Taylor Hatmaker, Author at TechCrunch

TikTok ban: How Congress could force ByteDance to sell or push the app out of the US

Taylor Hatmaker — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 20:25:58 +0000

TikTok faces an uncertain fate in the U.S. once again. In a 352 to 65 vote Wednesday, the House voted to pass a bill that could lead to a national TikTok ban. After a surprise flurry of bipartisan activity in the House, the legislation advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and made […]

The controversial bill that could ban TikTok faces a rocky road in the Senate

Taylor Hatmaker — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 19:20:51 +0000

A bill threatening to ban an app beloved by half of the American population just rocketed through the House of Representatives in a week’s time. But in the other chamber of Congress, things are likely to be much more complicated. TikTok the company and TikTok the chaotic community of creators and their followers are rightfully […]

The bill that could ban TikTok passes in the House

Taylor Hatmaker — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 14:38:43 +0000

The House voted on Wednesday in favor of a bill to require TikTok to sever its connection with parent company ByteDance or face a ban, moving the legislation forward with surprising speed. President Joe Biden has already said that he would support the legislation, but TikTok faces an uncertain fate as the bill heads to […]

What’s next for Twitch? A big app redesign and more social sharing

Taylor Hatmaker — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 19:33:38 +0000

In an open letter published on Wednesday, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy outlined the livestreaming company’s plans for 2024, with a focus on helping streamers grow their audiences even when they aren’t live. This year, Twitch plans to overhaul its app for the first time in five years, ditching its long-standing design to focus on a […]

X goes to court in Elon Musk’s war against an anti-hate research org

Taylor Hatmaker — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 01:10:38 +0000

Elon Musk’s crusade against the extremism research organization the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) will have its day in court on Thursday. Elon Musk’s X sued the CCDH last year, accusing it of “actively working to assert false and misleading claims about X.” The nonprofit, formed in 2018, conducts research on social media platforms […]

The Supreme Court could decide the future of content moderation

Taylor Hatmaker — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 01:15:11 +0000

The Supreme Court is considering the fate of two state laws that limit how social media companies can moderate the content on their platforms. In oral arguments on Monday, the justices grappled with a thorny set of questions that could reshape the internet, from social networks like Facebook and TikTok to apps like Yelp and […]

With Disney’s magic, Fortnite is poised to win the metaverse

Taylor Hatmaker — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 00:39:07 +0000

We may not be using the M word much these days, but the race to build an interconnected avatar-driven virtual world didn’t take the last year off. The metaverse, a tech buzzword sandwiched in between the hype eras of NFTs and AI, is still being built, regardless of what we’re calling it. And in light […]

Cowboy allays e-bike riders’ greatest fears with on-demand repairs and tune-ups

Taylor Hatmaker — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 17:48:09 +0000

Cowboy is rolling out a new repairs and service program designed to give its e-bike riders more ways to keep their wheels on the road. The new service option is more reassurance to European Cowboy riders eager to keep their e-bikes on the road. While traditional bikes are famously easy to maintain, electric bikes are […]

Disney takes a $1.5B stake in Epic Games to build an ‘entertainment universe’ with Fortnite

Taylor Hatmaker — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 22:08:28 +0000

Lego Fortnite is only two months old, but Epic Games is already out with an even bigger collaboration. Epic and Disney announced today that the companies will partner on an “all-new games and entertainment universe” that will bring characters from Disney’s deep catalogue to life through a tie-in with Fortnite. Disney will take a $1.5 […]

Oversight Board calls on Meta to rewrite ‘incoherent’ rules against faked videos

Taylor Hatmaker — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 11:00:01 +0000

The Oversight Board, the external advisory group that Meta created to review its moderation decisions on Facebook and Instagram, issued a decision on Monday concerning a doctored seven-second video of President Biden that made the rounds on social media last year. The original video showed the president accompanying his granddaughter Natalie Biden to cast her […]

Pew report shows TikTok’s rise and YouTube’s ubiquity

Taylor Hatmaker — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 21:31:14 +0000

Social media apps can rise quickly and burn out just as fast, but taking a step back and looking at those trends on a longer timeline offers a better glimpse at the big picture. The Pew Research Center’s latest report on Americans’ social media habits is out, rounding up social media usage trends among U.S. […]

Microsoft, X throw their weight behind KOSA, the controversial kids online safety bill

Taylor Hatmaker — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 17:43:48 +0000

On the eve of Wednesday’s Big Tech hearing (both Big Tech and a big hearing — five CEOs are testifying as we speak), Microsoft stepped up to back a controversial bill that aims to protect children from the dangers of social media. In the early hours of the hearing, X CEO Linda Yaccarino also climbed […]

CEOs from Meta, TikTok, Snap, X and Discord head to Congress for kids’ online safety hearing

Taylor Hatmaker — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 21:40:44 +0000

CEOs from some of the biggest social platforms will appear before Congress on Wednesday to defend their companies against mounting criticism that they have done too little to protect kids and teens online. The hearing, set to begin at 10 a.m. ET, is the latest in a long string of congressional tech hearings stretching back […]

Fortnite and the Epic Games Store are coming to iOS in Europe

Taylor Hatmaker — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 22:32:28 +0000

Four years after leaving iOS, Fortnite is coming back — but only European players will be dropping in this time. The endless beef between Epic Games and Apple over the company’s App Store fees took its most recent surprise turn on Thursday when the iPhone maker announced changes coming to iOS in the EU. In […]

Lego Fortnite’s first big update squashes bugs and adds a launch pad

Taylor Hatmaker — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 21:43:39 +0000

Epic’s standalone survival crafting game saw its first update on Tuesday, smoothing out some of the new game’s rough edges and adding a flurry of quality of life improvements. We’ve covered Lego Fortnite since it launched last month, when the new title lured in 2.4 million simultaneous players. On the face of it the game […]

Gamers flock to Palworld’s ‘Pokémon with guns’ despite copyright qualms

Taylor Hatmaker — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 21:57:13 +0000

When Palworld made its inauspicious debut in a teaser a year or so back, few thought this strange, blatant Pokémon ripoff would be anything but a quickly forgotten oddity. But after its Early Access release last week, the game has broken records and sold millions — reflecting the pent-up demand for a truly modern Pokémon-type […]

In a new lawsuit, Iowa accuses TikTok of lying about content available to kids

Taylor Hatmaker — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 01:10:33 +0000

The state of Iowa is suing TikTok, alleging that the social media company misleads parents about the kinds of content available to young users. The lawsuit from Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird accuses TikTok of hosting “sexual content, drugs, alcohol, intense profanity, self-harm messages, and other X-rated content,” making videos that aren’t age appropriate easily […]

Substack won’t commit to proactively removing Nazi content, ensuring further fallout

Taylor Hatmaker — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 23:38:07 +0000

Substack has industry-leading newsletter tools and a platform that independent writers flock to, but its recent content moderation missteps could prove costly. In late November, the Atlantic reported that a search of the publishing platform “turns up scores of white-supremacist, neo-Confederate, and explicitly Nazi newsletters on Substack — many of them apparently started in the […]

Lawsuit against Snap over fentanyl deaths can proceed, judge rules

Taylor Hatmaker — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 00:12:47 +0000

A lawsuit blaming Snapchat for a series of drug overdoses among young people can proceed, a Los Angeles judge ruled this week. A group of family members related to children and teens who overdosed on fentanyl sued Snapchat maker Snap last year, accusing the social media company of facilitating illicit drug deals involving fentanyl, a […]

Why Fortnite is getting into cozy gaming

Taylor Hatmaker — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 01:44:57 +0000

When it comes to figuring out a formula for a hit game that keeps players coming back year after year, Saxs Persson would know. Now at Epic Games overseeing the Fortnite ecosystem, Persson previously spent 12 years at Mojang building Minecraft into the stratospheric success it is today. Persson hopped over to Epic in 2022 […]