Tech

Andrew Tate, a controversial media personality and former professional kickboxer, has reportedly been arrested in Romania by anti-terrorism authorities. He was detained along with his brother, Tristan Tate, on suspicion of forming an organized crime group that exploits girls for adult videos, according to Romanian newspaper Libertatea. Andrew and Tristan Tate are being investigated for

The battle tactics in the streaming wars in 2022 shifted from outright land-grab mode toward building sustainable and defensible positions. Netflix saw its subscriber rolls shrink in the first half of the year following a COVID-fueled bump — prompting the industry leader to scramble to find new areas of growth. The company quickly rolled out

Beginning next year, Netflix will start nagging customers to pay extra if it detects that they’re sharing their account with individuals outside their household — in violation of the streamer’s terms of use. But users determined to continue flouting Netflix’s password-sharing rules won’t face any draconian repercussions for now: The company will not terminate someone’s

Four ByteDance employees violated company policy by inappropriately accessing data on TikTok users in the U.S., including two journalists, in an attempt to track down the source of information leaks, according to an internal report released by the Chinese company. ByteDance said it fired all four of the employees, two based in the U.S. and

It’s official: YouTube is getting the hand-off for the NFL’s Sunday Ticket. Google and the National Football League announced a pact Thursday making YouTube the exclusive home of the Sunday Ticket out-of-market games package, starting with the 2023 season. The deal ends DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket stewardship after 28 years. Aimed a superfans and football bettors,

Elon Musk, amid his erratic two-month reign as Twitter’s CEO, said he will step aside as chief executive once he finds someone to take over the role. “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams,”

Vertical video from Season 17 of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” racked up over 35 million views on the entertainment trade’s TikTok account. During the series’ run, the account gained over 150,000 additional followers, surpassing the 1 million follower mark.  This season’s pairings featured stars of the year’s biggest films, including Austin Butler with Janelle Monae,

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are going deeper into Deep Voodoo. The creators of “South Park” have secured a $20 million investment for their AI entertainment startup Deep Voodoo. The funding was led by Connect Ventures, an investment partnership between CAA and venture-capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). It’s the first outside capital raised by

Joe Rogan, the freewheeling bro podcaster whose show is exclusively distributed by Spotify, is a magnet for controversy. Earlier this year, COVID misinformation on “The Joe Rogan Experience” and Rogan’s past use of the N-word triggered a backlash among artists and users, leading to a movement to boycott the streamer (which ultimately fizzled out). Rogan

Elon Musk’s Twitter, eager for a new source of revenue, will soon begin charging a subscription fee for businesses to retain their verified status — and the social network has introduced new square profile pictures for companies and brands on the platform, replacing the long-standing circular format. The Twitter Blue for Business service is “a

Epic Games, creator of popular video game “Fortnite,” reached an agreement with the FTC to pay $520 million in fines and refunds over allegations the company violated a children’s privacy law and “dupe[d] millions of players into making unintentional purchases,” the agency said. Epic reached two separate settlements with the Federal Trade Commission, both of

Facebook Marketplace has been accused of breaching antitrust rules by the E.U.’s European Commission. The European Commission, which is the executive branch of the European Union (E.U.), released a Statement of Objections on Monday saying it had informed Facebook’s parent company Meta that in its “preliminary view” the company had breached the rules. A Statement

Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk shared a poll on the social media platform Sunday afternoon, asking users to answer whether they’d prefer for him to remain head of the company or step down from the position. After roughly 12 hours (and assuming Twitter did not use administrative powers to put a thumb on the

Washington Post tech columnist Taylor Lorenz said her Twitter account was suspended after she asked Elon Musk, the new owner of the social network, for comment on a story she was working on. Lorenz’s Twitter account, which she activated in 2010, had more than 340,000 followers before it was suspended. “Earlier tonight, Elon Musk suspended

Elon Musk taketh away, and Elon Musk giveth. Late Friday night, the mercurial mega-billionaire unilaterally announced that he was unbanning journalists whose accounts had been suspended a day before — which Musk claimed had “doxxed” him by posting links to an account that tracks his private jet. Until this week, the CEO of Twitter, Tesla

YouTube removed the official channel of Pornhub, the sex site’s promotional outlet for videos, coming eight years after Pornhub launched its account. Prior to its removal Friday, the Pornhub Official channel had amassed nearly 900,000 subscribers. It was first launched in December 2014. The channel’s URL now displays a 404 (“not found”) error on the

Lara Croft is swinging back into action — this time with Amazon. Amazon Games and game studio Crystal Dynamics, developer of the long-running “Tomb Raider” franchise, announced an agreement under which Crystal Dynamics will develop a new multiplatform title in the series, with Amazon Games “providing full support and publishing the game globally.” For now,

Higher Ground, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s media company, announced the expansion of its audio team with a trio of executive hires. In addition, the company promoted Mukta Mohan to head of audio content; her previous title was VP of audio. The three new hires are: Corinne Gilliard, who joins Higher Ground as senior

Twitter appeared to suspend the accounts of several high-profile journalists who cover Elon Musk on Thursday night, including Keith Olbermann and Aaron Rupar. The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, Mashable’s Matt Binder, The Intercept’s Micah Lee and Tony Webster have also been suspended, according to NBC News.

Donald Trump, the twice-impeached former U.S. president, is hoping to rake in some cash by shilling digital NFT trading cards depicting him in various scenes and weird fantasy scenarios, including a couple of him portrayed as a “Superman”-like superhero. The NFTs cost $99 each (plus a transaction fee), available at collecttrumpcards.com. The site says 45,000

FuboTV touts itself as “the best streaming service for sports aficionados” — but the TV provider was largely unavailable on Wednesday, causing many subscribers to miss the World Cup semifinal match between France and Morocco. On Dec. 14, many FuboTV customers experienced issues accessing their accounts, starting at around 9 a.m. ET and continuing through

UPDATED: Free-speech “absolutist” and Twitter CEO Elon Musk appears to have had a change of heart in allowing an account that tracked the movements of his private jet to remain on his social network. On Wednesday, Twitter permanently banned @ElonJet, a bot account that used publicly available data to track the locations of Musk’s personal

Actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett have turned their popular “SmartLess” comedy-interview podcast into a media company — with an expanded slate of shows and ambitions beyond the podcast space. The trio’s newly formed SmartLess Media announced four original podcasts coming in 2023: “Bad Dates” with Jameela Jamil; sports show “Owned” hosted by

Netflix is launching its first Italian reality show, “Summer Job,” in which 10 lazy Gen Z contestants embark on a dream vacation in a luxury villa on the Mexican Riviera, only to discover that they have to work real jobs to pay for their stay. Produced by Banijay Italia, “Summer Job” will drop on Netflix

The SEC charged seven “social media influencers” — who had amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter and Discord — with securities fraud, alleging they manipulated stock prices to reap $100 million in ill-gotten gains. The agency also issued a charge against an eighth individual with allegedly aiding and abetting the “scheme.” According to

Leslie Grace, star of Warner Bros.’ canceled superhero pic “Batgirl,” is taking her talents to the audio universe. Grace will star in and executive produce QCode’s “How to Win Friends and Disappear People,” a dark-comedy thriller podcast in which she voices the part of a young woman who is actually a centuries-old vampire living in

Stepping up its streaming-aggregation play, Verizon is teaming with Netflix on a promotional deal giving wireless customers one year free of Netflix’s priciest plan. The catch: The telco’s customers can get 12 months of Netflix’s Premium plan (regularly $19.99/month) for no extra charge with the purchase of a 12-month or seasonal subscription from a selection

Alaric McAusland, a veteran of the visual effects sector, has been appointed as MD of DNEG’s new VFX and animation studio in Sydney, Australia. He takes up the position from January 2023. A past MD of tech firm Deluxe Entertainment Service Group Australia (which included Iloura in Melbourne and Method Studios in Sydney), McAusland was

Twitter, since it was taken over by self-described “free-speech absolutist” Elon Musk, has seen a dramatic rise in the use of the anti-gay slur “groomer” among a cluster of high-profile anti-LGBTQ accounts, according to a new report. According to a study by Media Matters and GLAAD released Tuesday, nine prominent anti-LGBTQ accounts had an over

Official company and brand handles on Twitter have a brand-new look: Starting this week, the Elon Musk-owned social network is replacing the former blue check-marks with gold ones for businesses. As of Monday, many business accounts on Twitter (including @Variety) now display a gold check-mark (although it looks more yellowish on the Twitter app), instead