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Techmeme
January 8, 2025, 10:40 AM

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
Cristiano Lima-Strong / Washington Post:
Meta's fact-checking overhaul is set to deepen a growing schism between how platforms handle content moderation in the US and in stricter regions like Europe  —  As platform scales back moderation in line with conservative demands in the U.S., it still has to maneuver through stiffer regulations in Europe and elsewhere.
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  —  Meta follows in X's footsteps by letting users fact-check each other with ‘Community Notes’  —  Social-media companies never wanted …
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 …
Stuart A. Thompson / New York Times:
David Gilbert / Wired:
Bloomberg:
Fox News:
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 …
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
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.
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” …
Jeran Wittenstein / Bloomberg:
Major quantum computing stocks, up 300%+ in the past year, fell on January 7 after Jensen Huang said “very useful” quantum computers are likely decades away  —  The shares of IonQ Inc. and other companies linked to quantum computing tumbled in premarket trading on Wednesday …
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 …
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
Meta says it will launch a test in Germany, France, and the US to post eBay listings on Facebook Marketplace, after the EU fined it €798M for abusing dominance  —  - Company was fined €798 million by EU for abusing dominance  — Meta still challenging landmark fine through EU courts
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
Niklas Zennström says European startups can thrive by developing apps for US-based AI platforms and believes pessimism about European startups is exaggerated  —  Niklas Zennström believes continent can thrive by developing applications on top of artificial intelligence models
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says that MediaTek will be able to sell the CPU chip that the two companies unveiled for Project DIGITS, Nvidia's new desktop computer  —  Nvidia (NVDA.O) Chief Executive Jensen Huang said on Tuesday that MediaTek (2454.TW) will be able to sell the desktop central processor chip …
Simon Sharwood / The Register:
Akamai plans to end its CDN services in China on June 30, 2026, moving clients to an Akamai CDN outside China unless they switch to a local option like Tencent  —  Akamai has decided to end its content delivery network services in China, but not because it's finding it hard to do business in the Middle Kingdom.
More: AkamaiForums: Hacker News and Slashdot

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Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central:
Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:
Berber Jin / Wall Street Journal:
Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information: