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February 19, 2026, 8:00 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: Benzinga, The European Conservative, GB News, Reclaim The Net, and The Post Millennial
X: @as400495, @florian4gamers, @jamestitcomb, @ordinarygamers, @elonmusk, @g_slattery, @developerharris, @alx, and @nickadobos
Bluesky: @emptywheel, @petertl, @marypcbuk, @carnage4life, @benfenton, @parismarx.com, @tyleraking.com, @bcmerchant, @kendrawrites.com, @abeardedpanda, @realjuicyjay.blacksky.app, @noupside, @alexanotherone, @caseynewton, @originalsp.in, @markjacob, @lottelydia, @davidcorn, @lepetitereboot, @brainnotonyet, @5-2blue, @ndrew, @explaintrade.com, @froomkin, @davidakaye, @tjmcintyre.com, @mbkplus, @waldo.net, @fritzbischoff, @paleofuture, and @lukesteuber.com
Mastodon: @evacide@hachyderm.io and @kevinrothrock@infosec …
Forums: r/privacy, r/politics, r/worldnews, r/eutech, r/europe, and r/europeanunion
| Aisha Down / The Guardian: |
Sources and docs: the US “effectively gutted” the Internet Freedom program that dispensed $500M+ since 2016 to help build tech to evade state internet controls — Programme that funds groups building tech to evade oppressive government controls under serious threat| New York Times: |
Inside India's AI Impact Summit: 300+ exhibitors, 500 sessions, 250K visitors, billions in investment, and entrepreneurs touting solutions to real-world issues — The event promised to be a global coming-out party for India's artificial intelligence aspirations.
More: The Guardian, Bloomberg, Reuters, Bloomberg, Reuters, Bloomberg, Politico, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, and Bloomberg. X: @madhavchanchani
| Saritha Rai / Bloomberg: |
More: The Economic Times, Business Today, BMI, Daily Sabah, Business Insider, The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, and Livemint
X: @siddharthb_, @prathamgrv, @ns123abc, @pitdesi, @indianidle, @hopes_revenge, @autismcapital, @trendulkar, @ani, @sidhant, @himanshustwts, and @yuchenj_uw. Bluesky: @shona
| Cherylann Mollan / BBC: |
| Bloomberg: |
More: TechCrunch, Business Today, Nikkei Asia, Reuters, MediaNews4U, Forbes, Inc42, Dow Jones Newswires, Variety, Times of India, The Indian Express, The Economic Times, Hindustan Times, Reuters, Nikkei Asia, Tech in Asia, Bloomberg, Business Standard, Fortune India, BMI, and Press Trust of India. X: @himanshiet
| Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: |
| 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, AppleInsider, Business Insider, SFGATE, New York Times, NBC News, Los Angeles Times, Benzinga, Rolling Stone, BBC, Forbes, NPR, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Anadolu Ajansı …, Times of India, CNN, Tech Times, Courthouse News Service, BMI, The Boston Globe, Moneycontrol, The Korea Herald, The Verge, Wired, Deadline, Information Age, Business Insider, The Information, Tech Oversight Project, Newser, NEOS KOSMOS, Implicator.ai, NewsNation, CBS News, Washington Examiner, Engadget, Bloomberg, Livemint, BERNAMA, Straight Arrow News, Mashable, Forbes Australia, Al Jazeera, The Free Press, Overturned, Gizmodo, YouTube, Semafor, One America News Network, Digital CxO, LAW.com, The American Bazaar, CNN, Breitbart, CBS News, ABC, Fox News, Axios, New York Post, The National, New York Post, The Wrap, Sydney Morning Herald, Deseret News, Bloomberg, and Quartz
X: @tech_oversight, @kyle_a_morse, @philthatremains, @tech_oversight, @thewarmonitor, @amy_siskind, @barnes_law, @matthewstoller, @sachalouise, and @senblumenthal. LinkedIn: Kelly Stonelake
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.
More: Microsoft Research, Nature, Ars Technica, DatacenterDynamics, Microsoft Research, Help Net Security, New Scientist, ITPro, PCWorld, Digital Trends, The Register, GovTech, LiveScience, Science, The Guardian, and The Independent
X: @satyanadella. LinkedIn: Satya Nadella. Mastodon: @hkrn@mstdn.social. Forums: r/technology and Ars OpenForum
| 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., Reuters, Yahoo Finance, Silicon Republic, Mirror, RTÉ, ChannelX, Barron's Online, City A.M., Associated Press, The Independent, Economic news, Tech in Asia, SmartCompany, 9News, TheIndustry.fashion, Dow Jones Newswires, Sky News, The Information, WWD, The Business of Fashion, Vogue, Oktopost, TechCrunch, San Francisco Business Times, BBC, BusinessCloud, TheJournal.ie, Value Added Resource, Benzinga, and Wall Street Journal
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| 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 … | Michael Lynton / Wall Street Journal: |
Book extract: ex-Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton recounts his role in sparking North Korea's 2014 hack, one of the worst cyberattacks in corporate history — In an exclusive book excerpt, the former CEO of Sony Entertainment opens up about his role in unleashing one of the worst cyberattacks in corporate history.| 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, GOV.UK, Ofcom, The Indian Express, The Times, Sky News, Telegraph, Mirror, Reuters, and The Sun
Bluesky: @pqpolitics and @tristangrayford.scot
Forums: r/unitedkingdom and r/europe
| 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, Macworld, iThinkDifferent, Digital Trends, Ghacks, Moneycontrol, NERDBOT, Car and Driver, Mashable, iDrop News, CNET, 9to5Mac, and BGR
| 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 and Ben Werdmuller
Mastodon: @johnnyryan@eupolicy.social, @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz, @leavex@mastodon.social, and @metin@graphics.social
Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, r/technology, and r/NoShitSherlock
| 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: Moneycontrol, Livemint, WinBuzzer, Economic news, Phandroid, Tech Times, GSMArena.com, The Verge, Ghacks, The Deep View, SammyGuru, Los Angeles Times, Communicate Online, Digit, arabnews.jp, Business Standard, SiliconANGLE, The Rundown AI, Ars Technica, Digital Trends, Mashable, The Register, 9to5Google, SQ Magazine, Mix 1049, Campaign Middle East, Neowin, PCMag, Tom's Guide, TechCrunch, and EFTM
X: @geminiapp, @googledeepmind, @jasonbaldridge, @iamemily2050, @kimmonismus, @slow_developer, @pyvrma, @marcelocaporale, @710_eth, @natlungfy, @rpnickson, @allan_d_clive, @ammaar, @stocksavvyshay, @jasonbaldridge, @_philschmid, @google, @google, @googleai, @officiallogank, @synthwavedd, and @joshwoodward
LinkedIn: Eyal Rozenberg, PhD, Cătălina Cangea, PhD, Jeff Chang, and Debbie W.
Forums: r/singularity and Slashdot
| 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 … | 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: Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, BeInCrypto, and Bitcoin Magazine
| 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.| Spencer Soper / Bloomberg: |
Amazon overtakes Walmart as the world's largest company by revenue, reporting $717B in 2025 sales compared to Walmart's $713.2B for the 12 months to January 31 — Amazon.com Inc. has officially dethroned Walmart Inc. as the biggest global company by revenue, a milestone attesting …
More: Fortune, New York Times, and Sherwood News
| Bloomberg: |
Russian forces in Ukraine face communications issues as SpaceX restricts Starlink access and Telegram faces a crackdown, per pro-Russian military channels — Russian forces fighting in Ukraine are facing communications problems from the dual blow of restricted access to Elon Musk's Starlink …
More: Economic news and The War Zone
| Bloomberg: |
Atlassian's founders lost ~$7.2B in wealth in 2026, behind AppLovin's three founders, amid an SaaS rout; TEAM dropped ~48% YTD, the Nasdaq 100's worst performer — Michael Cannon-Brookes became a billionaire in his 30s and one of Australia's richest tech executives with the initial public offering … | Jyoti Mann / The Information: |
Sources: Meta has revived a previously shelved smartwatch project, now code-named Malibu 2, and plans to release it in 2026 with health features and Meta AI — Meta Platforms plans to release its first smartwatch in 2026, according to two people familiar with the matter.
More: Benzinga, MacRumors, The Hans India, Forbes, The Verge, PhoneArena, Digital Trends, Reuters, Android Authority, The Asia Business Daily, T3, CNET, and Tom's Guide. X: @pitdesi
| 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: Moneycontrol, The Economic Times, and Tech in Asia
| 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
| 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, Help Net Security, crypto.news, Cyber Security News, Tech in Asia, Blockonomi, DL News, Cointelegraph, Rohan's Bytes, Decrypt, and Paradigm
X: @scaling01, @antoniogm, @gdb, @0xalpo, and @openai
Forums: r/singularity and r/OpenAI
| Kurt Schussler / Bloomberg: |
Samsung shares surged 5.4% to a record high after a report said the company plans to price HBM4 chips at ~$700 per unit, 30% higher than the previous generation — Samsung Electronics Co. shares jumped to a fresh record high Thursday, after local media reported that the firm is negotiating … | 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.Sponsor Posts
Airtable:
The central nervous system of your business — Used by 80% of Fortune 100 companies, Airtable combines AI with the scale of an infinitely flexible, no-code system. With all your data in one place, it's like mission control for your company.
The central nervous system of your business — Used by 80% of Fortune 100 companies, Airtable combines AI with the scale of an infinitely flexible, no-code system. With all your data in one place, it's like mission control for your company.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform — Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN. That's the power of Intel Inside®
5G's most deployed platform — Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN. That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
AI that actually helps: Practical intelligence in Zoho Workplace — Lately, most AI assistants feel like that one over-eager intern who interrupts every five minutes with a suggestion you didn't ask for.At Zoho …
AI that actually helps: Practical intelligence in Zoho Workplace — Lately, most AI assistants feel like that one over-eager intern who interrupts every five minutes with a suggestion you didn't ask for.At Zoho …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
Channels with Peter Kafka:
The World's Cup Is Coming to Trump's America, with Roger Bennett
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Invest Like the Best:
John Arnold - China, Energy Markets and Fixing America's Systems
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
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The Social Radars:
Peter Reinhardt, CEO & co-founder, Charm Industrial; CEO & co-founder, Segment
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
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Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Garry Tan, Harj Taggar, and Jared Friedman from YC
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
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Acquired:
Formula 1
Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
His Excellency Khaldoon Al Mubarak: Investing in an AI-Driven World
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
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| New York Times: |
More: New York Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Originally Reported …, The Verge, and Political Wire
X: @melatkirosco, @likebutterfield, @nathantbernard, @mattplatkin, @rhymewithocean, @jdcocchiarella, @reed_showalter, @hbendaas, @cernovich, @thegreenebj, @ryangrim, @leehepner, @teddyschleifer, and @teddyschleifer
Bluesky: @vortexegg.com, @mattheweadie, and @sachalouise
Forums: r/BetterOffline, r/politics, r/technology, and Slashdot
| Alicia Tang / Bloomberg: |
More: World Labs, Silicon Republic, Fortune, Tech in Asia, Reuters, Implicator.ai, SiliconANGLE, The Deep View, and PYMNTS.com