TechCrunch Newsletters - Another country bans TikTok

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

In today’s top story, we see that Nepal joins a growing list of countries banning TikTok. Rita reports that a number of factors went into this decision, among them being a new rule about social media platforms registering with the local government. Meanwhile, Morgan covers TikTok pushing back against claims of anti-Israel bias. This comes as Sarah writes about a new song feature.

Meanwhile, meet Giskard. Romain writes that the French startup is working on an open source framework that evaluates AI models before they’re pushed into production. Get the scoop.

And Amanda reports that Instagram is bringing its Close Friends feature to the main feed. Learn more.

Image Credits: Getty Images

StrictlyVC Events Kick Off In San Francisco

More top reads

More layoffs: Online pet goods retailer Chewy is the latest to undergo layoffs, letting go of over 200 employees. Read about why. Also, over at Amazon, there are plans to close its Crown channel and cut 180 jobs within the Games Growth group. This follows an initial restructuring of its games division.

Imagine a world of your own: 3D generative AI platform Atlas emerges from stealth with $6 million to accelerate virtual worldbuilding. Get the scoop.

A surprise investment: Andreessen Horowitz backs Civitai, a generative AI content marketplace with millions of users. Get to know Civitai, the good and not so good.

Unlocking the CPG manufacturing process: Keychain, a new startup infused with $18 million, wants to match brands with manufacturers. Learn about Keychain’s big-name founders.

For when you can’t stand the rain: Courtesy of AI, machine learning models are taking over weather forecasting. Now we may see weather forecasts for the hour, the week and the century. Keep that umbrella handy.

Connecting LLMs to the web: What OpenAI did for ChatGPT and the internet, You.com wants to do for large language models. Here’s how.

AI videos cometh: Amid the surge of AI videos, YouTube adapts its policies. Read about the changes.

M&A action: Meet Gameplanner.AI, the company Airbnb just acquired. There’s not much to tell about this company, other than it was launched by a Siri co-founder.

Do the splits: Venmo rolls out a new feature to split expenses among groups. How it works.

New capital ahead: Anu Hariharan, who led YC Continuity before it was scrapped, has partnered with three others to launch a new fund out to raise about $350 million. Get the scoop. Meanwhile, Monta Vista Capital closes its third fund, its largest fund to date, with $48 million for B2B startups. Read more.

Dang those fat fingers: A software update bricked Rivian infotainment systems. Here’s what happened.

What’s going on at Amazon: We bring you more at Amazon, including new Buy with Prime perks and a deal with Snap to let users buy its products from ads on Snapchat.

Flagging content: Earlier today, we brought you some stats that say over 300,000 posts and another 300,000 accounts were “actioned” on X over Israel-Hamas war violations. This comes as a new report claims X is leaving up antisemitic and Islamophobic hate.

More for your Tuesday:

Building a conservative internet is an expensive proposition (TC+)

Celonis adds an AI copilot to ask questions about a process map

Baton, a music collaboration platform for unreleased material, raises $4.2M

Why supersize convenience stores might be key to unlocking EV fast charging (TC+)

Hackers are exploiting ‘CitrixBleed’ bug in the latest wave of mass cyberattacks