A newly tech-skeptical FTC will reportedly review Amazon’s acquisition of MGM

Amazon’s purchase of MGM must pass the scrutiny of the FTC, newly chaired by prominent Amazon critic Lina Khan, The Wall Street Journal has reported. While the $8.45 million merger is not likely to be stopped, it may provide early indicators of how the agency is revising its approach to mega-

Super Follows and Ticketed Spaces are coming to Twitter

In Twitter’s latest appeal to one-up competitors, from Clubhouse to Patreon, the company announced today that it will begin rolling out applications for Super Follows and Ticketed Spaces. Twitter first teased the Super Follow feature during an Analyst Day event in February. Super Follows allo

MAJORITY raises $19 million for its mobile banking service for migrants

More than a million people migrate to the U.S. each year. Upon their arrival, they face challenges in opening a local bank account and accessing financial services at regular rates. These challenges for migrants, a significant portion of whom also need to send money home, have persisted globally fo

As venues reopen, Mixhalo announces new tech for in-person live event streaming

As venues reopen across the U.S., Mixhalo has announced a pair of additions to its in-person audio live event audio streaming platform: Mixhalo Over Cellular and Mixhalo Rodeo. The first is, more or less, what it sounds like. Rather than relying on Wi-Fi, the leverages 5G. The company says it will

If you love voice messaging, you’ll love Squad

Squad used to be an app that connected people with similar interests for in-person meetups. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. While most social apps thrived under these conditions — people craved digital connection more than ever — Squad couldn't operate. Founder Isa Watson didn

Chinese sellers on Amazon in hot demand by VCs and e-commerce roll-ups

Chinese merchants selling on Amazon are having a moment. The scruffy exporters are used to roaming about suburban factory areas and dealing with constant cash flow strain, but suddenly they find themselves having coffee with top Chinese venture capital firms and investment representatives from inte

Clubhouse is building a DM text chat feature

Some Clubhouse users were treated to a surprise feature in their favorite app, but it wasn’t long for this world. A new UI element called “backchannel” popped up briefly before disappearing late last week, pointing the Clubhouse faithful to a new area of the app and generating ple

Twitch suspends two popular female creators over sexy ASMR streams

Popular Twitch streamers Amouranth and Indiefoxx are the two latest casualties of Twitch’s ongoing battle to enforce its own confusing rules around sexually suggestive content. Both creators were suspended following ASMR streams that pushed the bounds of Twitch’s community guidelines fo

Spielberg’s Amblin inks multiyear feature film deal with Netflix

In something of an about-face, Amblin Partners, Steven Spielberg’s long-running film production company, will produce several films per year for Netflix. The deal reflects Netflix’s rising star and arguably acceptance by the legendary director of a new order to the cinematic world where

How to land the top spot in Google search with featured snippets in 2021

Search is changing. Most search engines now don’t just bring up a page of 10 search results and two ads at the top when you type in a query. Instead, Google search queries can bring up a whole range of results, and sometimes answer your questions without you ever having to click through to a

TikTok launches Jump, a third-party integration tool

TikTok announced today the launch of its Jump program, which expands the app’s potential for third-party integrations. TikTok began beta-testing this feature in February with Whisk, a recipe-sharing app, though only select creators could use the feature. Now, Jump will start rolling out to al

India proposes tougher e-commerce rules to address ‘widespread cheating’ complaints

India proposed on Monday banning flash sales on e-commerce platforms and preventing their affiliate entities from being listed as sellers as the South Asian market looks to further tighten rules that could hurt the future prospects of Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart in the world's second-larg

Facebook officially launches Live Audio Rooms and podcasts in the US

In April, Facebook announced a series of planned investments in new audio products, including a Clubhouse live audio competitor as well as new support for podcasts. Today, Facebook is officially rolling out these products with the launch of Live Audio Rooms in the U.S. on iOS, starting with public

Apple’s App Store to face scrutiny in Germany as FCO opens ‘market power’ proceeding

Germany’s competition authority, the FCO, has completed its Big Tech GAFA “bingo” card by opening a proceeding against Apple. As with simar investigations already opened this year — into Amazon, Facebook and Google — the proceeding wl determine whether or not the iPhon