook and Instagram’s content moderation decisions issued its first annual report Wednesday, capping off its first year in operation. The Oversight Board apparent
Reddit is buying machine learning platform Spell
Reddit announced Thursday that it would buy Spell, a platform for running machine learning experiments, for an undisclosed amount. Spell was founded by former Facebook engineer Serkan Piantino in 2016
Discord gives servers a way to intercept spam and harmful content, will expand premium memberships
Discord is introducing a native way for servers to preemptively detect and block harmful messages and spam. The tool, called AutoMod, is available today and will allow anyone who moderates one of Disc
Meta adds voice controls for Horizon Worlds, which defaults to live chat with strangers
Meta might soon want everyone to hop into its playful virtual realms, but some users are set up for a shock. In the service of pushing people to socialize in Horizon Worlds, the virtual social network
Adobe releases open source toolkit to counter visual misinformation
Adobe has a vision for an internet peppered with photos and videos packaged up with extra data about where they came from. The company’s central aim is to mitigate the spread of visual misinformatio
Instagram’s ‘sensitive content’ controls will soon filter all recommended content
Last year, Instagram added a way for users to filter some kinds of “sensitive” content out of the Explore tab. Now, Instagram is expanding that setting, letting users turn off that content
Echoing Elon Musk, Texas AG is investigating Twitter over bots
As Elon Musk tries to squirm out of his commitment to buy Twitter, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is running interference for the newly minted Texan. Paxton just announced that his office is invest
Sheryl Sandberg will step down as Meta COO
Sheryl Sandberg announced today on Facebook that she is leaving Meta after more than a decade as the company’s chief operating officer. Sandberg joined Meta, then Facebook, as COO in 2008. Over
Discord is giving voice channels their own text-based chat rooms
Discord is giving its voice channels text-based chat too. The company announced Wednesday that it would roll out text chat for the platform’s voice-based chat rooms, adding a way for anyone hang
Supreme Court pauses controversial Texas social media law
Tech companies got their way in Texas on Tuesday. The Supreme Court just blocked a controversial law that allows Texas residents and the attorney general to sue social media companies over their conte
After buying Bungie, Sony goes all in on live service games
After buying Bungie earlier this year, Sony is moving fast to integrate the company’s expertise into its broader vision. In an investor presentation Thursday, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO
Twitter investors sue Elon Musk over acquisition shenanigans
The world’s richest man isn’t above trying to get a discount, apparently. In a new lawsuit, Twitter shareholders are suing Elon Musk, alleging that he manipulated the price of the company&
Meta consolidates its privacy policy to appease regulators
In an effort to make its notoriously dense user agreements less labyrinthine, Meta has rewritten and redesigned how that information is presented. The company insists that the changes are in form, not
Jack Dorsey steps down from Twitter’s board
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s time at the company has come to an end. Dorsey stepped down from Twitter’s board of directors Wednesday, a change that’s effective as of the company&
Roblox hires former Zynga CTO to build out its developer team
Roblox has picked up a key hire to help grow its ecosystem of user-generated content for the metaverse. Nick Tornow is joining the company as VP of Engineering for its developer team, leaving his form
Match Group and Google reach an interim compromise over app payments
Match Group, the parent company of dating apps Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid, is getting along better with Google, just by a little bit. On Friday, Match withdrew its request for a temporary restraining o
NY AG is investigating Twitch, Discord and 4chan for their role in the Buffalo mass shooting
New York Attorney General Letitia James will launch an investigation into the role that social media and online message boards played in the tragedy that unfolded in Buffalo over the weekend. On Satur
Buffalo shooter invited others to his private Discord ‘diary’ 30 minutes before attack
Discord has provided more insight into how the shooter who opened fire in a Buffalo, New York supermarket over the weekend used its service prior to the tragic act of violence. The shooter, 18-year-ol