Santa Clara county claims Meta Platforms violated the state’s false advertising and unfair business practices lawsCalifornia’s Santa Clara county has sued Meta Platforms, alleging it has profited from Facebook and Instagram ads promoting scams in violation of California’s false advertising and unfair business practices laws.The lawsuit – filed on Monday in Santa Clara county superior court on behalf of all California residents – accuses the social media giant of tolerating fraudulent advertising on a global basis. The suit seeks restitution, civil damages and an order prohibiting Meta from engaging in unfair business practices. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/13/meta-scam-ads-california-lawsuit">Continue reading...</a>

Santa Clara county claims Meta Platforms violated the state’s false advertising and unfair business practices laws

Meta profited from illegal scam ads, California county lawsuit alleges

Ken Paxton accuses streamer of designing addictive platform and falsely representing data collection practices<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/texas">Texas</a> sued <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/netflix">Netflix</a> on Monday, accusing the streaming company of spying on children and designing its platform to be addictive.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ken-paxton">Ken Paxton</a>, the Texas attorney general, said Netflix has for years falsely represented to consumers that it did not collect or share user data, when it actually tracked and sold viewers’ habits and preferences to commercial data brokers and advertising technology companies, making billions of dollars a year. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/11/texas-sues-netflix-lawsuit">Continue reading...</a>

Ken Paxton accuses streamer of designing addictive platform and falsely representing data collection practices

Texas accuses Netflix of spying on children in new lawsuit

Activists claim use of laws to curtail internet freedoms part of well-documented history of cracking down on dissentWhen Gabon’s media regulator indefinitely suspended major social media platforms in February, citing security concerns during anti-government protests, it became the talk of town – literally.Within weeks of the announcement, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass the restrictions surged in the central African country. When gendarmerie began stopping young men at road checkpoints in the capital Libreville and other urban centres to confiscate mobile phones with VPNs installed or detain the owners, warnings spread by word of mouth. Activists and opposition members said their accounts were also suspended due to efforts of state officials. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/13/concern-gabon-social-media-clampdown-human-rights">Continue reading...</a>

Activists claim use of laws to curtail internet freedoms part of well-documented history of cracking down on dissent

‘Blatant disregard for rights’: concern grows over Gabon’s social media clampdown

Workers told to be realistic about outcome of union talks as corporation aims to make savings with job cutsBBC staff have been told their bosses will forgo a pay rise this year but fear the freeze will lead to a meagre increase for the rank and file, who have been urged to be realistic about the outcome of union negotiations.Employees have been told that the corporation’s executive committee – its 12 highest-paid bosses including the director general, who were paid almost £5m in total last year – will have their pay frozen this year amid <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/apr/15/bbc-cut-jobs-downsize-matt-brittin-tim-davie">a £600m cost-cutting drive</a>. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/may/12/bbc-staff-fear-meagre-pay-rise-after-bosses-forgo-own-increase">Continue reading...</a>

Workers told to be realistic about outcome of union talks as corporation aims to make savings with job cuts

BBC staff fear meagre pay rise after bosses forgo own increase

Deborah Turness, who resigned last year, says traditional news in danger of being replaced by personality-led contentBroadcasters must urgently adapt to an existential threat from “creator journalism” that is causing audiences to shun traditional television news, the former boss of BBC News has said.Deborah Turness, who <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/nov/21/bbc-board-member-quits-after-being-cut-out-of-talks-over-liberal-bias-claims">resigned from the BBC</a> alongside the then director general, Tim Davie, last year, said consumption was “collapsing” for traditional television news, which was facing “a profound moment of disruption”. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/may/12/broadcasters-must-react-threat-creator-journalism-says-ex-head-bbc-news">Continue reading...</a>

Deborah Turness, who resigned last year, says traditional news in danger of being replaced by personality-led content

Broadcasters must react to threat from ‘creator journalism’, says ex-head of BBC News

PM accused of dragging heels on forcing tech firms to block transmission of nude photos on children’s phonesInternet safety and children’s rights campaigners have accused Keir Starmer of failing to act on proposals to stop children sending and receiving nude images on their phones, after Jess Phillips resigned from the government saying she was tired of seeing “opportunities for progress stalled and delayed”.The Labour politician was one of four ministers who quit on Tuesday and joined more than 80 MPs calling for the prime minister to go. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/12/online-safety-campaigners-reveal-starmer-frustrations-after-phillips-exit">Continue reading...</a>

PM accused of dragging heels on forcing tech firms to block transmission of nude photos on children’s phones

Online safety campaigners reveal Starmer frustrations after Phillips exit

National broadcaster RTÉ accused of antisemitism for decision to screen satirical 1996 Eurovision episode in boycott of contest It is considered one of the funniest episodes of a beloved sitcom, but the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/father-ted">Father Ted </a>storyline about Eurovision has been dragged into the row over Israel’s participation in this week’s song contest.Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/23/slovenia-to-air-films-about-palestine-instead-of-eurovision-song-contest">which is boycotting</a> the competition in protest against Israel’s inclusion, will instead broadcast the 1996 episode A Song for Europe, in which the characters Father Ted and Father Dougal perform their song My Lovely Horse and earn nul points. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/may/12/irish-tv-rte-father-ted-eurovision-final-israel">Continue reading...</a>

National broadcaster RTÉ accused of antisemitism for decision to screen satirical 1996 Eurovision episode in boycott of contest

Irish TV to air Father Ted instead of Eurovision final in protest against Israel’s inclusion

Comedian will host the 99th Oscars in 2027 after viewership dipped this year despite rise in social media engagement<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/apr/22/hilarious-defiant-and-unabashedly-weird-conan-obrien-hasnt-lost-an-iota-of-his-underdog-brilliance">Conan O’Brien</a>’s era as <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/oscars">Oscars</a> host is becoming a trilogy. The Emmy-winning comedian will be back to host the 99th Academy awards in 2027, leaders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science said on Tuesday.O’Brien hosted the last two Oscar ceremonies to positive reviews. Earlier this year, in his <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/mar/15/conan-obrien-opening-oscars-monologue">opening monologue</a>, he said he was “honored to be the last human host of the Academy Awards … Next year it’s going to be a Waymo in a tux.” <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/may/12/conan-obrien-oscars-host-2027">Continue reading...</a>

Comedian will host the 99th Oscars in 2027 after viewership dipped this year despite rise in social media engagement

Conan O’Brien to return as Oscars host for third year in a row

<ul><li>BBC to bring back classic gameshow after 24 years away</li><li>Former world champion to host with Paddy McGuinness</li></ul>The BBC is reracking the balls and chalking the cues again after announcing that the classic TV gameshow Big Break will return after 24 years away.The seven-time snooker world champion Stephen Hendry is to co-host the series alongside the presenter and comic Paddy McGuinness in a reboot of a show that originally ran for 10 series from 1991 to 2002. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/may/12/snookering-you-again-big-break-to-return-with-stephen-hendry-on-trick-shot-duties">Continue reading...</a>

BBC to bring back classic gameshow after 24 years away

Snookering you again: Big Break to return with Stephen Hendry on trick-shot duties

There is a revolution reshaping how people want and get their information. News brands can and must react, but the time is now<ul><li>This is an extract from the Sir David Nicholas memorial lecture that Deborah Turness delivered in London on Tuesday evening</li></ul>No one can dispute that, today, the news industry is once again experiencing a revolution; a revolution that is reshaping news for a new generation of consumers. The disruption transcends all news brands. It impacts all journalists and all journalism, everywhere.I am an optimist. I believe there are very good reasons to believe in a bright future for what I call the established news providers. So I am determined, having spoken to many people for this dispatch from the frontline, to set out a positive way forward. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/12/warning-news-industry-act-now-joe-rogan-piers-morgan-ecosystem">Continue reading...</a>

There is a revolution reshaping how people want and get their information. News brands can and must react, but the time is now

A warning to the news industry: act now or the Joe Rogan/Piers Morgan ecosystem will leave you far behind | Deborah Turness

I don’t know a single journalist my age who hasn’t ricocheted around the rapidly shrinking media industry, through multiple buyouts, redundancies and pivots to videoMany years ago I rage-quit from my editor job at a digital youth media publication.It was the beginning of the pandemic, my team had been slashed to an exhausted handful who cried every morning, and my freelance budget had been cut to zero – all while I was still expected to reach traffic targets. A spree of insane business decisions were made that trickled down to me like sewage water at a music festival. So I quit. I was tired and being overly dramatic of course, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t justified in being upset. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/13/devil-wears-prada-journalism-fantasy-sequel-reality">Continue reading...</a>

I don’t know a single journalist my age who hasn’t ricocheted around the rapidly shrinking media industry, through multiple buyouts, redundancies and piv...

The Devil Wears Prada sold me the journalism fantasy. The sequel captures the unglamorous reality | Patrick Lenton

The naturalist is venerated as a cuddly Paddington Bear, but he’s more than that. Don’t let the superficial backslaps obscure the political critique he makesThe excesses the capitalist system has brought us have got to be curbed somehow. Ordinary people worldwide are beginning to realise that greed does not actually lead to joy. Our economic system has been based on the profit principle: you have to come out at the end of the year having made a profit, and the bigger profit you have made, the better it is. In the short term that works, but it ends with disaster.At this point, I should make a confession. The above sentiments are not mine at all. In fact, they were pilfered, purloined, shoplifted from a far more erudite radical thinker than myself. So, quiz time: which incendiary leftwing firebrand spoke these words? Zack Polanski? Antonio Gramsci? Ash Sarkar? At the very least, you would probably assume that, in the current climate, anyone daring to utter these dangerous fringe sentiments would be cast to the margins of our cultural life, only occasionally being let out for the purposes of getting shouted at on the Jeremy Vine show.Jonathan Liew is a Guardian columnist <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/13/david-attenborough-most-radical-person-tv">Continue reading...</a>

The naturalist is venerated as a cuddly Paddington Bear, but he’s more than that. Don’t let the superficial backslaps obscure the political critique he m...

David Attenborough is not just a national treasure: he is also the most radical person on TV | Jonathan Liew

The festival is a celebration of cinema and a frantic trade show all at once. After 25 years, I can’t help but go backNothing prepares you for the shock that is the Cannes film festival: the adrenaline, the fatigue, the elation and the emotion, but also the hunger, the anger, the magic and the ridicule. For young cinephiles, and for almost everybody who works in the film industry, it is the mecca of cinema and has been so for nearly eight decades. Anyone going for the first time this week, as I did 25 years ago, should not listen to the old grognards – Cannes’ battle-worn veterans – who will lament that the festival has become an abominable circus and swear this year will be their last. It is a circus, and you can bet they will be back for as long as their knees can take it. For there is nothing quite like it.Born to counteract Benito Mussolini’s Venice film festival, its first edition was planned for September 1939, but Adolf Hitler had other plans. The previous year, under pressure from Berlin and Rome, the Venice film festival’s top prize, the Coppa Mussolini, was handed to Leni Riefenstahl’s propaganda film Olympia, prompting the French, British and American delegates to walk out. Hence Cannes, conceived as the festival of the “free world”. More than 80 years later, for all its sins, it has remained faithful to that founding promise.Agnès Poirier is a political commentator, writer and critic for the British, American and European press <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/13/cannes-film-festival-beautiful-gruelling-circus-cinema">Continue reading...</a>

The festival is a celebration of cinema and a frantic trade show all at once. After 25 years, I can’t help but go back

Cannes is a beautiful, gruelling circus. I wouldn’t quit it for anything | Agnès Poirier

End of News Feed

"The conversation is sort of happening in Silicon Valley around one thing, and a totally different conversation is happening among consumers."



Who decides what AI tells you? Campbell Brown, once Meta’s news chief, has thoughts

Legal tech startups, including Clio, which just hit $500 million in ARR, are seeing massive customer adoption.

Clio’s $500M milestone arrives just as Anthropic ups the ante

Notion’s new developer platform lets teams connect AI agents, external data sources, and custom code directly into their workspace as the company pushes deeper into agentic productivity software.

Notion’s new developer platform lets teams connect AI agents, external data sources, and custom code directly into their workspace as the company pushes ...

Notion just turned its workspace into a hub for AI agents

Gas turbines at xAI's Colossus 2 data center have drawn a lawsuit over the company's use of "mobile" gas turbines as power plants.

Musk’s xAI is running nearly 50 gas turbines unchecked at its Mississippi data center

The head of product for Claude Code and Cowork says that the next big step for AI is proactivity.  

Anthropic’s Cat Wu says that, in the future, AI will anticipate your needs before you know what they are

What would some of the world's largest repositories of malware look like if they were stacked as hard drives, one on top of the other?

This is what some of the world’s largest banks of malware look like stacked as hard drives

Fervo Energy's IPO was upsized several times after potential investors asked why the enhanced geothermal startup wasn't raising more money.

Geothermal startup Fervo Energy pops 33% in IPO debut fueled by AI data center demand

X’s new History tab combines bookmarks, likes, watched videos, and read articles into a single place, expanding the app’s role as a save-it-for-later tool.

X launches a History tab for bookmarks, likes, videos, and articles

The feature lets users share disappearing photos with their close friends or mutual followers that can be viewed only once and remain available for 24 hours.

The feature lets users share disappearing photos with their close friends or mutual followers that can be viewed only once and remain available for 24 ho...

Instagram’s new ‘Instants’ feature combines elements from Snapchat and BeReal

Mind Robotics, which was first revealed in late 2025, has now raised more than $1 billion to date.

Rivian spinoff Mind Robotics raises another $400M

"I believe I am an honest and trustworthy businessperson," Altman testified in federal court.

Who trusts Sam Altman?

Origin Lab will serve as a marketplace where AI labs can buy high-quality licensed data, and video-game companies can sell it.

Origin Lab raises $8M to help video game companies sell data to world-model builders

For founders and investors, Anthropic's new offering signals that the AI platform wars are expanding downmarket and that the next major battleground for user acquisition isn't the Fortune 500; it's the 36 million small businesses that make up the backbone of the U.S. economy.

For founders and investors, Anthropic's new offering signals that the AI platform wars are expanding downmarket and that the next major battleground for ...

Anthropic courts a new kind of customer: small business owners

A ransomware group has claimed responsibility for hacking the electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn and is attempting to extort the company. 

Ransomware hackers claim breach at Foxconn, a major electronics manufacturer for Apple, Google, and Nvidia

Alexa for Shopping offers a voice- and touch-enabled shopping experience across mobile, desktop, and Echo Show smart displays. Alexa for Shopping provides more personalized recommendations and automates the shopping experience across Amazon and other online retailers.

Alexa for Shopping offers a voice- and touch-enabled shopping experience across mobile, desktop, and Echo Show smart displays. Alexa for Shopping provide...

Amazon launches an AI shopping assistant for the search bar, powered by Alexa+ 

After achieving $2.2 billion in revenue in 2025, the defense tech startup has raised another massive round, led by Thrive and a16z, it says.

Anduril raises $5B, doubles valuation to $61B

The retail trading subreddit submitted the sharpest criticism yet of the financial regulator's idea of letting companies report twice per year.

r/WallStreetBets really hates the SEC’s proposal to weaken quarterly reporting

U.S. House lawmakers want to know how hackers broke into education tech giant Instructure twice and stole reams of data from students who use the company's flagship student data software Canvas.

U.S. House lawmakers want to know how hackers broke into education tech giant Instructure twice and stole reams of data from students who use the company...

US lawmakers demand answers from Instructure after Canvas data breaches

A survey compiled from fintech firm Ramp’s clients’ expense data shows 34.4% of participating businesses are paying for Anthropic services, more than any other AI lab, while only 32.3% pay for OpenAI.

A survey compiled from fintech firm Ramp’s clients’ expense data shows 34.4% of participating businesses are paying for Anthropic services, more than any...

Anthropic now has more business customers than OpenAI, according to Ramp data

From October 13-15, TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will feature 200+ sessions across six stages, led by 250+ tech leaders shaping the industry today. Register now to save up to $410, plus 50% off a second pass.

From October 13-15, TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will feature 200+ sessions across six stages, led by 250+ tech leaders shaping the industry today. Register n...

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