Twitter returned to its role of punching bag Wednesday over suggestions of partisan bias, at a US House hearing grilling CEO Jack Dorsey. A Senate hearing earlier in the day, which also questioned Facebook‘s Sheryl Sandberg, barely mentioned political censorship, but the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee opened its session with words about bias and “shadow …
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Netflix is testing a way to get around the fees it must pay Apple when people sign up and pay for subscriptions through iTunes The streaming-video giant is telling new or lapsed customers in markets across Europe, Latin America and Asia that iTunes payments are unavailable and is redirecting them to subscribe via a mobile version of Netflix’s own site, according to …
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On this podcast, we talk about: CNET’s review of the Galaxy Note 9, which reviewer Jessica Dolcourt calls a big, beautiful (but not super innovative) phone with a hefty price tag. T-Mobile’s latest freebie, which gives customers a year of Pandora Plus gratis. Now playing: Watch this: Galaxy Note 9: Is it really worth it? (The 3:59, Ep…. 4:52 The …
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The video that spurred Twitter to suspend Alex Jones remained live and viewable for almost a day on Periscope, the livestreaming app owned by… Twitter. On Tuesday, Twitter cut off Jones from key functions of his personal account for a week, after the founder and star of conspiracy site Infowars violated Twitter policy by linking to a snippet of video that …
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Google‘s YouTube is paying its digital stars up to hundreds of thousands of dollars to vouch for new features it rolls out, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the deals. In a statement, YouTube said it has “no new initiative in place.” “We have always invested in our creators’ success and will continue to do so to ensure they have a …
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On this podcast, we talk about Magic Leap One, a headset that overlays interactive digital images on top of the real world. It’s been a figment of Silicon Valley hype for years, but the secretive startup is finally letting the technology roam outside its own compound — with a $2,295 price tag and limited distribution. Read about our on-site visit and how …
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In a move presaged by weeks of mounting pressure, Apple, Facebook, Google’s YouTube and Spotify cracked down on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars media empire, removing wide swathes of content or terminating his accounts entirely. All the actions seemed to happen within 24 hours. Was it a long-overdue crackdown or a conspiracy of censorship? That depends on who you …
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Alex Jones, the founder, owner and star of conspiracy site Infowars, has been kicked off YouTube. The Alex Jones Channel, Infowars’ biggest YouTube account with 2.4 million subscribers, now simply bears the message “this account has been terminated for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.” YouTube has a “three strikes” policy that terminates accounts after three violations of its community guidelines within …
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Amazon is getting some prime real estate on Comcast’s X1 service. On Thursday, Amazon and Comcast said that they’ll incorporate Amazon’s streaming video service onto X1, the cable company’s high-tech pay-TV service, used by about 62 percent of its customers. The new partnership means Amazon’s library of streaming video will be available and searchable on Comcast X1, like a regular …
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Facebook is directing $4.5 million toward helping the news industry, by donating to a fund for nonprofit newsrooms and kicking off a program to help publishers that need memberships to make money. The world’s largest social network, which earned more than $5 billion in profit in its latest three-month quarter, said earlier this year that it would renew its focus …
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