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Techmeme
July 18, 2023, 12:15 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Threads' early growth decisively proved the demand for a new text-based conversation app that could fully supplant Twitter's role in shaping public conversation  —  One week later, engagement is down — but the prize is still there for the taking  —  I.  —  On July 5, Meta released Threads into the world.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Adam Mosseri says spam attacks on Threads “have picked up” so Meta is tightening “things like rate limits” and warns of “unintentionally limiting active people”  —  It looks like Twitter isn't the only one having to turn to rate limits — or limits on how many posts users can view — as it turns out.
Wes Davis / The Verge:
The FCC unveils the US Cyber Trust Mark, a voluntary cybersecurity label for smart devices that will signify that devices meet NIST-set security standards  —  In a press briefing, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said the new label, called the US Cyber Trust Mark …
Peter Kafka / Vox:
Execs at G/O Media, owner of Gizmodo, Jezebel, and others, say the company will publish more AI-generated stories despite blowback for botched first attempts  —  Why G/O Media thinks we should have more stories written by bots.  —  In early July, managers at G/O media …
Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
A pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC used an AI version of Trump's voice, which appears to be narrating Trump's Truth Social post, in a statewide TV attack ad in Iowa  —  The spot illustrates the new frontiers in political advertising.  —  A pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC uses an Artificial Intelligence version …
Inti Landauro / Reuters:
Spain's antitrust watchdog fines Amazon and Apple a combined €194M for limiting the sale of devices from Apple and competitors on Amazon's Spanish sites  —  Spain's antitrust watchdog CNMC on Tuesday said it had imposed fines worth 194 million euros ($218.2 million) in total on Amazon …
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Peacock raises its Premium price by $1 to $5.99/month and Premium Plus by $2 to $11.99/month, at once for new customers and on August 17 for current subscribers  —  Peacock is delivering bad news to its subscribers tonight.  Beginning at 12 a.m. ET, the streamer is notifying existing customers …
Reuters:
The UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal pauses Microsoft's hearing, starting on July 28, of its appeal against the CMA blocking the Activision deal, for two months  —  Microsoft's (MSFT.O) appeal against Britain's block on its $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O) …
Bloomberg:
Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:
OpenAI partners with the American Journalism Project to access content to train its AI model in exchange for $5M in funding and $5M in developer credits  —  OpenAI isn't done making waves in the media industry — far from it.  —  The Sam Altman-led private company behind ChatGPT …
More: Axios and Reuters
Will Shanklin / Engadget:
Microsoft announces Copilot for Microsoft 365 pricing to cost $30 per user for business accounts, and unveils Bing Chat Enterprise with increased privacy  —  A version of Bing Chat with corporate-level privacy is also rolling out in preview.  —  At the Microsoft Inspire partner event today …
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
A US appeals court stays for 90 days a ruling letting Apple App Store developers link to third-party payment options, so Apple can prepare a SCOTUS filing  —  On Monday, Apple was granted a motion putting a hold on the appeals court ruling that would push the company to undo its “anti-steering” …

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More News

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
Helen Coster / Reuters:

Earlier Picks

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Lydia Beyoud / Bloomberg:
Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson / Financial Times:
Larry Madowo / CNN:
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Yogita Khatri / The Block: