Social media companies purge 4.7mn accounts after landmark Australia ban
ft - First data released on impact of blocking access for children as other countries monitor progress
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 11:20 pm / permalink 17987 / 4 stories in 7 wks
Verizon’s January 14 Blackout: The 10-Hour ‘SOS’ Event Explained
IDrop News Staff / idropnews - A look back at the January 14 Verizon outage that left 2 million in SOS mode. From Krispy Kreme's "sweet backup" to the FCC's investigation, here's what happened.Read More...
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 9:20 pm / permalink 17980 / 3 stories in 7 wks
Democrats Blast SEC Over Crypto Retreat, Justin Sun’s Alleged China Ties
André Beganski / decrypt - House Democrats have accused the SEC of selectively enforcing laws against crypto firms, while spotlighting Tron founder Justin Sun.
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 7:21 pm / permalink 17973 / 4 stories in 7 wks
Ripple CEO Breaks Silence on Coinbase’s Sudden Withdrawal from Key Bill
Maxwell Mutuma / parameter - TLDR Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expressed surprise over Coinbase’s strong rejection of the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act. Garlinghouse acknowledged the concerns raised by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong regarding tokenized stocks and stablecoin rewards.…
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 7:21 pm / permalink 17970 / 12 stories in 7 wks
‘Heinous’: Musk’s AI Grok facing probe
news.com.au - Millions of accounts were deactivated in the wake of Australia’s social media ban, but it’s an “even more potentially catastrophic” threat that has the watchdog worried.
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 7:20 pm / permalink 17969 / 12 stories in 7 wks
Italy's Privacy Watchdog, Scourge of US Big Tech, Hit By Corruption Probe
BeauHD / slashdot - The powerful data privacy watchdog in Italy long known for aggressively policing U.S. and Chinese AI giants is under investigation for possible corruption and embezzlement. Reuters reports: Rome prosecutors are investigating the agency's president, Pasqua…
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 5:21 pm / permalink 17956 / 2 stories in 7 wks
AWS Launches Independent European Cloud to Meet Sovereignty Requirements
PYMNTS / pymnts - AWS has launched the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, an independent cloud located in the European Union and designed to help customers meet the EU’s sovereignty requirements. The cloud is physically and logically separate from other AWS regions, and it feat…
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 5:20 pm / permalink 17952 / 3 stories in 7 wks
How Activists in Iran Are Using Starlink to Stay Online
Adam Satariano,Paul Mozur,Sheera Frenkel / nytimes - Activists spent years preparing for a communications blackout in Iran, smuggling in Starlink satellite internet systems and making digital shutdowns harder for the authorities to enforce.
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 5:20 pm / permalink 17951 / 5 stories in 7 wks
State and Federal Lawmakers Want Data Centers to Pay More for Energy
Ivan Penn and Karen Weise / nytimes - Many proposals have been introduced, but there is little consensus among governors, Congress members and tech executives about exactly how much the companies behind data centers should pay for electricity.
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 3:21 pm / permalink 17941 / 2 stories in 7 wks
Taiwan Pledges $250 Billion in U.S. Spending in Exchange for Lower Tariffs
Amrith Ramkumar / wsj - Under the agreement, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing will add new factories to its cluster in Arizona as part of a $250 billion investment in the U.S., the Commerce Department said.
- Controversial details and disputed figures (2)
- Standard $250B chip investment deal (10)
- All Other Stories
Controversial details and disputed figures
Standard $250B chip investment deal
All Other Stories
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 3:20 pm / permalink 17937 / 14 stories in 7 wks
Senate Crypto Regulation Markup Fizzles Over Stablecoin Yield Debate
PYMNTS / pymnts - Getting crypto markets legislation passed in the U.S. is becoming as volatile as crypto markets themselves. Thursday (Jan. 15) was supposed to be a big day for the digital asset sector. The Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the Securities and Excha…
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 2:20 pm / permalink 17927 / 8 stories in 7 wks
Elon Musk's X Bans Access to ‘InfoFi’ Crypto Projects Amid ‘AI Slop’ Backlash
André Beganski / decrypt - X is making major changes to its API to prevent access by "InfoFi" crypto projects that seek to incentivize "reply spam," an exec said.
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 1:21 pm / permalink 17918 / 3 stories in 7 wks
Elon Musk’s AI company finally blocks nude image generation following pressure from regulators
Matthias Bastian / the-decoder - After days of abuse and investigations on both sides of the Atlantic, Elon Musk's chatbot Grok can no longer undress photos of real people—at least where it's illegal.The article Elon Musk’s AI company finally blocks nude image generation following pressu…
- Bikini edits stir quick tech tweaks (2)
- Regulators force nude image blockades (2)
- Wider Grok controversies spark ongoing debate (3)
- All Other Stories
Bikini edits stir quick tech tweaks
Regulators force nude image blockades
Wider Grok controversies spark ongoing debate
All Other Stories
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 12:21 pm / permalink 17910 / 13 stories in 7 wks
The US imposes 25% tariff on Nvidia’s H200 AI chips headed to China
Rebecca Szkutak / techcrunch - The Trump administration formalized its 25% cut of H200 chip sales in China with a tariff that applies to certain semiconductors.
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 11:21 am / permalink 17905 / 4 stories in 7 wks
Wikipedia unveils new AI licensing deals as it marks 25th birthday
techxplore - Wikipedia unveiled new business deals with a slew of artificial intelligence companies on Thursday as it marked its 25th anniversary.
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 10:20 am / permalink 17899 / 11 stories in 7 wks
AWS flips switch on Euro cloud as customers fret about digital sovereignty
Lindsay Clark / theregister - EU-only ops, German subsidiaries, and a pinky promise your data won't end up in Uncle Sam's hands Amid continued trade and geopolitical volatility between Europe and the US, Amazon Web Services is making its European Sovereign Cloud generally available to…
Back to Top / Thursday, January 15, 2026, 4:20 am / permalink 17892 / 6 stories in 7 wks
Sweeping crypto legislation hits major snag as Senate Banking Committee postpones markup
Sarah Wynn / theblock - The Senate Banking Committee has pulled its hearing to amend and vote on sweeping crypto legislation following a tumultuous few days.
- Coinbase Withdrawals - Coinbase shuns problematic crypto bill, sparking wider industry concern. (10)
- Market & Analyst Impact - Analysts predict cascading effects as crypto bill stalls in Congress. (4)
- Senate Markup Turmoil - Senate panel halts crucial crypto markup amid fierce debates. (6)
- Support Among Peers - Robinhood CEO supports bill despite Coinbase exit and policy rifts. (1)
Coinbase Withdrawals - Coinbase shuns problematic crypto bill, sparking wider industry concern.
Market & Analyst Impact - Analysts predict cascading effects as crypto bill stalls in Congress.
Senate Markup Turmoil - Senate panel halts crucial crypto markup amid fierce debates.
Support Among Peers - Robinhood CEO supports bill despite Coinbase exit and policy rifts.
Back to Top / Wednesday, January 14, 2026, 9:20 pm / permalink 17885 / 21 stories in 7 wks
Verizon Outage Knocks Out US Mobile Service, Including Some 911 Calls
Lily Hay Newman / wired - A major Verizon outage appeared to impact customers across the United States starting around noon ET on Wednesday. Calls to Verizon customers from other carriers may also be impacted.
- Competitor, Investor Response: Rival jabs and stock resilience (2)
- Customer Compensation: Apologies, credits, and restoration promises (6)
- Widespread Outage Impact: Disruptions, SOS, and 911 call issues (7)
- All Other Stories
Competitor, Investor Response: Rival jabs and stock resilience
Customer Compensation: Apologies, credits, and restoration promises
Widespread Outage Impact: Disruptions, SOS, and 911 call issues
All Other Stories
Back to Top / Wednesday, January 14, 2026, 4:21 pm / permalink 17876 / 16 stories in 7 wks
Verizon breaks silence on massive outage. Heres what they said.
mashable - In a statement, Verizon acknowledged that its customers were impacted by a major disruption on Wednesday afternoon.
- Competitor reactions and grid vulnerability insights (2)
- iPhone SOS alerts and fixes (4)
- Nationwide outage reports and official alerts (6)
- Restoration efforts and customer compensation updates (6)
Competitor reactions and grid vulnerability insights
iPhone SOS alerts and fixes
Nationwide outage reports and official alerts
Restoration efforts and customer compensation updates
Back to Top / Wednesday, January 14, 2026, 3:21 pm / permalink 17873 / 18 stories in 7 wks
California Investigates Elon Musk’s xAI Over Sexualized Images Generated by Grok
Kate Conger / nytimes - The state will examine whether xAI, which owns the social media platform X and created the A.I. chatbot Grok, violated state law.
- California probes (10)
- Global regulatory & advocacy (9)
- Platform policy clampdown (16)
- All Other Stories
California probes
Global regulatory & advocacy
Platform policy clampdown
All Other Stories
Back to Top / Wednesday, January 14, 2026, 3:20 pm / permalink 17871 / 38 stories in 7 wks