Author: TechBrunch

Yoel Roth, formerly the director of trust and safety at Twitter, shares concerns during the match about the future of the open social web and the ability to combat misinformation, spam, and other illegal content such as child sex abuse material (CSAM). In a recent interview, Roth was worried about the lack of moderation tools available to Fediverse. This is an open social web that includes apps such as Mastodon, Threads, and Pixelfed and open platforms such as Bluesky. He also recalled key moments of trust and safety on Twitter, like decisions to ban President Trump from the platform, decisions…

Meeting your partner online is no longer a taboo. The evidence is everywhere. It is at your fridge door, where you are cutting wedding invitations of friends you met on Tinder. It's on your Instagram feed. There, a friend shares Sappy's posts about her 1st anniversary with the woman she met at the hinge. However, when Zeke Rothfels tells people that she met her husband online, she doesn't talk about swiping left until she finally finds the man on the right. She talks about fostering relationships across the US-Canadian border with men she met in a Facebook meme group. “Is…

At one point, an app called Twitterrific was one of the most popular iPhone apps for browsing Twitter. These days, the company behind that app and many of the apps have struggled. And AI may be partially responsible. On Wednesday, the company known as IconFactory admitted it was at an intersection and sold several apps due to lack of resources. The announcement positioned the issue as a situation where IconFactory's app catalog has grown to include too many apps to keep up, and doesn't have enough time to do so, but the reality is that today's business has no choice…

Quora's AI platform POE announced on Thursday that it will release an API that will allow developers to easily access different models or bots for their own applications. There is no additional fee for the API. Instead, usage is tracked through the POE's existing point-based subscription plan. There, each model call costs the number of points set. For example, low quality image generation via GPT-4o with a 1:1 aspect ratio and 1024 x 1024 size cost 328 points. Today, Poe's plans include the $4.99/month plan (10,000 points per day), the $19.99/mo plan (1 million points per month), the $49.99/mo plan…

As Tiktok's future remains uncertain, the company is consolidating its core products and trust and safety teams into a single organization, according to an internal memo that was reviewed by Shou Zi Chew, and viewed by TechCrunch. “This new team will help us to better leverage our technical capabilities across both business and safety goals, and help us move faster as we develop next-generation safety technologies,” Chew wrote in a note. As part of the changes, the memo said Adam Presser, head of operations, trust and safety at Tiktok, will become the general manager of Tiktok USDS. Andy Bonillo, current…

The tech layoff wave is still kicking in 2025. Last year saw more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been the victim of reductions across the tech industry, with a staggering 16,084 cuts taking place in February alone. We’re tracking layoffs in the tech industry in 2025 so you can see the trajectory of the cutbacks and understand the impact on innovation across all types of companies. As businesses continue to embrace AI and automation, this tracker serves as a reminder of the human…

TechCrunch took place in 2025, which took place in 2025, October 27th-29th at Moscone West, San Francisco. A candid conversation is coming to the builder stage. Funding routes that don't start in the valley Today's founders have more capital paths than ever before. But how do you navigate them? And do you know which ones actually support your growth? In this session, listen to Erik Allebest, CEO and co-founder of Chess.com. Gale Wilkinson, Vitalize's founder and managing partner. Kay Makishi, Vice President of Lupoff/Stevens Family Office. Each brings a different perspective on how to raise funds without giving up on…

Self-driving cars have long been touted as “around the corner,” but the reality of what is needed to bring self-driving cars onto the streets is not simple. TechCrunch's 2025 will be held at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 27-29, Waymo Co-Ceo Tekedra Mawakana will join the chaotic stage due to the current state of AVS and the wide range of conversations that the industry will take from here. Within the reality check of autonomous driving Headlines often focus on crashes, controversy, or exaggerated promises, but Tekedora has been navigating the real world path to autonomous mobility for years.…

Google tests US machine learning-driven technology to determine the age of users and filters content from all products accordingly. The company said it would consider data from Google accounts, including the types of details users searched and the categories of videos they watched on YouTube. If your company's tools determine that a user is under the age of 18, you will receive an email with details about how Google products will change. For these users, Google will disable the timeline on maps, stop personalized ads, restrict age-restricted ad categories, and prohibit access to adult-themed apps in the Play Store. The…

Uber Eats announced Wednesday that restaurants and merchants will be able to chat with customers to prevent order issues. The app also introduces new AI tools for merchants, and invites users to send photos of their orders if the item doesn't have a menu image yet. The new “live order chat” feature allows merchants to send real-time messages to customers to see exchanges of sold-out items, clarify special requests, and check in on dietary and allergy preferences. Uber says users cannot start chatting with merchants as they can only send messages to customers if they first contact them. Live Order…