X is facing an investigation from the European Commission over the sexualized deepfakes generated by its Grok AI chatbot. In its announcement, the Commission says it will evaluate whether X “properly assessed and mitigated risks” associated with Grok’s image-generating capabilities in the EU, as reported earlier by The New York Times. Advocacy groups and lawmakers […]
“Fuck ICE first, second, third, and fourth. Then worry about fucking me,” a Reddit post reads. “Immigrants of any status are my friends, neighbors, and colleagues.” Across the internet – and in the streets – the sentiment is unavoidable, especially after a federal immigration agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, in Minneapolis […]
TikTok’s takeover in the US has prompted users to join an alternative social platform called UpScrolled. The app, which is available on Android and iOS, currently holds the 12th spot in Apple’s App Store, and it’s struggling to keep up with an influx of new traffic. “You showed up so fast our servers tapped out,” […]
TikTok says a power outage is causing ongoing issues and outages that started in the US early Sunday morning. In an email to The Verge, TikTok USDS spokesperson Jamie Favazza pointed to a statement posted to the joint venture’s newly-created X account, which says the company has been “working to restore our services following a […]
It’s not surprising when the guy who’s been yelling about the horrors of late-stage capitalism on Instagram for the last five years turns his ire towards ICE. But something different has been happening over the week or so, following the most recent shootings of civilians by federal agents – even accounts that stay laser focused […]
Federal agents in Minneapolis repeatedly punched a man, forced him to the ground, and then shot him multiple times. The man was later pronounced dead. This is just the latest incident of deadly violence involving ICE, which has grown increasingly frequent, especially on the streets of Minneapolis. It’s been less than three weeks since an […]
Internal documents revealed as part of a child safety lawsuit hint at Google’s plan to “onboard kids” into its ecosystem by investing in schools. In this November 2020 presentation, Google writes that getting kids into its ecosystem “leads to brand trust and loyalty over their lifetime,” as reported earlier by NBC News. The heavily-redacted documents, […]
TikTok finally closed a deal meant to bring it into compliance with the law that should have banned it a year ago, and the lawmakers who passed that law still don’t seem to know what’s going on. The company announced Tuesday that its US service is now part of the separate TikTok USDS Joint Venture […]
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 […]
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 […]