Facebook on Tuesday announced new tools for making money off the social network, like direct merchandise sales, for pubic figures including musicians and bands, actors, athletes and authors. The company also said it’s testing features designed to help public figures widen their audiences, adding tools like fancy stickers to engage with fans and sharing new …

YouTube Wednesday announced massive changes to how it treats kids videos, as the US Federal Trade Commission hit Google with new rules and a record $170 million penalty to settle a probe into the privacy of children’s data on giant video site. It’s the largest penalty ever levied for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.  YouTube’s CEO and some …

After a year and a half of waiting, the YouTubers Union demanded YouTube respond to its complaints by Friday or one of the world’s biggest traditional labor unions would take the video site and parent company Google to court. Hours before the deadline, Google answered: The company will meet, but it won’t negotiate. “We explained to the union in great detail …

A YouTubers Union has joined forces with one of the biggest traditional labor unions in the world, exerting a pressure campaign against the massive video site. They want YouTube and parent company Google to negotiate on demands like exposing the rules of its algorithms. If they don’t respond by Friday, the unions could take them to court.  But you wouldn’t know it by following …

An anonymous post to the notorious 4chan imageboard on Saturday appears to have provided details of Jeffrey Epstein’s death before the first news reports of the disgraced financier’s suspected suicide. The 4chan post, which was earlier reported by Buzzfeed News, was published more than a half hour before the initial news reports that Epstein, who was held on charges of …

 Wonderscope, an augmented reality storytelling app for Apple devices, added a new interactive experience to its library of immersive, educational stories Tuesday: Clio’s Cosmic Quest brings young readers along for a journey with a cute purple space particle (who’s dealing with a jerk in her nebula) as she learns about stars, supernovas and our solar system.  Wonderscope is one of the first …

Samsung on Wednesday unveiled a quick scanning feature to its new Galaxy Note 10 phone that lets you walk around an object and quickly get a seemingly photo-realistic 3D scan of it in seconds.  During a demo at the Note 10 launch event, Samsung’s 3D scanner app created a virtual version of a stuffed pink animal called Bobby. By pacing …

Facebook, Twitter and Google aren’t prepared for deepfakes ahead of the US presidential election, a top Congressman said after the tech giants sent letters last week about how they deal with high-tech doctored videos and other kinds of media manipulation. The companies “have begun thinking seriously” about the challenges, said Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, but it’s their responsibility …

YouTube changed its recommendation algorithm for kid-oriented videos to prioritize “quality” content, the company said Wednesday. The tweak last month diverted traffic away from some channels and flooded others, according to a Bloomberg article that first reported the news.  YouTube confirmed the change in a statement. “We make hundreds of changes every year to make it easier for people to find what they want …

The four big broadcasters in the US — Disney‘s ABC, CBS, Fox and Comcast’s NBCUniversal — are suing a small, nonprofit streaming service, called Locast, which grabs over-the-air channels and makes them available to stream. The Locast service is available in 13 cities, including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  The suit is the first attack against a company that many see …