Instagram testing feature that lets you secretly watch stories – for a fee

Instagram is testing a paid subscription model that lets users pay a fee to secretly watch stories on the social media app, among other perks.

Jury finds Instagram and YouTube liable in landmark social media addiction trial

Meta and YouTube were found liable in a landmark Los Angeles lawsuit for "engineered addiction" and harming a child's mental health through negligent platform design.

Is X down? Over 26k reports of outages on Wednesday

Over 26,000 users reported problems with X, formerly known as Twitter, as outage reports surged Wednesday morning.

Father's viral TikTok brings thousands of Latinos to national donor database

A father posted his first TikTok this month, in a last-ditch effort to find a bone marrow donor for his teenage son. His plea to the Latino community to join the National Marrow Donor Program went viral, and encouraged thousands of people to sign up. 

Mark Zuckerberg testifies in landmark social media addiction trial

Mark Zuckerberg is testifying Wednesday in a major social media trial. The plaintiff in the case is seeking to hold Meta and other social media organizations responsible for harms to children who use their platforms.

Texas sues Snapchat alleging addictive design and child safety violations

Texas has filed a lawsuit against Snap, Inc., alleging the company misleads parents about Snapchat’s safety while using "addictive" design features and mature content that put children at risk.

Meta researcher warned of 500K child exploitation cases daily on Facebook and Instagram platforms

A researcher for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, warned executives at the tech giant that there may be upward of 500,000 cases of sexual exploitation of minors per day on the social media platforms.

Trump shares video of Obamas as apes in Truth Social post

President Trump shared a video late Thursday portraying the Obamas as apes. A Republican senator called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House."

70 animals rescued from alleged neglect in Texas
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Humane World for Animals, formerly called the Humane Society of the United States, is assisting the Runnels County Sheriff’s Office with the rescue of over 60 dogs and puppies, as well as several chickens, horses, ducks and geese from an alleged neglect case in Ballinger, Texas. Responders from Operation Kindness Humane Society and the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City are also assisting on scene.

Elon Musk’s X office raided in Paris

Paris prosecutors raided Elon Musk’s X office in Paris as part of a months-long investigation into child abuse images and deepfakes.

Meta and YouTube facing landmark trial related to youth addiction claims

The two major tech companies will face a jury trial for the first time over allegations that their social platforms have contributed to youth mental health issues.

Pinterest to layoff 15% of workforce as it pivots to AI

Pinterest plans to lay off under 15% of its workforce as the image-sharing platform pivots more of its money to artificial intelligence.

TikTok strikes deal to create US entity

TikTok signed agreements with major investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX to form a new American entity.

Ads coming to ChatGPT for some US users

OpenAI said Friday that it would start rolling out ads in ChatGPT to some U.S. users.