Tech

Former President Barack Obama made a brief appearance during the “Show Me Your Walk HBCU Edition” virtual graduation ceremony, criticizing the country’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the death of Ahmaud Arbery. Though Obama doesn’t mention President Trump by name, he alludes to him and the “folks in charge.” “More than anything, this pandemic

With the COVID-19 pandemic making in-person graduation ceremonies impossible, several organizations have put together virtual celebrations for both high school and college seniors. Though those graduating have been forced to miss a major milestone, they now have the opportunity to graduate in the presence of their favorite celebrities and hear commencement speeches from the likes

An unauthorized version of Disney’s Club Penguin game for kids went offline Friday. The shutdown of Club Penguin Online came after Disney filed a copyright-takedown notice against the site this week — and after a U.K. man connected with the site was reportedly arrested on child-pornography charges. The unlicensed, fan-run Club Penguin Online website (at

Prom night has been put on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak, but students will be able to celebrate virtually with the help of Michelle Obama and MTV. MTV’s “Prom-athon” will take place on May 22, with an all-day virtual lineup of “throwback movies” and short-form original content. In tandem with the event, Obama launched

Facebook is snapping up Giphy in a deal reported to be worth $400 million, and the social giant plans to combine the GIF and sticker-sharing company’s services primarily with Instagram. “Giphy makes everyday conversations more entertaining, and so we plan to further integrate their GIF library into Instagram and our other apps so that people

Vice Media Group, which includes Refinery29, is laying off 155 employees, or more than 5% of its total worldwide headcount, in response to revenue declines stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. About two-thirds of the staff cuts (around 100) will be international, with 55 layoffs affecting U.S. employees, Vice Media Group CEO Nancy Dubuc wrote in

Starting Thursday night, the Prince Estate, in partnership with YouTube, will host a three-day streaming event of “Prince and the Revolution: Live,” the legendary concert filmed toward the end of the “Purple Rain” tour in Syracuse, NY on March 30, 1985. The show will be available on Prince’s official YouTube Channel for three days only, beginning on Thursday, May

A crush of fans trying to get a free copy of Rockstar Games’ classic open-world game “Grand Theft Auto V” has brought the Epic Games Store to its knees. Epic Games announced Wednesday that through May 21, players can download “GTA V” for free, via the company’s games-launcher app for PC or Mac. That was

Apple has acquired virtual-reality streaming company NextVR, which would provide a content engine for the tech giant’s long-expected move into AV and VR hardware. Apple confirmed the deal to buy NextVR for undisclosed terms, but declined to provide additional info. “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss

More than a year ago, TikTok got its knuckles rapped by U.S. regulators over allegations that it violated the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). TikTok paid a $5.7 million fine and promised to come into compliance with the law under a settlement with the FTC. But today, TikTok is still violating COPPA, a

Francis Roberts, previously a manager at YouTube working with some of the platform’s biggest creators, has joined Snap as senior manager of digital talent. Roberts starts at the Snapchat parent company Monday, May 18. Based in L.A., he will report to Jim Shepherd, Snap’s head of talent partnerships. Most recently, Roberts was at YouTube, where

Even in a pandemic, the impact of an Apple commercial in boosting a song’s streams and overall good fortune remains virtually unrivaled. The latest benefactor? Norwegian pop singer-songwriter Anna Lotterud, a.k.a. Anna of the North, whose 2019 single “Dream Girl” has seen a surge in streaming activity since it began appearing as the score for

YouTube’s annual Brandcast marketing event this year will have an entirely different look and feel — it’s happening only online, as big in-person events have been nixed during COVID-19. And the video giant has approached the quarantine as an opportunity to do something different and reach an even bigger audience of marketers and agencies. YouTube’s

The schedule for IAB’s streaming-only 2020 NewFronts is out, with the addition of several new players to the weeklong digital-marketing pitchfest from June 22-26. Social-media players Facebook, Snap and TikTok will participate in the NewFronts for the first time, among the nearly two dozen companies presenting in the 2020 NewFronts. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, the

Here’s a new way to virtually watch HBO shows with up to 20 of your friends, while many Americans are still stuck at home under lockdown. Seattle-based startup Scener has launched support for HBO that enables co-watching features for HBO Now and HBO Go viewers via a Google Chrome browser extension. The WarnerMedia-owned premium programmer

Consumers around Asia have been locked down, had their travel restricted and been forced to spend more time with their families. Their digital consumption has risen. But the changing patterns of online usage have lifted far more categories than entertainment. A new research note from ComScore, published Thursday, presents data from six territories in Asia-Pacific.

BuzzFeed will halt its news production operations in Australia and the U.K., the company confirmed. Like many, the digital organization has been hard hit by the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. “Both for economic and strategic reasons, we are going to focus on news that hits big in the United States during this difficult

A cybercriminal ring claiming to have stolen a huge cache of data from a major media and entertainment law firm — whose clients include Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Elton John and Lady Gaga — is demanding a $21 million ransom payment, according to a published report. New York-based Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks this week confirmed

KCON, the annual convention and concert series that showcases Korean products and entertainment via a multi-day confab, will go online for its summer 2020 edition as a seven-day streaming event. Their US events were originally scheduled for June 12 to 14 at the Javits Center in New York City, followed by August 27 to 30

Houseparty, riding a pandemic-driven surge in usage, is trying to strike while the iron is hot: The social video-chat app has lined up Katy Perry, John Legend and over 40 other stars for a three-day livestreaming event this weekend. Houseparty’s “In the House” event, running Friday, May 15, through Sunday, May 17, will include performances

Almost two months ago, Netflix said it would reduce video bit rates for 30 days in Europe, aiming to reduce bandwidth consumed by customers by 25% during the COVID-19 crisis. It has now been 55 days since that announcement — and Netflix customers in Europe and the U.K. say the streamer is still delivering throttled

Condé Nast will pink-slip about 100 employees in the U.S. and is putting another 100 on unpaid leave for several months as the COVID-19 crisis cuts into the media company’s business. The New York-based company, whose titles include the New Yorker, Wired, Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ, had about 6,000 employees worldwide at the start

A starry group came together for a meeting at Courteney Cox’s Malibu beach house on Oct. 5, 2019. Had the papa­razzi gotten wind, pandemonium would have surely ensued. Cox invited her five “Friends” co-stars — Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer — for a rare reunion dinner. The gathering was

After several delays, “Marvel’s Iron Man VR” virtual reality game is set to zoom onto Sony’s PlayStation VR headsets in July. The first-person game in which players take control of Tony Stark’s famous flying suit — more than three years in the making — will be released July 3, 2020, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced Tuesday

Facebook agreed to pay $52 million as part of settling a lawsuit alleging the social giant failed to protect content moderators who were exposed to child sexual abuse, beheadings, terrorism, and other disturbing content. The settlement covers more than 10,000 current and former U.S.-based content moderators who worked for Facebook’s vendors in California, Arizona, Texas

Twitter said most of its workforce will be able to work from home — if they choose to — even after the company reopens offices when conditions permit amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Silicon Valley companies were among the first adopters of work-from-home policies when the coronavirus spread, and they’re in no rush to bring workers

The Prince Estate, in partnership with YouTube, will host a three-day streaming event of “Prince and the Revolution: Live,” the legendary concert filmed toward the end of the “Purple Rain” tour in Syracuse, NY on March 30, 1985. The show will be available on Prince’s official YouTube Channel for three days only, beginning on Friday,

Our world will be forever changed as a result of our collective COVID-19 lockdown, and the media and entertainment industry is no exception. Here are 10 ways the biz will change, even after crisis has passed. Prediction #1: Our global quarantine will accelerate many pre-pandemic in-home entertainment trends, including the “cord-cutting” of expensive cable TV

A new game based on the “Trollhunters” franchise on Netflix is coming out on console and PC platforms this fall. The action-adventure game is based on the Dreamworks Animation “Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia” fantasy series for Netflix, from filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. The game will feature a voice cast with the original talent from the

Netflix and Italy’s Fandango are teaming up to develop a series based on “The Lying Life of Adults,” the latest novel by globally bestselling Italian novelist Elena Ferrante. The book, which became an immediate bestseller in Italy after its November 2019 publication locally, will be launched in 25 countries on September 1 and will be