Techmeme
January 31, 2024, 10:00 PM

Top News

Washington Post:
A recap of the US Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on kids' online safety, with testimony from the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X, Snap, and Discord  —  The chief executives of five major tech companies are testifying Wednesday about allegations they failed to protect children from abuse on their platforms …
More: U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, The Verge, The Verge, Engadget, CNN, New York Times, Center for Democracy …, Tech Policy Press, New York Post, Politico, CNBC, Social Media Today, TechCrunch, New York Times, NBC News, Android Headlines, The Verge, 9to5Mac, C-SPAN on YouTube, TIME, Reuters, The Hill, The Hill, Business Post, Tubefilter, Axios, PetaPixel, Newser, Fight for the Future, The Messenger, The Record, Associated Press on YouTube, Livemint, Bloomberg, and New York Times
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Microsoft and X say they support the Kids Online Safety Act; Meta, Discord, and TikTok demur, citing criticism from groups or supporting only some parts of KOSA  —  On the eve of Wednesday's big tech hearing (both big tech and a big hearing — five CEOs are testifying as we speak) …
New York Times:
US lawmakers release 90 pages of Meta emails from 2021, showing Mark Zuckerberg rejected calls to bulk up resources for children's well-being and safety  —  Lawmakers released internal emails detailing the company's failed efforts to add staff to focus on the online safety of minors, hours before a hearing on the topic.
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Angela Yang / NBC News:
Alex Barinka / Bloomberg:
Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
The FBI and US DOJ disrupt Volt Typhoon, a uniquely dangerous Chinese hacking operation to hijack hundreds of Cisco and Netgear routers at end-of-life status  —  Chinese hackers prepare to ‘wreak havoc’ against Americans, FBI Director Chris Wray tells Congress
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says that Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Loop, and Copilot features will be available on Apple Vision Pro on February 2  —  Microsoft is launching a suite of its Microsoft 365 apps on Apple's Vision Pro headset later this week.
Aoyon Ashraf / CoinDesk:
An FTX lawyer says the defunct crypto exchange expects to fully repay its customers and has abandoned efforts to restart the platform, due to a lack of buyers  —  Its FTT token surged about 11% after the news.  —  10 Years of Decentralizing the Future  —  May 29-31, 2024 - Austin …
Jeffrey Gottfried / Pew Research Center:
US adults survey: 83% use YouTube; 68% use Facebook; 47% use Instagram; 27% to 35% use Snapchat, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest; 22% use X and Reddit  —  YouTube and Facebook are by far the most used online platforms among U.S. adults; TikTok's user base has grown since 2021
MK Manoylov / The Block:
Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen confirms “unauthorized access” to “a few of my personal XRP accounts”, after ZachXBT noted outflows of 213M XRP, worth $112.5M  —  - Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen said Wednesday that there had been “unauthorized access” to “a few of my personal XRP accounts.”
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Qualcomm reports Q1 adjusted revenue up 5% YoY to $9.92B, vs. $9.51B est., handset chip sales up 16% YoY to $6.69B, and net income up 24% YoY to $2.77B  —  - Qualcomm beat on revenue and earnings in the quarter.  — The company said it shipped $6.69 billion in handset chips during the December quarter …
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
OpenAI says GPT-4 poses “at most” a slight risk of helping create biological threats, according to early tests to evaluate “catastrophic” risks from LLMs  —  Artificial intelligence startup carried out tests as part of efforts to understand and prevent any “catastrophic” risks from its technology.
Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
Celsius emerges from bankruptcy and plans to distribute over $3B to its creditors, who will also get a stake in the newly formed Ionic Digital mining operation  —  The distribution will be made through PayPal and Coinbase.  —  Register Now  —  Celsius will be shipping out more than $3 billion …
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
In an email to subscribers, Hulu says the company changed its subscriber agreement to bar sharing of accounts outside the user's household  —  The Disney-owned streaming service changed its subscriber agreement to ban sharing of accounts outside of individual households.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Metronome, which offers APIs to help SaaS companies charge customers on a usage basis, raised a $43M Series B led by NEA, bringing its total funding to $78M+  —  Metronome, a startup that helps software companies offer usage-based billing, has raised $43 million in a Series B funding round led by NEA.
Eri Sugiura / Financial Times:
UK prosecutors say the Met Police seized 61K bitcoin, worth £1.4B+, in 2018, as part of a trial over an alleged ~£5B investment fraud in China from 2014 to 2017  —  One of the world's largest seizures revealed during trial of woman accused of laundering cryptocurrency for her former employer
Vitalik Buterin / Vitalik Buterin's website:
A look at four major categories of promising applications that could emerge at the intersections of crypto and AI, and the prospects and challenges of each  —  Special thanks to the Worldcoin and Modulus Labs teams, Xinyuan Sun, Martin Koeppelmann and Illia Polosukhin for feedback and discussion.
Dean Seal / Wall Street Journal:
The US DOJ says eBay agreed to pay $59M to settle allegations of violating the Controlled Substances Act by allowing the sale of pill presses and other items  —  Justice Department says eBay has also agreed to enhance its compliance program  —  EBay will pay $59 million to settle …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
UMG plans to stop licensing content to TikTok after their deal expires on January 31, saying they didn't reach terms over issues like artist compensation and AI  —  UMG said that its agreement with TikTok is set to expire on Jan. 31.  “The companies have not agreed to terms for a new agreement …

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