Frances Haugen hopes The Social Reckoning will inspire more whistleblowers
Frances Haugen hopes The Social Reckoning will inspire more whistleblowers

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen was mostly unfazed watching Oscar-winning actress Mikey Madison play a character named after her in The Social Reckoning, except for one thing: the wrist warmers. In Aaron Sorkin’s new thriller, the fictional Haugen – who, like her nonfictional counterpart, leaks thousands of documents to Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz – […]

YouTube, Meta, and Twitch won’t say if they’ll allow the US government to livestream an execution
YouTube, Meta, and Twitch won’t say if they’ll allow the US government to livestream an execution

YouTube, Twitch, Meta, and X aren’t saying whether they’ll allow the US government to livestream an execution on their platforms. The four companies didn’t respond to The Verge’s requests for comment after an unnamed Pentagon official said yesterday that the execution of Nidal Hasan, who was convicted of a mass shooting at a Texas military […]

Meta is banning TikTok ads across its platforms
Meta is banning TikTok ads across its platforms

Meta has banned ads from TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance across the US and several other countries as the rivalry between the major social media operators heats up, as reported earlier by Bloomberg. The ban, which went into effect on Thursday, restricts ads and paid marketing messages from ByteDance, along with third-party ads that link […]

Meta blocks TikTok ads on Facebook and Instagram in the US and Japan
Meta blocks TikTok ads on Facebook and Instagram in the US and Japan

Meta has banned ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, from advertising on Facebook and Instagram in seven countries, including the US, Bloomberg News reported. The ban took effect immediately in the US, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thail…

Zuckerberg called Muse ready despite the risks, New York Times reports
Zuckerberg called Muse ready despite the risks, New York Times reports

In August, Mark Zuckerberg met Meta’s chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, and its head of AI product, Nat Friedman, Eli Tan reported for The New York Times on Friday. They discussed Instinct, a 14-person start-up whose AI agent was taking off. Zuckerberg …

Are you ready for everything to look like TikTok?
Are you ready for everything to look like TikTok?

Since TikTok burst into mainstream consciousness, many things have been called a “TikTok clone”: YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Snapchat Spotlight, Netflix’s Clips, LinkedIn’s vertical video feed, and countless other, less recognizable names like Triller, Zynn, and Byte. For years now, Facebook and Instagram have pumped users’ feeds with video as Meta chases TikTok’s runaway success. […]

ICO secures data protection changes from 10 AI developers, turns to agents
ICO secures data protection changes from 10 AI developers, turns to agents

Ten of the biggest AI developers have made, or committed to make, changes to how they handle personal data. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) secured the changes after two years of scrutiny. The data regulator named them on Thursday: Ama…

Can you trust Meta’s Muse or OpenAI’s Dots to run your life?
Can you trust Meta’s Muse or OpenAI’s Dots to run your life?

My Decoder guest today is Hayden Field, The Verge’s senior AI reporter, and we’re discussing the new wave of consumer-friendly AI agents. If you’ve been paying attention to this space, you know AI enthusiasts have been using agents for a minute now — homebrew OpenClaw setups led to a surge in Mac Mini sales earlier […]

China’s Manus raises over $500M in first funding round since split with Meta

Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the funding round, and existing shareholders Tencent, HSG (formerly known as Sequoia China), ZhenFund and others also participated.

Zendesk CEO Tom Eggemeier says Meta’s Muse saved him $3,105 in five days
Zendesk CEO Tom Eggemeier says Meta’s Muse saved him $3,105 in five days

Zendesk will end the year with about $400m of AI revenue, up from about zero two years ago, chief executive Tom Eggemeier told TNW. Most of it comes from AI agents that customers pay for only when they resolve a case. Eggemeier has run Zendesk since la…