How X proved the EU’s point for them by banning them from advertising on the platform in response to a fine.
PLUS from me: the tldr of the Netflix vs Paramount battle over Warner Bros
www.platformer.news/x-eu-fine-ac...
How a judge was persuaded to decide that Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp didn’t make an illegal monopoly.
PLUS: the launch of Gemini 3, which is already outperforming its competitors on multiple benchmarks
www.platformer.news/ftc-loses-me...
John List, a professor at the University of Chicago, recruited 6,000 participants for a study. With permission, he installed tracking software on their phones. And then he made them an offer: for every hour that the participant did not use Facebook or Instagram, he would pay them $4. (Participants only had to give up one app; the Facebook holdout group was allowed to use Instagram and vice versa.) Most participants were happy to stop using Meta products for a few dollars; their usage fell by about two-thirds. More important, though, is what they did on their phones without Facebook or Instagram. And it wasn’t using MeWe.
In the end, all it took down to bring down the government's case against Meta was a simple experiment www.platformer.news/ftc-loses-me...
New analysis in Platformer’s Following feed from me: AI toys marketed towards children can share inappropriate content with them, a new report suggests. In one egregious example, a toy talked about sexual kinks, where to find knives, and how to make a fire.
www.platformer.news/california-a...
NEW: a profile on Sarah Levy, CEO at digital advisor Betterment, and how she's weathering the storm through the market’s tariff-induced swings.
www.forbes.com/sites/lindse...
SCOOP: Shortly after senior Trump officials discussed the bombing of Yemen in a Signal group chat that just happened to include the Atlantic's editor in chief, a subset of the group feasted at a secret dinner featuring Trump where guests were asked to pay $1 million apiece to join. wrd.cm/41Yztbw
1/ The Beretta family has sold firearms for 499 years. But it became the world's largest gunmaker by not sticking to its guns, expanding into scopes, clothing and now ammo. I profiled the family's 15th generation CEO Pietro Gussalli Beretta for @forbes.com: www.forbes.com/sites/giacom...
“They have, by now, so many tentacles in so many agencies that anything is possible. The only certainty is that it’s happening in secret.”
www.wired.com/story/the-us...
New: Alex Jones' engagement on X has soared under Elon Musk’s ownership, according to a new analysis.
Is it X's algorithm? Forbes identified over 150 people who have posted on X complaining about Jones appearing in their "For You" feeds since October.
www.forbes.com/sites/johnhy...
TikTok is difficult to value.
Keeping those complications in mind—we spoke with at least nine people for @forbes.com about why + broke down a few different scenarios ahead of the Supreme Court's potential ruling on the TikTok U.S. ban, which could happen any minute.
www.forbes.com/sites/phoebe...
Forbes has a scoop on the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni scandal today.
Those “It Ends with Us” costars have gotten most of the attention in the escalating dispute, but another defendant in Lively's case—who's preparing to sue her back as soon as today—is the billionaire Steve Sarowitz.
The Amazon founder sold nearly $14 billion worth of stock so far in 2024–more than any other U.S. #billionaire. Here’s why #JeffBezos paid $1 billion less in taxes by moving to Florida.
My latest for @forbes.com:
www.forbes.com/sites/phoebe...
A new $350 billion value for @spacex.extwitter.link helped to lift #ElonMusk's net worth to a historic record high—more than for any billionaire @forbes.com has ever tracked. This is an unfathomable amount of wealth for one person to amass.
www.forbes.com/sites/phoebe...
New story from Sarah Emerson, @amyfeldman7.bsky.social, @ebakerwhite.bsky.social and I on Luigi Mangione's reddit history, which was focused on travel gear, Pokemon Go -- and spinal pain.
www.forbes.com/sites/sarahe...
NEW: what to know about ghost guns, the type of weapon apparently used by suspect Luigi Mangione in the UHC CEO shooting, and why they (especially 3D printed ones) are increasingly easier to obtain - hint: AI and online tutorials
www.forbes.com/sites/lindse...
TikTok's filing this morning makes the argument that the courts should wait for the Trump admin to figure out what it thinks about a passed, signed law before it goes into effect.
As a legal matter, that is not how any of this is supposed to work.
www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...
The CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was fatally shot in Manhattan early Wednesday morning outside of a company meeting at the New York Hilton Midtown, in what police reportedly believe is a targeted shooting.
1/3 Over the past 3 years, more than 70 of my colleagues have left @forbes.com. Reporters who mentored me closely—and encouraged me to pursue journalism with conviction & confidence despite a discouraging media landscape—left because management wasn’t willing to pay them what they're worth.
What's motivating some tech people, including startup CEOs and college coders, to apply to Elon Musk's new agency DOGE?
I spoke to a bunch of early applicants and folks around the hiring process to answer those questions (and others, like how big DOGE is supposed to be) for @forbes.com.
Musk wrote "Delete CFPB" early Wednesday, an agency that Project 2025 has also called for the abolition of. Trump and Congressional Republicans are reportedly seeking to limit the agency's power. www.forbes.com/sites/dereks...
We have IRS in there! They have not said anything specific about the agency, though WSJ has reported they intend on cutting there. They’ve also suggested they want to simplify the US tax code, which they will likely need Congress for.
First post on Bluesky! We just launched our tracker on where Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's DOGE could make cuts - they've talked about the Pentagon, Planned Parenthood and the org overseeing PBS and NPR. www.forbes.com/sites/lindse...
