Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Hey, y'all. It's Dom, your guest writer today. We have some interesting news to hit, from Meta changing its regional ad business in the EU to the latest exodus from X to Bluesky. Let's dive in.

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / Getty Images

🥊 Hung up: The hackers who stole around 50 billion call and text records and hacked into the accounts of nearly all of AT&T's customers have been identified and charged. They are accused of accessing sensitive customer information and extorting crypto assets from at least three people. Read more

🫵 Another Meta and EU showdown: This time the EU came out on top. Meta will adjust its regional ad business after failing to once again get its surveillance ad machine past EU laws. We have the rundown on what happened and what it means for users in the EU. Read more

🍋 Lemon8 makes its case: As a TikTok ban looms, parent company ByteDance announced an integration with its other social app, Lemon8, so creators can cross-share content. TechCrunch reported last year that ByteDance was working on this type of integration. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

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🧑‍🌾 Fertilizer farming: NitroVolt, a startup that helps farmers use renewable power to create fertilizer, has raised a €2.75 million seed round. The company, based in Denmark, has received investment from the Danish sovereign wealth fund and BackingMinds. Read more

🪈 Opening act: The startup Antinoise has introduced a new product — a portable device that can plug into a smart device and turn it into a musical instrument. The company announced its Kickstarter campaign today, and the product is expected to retail for $44. Read more

💰 Fundraise: VC firm Altos Ventures announced that it raised $500 million for a new fund. The firm is best known for backing Roblox, PandaDoc, and Quizlet, and this is the largest fund it has raised since its founding nearly three years ago. Read more

🐦 X-odus: Unhappy X users are once again flowing to Bluesky, this time following the presidential election. X owner Elon Musk is known to share a cozy relationship with President-elect Donald Trump. Read more

🚙 Waymo's next big thing: Waymo is now available to everyone in Los Angeles after its waitlist grew to 300,000 people. The car service is slowly rolling out along the West Coast; it already operates in San Francisco and Phoenix. Read more

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Around the web

🤩 Child stardom: The New York Times dove into child internet stardom and what effects it has on children. The outlet profiled "Jacky Dejo," whose parents created a social account for her at the age of 6. At 18, she looks back on what has happened since. Read more

💀 Thought crypto was dead? Think again. The Economist looks at what everyone seems to be asking after it was revealed the crypto lobbies played a big role in this election: Why does it seem that crypto's popularity is back on the rise? Read more

😥 23andMe is still in big trouble: The company announced that it might not survive unless it gets new funding, according to the Financial Times. 23andMe has struggled these past few years, with declining revenue, job cuts, investor disputes, concern over data privacy, and its business model. Read more