As COVID-19 vaccines are becoming more readily available to larger groups of the U.S. population, Facebook has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to launch new Facebook profile frames that allow users to share their support for getting vaccinated with their […]
Facebook has some thoughts and updates about its News Feed, Siri gets some new voices and Tonal becomes a unicorn. This is your Daily Crunch for March 31, 2021. The big story: Facebook makes it easier to view a non-algorithmic News Feed Facebook highlighted features today that should make it easier for users to see […]
Amazon has acquired a startup in India that is helping offline stores go online, the e-commerce group’s latest attempt to make inroads in the world’s second most populous nation where brick and mortar continue to drive more than 95% of sales. The American e-commerce group said on Tuesday evening that it has acquired Perpule, a […]
Like other venture investors over the past year, Cain McClary, co-founder of the investment firm KdT Ventures, recently made the jump to Austin. But unlike the rest of them, he was coming from Black Mountain, North Carolina. McClary spent the better part of the last three years with his co-founder Mack Healy building out a […]
Big tech is back on the virtual hill. Three of tech’s most prominent CEOs will appear before the House Energy and Commerce committee today at 9 a.m. PT as lawmakers grill the companies on their failure to contain disinformation and extremism. In opening statements made available before the hearing, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey […]
WhatsApp’s planned policy changes aren’t sailing smoothly in India, the instant messaging service’s biggest market by users. Indian antitrust body Competition Commission of India on Wednesday ordered (PDF) an investigation into WhatsApp’s privacy policy changes, saying that the Facebook-owned service breached local antitrust laws in the guise of a policy update. The Indian watchdog has […]
Facebook is building a Clubhouse rival, The New York Times reported in February. But what that product will look like or how it will work have been questions that have remained unanswered. However, new screenshots of a Facebook audio product, still under development, show what appears to be a live audio broadcast experience that’s more […]
As WhatsApp spends months to address users’ concerns and confusion about its planned policy update, there is evidently one entity it hasn’t had much luck making inroads with: The government of India. The Indian government alleged on Friday that WhatsApp’s planned privacy update, which goes into effect in two months, violates local laws on several […]
Victories notwithstanding, the 2020 election blew up many of the assumptions Democrats have long held about the American electorate. In Florida, Arizona and elsewhere, Latino voters broke for Trump in unexpected numbers, upending conventional wisdom that the growing Spanish-speaking population will reliably vote the same way — and vote blue. Polling again failed to capture […]
Facebook this morning announced it will increase the penalties against its rule-breaking Facebook Groups and their members, alongside other changes designed to reduce the visibility of groups’ potentially harmful content. The company says it will now remove civic and political groups from its recommendations in markets outside the U.S., and will further restrict the reach […]