What TikTok’s new owners mean for your feed
What TikTok’s new owners mean for your feed

TikTok is officially under new ownership in the US, and that could spell big changes for the video-sharing app. On January 22nd, ByteDance – TikTok’s Chinese parent company – and a group of investors closed a $14 billion deal to spin off the platform’s US operations, introducing a new slate of American executives. The Silver […]

The TikTok deal is done, finally
The TikTok deal is done, finally

Just over a year after it briefly disappeared from app stores, TikTok in the US is now part of a new entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. With approval from both the US and China closing on the schedule laid out in December, ByteDance’s ownership of the new joint venture is now only 19.9 percent […]

Sen. Markey questions OpenAI about ‘deceptive advertising’ in ChatGPT
Sen. Markey questions OpenAI about ‘deceptive advertising’ in ChatGPT

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is pressing OpenAI about its move to bring ads to ChatGPT, and is asking several other companies whether they have similar plans. In letters to the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Snap, and xAI, Markey writes that embedding ads into AI chatbots “raises significant concerns for consumer protection, privacy, […]

The state attorneys general are as mad as you are
The state attorneys general are as mad as you are

The sun was already beginning to set as Portlanders in weatherproof jackets and fleeces lined up around Revolution Hall. It wasn’t yet 5PM on a Wednesday but the crowd was gathering well before the town hall was scheduled to begin. Just a day earlier, news outlets reported that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison had been […]

AI-Powered Disinformation Swarms Are Coming for Democracy

Advances in artificial intelligence are creating a perfect storm for those seeking to spread disinformation at unprecedented speed and scale. And it’s virtually impossible to detect.

DHS’s Data Grab Is Getting Citizens Kicked Off Voter Rolls, New Complaint Says

As states check voter registration against a mashup of federal data, a new complaint says US citizens are getting kicked off state voter rolls as a result.

Trump is steamrolling global calls for a moratorium on deep-sea mining
Trump is steamrolling global calls for a moratorium on deep-sea mining

The Trump administration took the next step toward unilaterally jumpstarting deep-sea mining this week, announcing a “consolidated” permitting process for both searching for and commercially extracting minerals that have so far remained relatively untouched. These minerals are found so deep in the sea that they’re beyond any single nation’s national jurisdiction – which is why […]

MAGA’s ‘Manifest Destiny’ Coalition Has Arrived

Warring factions of right-wing influencers and MAGA pundits can finally agree on something: American imperialism.

Verizon’s prepaid services add a 365-day wait to unlock phones
Verizon’s prepaid services add a 365-day wait to unlock phones

It’s been just one week since Verizon got permission to lift its 60-day phone unlocking period, and the carrier is already making changes to its policy. Now, Verizon says customers who activate a phone on one of its subbrands, including Visible, TracFone, Straight Talk, and Total Wireless, will have to pay for service for 365 […]

Pro-AI Super PACs Are Already All In on the Midterms

Silicon Valley’s battle against AI regulation is already shaping the next US election cycle.