The “moral panic” framing misses how platforms actually harm kids. PLUS: Newsom investigates TikTok over Trump, and the Clawdbot frenzy
Platformer
• Casey Newton
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News at the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy. On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 5PM Pacific.
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Platformer
• Casey Newton
When murder becomes a meme
Truth and terror in Minneapolis. PLUS: TikTok conspiracy theories, and Dario Amodei's Oppenheimer moment
Platformer
• Casey Newton
The AI productivity paradox
Managers say it makes them more productive. Workers don't. What gives?
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Meta’s scam problem, UK edition
Plus: Writers react to Claude Code for writers; Elon Musk vs. OpenAI; and ChatGPT gets ads
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Claude Code for writers
Five useful things I’ve built so far. Plus: Grok caves, and Thinking Machines implodes
Platformer
• Casey Newton
What I learned while cloning my own voice
Announcing Platformer+, a new way to listen to our columns
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Grok gets blocked
More than a week into a deepfake scandal, a handful of foreign governments have found the strength to do what Apple, Google, and the United States will not
Platformer
• Casey Newton
The project that turned me into a Claude Code believer
I feel great about the website I’m building — and terrible for professional website builders. PLUS: Who will stop Grok? And ChatGPT will see you now
Platformer
• Ella Markianos
Inside the debate over AI consciousness
At ConCon, researchers and tech workers debate whether future systems could develop an inner life — and how you would know if they did
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit
A “whistleblower” tried to corroborate his viral post with AI-generated evidence. This is how I caught him. PLUS: Grok's image-generation crisis, and the rapture over Claude Opus 4.5
Platformer
• Casey Newton
11 predictions for 2026
PLUS: What I got right (and wrong) about 2025
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Spotify is part of the trade war now
The US is retaliating against the EU after it fined X — and now some of Europe's biggest companies are caught in the crossfire
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Meta's scam problem may trigger a legal reckoning
A fresh investigation reveals the scope of Meta's problem in China. Will a pending court case force the company to crack down — or destroy Section 230?
Platformer
• Casey Newton
OpenAI is a normal company now
A decade years in, what started as a sci-fi lab is now focused on engagement and growth. What does that mean for building AI safely?
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Australia kicks the kids off social media
How social networks lost the argument. PLUS: All worked up over Nvidia's H200
Platformer
• Casey Newton
How X made the EU's case for it
By banning an ad account on a flimsy pretext, X demonstrated the exact behavior that led the European Union to fine it. PLUS: The state AI law moratorium is back, and the Paramount-Netflix fight
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Where Meta's biggest experiment in governance went wrong
Five years after the Oversight Board's creation, few are satisfied with the result. Can it be saved?
Platformer
• Casey Newton
How researchers reversed polarization on X with a simple change to the algorithm
A new study offers evidence for what we’ve long suspected: rage bait is distorting our politics. PLUS: The David Sacks discourse, and Claude Opus 4.5 debuts
Platformer
• Casey Newton
AI is winning the copyright fight
Why music labels are folding in their cases against AI startups
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Roblox is a problem — but it’s a symptom of something worse
What is the role of tech journalism in a world where CEOs no longer feel shame?
Platformer
• Casey Newton
How Trump is converting Republicans to AI safety
His new push for a state moratorium on AI regulation has the right talking like effective altruists. PLUS: the EU backtracks on AI and privacy, and Grok loves Elon
Platformer
• Casey Newton
The simple test that blew up the FTC's case against Meta
How one experiment defined the social networking market better than the government did. PLUS: Gemini 3 arrives
Platformer
• Casey Newton
The California law that has platforms shaking
The state says ranking algorithms aren't protected by the First Amendment — and judges are starting to agree. PLUS: An OpenAI-powered toy breaks bad, and Jeff Bezos has a new AI company
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Spotify's doppelgänger problem
After King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard left Spotify in protest earlier this year, something strange took their place
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Europe might cave on privacy protections
The bloc's leaders seem increasingly convinced AI regulations are harming its competitiveness. Are they right? PLUS: Another wave of ChatGPT lawsuits
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Meta has a scam problem
The company's own projections showed up to 10 percent of its revenue could come from scams, according to a new leak. PLUS: OpenAI's "backstop" controversy
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Amazon gets hit by a Comet
How Perplexity's smash-and-grab tactics are clouding the future of AI agents
Platformer
• Casey Newton
The Bluesky exodus, one year later
The company has 40 million users and big plans for the future. So why don't its users seem happy? PLUS: The NEO Home Robot goes viral + Ilya Sutskever's surprising deposition
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Character.AI cuts off teens from their companions
It's the first big developer to say AI companions aren't safe for under-18s. Will others follow?
Platformer
• Casey Newton
OpenAI completes its restructuring
PLUS: ChatGPT users’ surprising questions for Sam Altman + Grokipedia launches