Tech

YouTube will block Russia state-owned RT and Sputnik channels immediately from being accessible in Europe, with parent company Google citing the Russian attack on Ukraine. Google announced the move Tuesday on Twitter. “Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we’re blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately,” the internet company

Meta, the tech giant that controls the Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram social media platforms, said that it has restricted access to Russian state media within the European Union. The moves are intended to limit the spread of Russian propaganda during the country’s invasion of Ukraine. “We have received requests from a number of governments and

Howard Stern launched into a tirade against Vladimir Putin during Monday’s episode of his SiriusXM radio show (via Yahoo). The host condemned members of the Republican Party for supporting Putin amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, most notably Donald Trump. While Trump said at CPAC over the weekend that Russia’s attack on Ukraine is “appalling,” he

Bill Livek plans to retire as CEO of Comscore, capping a career in media measurement spanning more than 40 years. Comscore said its board of directors will consider external and internal candidates to succeed Livek as CEO and has engaged headhunting firm Spencer Stuart for the search. Once a replacement is named, Livek plans to

HnusBBK2Celebrities showed up in droves for Sunday’s SAG Awards, driving the first big awards show of the year (and since the pandemic) to the top of Variety’s Trending TV chart for the week of Feb. 21 to 27. The show collected an impressive 3.6 million engagements during its broadcast on TNT and TBS, earning more

TikTok is again cranking up the maximum length of videos users can upload to the platform — more than tripling it, to 10 minutes. TikTok, owned by Chinese internet conglomerate ByteDance, is moving to let creators make longer-form videos as rivals like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram have aggressively built out their own TikTok-like short-form video

HBO Max was briefly unavailable for many users on Sunday evening — just when the “Euphoria” Season 2 finale was set to be hit the streamer. User reports of problems accessing HBO Max began to spike at 8:55 p.m. ET, according to service monitoring site DownDetector, with errors concentrated in the Northeast U.S. The final

Google’s YouTube said it is blocking the ability for Kremlin-controlled media outlets, including Russia Today (RT), to run ads on their channels, coming amid broad economic sanctions enacted by Western powers against Russia because of its sudden and violent attack on Ukraine. On Saturday, YouTube said it “began pausing a number of Russian channels’ ability

“Euphoria” has continued to amass a growing audience for HBO — and now Twitter has confirmed that the hit drama series has produced the most activity of any television show in the 2020s to date on the social network. Ahead of the season finale this Sunday (Feb. 27), Twitter said “Euphoria” was the most-tweeted about

UPDATED: The Russian government announced that it has taken steps to “partially restrict access” to Facebook in the country, asserting that the social network censored official news outlets amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Facebook was “involved in the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens,”

Ben McKenzie may be best known to television fans as the star of hit shows such as “The O.C.” and “Southland.” But the actor has more recently become an outspoken critic and skeptic of the burgeoning world of cryptocurrency. McKenzie recently partnered with author and journalist Jacob Silverman on a series of articles that unpacked

“Barbie Girl,” the ridiculously catchy dance hit by ’90s one-hit-wonders Aqua, has joined the rarified ranks of YouTube’s billion-views club. The official video for the 1997 hit single has now surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube since it was uploaded to the video platform by the Danish-Norwegian pop group in 2010. According to YouTube, “Barbie

Spotify appears to have quietly pulled several episodes “The Alex Jones Show,” hosted by the notorious right-wing conspiracy theorist and founder of Infowars, after a media watchdog group discovered that several episodes had appeared on the streaming service in recent days. In 2018, Spotify banned Jones from its platform, after Apple Podcasts, Facebook and YouTube

Google will no longer require U.S. staffers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus as a condition of employment, and it scaled back some COVID-safety restrictions as it expects more workers to return to the internet giant’s office in the coming weeks. Google is dropping the requirement that vaxxed U.S. employees get weekly COVID tests before

The Dark Knight is streaking across Google’s search pages in a new Easter egg, ahead of the premiere of Warner Bros.’ “The Batman” next week. On Google Search, either on desktop or mobile, a query for “Bruce Wayne,” “Gotham City” or “Bat-Signal” will reveal a swiveling yellow Bat-Signal icon in the results. Clicking or tapping

People has a new top editor: Liz Vaccariello, formerly editor in chief of Real Simple magazine, is taking over the reins of the entertainment and human interest title. Vaccariello takes over for Dan Wakeford, who is leaving after three years as People’s EIC. Wakeford didn’t respond to a request for comment. The change at the

YouTube wants to pull in even more dollars from TV ad budgets — and this year, for the first time, the streaming giant is holding its annual sales pitch event for marketers the same week as TV’s upfronts. The video platform is holding YouTube Brandcast during the week of the television upfronts. The live show

Spotify will premiere an exclusive serialized podcast for “Run, Rose, Run” — the forthcoming novel by Dolly Parton and James Patterson — with excerpts blended with Parton’s original soundtrack for the book. The first two episodes of “Run, Rose, Run Bookcast” debuted today (Feb. 23) on Spotify (at this link), with an additional 10 episodes

The latest entertainment venture for Arnold Schwarzenegger? The former governor of California and star of more than four dozen films has teamed with YouTube creator Logan Paul to launch the Slap Fighting Championship next month — featuring a roster of beefy men slapping the crap out each other. The Slap Fighting Championship will be held

I’m a classically trained violinist and country boy from Keithville, La. Monday nights were spent studying the piano. Tuesday and Friday were dedicated to the violin. On Wednesday, I gave my time to the church choir. Early mornings and afternoons were spent feeding the animals on our farm. I never considered my particular Black experience

The Season 1 finale of HBO Max’s “Peacemaker” blew away the TV competition to earn the top spot on Variety’s Trending TV chart for the week of Feb. 14 to 20. The Thursday finale drew nearly 700,000 engagements with fans on Twitter, catapulting the show from the ninth spot on last week’s rankings to its

Saudi Arabia is leading the way as streaming platforms continue to gain traction in top Arab markets, where revenues from the SVOD market in 2021 grew a yearly 29% to $453 million. New research from Media Partners Asia reveals that Saudi accounted for more than half of the revenues. However, the pay-TV sector in Gulf Arab states

Jon Hamm finds himself at the center of a hostage crisis in Amazon original podcast drama series “American Hostage,” based on real-life events. All eight episodes of the podcast are available starting Feb. 22 on Amazon Music (at this link) and the Wondery Plus subscription service. Episodes will be released weekly on other major podcast

SoundCloud has entered into a joint venture with Solid Foundation, the management and creative services arm of QC Media Holdings, which both are owned and operated by Quality Control Music founders Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas. In this deal SoundCloud and Solid Foundation are joining forces to “discover new talent and revolutionize

Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, an independent film producer, are personally donating $10 million to Tougaloo College, a historically Black college and university in Mississippi, and the school’s partnership with Brown University. Of the total, $5 million will fund scholarships at Tougaloo, in Jackson, Miss., and $5 million will establish the

The social network backed by ex-president Donald Trump — ironically, it’s called Truth Social — has hit the top of the Apple App Store rankings for free apps a little over 12 hours after it debuted. The Twitter-style app invites users to “share your unique opinion” and insists that it is “free from political discrimination.”

The Weeknd will present an immersive music special called “The Dawn FM Experience” on Amazon’s Prime video on Saturday, Feb. 26. According to the announcement, the special “expands the Weeknd’s latest album, ‘Dawn FM’ into a mesmerizing visual, creating a theatrical performance event that will envelope audiences in its unnerving and moody world.” The special

Jamal Edwards, a major figure in the British music industry known for founding the music platform SBTV, which helped popularize grime and launch several major musicians, died Sunday. He was 31 years old. Edwards’ death was reported by the BBC on Sunday evening after the publication confirmed with Edwards’ company. No other details about his

Dean Wilson and Joel Zimmerman (better known as the artist deadmau5) are established innovators on the fringe of music and technology. Wilson is Zimmerman’s longtime manager and the pair have been pushing, in lock step, the envelope of music production, performance and the relationship between artist and fan. Zimmerman, a native of Canada, is a

In today’s podcast news roundup, Willa Fitzgerald stars in Fictionz’s two narrative podcast series based on Aimee Bender short stories; influencer Tinx gets a podcast and radio show with SiriusXM; Spotify’s The Ringer deconstructs celebrity tabloid culture; the 2022 Ambies awards nominations are out; and more. GREENLIGHTS Fictionz, the subscription app for narrative podcasts based