Tech

Clubhouse has hired Kelly Stoetzel, a 17-year veteran of TED and the executive responsible for lining up the company’s famous TED Talks. Stoetzel started last week at Clubhouse, the buzzy social-audio app, in a new role heading up thought-leadership programming. At TED, she had been head of conferences and speaker curation, after originally joining the

Versus Systems, a tech company that serves up brand offers as prizes to consumers inside games, apps, streaming video and other content, appointed Twitter’s Jennifer Prince to its board of directors. Prince, as global VP and head of content partnerships for Twitter, leads the social network’s worldwide efforts engaging with media entities and individual creators

The program for the fifth Women in Animation World Virtual Summit has been announced in conjunction with the hybrid version of this year’s Annecy International Animation Festival. Produced by the South African animation studio Triggerfish, the event will be available exclusively to WIA members from June 14-19. The public will be able to view the

I have spent the past few days in a room on Clubhouse called Meet Palestinians and Israelis, which began on May 17 at 5:08 p.m. on the west coast and continues uninterrupted. Under the banner “Balance,” more than 450,000 individuals from all walks of life have logged into the room, an online space created for

JoJo Siwa, Saweetie, Benito Skinner, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Elsa Majimbo, Yung BBQ and more are among the featured speakers at Instagram and Facebook’s first-ever Creator Week, which is set to take place virtually June 8-10. Instagram/Facebook Creator Week, announced last week, is available by invitation only. Special select programming will be available to the

The day after Independence Day in the U.S., Jeff Bezos will give up the day-to-day reins of the now-colossal company he founded nearly three decades ago. Bezos, speaking Wednesday at Amazon’s annual shareholder — his last as CEO — announced that he will step aside as chief exec on July 5, whereupon Andy Jassy, who

In the wake of an 11-day war in Gaza, Israel’s major TV broadcast channels, newspapers, news websites and radios have rallied to urge Facebook to take immediate action against hateful posts inciting physical harm of journalists. Addressed to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on May 26, the letter was penned by Israeli lawyer Noga Rubinstein on

ABC News is launching its first LGBTQ+ issue-focused podcast, which will be hosted by award-winning journalist and columnist LZ Granderson, Variety has learned. “Life Out Loud with LZ Granderson” will debut on Jun. 1, in conjunction with the start of Pride month. Granderson, who is an ABC News contributor and ESPN Radio host, will lead

Does seeing the number of “likes” on a post stress you out? Now all users on Instagram (and soon Facebook) will have the option to hide public like counts on their posts — and choose whether or not they see likes on other people’s posts. The move comes after Instagram has been testing hiding like

Popular messaging service WhatsApp is suing the Indian government over privacy issues as draconian new rules governing social media come into effect from Wednesday. The lawsuit “asks the Delhi High Court to declare that one of the new rules is a violation of privacy rights in India’s constitution since it requires social media companies to

UPDATED: WarnerMedia’s HBO Max was hit with scattered technical issues for more than an hour Tuesday, with users nationwide reporting problems streaming video. According to monitoring site DownDetector, problem reports with HBO Max began to surge around 4:45 p.m. ET, with user-reported issues concentrated in New York, L.A., Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. “We’re aware

Shares of video-hosting provider Vimeo fell 12.85% on Tuesday, its first day of trading as a publicly traded company after being spun off from Barry Diller’s IAC internet conglomerate. Vimeo stock began trading on Nasdaq under the symbol “VMEO.” It closed at $45.39 per share, down from its price of $52.08 on Monday. That gives

TikTok creator Victoria Paris has signed with Range Media Partners in all areas. After creating a TikTok account on a whim as a way to drive traffic to her Depop store, Paris gained over 800,000 followers in her first four months on the platform. Considered one of the fastest-growing content creators on TikTok with over

SPOILER ALERT: The below article reveals some details about the beginning of the plot of “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart,” new playable protagonist Rivet and her backstory.  “Ratchet & Clank” fans will finally step into the furry shoes of another Lombax in the series’ upcoming installment, “Rift Apart.” And yes, let’s get it out of

In an unusual arrangement, the Associated Press will now exclusively cite gambling odds provided by FanDuel in its sports coverage, in exchange for payments from the online wagering company. The companies did not say how long the agreement runs (except that it’s a multiyear pact) or how much FanDuel is paying the AP. For the

An NFT music platform backed by mogul Quincy Jones has secured the support of artists including Doja Cat, John Legend, H.E.R., Jacob Collier and the Kid Laroi to release more environmentally friendly non-fungible tokens, the newly formed company, OneOf, announced Tuesday. Other musicians joining up with upcoming releases via the “green”-friendly blockchain technology company in

Beloved meme video “Charlie Bit My Finger” is set to be deleted from YouTube — after the family behind the 14-year-old viral clip sold it as a non-fungible token (NFT) for $760,999. In the video, one of the first on YouTube to cross over into mainstream culture, 3-year-old British tyke Harry sticks his finger into

The ongoing battle between the Indian government and Twitter intensified on Monday with the Delhi Police raiding the social media outfit’s Delhi and Gurgaon offices over a tweet marked by the platform as “manipulated.” The tweet in question originated from Sambit Patra, national spokesperson of India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on May

Industry executives are stunned that Amazon is in negotiations to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in a deal that could reach $9 billion. Their shock comes from a belief that the price tag severely overvalues the studio behind James Bond, the Pink Panther and “Legally Blonde.” Other companies have kicked the tires on MGM at various points during

It’s safe to assume that the mouths of wizening hipsters across the country dropped open with astonishment when they heard “Mind Your Own Business,” a relatively obscure, 40-year-old song by short-lived British post-punk quintet Delta 5, blasting from their TVs when a new Apple ad aired during the NBA play-ins. The song was the first

Colleen Ballinger, the YouTube star who rose to fame through her ultra-awkward alter-ego Miranda Sings, announced in a video that she is pregnant with twins. Ballinger, in a video she uploaded Thursday, revealed that she is expecting twins. She and her husband, Erik Stocklin, have a 3-year-old son, Flynn. Ballinger previously had shared that she

Markiplier, one of YouTube’s most-followed creators, claims he doesn’t consider the business prospects of his new projects. “I let the lawyers think about that,” he says. “I feel like turning everything into a business venture poisons creativity.” That said, he’s pleased and surprised that his new podcast “Distractible” has taken the podcast world by storm.

In its biggest-ever acquisition, Snap is buying U.K.-based WaveOptics, the company that makes the augmented-reality displays for Snap’s new Spectacles smart glasses, in a deal worth more than $500 million. A Snap spokesperson confirmed the company’s acquisition of WaveOptics, which was first reported by The Verge. A WaveOptics rep referred inquiries to Snap. Under the

Snap is taking a new crack at smart glasses — after a disappointing uptake of its first attempts — announcing the next generation of Spectacles, marking the company’s first pair of display glasses designed for augmented reality. The new Spectacles are not currently available to buy. CEO Evan Spiegel, announcing the product at the Snap

Snap is shelling out millions to creators as it tries to chase TikTok in the booming short-form video space. In the six months since launching Snapchat Spotlight, a new section of the app that lets users share and watch TikTok-like user-created video clips, the company has paid out more than $130 million in total to

After a months-long standoff, Triller and Universal Music Group announced worldwide licensing agreements that span recorded music and publishing. In February, UMG pulled its catalog from Triller, citing the short-form video app platform’s failure to pay licensing fees for songs used on its service. With the new agreements, Triller’s users gain access to UMG’s full

Kentaro Miura, creator of the popular dark fantasy manga series “Berserk,” died on May 6 as a result of acute aortic heart dissection, Dark Horse Comics, which publishes the English version of “Berserk,” announced early Thursday morning. He was 54. “Miura-sensei was a master artist and storyteller and we had the great privilege of publishing

Doha-based beIN Media Group and Sony Pictures Television have partnered on a multi-year content deal covering the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey that will give beIN’s TV outlets a boost. BeIN Media Group has more than 180 pay-TV channels worldwide, aired mostly across the Middle East and North Africa. BeIN also controls top Turkish paybox

Bytedance co-founder Zhang Yiming said Thursday that he will step down as chief executive and transition to a new position. He will be succeeded by fellow co-founder Liang Rubo, ByteDance’s current head of human resources. The news was announced in an internal memo to employees. It marks the most significant corporate change to the TikTok

Baidu was once one of the big three entertainment tech firms in China and remains the majority owner of streamer iQIYI. But these days it positions itself as “an AI company with a strong internet foundation,” and a group that straddles cloud computing, electric vehicles, search and data. Its revenues in the first quarter of