Jeffrey Wigand, who took on Big Tobacco, counsels insiders who think they have a story about wrongdoing. There are quite a few of them.

© Taylor Ballek for The New York Times

The European Commission claims TikTok broke its online platform rules by offering a recommendation algorithm that creates a "rabbit hole effect" on users. In an announcement on Friday, the regulators allege TikTok's algorithm can harm users with "endless and repeated exposure" to content related to sadness, isolation, or body image.

The findings come months after the EU Commission declared that TikTok's design is too "addictive." While TikTok has implemented controls to mitigate the algorithm's "rabbit hole effect," the Commission says its preliminary findings suggest that they're not effective. TikTok must now change the design of its For …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Videos on social media often save key details for the end. One content creator, who goes by Heyitsyoon, skips the filler so viewers don’t have to wait.

Separate lawsuits were filed by Google, Meta and TikTok, which have been battling a flood of claims that their services are addictive.

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A week before the midterm elections, Vice President JD Vance hosted a town hall in Texas with Fox News host Jesse Watters. It was a friendly event with a friendly audience in what should have been a friendly state, and maybe that's why Vance couldn't help himself. When a college student earnestly asked how the right expected young people like her to settle down and have kids, given the ever-growing cost of living, Vance replied with a quip about Jon Husted's ass.

The student, Kate White, introduced herself as the vice president of the Texas Christian University chapter of Turning Point USA, the conservative group started by Donald Trump all …

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A Bronx native who’d spent his whole life in the city left on foot in May.

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WhatsApp is rolling out a new feature that allows you to invite friends and family members to events in the app - even if they don't have the messenger installed. When you create an event in WhatsApp, you can share a link with a friend or family member without the app, and they can still view all the details.

WhatsApp will let you manage your events through a new Events Home, where you can create and send invites, as well as manage RSVPs. You can use the new hub to send custom reminders and include an option for guests to add a plus-one. WhatsApp says you can view a complete list of past and upcoming events by navigating to your Settings me …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Instagram's standalone video editing app is now available on macOS, where you can plug in your AI agent of choice to assemble your videos. Instagram's Matthew Simari, head of product management for Edits, said in an interview with The Verge, "One of the things we're releasing with Edits Desktop is a MCP for all the tools within Edits Desktop. You can use any agent you want, you can use Muse - we would love you to - but really any agent you want of [your] choice, to edit, tweak, work with your video."

The Edits app originally launched on mobile platforms last year. Simari said creators have been "heavily" requesting a desktop version, but AI …

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Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock plunged 24 percent a day after Democrats made huge gains in the midterm elections.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock plunged 24 percent a day after Democrats made huge gains in the midterm elections.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Millions viewed Lisa He’s post about her mother’s struggling business in Edinburgh. But internet fame created its own complications — and obscured bigger questions.

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Matt Nelson built an internet empire based on jokes he wrote at 18. Now he is trying to stem the tide of fake dogs taking over dog lovers’ feeds.

© Mark Abramson for The New York Times

Millions viewed Lisa He’s post about her mother’s struggling business in Edinburgh. But internet fame created its own complications — and obscured bigger questions.

© Robert Ormerod for The New York Times

Mentions of “cheat,” “steal,” “rig” and similar terms spiked on X this morning as voting began.

Reddit is testing ads on another area of its platform: search. With this update, ads will appear within your search results "based on a range of factors, including contextual relevance to a search query," according to Reddit.

That means searching for "espresso station" could present you with ads for espresso, machines, beans, or mugs, while a search for a "home office setup" may yield ads for monitors, desks, or office chairs. Reddit currently shows ads across its feeds in a variety of formats, including images, videos, sponsored posts, and AMAs. It also shows ads within threads.

Reddit has announced a number of changes to its platform ove …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Laura Belin is an openly liberal journalist in Iowa who has long been shut out by state Republican officials. Now she’s being bypassed by Democrats who favor friendly internet influencers.

Reddit and an Australian digital advocacy group are claiming a law that restricts children younger than 16 from popular platforms infringes on their constitutional rights.

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Once, Robin Greenfield aspired to wealth. Now, he has no home and eats from the earth. He chronicles it all on social media, but does the persona match the man?

On TikTok, men and women sent back after living in the United States are documenting the reality of starting over — and finding an audience.

© Heather Michelle Photography

On TikTok, men and women sent back after living in the United States are documenting the reality of starting over — and finding an audience.

© Heather Michelle Photography