TikTok kept a safety fix from 15 million US users “by design,” a sealed document shows. One was a teenager who died.
TikTok kept a safety fix from 15 million US users “by design,” a sealed document shows. One was a teenager who died.

In 2021, TikTok changed its algorithm to stop users being flooded with harmful content. But it did not give the safer version to everyone. It held 10% of US users on the old version, about 15 million people at the time. It wanted to test whether the sa…

Snap is losing its $10 users and gaining $1 ones. It beat anyway, and the stock jumped.
Snap is losing its $10 users and gaining $1 ones. It beat anyway, and the stock jumped.

Snap had a good quarter, and the market treated it like a rescue. The shares jumped after hours, up as much as 13%, once the company beat estimates. The catch is where that rally begins: a stock near its all-time lows, down about 37% this year. The hea…

OpenAI flew influencers to a nature resort to fix its image. The internet called it greenwashing.
OpenAI flew influencers to a nature resort to fix its image. The internet called it greenwashing.

OpenAI has an image problem, and it just spent a weekend making it worse. The company flew a group of influencers to a luxury resort to soften how the public sees AI. The internet took one look and called it greenwashing. The event, branded “Summer Cam…

TikTok has never let a teen-addiction case reach a jury. It just settled three more.
TikTok has never let a teen-addiction case reach a jury. It just settled three more.

TikTok has a consistent answer to the lawsuits accusing it of harming children: settle, quietly, before a jury sees the evidence. On Monday it did so again. The company has agreed to settle three cases it was scheduled to fight in October, Reuters repo…

MySpace coming back — again — is no surprise; I’m only shocked it’s not been announced as the first all-AI social media platform

Myspace’s owners promise a revival, but with myriad questions about the relaunch swirling, we can reach only one likely and unfortunate conclusion.

Bluesky’s new CEO wants a big tent, not a bubble
Bluesky’s new CEO wants a big tent, not a bubble

Today, I’m talking with Toni Schneider, who is the brand new CEO of the social platform Bluesky — he formally took over after a short stint as interim CEO. This is one of my favorite kinds of interviews to do on Decoder, because a couple years ago, we had Bluesky’s prior CEO, Jay Graber, on […]

‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Slings Record Brand Deals. The Brands On Screen Tell The Real Story.

‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ set a $309 million promotional campaign record. But the brands that paid to appear on screen tell the real story about advertising’s future.

Do you support banning phones in schools? A new poll suggests 77% of adults are now in favor of a classroom ban
Do you support banning phones in schools? A new poll suggests 77% of adults are now in favor of a classroom ban

A new poll suggests that an overwhelming majority of adults support a classroom ban on phones. TechRadar readers can make their opinion known here.

Snapchat’s Spotlight algorithm now favors human-made videos over AI-generated ones

Snapchat will stop recommending fully AI generated videos on Spotlight, favoring authentic human made content instead, while still allowing AI edited videos to appear.

A $2 sticker defeats the one feature holding Meta’s ‘pervert glasses’ together
A $2 sticker defeats the one feature holding Meta’s ‘pervert glasses’ together

Meta’s answer to the “pervert glasses” problem was a small light. It switches on when the camera records, to warn anyone nearby. A sticker costing a couple of dollars switches it off. Engadget’s Karissa Bell tested the workarounds now on sale, cheap LE…