Facebook Blocks All News In and From Australia

Facebook said Wednesday that it would no longer allow Australian publishers to share news on Facebook or allow Australian people to view or share international news sources. From a report: The change comes as Australia prepares to pass a law that would require companies like Facebook and Google to pay news publishers to carry their stories. “The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands…

YouTube TV To Launch Option for 4K and Unlimited Streams

YouTube outlined a string of new features coming to the internet’s biggest video platform, including enhancements to YouTube TV and the rollout next month in the U.S. of YouTube Shorts — its tool for creating short-form vertical videos a la TikTok. From a report: YouTube TV, Google’s pay-TV service, will introduce an add-on option that will let subscribers watch shows in…

Welcoming Morehouse College to the Coursera partner community

Morehouse College launches sports activism course taught by NBA All-Star Chris Webber By Betty Vandenbosch, Chief Content Officer at Coursera I’m excited to announce our partnership with Morehouse College as we continue to expand our engagement with leading institutions, including historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the U.S. Morehouse College, a leading producer of […]
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Americans Are Consuming More Foreign Content than Ever

Content from abroad is boosting its share of the American entertainment diet, thanks in large part to streaming, the pandemic and the creator economy. From a report: “As ‘American exceptionalism’ has become less of a truth geopolitically, the same goes for entertainment,” says Brad Grossman, founder and CEO of ZEITGUIDE. The U.S. demand share for non-U.S. content was higher each quarter…

Stadia Leadership Praised Development Studios For ‘Great Progress’ Just One Week Before Laying Them All Off

Developers at Google’s recently formed game studios were shocked February 1 when they were notified that the studios would be shut down, Kotaku reported Tuesday, citing four sources with knowledge of what transpired. From the report: Just the week prior, Google Stadia vice president and general manager Phil Harrison sent an email to staff lauding the “great progress” its studios had…

Roku Plans To Produce Original Shows and Feature Films

Not content anymore with just streaming Hollywood’s old shows and movies, Roku is looking to produce originals: The company published a job listing for a lead production attorney, which spells out plans to build out an “expanding slate of original content.” From a report: This renewed push into originals comes just weeks after Roku acquired Quibi’s content library, for which the…

TikTok Hit With Consumer, Child Safety and Privacy Complaints in Europe

TikTok is facing a fresh round of regulatory complaints in Europe where consumer protection groups have filed a series of coordinated complaints alleging multiple breaches of EU law. From a report: The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has lodged a complaint against the video sharing site with the European Commission and the bloc’s network of consumer protection authorities, while consumer organisations in…

Microsoft Urges America to Force Google and Facebook to Pay for News

“Microsoft has said the USA should copy Australia’s plan to force Google and Facebook to pay for links to news content,” reports The Register, “and suggested that doing so will help improve social cohesion and strengthen democracy.” But Google has fired back with a statement asserting that Microsoft’s motives are impure. “Of course they’d be eager to impose an unworkable levy…

‘We Need to Inflict Pain’: Mark Zuckerberg’s War on Apple

When Tim Cook told an interviewer that Apple wouldn’t get in a Facebook-style data-collection controversy, “Mr. Zuckerberg shot back that Mr. Cook’s comments were ‘extremely glib’ and ‘not at all aligned with the truth,'” reports the Wall Street Journal. But “In private, Mr. Zuckerberg was even harsher. ‘We need to inflict pain,’ he told his team, for treating the company so…

Facebook Blames ‘Technical Issues” for Its Broken Promise to the US Congress

Facebook is blaming “technical issues” for its broken promise to the U.S. Congress to stop recommending political groups to its users, reports The Markup: Facebook made the pledge once in October, in the run-up to the presidential election, and then falsely reiterated it had taken the step after rioters overtook the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, a deadly event partially coordinated…