Techmeme
January 10, 2025, 4:15 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Sources detail Zuckerberg's sprint to remake Meta after meeting with Trump at Thanksgiving; he no longer wants to keep his views of how Meta should be run quiet  —  After visiting President-elect Donald J. Trump in November, Mr. Zuckerberg decided to relax Meta's speech policies.
Axios:
Memo: Meta terminates major DEI programs, including for hiring, training, and procurement, citing a changed “legal and policy landscape” around DEI in the US  —  - The moves come just three days after Meta ended many of its efforts to fact-check and police speech on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Meta's new policies for contractors and staff moderating Facebook and Instagram allow dehumanizing speech, like “a trans person isn't a he or she, it's an it”  —  “A trans person isn't a he or she, it's an it,” reads a new guideline telling moderators what is now allowed on Facebook and Instagram
Sam Biddle / The Intercept:
A look at Meta's convoluted or contradictory hate speech examples for user content moderators, allowing derogatory remarks about races, nationalities, and more  —  Meta is now granting its users new freedom to post a wide array of derogatory remarks about races, nationalities, ethnic groups …
The Information:
Amazon has quietly changed or removed pages on its corporate website that declared its commitment to DEI and other issues  —  Like most big technology companies, Amazon began publishing pages and blog posts on its corporate website in recent years declaring its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion along with other issues.
Wired:
A live blog where The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in TikTok's appeal against the divest-or-ban law  —  We're tuning in live as the justices consider what could be one of the most consequential First Amendment rulings of the past several decades.  —  The US Supreme Court is expected …
Greg Stohr / Bloomberg:
SCOTUS signals it is likely to uphold the TikTok divest-or-ban law, as a majority of justices suggested they see national security overriding free speech issues  —  - Roberts points to parent company's close ties to China  — Law would ban TikTok on Jan. 19 if ByteDance doesn't sell
Joseph Cox / Wired:
A hack of data company Gravy reveals Candy Crush, Tinder, and thousands of other apps are used to collect user location data; app developers may not even know  —  A hack of location data company Gravy Analytics has revealed which apps are—knowingly or not—being used to collect your information behind the scenes.
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney, Fox, and WBD say they have agreed to discontinue their Venu Sports streaming joint venture and will focus on existing products and distribution channels  —  The sports-focused streaming service will not move forward, the companies said Friday.  —  Venu is dead.
CNBC:
Kevin Purdy / Ars Technica:
The Linux Foundation launches an initiative to fund developing Chromium projects in a “neutral space”, with support from Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Opera  —  But it's really a “neutral space” for funding and support, corralling together some big names with a stake in the future of Chrome's open source roots, Chromium.
Automattic:
Automattic plans to cut its WordPress contributions to ~45 hours per week “due to the lawsuits from WP Engine”, focusing mostly on security and critical updates  —  Automattic has always been deeply committed to the success of WordPress, dedicating significant resources and talent to its development for almost two decades.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
The US DOJ indicts three Russian citizens for allegedly operating Bender.io and Sinbad.io crypto mixing services used by North Korea and ransomware gangs  —  On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictments of Russian citizens Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko …

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