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January 8, 2025, 8:50 AM
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Top News

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Ten current and former Meta employees share frustrations over Meta's surrender to the right on speech issues; one called the changes “a precursor for genocide”  —  “I really think this a precursor for genocide,” a former employee tells Platformer  —  I. The past
Fox News:
Donald Trump says Meta has “come a long way” after the company announced it will end its fact-checking program, and that Meta's “presentation was excellent”  —  EXCLUSIVE: President-elect Donald Trump reacted to Meta's move to end its fact-checking program on Facebook …
David Gilbert / Wired:
Meta's fact-checking partners, including USA Today, say they were blindsided by Meta's decision to drop them and reject claims of being “too politically biased”  —  Fact-checkers claim they had no idea the company was going to end their partnerships and are scrambling to figure out the financial implications of the move.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Zuckerberg demanded a review of an algorithm change after his 2023 knee surgery Facebook post got anemic attention; Meta downplays the significance
Stuart A. Thompson / New York Times:
Meta's fact-checking partners PolitiFact and FactCheck.org say they had no role in deciding what the company did with fact-checked content, denying Meta's claim
Bloomberg:
Ex-Facebook Director Katie Harbath says Mark Zuckerberg's team uses elections to take stock of “where society is, to readjust how they're approaching content”
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta will phase “civic content” back in, seemingly a reversal of earlier decisions against proactively recommending political content
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Meta is dropping fact-checking after incoming FCC head Brendan Carr threatened it over such practices, undercutting the notion that Meta's move was principled
Fox News:
Meta's Joel Kaplan says the Trump administration is “a huge supporter of free expression”, which “gets us back to the values that Mark founded the company on”
Hayden Field / CNBC:
In a statement with his family, Sam Altman denies the sexual abuse allegations made by his sister Ann in a lawsuit and says she faces “mental health challenges”  —  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's sister, Ann Altman, filed a lawsuit on Monday, alleging that her brother sexually abused …
Bernadette Christina / Reuters:
Indonesia says Apple still can't sell its iPhone 16 in the country, despite a deal to build a local production facility, as it hasn't met domestic content rules  —  Apple (AAPL.O) still cannot sell its iPhone 16 in Indonesia despite striking a deal to build a local production facility there …
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
The White House launches the US Cyber Trust Mark, a voluntary cybersecurity safety label for internet-connected consumer devices, after unveiling it in 2023  —  Today, the White House announced the launch of the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark, a new cybersecurity safety label for internet-connected consumer devices.
Bloomberg:
Samsung reports preliminary Q4 operating profit of ~$4.5B, vs. est. of ~$6.2B, and revenue of ~$51.7B, below est., due to hefty R&D and capacity expansion costs  —  - Korean company ratchets up push to catch up in high-end memory  — Samsung has ceded ground to SK Hynix in lucrative AI arena
Associated Press:
Las Vegas police say the man who exploded a Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel used ChatGPT to help plan the attack, including to seek info on explosive targets  —  The highly decorated soldier who exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI including ChatGPT …
Arno Rosenfeld / The Forward:
Docs: The Heritage Foundation plans to “identify and target” volunteer Wikipedia editors who it says are “abusing their position” to publish antisemitic content  —  The conservative think tank told prospective donors that the project was part of its work to combat antisemitism
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
AWS says it plans to invest “at least” $11B to expand cloud computing and AI infrastructure in Georgia, which is becoming a popular US state for data centers  —  On Tuesday, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon's cloud computing division, said that it plans to invest “at least” …
Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:
Washington state's AG sues T-Mobile, claiming the carrier failed to adequately secure sensitive personal info of 2M+ residents in an August 2021 cyberattack  —  Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a consumer protection lawsuit against T-Mobile on Monday, claiming that the Bellevue …
Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central:
OnePlus 13 review: excellent battery life, six years of security updates, solid build quality with an IP69 rating, but most AI tools need internet connectivity  —  OnePlus got everything right with the OnePlus 13 by fixing old problems and breaking new ground in design, build quality, and cameras.
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
Meta will launch a test in Germany, France and the US to publish eBay listings on Facebook Marketplace, after it was fined €798M by EU for abusing dominance  —  - Company was fined €798 million by EU for abusing dominance  — Meta still challenging landmark fine through EU courts
More: Reuters and BusinessLIVE

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UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
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From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:
PBS and a public TV affiliate in Minnesota sue the Trump administration, saying his executive order to cut federal funding violated PBS' First Amendment rights

Ally Jarmanning / New Hampshire Public Radio:
The founder of an addiction treatment network is charged with orchestrating vandalism at NHPR journalists' homes after a report into his alleged sexual abuse

Brian Stelter / CNN:
OAN chief Pentagon correspondent Gabrielle Cuccia says she was fired after criticizing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's media restrictions at the Pentagon

More News

Earlier Picks

Berber Jin / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Anthropic is in advanced talks to raise $2B in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $60B valuation; Anthropic was valued at $18B in 2024
Taylor Lorenz / User Mag:
For months, Meta hid posts that included LGBTQ+ hashtags for all users who had their sensitive content filter turned on; Meta claims it “mistakenly” did this
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Screenshots: Meta's HR team deleted several employees' posts critical of Meta's new board member Dana White, aiming to “help minimize disruption” internally
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