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Breaking down TikTok’s legal arguments around free speech, national security claims
Social media platform TikTok says that a bill banning the app in the U.S. is “unconstitutional” and that it will fight this latest attempt to restrict its use in court. The bill in question, which President Joe Biden signed Wednesday, gives Chinese parent company ByteDance nine months to divest TikTok or face a ban on […] © 2024 TechCrunch.
Gen Z is losing its political voice on social media
President Joe Biden signed the bill this week that could ban TikTok from the U.S. if its parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform. According to young political content creators, the ban could decimate Gen Z’s access to political news and information. “An unfortunately large amount of 18- to 24-year-olds find out information about lo
FCC officially votes to reinstate net neutrality
This restores, with some changes and protections, the rules passed back in 2015 allowing the FCC to enforce basic rules of connectivity and fairness in broadband. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Rubrik’s shares climb 20% in its public debut
This share price gives Rubrik a fully diluted valuation of $6.6 billion, up 88% from its last primary valuation of $3.5 billion in 2019. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Bluesky backs a project that would let Mastodon apps, like Ivory, work with its network
SkyBridge was among the recipients of a small distribution of $4,800 in grant funding from Bluesky, distributed across projects. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Threads launches custom mute filters, teases controls for quote posts
Threads and Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced today that Threads is launching a new feature that lets users filter out words and phrases from their feeds and mentions. The “Hidden Words” feature automatically mutes common words, phrases, and emojis that might be offensive to users. In addition to these preset filters, users can add their [
After 6-year hiatus, Stripe to start taking crypto payments, starting with USDC stablecoin
The company announced that it would start to let customers accept cryptocurrency payments, starting with USDC stablecoins, initially only on Solana, Ethereum and Polygon © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Chilean instant payments API startup Fintoc raises $7 million to turn Mexico into its main market
Fintoc's API lets online businesses accept instant payments coming directly from the customer's bank account. This method, known as A2A, offers an alternative to credit card transactions. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
TechCrunch Minute: FTC bans noncompetes, court challenge incoming
The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 this week to ban noncompete agreements. While the FTC estimates that nearly one in five American workers is subject to a noncompete, these agreements haven’t been a huge issue in Silicon Valley, because they’re not enforceable in California. This has arguably been one of the region’s competitive advantag
RevenueCat raises $12M Series C as it expands its subscription management to the web
With RevenueCat Billing, essentially a web SDK, developers can accept subscription payments from any website. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Paystand acquires Teampay to be DeFi version of ‘Venmo for B2B payments’
“Teampay represents this new class of fintech companies that came up,” said Paystand CEO Jeremy Almond. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The impact of TikTok’s ban in other countries could signal what’s ahead for the US
On April 24, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok if its owner ByteDance doesn’t sell the app. The bill requires ByteDance to secure a deal within nine months, with a 90-day extension available to close it. After this deadline, the U.S. will bar app stores from listing the app. TikTok […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights r
Petlibro’s new smart refrigerated wet food feeder is what your cat deserves
Petlibro, pet tech startup that designs automatic food dispensers for cats, launched its first refrigerated smart feeder. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Carv raises $10M Series A to help gamers monetize their data
Carv, a data layer platform that lets web3 gaming and AI companies, as well as gamers, control and monetize their data, has raised a $10 million Series A round led by Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures. Carv’s new round comes approximately five months after it received a strategic investment led by HashKey Capital. The startup […] © 2024 TechCr
Ex-NSA hacker and ex-Apple researcher launch startup to protect Apple devices
Two veteran security experts are launching a startup that aims to help other makers of cybersecurity products to up their game in protecting Apple devices. Their startup is called DoubleYou, the name taken from the initials of its co-founder, Patrick Wardle, who worked at the U.S. National Security Agency between 2006 and 2008. Wardle then […] ©
India’s ICICI Bank exposed thousands of credit cards to ‘wrong’ users
ICICI Bank, one of India’s top private banks, exposed the sensitive data of thousands of new credit cards to customers who were not their intended recipients. The Mumbai-based bank confirmed to TechCrunch Thursday that its digital channels “erroneously mapped” about 17,000 credit cards issued in the past few days to “wrong” users. The iss
Watch it and weep (or smile): Synthesia’s AI video avatars now feature emotions
Its latest version features avatars that provide more emotion, better lip tracking, and what Synthesia says are more expressive natural and human movements when they are fed text to generate videos. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta could face further squeeze on surveillance ads model in EU
Meta’s tracking ads business could be facing further legal blows in the European Union: An influential adviser to the bloc’s top court affirmed Thursday that the region’s privacy laws limit how long people’s data can be used for targeted advertising. In the non-legally binding opinion, Advocate General Athanasios Rantos said use of personal
TikTok pulls feature from Lite app in EU over addiction concerns
TikTok suspended a gamification feature in the European Union following an intervention by the bloc. With attention on TikTok’s growing pile of U.S. legal woes, the announcement went mostly unnoticed when it occurred late local time Wednesday. TikTok’s move came just two days after the EU opened an investigation into a “task and reward” mec
Playruo lets you try game demos from your web browser
It’s still unclear whether cloud gaming will ever become the next big thing. The appeal is clear: The game you’re playing runs in a data center near you, and the video output is directly streamed to your local device. When you interact with the game, everything is relayed back to the data center. When it […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights res