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February 19, 2026, 4:45 AM
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| Reuters: |
Sources: the US State Department is building an online portal at freedom.gov to let users in Europe and elsewhere view content banned by their governments — The U.S. State Department is developing an online portal that will enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned …
More: The Post Millennial, GB News, and Reclaim The Net
X: @florian4gamers and @developerharris
Bluesky: @abeardedpanda, @realjuicyjay.blacksky.app, @caseynewton, @fritzbischoff, @paleofuture, @waldo.net, @marypcbuk, @alexanotherone, @lottelydia, @davidcorn, @markjacob, @froomkin, @carnage4life, @explaintrade.com, @parismarx.com, @lepetitereboot, @tjmcintyre.com, @brainnotonyet, @tyleraking.com, @mbkplus, @5-2blue, @bcmerchant, @noupside, @ndrew, @originalsp.in, @lukesteuber.com, @kendrawrites.com, and @davidakaye
Mastodon: @kevinrothrock@infosec … and @evacide@hachyderm.io
Forums: r/privacy, r/worldnews, r/politics, r/eutech, r/europe, and r/europeanunion
| Ece Yildirim / Gizmodo: |
An experiment finds X's feed algorithm favored conservative content, and switching to the For You feed shifted users' views toward more conservative positions — The algorithm also doesn't like posts by traditional news media, the researchers found. — In case you had any doubt …
More: Nature, Ben Werdmuller, and Forbes
X: @phinifa, @dwallacewells, @razarumi, @ezhuravskaya, @mortenstostad, and @hanaatameez. Mastodon: @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz
Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, r/technology, and r/NoShitSherlock
| CNBC: |
Social media addiction trial: Mark Zuckerberg says increasing engagement on Instagram is not a company goal and that Meta removes underage users it identifies — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushed back against the notion that the social media company made increasing time spent on Instagram a company goal.
More: The Guardian, Business Insider, SFGATE, NBC News, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, BBC, Forbes, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Rolling Stone, NPR, Moneycontrol, The Verge, Times of India, Anadolu Ajansı …, NEOS KOSMOS, Overturned, Tech Times, Livemint, Courthouse News Service, BMI, The Boston Globe, CBS News, Bloomberg, Straight Arrow News, Newser, The Free Press, The Korea Herald, Engadget, Forbes Australia, Wired, Implicator.ai, Deadline, Mashable, Information Age, YouTube, Gizmodo, Business Insider, The Information, Al Jazeera, Washington Examiner, Tech Oversight Project, Semafor, One America News Network, Digital CxO, LAW.com, The American Bazaar, CNN, Breitbart, CBS News, International Business Times, ABC, Fox News, Axios, NewsNation, New York Post, The National, New York Post, The Wrap, Sydney Morning Herald, Agence France-Presse, Android Headlines, Deseret News, MS NOW, Christian Science Monitor, The Sun, Bloomberg, and Quartz
X: @tech_oversight, @kyle_a_morse, @sachalouise, @barnes_law, @matthewstoller, @philthatremains, @tech_oversight, @thewarmonitor, @amy_siskind, and @senblumenthal
LinkedIn: Kelly Stonelake and Nicki Petrossi
Bluesky: @karlbode.com, @alexlaughs, @theresistanceco, and @davelee.me
Forums: r/apple, r/politics, r/politics, r/NPR, r/technology, and r/LegalNews
| Gayoung Lee / Gizmodo: |
Microsoft's Project Silica team details its laser-modified glass storage tech, saying tests suggest that it can preserve information for at least 10,000 years — “This will change the way we think about keeping data and archival preservation.” — Our knowledge of the past comes from stone tablets and old parchment.| The Keyword: |
Google rolls out Lyria 3, a generative music model to make 30-second tracks with Nano Banana-generated cover art, in beta in the Gemini app in eight languages — The Gemini app now features our most advanced music generation model Lyria 3, empowering anyone to make 30-second tracks using text or images in beta.
More: The Verge, Business Standard, Digit, The Deep View, Los Angeles Times, Communicate Online, SiliconANGLE, arabnews.jp, GSMArena.com, Moneycontrol, Ars Technica, Digital Trends, Mashable, The Register, Engadget, MarkTechPost, Android Police, Music Business Worldwide, Thurrott, Gizmodo, SQ Magazine, Mix 1049, Android Central, Campaign Middle East, Neowin, PCMag, Tom's Guide, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, and EFTM
X: @geminiapp, @googledeepmind, @allan_d_clive, @slow_developer, @natlungfy, @joshwoodward, @officiallogank, @jasonbaldridge, @googleai, @stocksavvyshay, @google, @rpnickson, @pyvrma, @kimmonismus, @google, @marcelocaporale, @710_eth, @_philschmid, @iamemily2050, @synthwavedd, and @ammaar
LinkedIn: Jeff Chang and Debbie W.
Forums: r/singularity and Slashdot
| The Guardian: |
The UK proposes new rules requiring tech firms to remove nonconsensual abusive content within 48 hours or risk blocking and fines of up to 10% of global revenue — PM says measure, also applied to deepfake nudes, is needed owing to a ‘national emergency’ of online misogyny
More: BBC, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Mirror, Reuters, Sky News, The Sun, Telegraph, The Indian Express, The Times, GOV.UK, and Ofcom
Forums: r/europe and r/unitedkingdom
| Niko Gallogly / New York Times: |
eBay agrees to acquire secondhand clothing app Depop from Etsy for ~$1.2B in cash; Etsy bought Depop, popular with Gen Z, in 2021 for $1.6B; ETSY jumps 17%+ — The $1.2 billion deal comes as eBay looks to expand its appeal among younger users. — Secondhand clothing apps hit a stride during …
More: Etsy, Inc., Associated Press, The Independent, Economic news, TheJournal.ie, 9News, TechCrunch, BBC, Vogue, SmartCompany, San Francisco Business Times, Dow Jones Newswires, Oktopost, The Business of Fashion, Barron's Online, WWD, The Information, Value Added Resource, Wall Street Journal, Benzinga, CNBC, and Retail TouchPoints
X: @bjornjeffery, @jimcramer, @mikeisaac, and @mikeisaac
| Financial Times: |
Sources: Accenture told executives that promotions would require “regular” AI adoption and it is tracking individual weekly AI tool logins for some senior staff — Consulting firms use ‘carrot and stick’ with some senior staff less willing to use technology than junior colleagues| The Record: |
Texas AG Ken Paxton sues TP-Link, alleging it deceptively markets its products as secure while allowing the CCP to hack into consumers' devices — Texas is suing networking equipment company TP-Link Systems for allegedly allowing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to hack into consumers' devices … | Juli Clover / MacRumors: |
Apple adds support for third-party voice-based conversational apps in CarPlay starting with iOS 26.4, letting CarPlay users access apps like AI chatbots — With iOS 26.4, CarPlay users will be able to use third-party chatbots with CarPlay. AI services like Claude, Gemini …
More: Apple, Moneycontrol, iDrop News, CNET, Car and Driver, Mashable, NERDBOT, AppleInsider, iClarified, iPhone in Canada, Redmond Pie, 9to5Mac, and BGR
| New York Times: |
Meta plans to spend $65M in 2026 to boost AI-friendly state politicians; filings show Meta started two super PACs, one backing the GOP and another for Democrats — Meta's biggest election investment aims to prevent state legislation that it fears could inhibit artificial intelligence development.
More: Wall Street Journal, Originally Reported …, Tech Oversight Project, The Verge, and Political Wire
X: @thegreenebj, @teddyschleifer, @melatkirosco, @likebutterfield, @cernovich, @nathantbernard, @mattplatkin, @rhymewithocean, @jdcocchiarella, @leehepner, @ryangrim, @hbendaas, @teddyschleifer, and @reed_showalter
Bluesky: @vortexegg.com, @mattheweadie, and @sachalouise
Forums: r/politics, r/technology, and Slashdot
| OpenAI: |
OpenAI and Paradigm announce EVMbench, a benchmark that measures how well AI agents can detect, exploit, and patch high-severity smart contract vulnerabilities — Making smart contracts safer by evaluating AI agents' ability to detect, patch, and exploit vulnerabilities in blockchain environments.
More: The Block, Blockonomi, Rohan's Bytes, crypto.news, Cyber Security News, DL News, Decrypt, Cointelegraph, CoinGape, The Crypto Times, CoinDesk, and Paradigm
X: @0xalpo, @openai, @scaling01, @antoniogm, and @gdb
Forums: r/singularity and r/OpenAI
| Alicia Tang / Bloomberg: |
Fei-Fei Li's World Labs raised $1B from Autodesk, a16z, Nvidia, AMD, Sea, and others to build its world models for robotics, scientific discovery, and more — World Labs, a startup from artificial intelligence pioneer Fei-Fei Li, raised $1 billion in a new round of funding to pursue a novel approach to AI development.
More: World Labs, SiliconANGLE, PYMNTS.com, The Deep View, Reuters, Implicator.ai, and Ventureburn
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Bluesky integrates Germ DM, an E2E encrypted messaging app built on AT Protocol, making it the first private messenger natively available in the Bluesky app — Here's something that you've never seen on Big Tech social platforms: The decentralized open social network Bluesky has integrated …
Bluesky: @alexbenzer.com, @evacide, @germnetwork.com, and @germnetwork.com
| Hazel Gandhi / Rest of World: |
Nonprofit What To Fix says Facebook's content monetization program grew from under 3M to over 12M participants in just over a year; 8M+ accounts are in English — And Indonesian creators are leading the charge. — Facebook's new content monetization program is booming …
X: @restofworld
| CEPR: |
A study of 12K+ EU companies finds AI adoption increases labor productivity by 4% on average in the EU, with no evidence of reduced employment in the short run — Artificial intelligence promises to reshape economies worldwide, but firm-level evidence on its effects in Europe remains scarce.
Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot
| Ashley Carman / Bloomberg: |
Apple Podcasts' fresh leap into video podcasts accelerates the podcast industry's shift from an audio-centric medium to a decidedly video-focused one — Apple Podcasts' fresh leap into video podcasts refocuses the audio medium on visuals — Welcome back to Soundbite.| Jeremy White / Wired: |
How Lego's Creative Play Lab built the Smart Brick, its custom chip, sensors, and proprietary communication system to seamlessly integrate with existing sets — Lego's next release is a digital brick loaded with sensors that add new layers of interactivity to its play sets.| Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: |
Indian digital payments company Pine Labs plans to embed OpenAI APIs into its infrastructure to enable AI-assisted settlement, reconciliation, and invoicing — As India pitches itself as a global hub for applied artificial intelligence, OpenAI has partnered with Pine Labs to integrate AI-driven reasoning …
More: The Economic Times and Tech in Asia
| Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg: |
Apple's 40-day correlation to the Nasdaq 100 fell to 0.21 last week, the lowest since 2006, making it an appealing alternative to the AI-fueled volatility — It's been nearly 20 years since Apple Inc. was this untethered from its tech peers, giving investors an appealing alternative … | Bloomberg: |
Crypto lending firm Ledn sold $188M in securitized bonds backed by bitcoin loans, making it the first deal of its kind in the market for asset-backed debt — Crypto lending firm Ledn Inc. has sold $188 million of securitized bonds backed by Bitcoin, making it the first ever deal of its kind in the market for asset-backed debt.
More: CoinDesk, BeInCrypto, Bitcoin Magazine, and The Block
| Karoline Leonard / Austin American-Statesman: |
Austin-based Circuit, which is building an AI platform for manufacturing and service enterprises, raised $30M from a group of angel investors — Austin-based Circuit raises $30 million to tackle a growing manufacturing labor shortage — An Austin startup co-founded by former Silicon Labs CEO Tyson Tuttle …
More: Austin Business Journal, Circuit, circuit.ai, FinSMEs, and Pulse 2.0
| Bloomberg: |
Indian conglomerate Reliance plans to invest up to $110B in building AI-related infrastructure over the next seven years, and JioHotstar plans a ChatGPT bot — Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's conglomerate will plow as much as 10 trillion rupees ($110 billion) over seven years … | Leo Schwartz / Fortune: |
Sports-focused prediction market Novig raised a $75M Series B led by Pantera Capital at a $500M valuation; Novig is commission-free for retail traders — As the prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket dominate the attention of investors and regulators, a sports-focused challenger called Novig …
More: Wall Street Journal, PYMNTS.com, Forerunner, Blockonomi, and Ventureburn
X: @franklinbi, @masonnystrom, and @novig
| Maria Deutscher / SiliconANGLE: |
Selector, which offers an AI platform that promises to simplify network monitoring, raised a $32M Series B led by AVP at a $375M valuation — Network observability provider Selector Software Inc. today announced that it has raised a $32 million funding round at a $375 million valuation.
More: FinSMEs, APMdigest, and Ventureburn
| The Information: |
Sources: Dylan Patel's SemiAnalysis is in early talks to raise hundreds of millions for a VC fund; Patel raised a $50M SPV toward Fluidstack's $700M fundraising — SemiAnalysis, the top chip and infrastructure research firm founded by Dylan Patel, is considering raising money to invest in startups …
X: @beuvingjordy and @anissagardizy8
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: OpenAI is close to finalizing the first phase of its $100B round; its overall valuation, including the eventual funding, could exceed $850B — OpenAI is close to finalizing the first phase of a new funding round that is likely to bring in more than $100 billion … | Joe Miller / Financial Times: |
US OPM Director Scott Kupor says tech billionaires like Elon Musk will give talks to the US Tech Force, which aims to recruit roughly 1,000 software engineers — Programme aims to modernise digital infrastructure of US federal agencies — Tech billionaires such as Elon Musk and Sam Altman … Sponsor Posts
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