Taylor Hatmaker
Senior Editor
The Latest from Taylor Hatmaker
Critical Role’s second campaign will get its own Amazon animated series
Amazon is deepening its ties to hit Dungeons & Dragons actual play series Critical Role, entering a multiyear deal with the growing role-playing content empire that will see any new adaptations sp
Roblox taps former Google Play VP for creator role
As Roblox bets big on the future of user-generated content, the online game platform ubiquitous in the under-13 age group is staffing up accordingly. The company announced Tuesday that it has hired fo
Microsoft is sunsetting social VR pioneer AltspaceVR
AltspaceVR has had a few close calls over the years, but the company that built virtual social spaces well before “metaverse” was a household word is shuttering for good this time. After a
More universities are banning TikTok from their campus networks and devices
Public universities across a widening swath of U.S. states have banned TikTok in recent months, and two of the country’s largest colleges just followed suit. The University of Texas and Texas A&
Netflix founder Reed Hastings steps down as co-CEO
Netflix founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings announced Thursday that he would step down after more than two decades at the company. While news of his departure comes as a shock, Hastings noted that Netfli
YouTube plans to modify profanity rules that prompted creator backlash
YouTube’s gaming community pushed back against the company this week after some creators saw their old videos demonetized out of the blue. The culprit is a new policy that the company introduced
Instagram and Facebook introduce more limits on targeting teens with ads
Meta is making some changes to how its apps handle advertising and young users. Under the new rules, advertisers on Instagram and Facebook won’t be able to leverage as much personalized data to
Stardew Valley’s big update is now available for iOS and Android
If there’s anything Stardew Valley fans want, it’s more Stardew — and that’s now the case for anyone playing the cozy life sim on iOS or Android. The game is available on just abou
3 views: What does the future of social media look like after Twitter?
Twitter’s demise might be overstated, but we still can’t unsee what we saw in 2022. The newly Elon Musk-owned social network could continue zombie-shuffling for months or years for all we
The FTC moves to ban noncompete agreements
The Federal Trade Commission proposed a rule on Thursday that would block employers from using noncompete agreements to restrict workers from pursuing employment with competitors. In its push to throw
Twitter just banned prominent journalists who cover Elon Musk with no warning
On Thursday evening, Twitter suspended a number of prominent journalists on the platform without warning or explanation. The situation followed the company’s decision to suspend the Twitter acco
Twitter suspends Mastodon’s account and bans links to Mastodon servers
A day after Twitter crafted a new policy to explain its decision to ban an account that tracks Elon Musk’s private jet, the fallout continues. Twitter apparently suspended its open source compet
Fortnite and MrBeast will give away $1 million in a pop-up game challenge
The world’s most popular YouTuber is taking over a corner of Fortnite and somebody will walk away with $1 million. Jimmy Donaldson, better known by the handle MrBeast, is partnering with Epic Ga
Roblox will let 13+ users import contacts and add recommended friends
Roblox is adding two new ways for people who spend time in its virtual worlds to find old friends and make new ones. The company announced Friday that it would introduce a contact importer and friend
The FTC is suing to block Microsoft from buying Activision
The FTC announced Thursday that it would sue to block Microsoft’s acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard. Microsoft announced plans to buy the company, which has been plagued by sexual
Cinder’s content moderation software is custom-built for trust and safety teams
A startup from former Meta employees aims to streamline the content moderation process for companies grappling with some of the internet’s most complex, dangerous challenges. Cinder, which likes to
Meta’s Oversight Board wants Facebook to be more transparent about VIP accounts
A year ago, The Wall Street Journal revealed that Facebook operated a two-tiered content moderation system. Normal users were subject to the platform’s stated rules, while VIP users were secretl
Lensa AI, the app making ‘magic avatars,’ raises red flags for artists
If your Instagram is awash in algorithmically generated portraits of your friends, you aren’t alone. After adding a new avatar generation tool based on Stable Diffusion, the photo editing app Le
Elon Musk vicariously publishes internal emails from Twitter’s Hunter Biden laptop drama
Elon Musk reminded his followers on Friday that owning Twitter now means he controls every aspect of the company — including what its employees said behind closed doors before he took over. Earlier
Elon Musk just brought an infamous neo-Nazi back to Twitter
Ye might have crossed the line by tweeting a swastika superimposed with a Star of David, but you can’t blame other Nazi apologists for getting mixed signals. On Thursday night, Musk personally inter