Techmeme
January 15, 2025, 10:15 AM

Top News

Nicola M White / Bloomberg:
The US SEC sues Elon Musk, claiming he failed to timely disclose a 5%+ purchase of Twitter's stock ahead of his takeover of the social media platform in 2022  —  - Agency alleges billionaire ignored disclosure deadline in 2022  — Musk's lawyer says he did ‘nothing wrong’ and SEC has no case
The Information:
Sources: TikTok plans to switch off its app in the US on January 19 unless SCOTUS blocks the ban; the law only requires app stores to stop TikTok app downloads  —  TikTok plans to shut off its app for U.S. users on Sunday, the day a federal law will ban the app, unless the Supreme Court intervenes …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Sources and docs: Meta has dismantled its system for identifying and limiting viral hoaxes, and told content-ranking teams to stop penalizing misinformation  —  The company built effective systems to reduce the reach of fake news.  Last week, it shut them down  —  I.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft relaunches its free Copilot for businesses as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, offering pay-as-you-go AI agents and using OpenAI's GPT-4o to answer queries  —  Microsoft is relaunching its free Copilot for businesses as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat today, complete with the ability to use AI agents.
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
British Virgin Islands-based Tether plans to move its corporate entity and subsidiaries to El Salvador after obtaining a digital asset service provider license  —  - Company and all subsidiaries will relocate to El Salvador  — Stablecoin firm incorporated in the British Virgin Islands
The Verge:
Court docs: internal chats suggest Meta used data from piracy site LibGen to train its Llama AI models and worked to conceal it, as Meta raced to beat rivals  —  A major copyright lawsuit against Meta has revealed a trove of internal communications about the company's plans to develop …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Decentralized Instagram alternative Pixelfed debuts iOS and Android apps; its Android app is the top Social app on Google Play in some markets, including the US  —  Pixelfed, a decentralized alternative to Instagram, has launched its official mobile apps.  The service today runs …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Email: Sonos CPO Maxime Bouvat-Merlin is leaving; some employees say he shares a significant amount of blame for the brand damage due to the botched app revamp  —  A day after Sonos announced a CEO transition, the company is making more moves.  Chief product officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin will also be leaving his position.
Elliptic:
Huione Guarantee, a Telegram-based marketplace that enables “pig butchering” and other scams, recently debuted a few crypto products, including a USD stablecoin  —  - Huione Guarantee is a Telegram-based marketplace serving fraudsters in South East Asia, including those responsible for so-called “pig butchering” scams.
Steven J. Horowitz / Variety:
Drake pulls his petition accusing UMG and Spotify of inflating Kendrick Lamar's “Not Like Us” with bots and payola; the diss track accuses Drake of pedophilia  —  Drake has withdrawn his petition against Spotify and Universal Music Group after accusing the entities of launching an illegal …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
LinkedIn launches free AI tools built on top of its own AI tech and data: a Jobs Match tool for job seekers and a recruitment AI agent for small businesses  —  If you've ever applied or thought of applying for a job via LinkedIn, you'll know that the experience can be immediately disheartening …
More: ZDNET, Engadget, and RTÉX: @johnwilson
Matthew Ball / MatthewBall.co:
A close look at the state of video gaming in 2025, including why gaming soared from 2011 to 2021 and then stalled, China's global rise, and mobile gaming growth  —  Please note, this deck is in Early Access and will release in PDF shortly.  There are two versions below based on your preference …
Bloomberg:
The Philippines' decision to supercharge its online gambling sector has been disastrous, opening the door to crimes, including money laundering, in the country  —  A casino raid in a sleepy town revealed the mayor's business connections to Singapore's $2 billion money-laundering scandal, and sparked allegations of Chinese espionage.
Dan Primack / Axios:
New York Times:
Brazilian nonprofit Legal Games Institute estimates that betting apps draw $23B+ in wagers annually, nearly 10 times the Mafia-run animal lottery in the country  —  Digital gambling could spell the end for a lottery run by criminal gangs that has been a fixture of Brazilian life for decades.
Josh Russell / Courthouse News Service:
In federal court, lawyers for Microsoft and OpenAI defended the scraping of news stories to train LLMs and urged the dismissal of news outlets' copyright claims  —  A coalition of news organizations led by The New York Times claim the exploitation of their online news stories …

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Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

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