Meta announced major changes today to its Facebook app that will transform the experience into a more TikTok-like selection of algorithmically chosen videos — and shunt off most content posted by family, friends and groups into a separate side feed, Axios' Sara Fischer reports.

Why it matters: The move shifts Facebook further from a social network and toward an entertainment and shopping platform like TikTok, which has increasingly challenged Facebook's dominance in user engagement and mobile advertising.

Be smart: The shift is happening in part due to regulatory pressure on social media networks to prioritize data privacy and to take more responsibility for misinformation on their platforms, a source told Axios.

Details: Beginning today for many users, Facebook's main Home screen will begin to look and feel a lot more like TikTok.

• The feed will include a vertical display of public posts — mostly video — that are suggested to a user algorithmically based on the type of content Facebook thinks a user is most likely to enjoy and engage with.
• Users can access Reels, Facebook's TikTok-like video feature, and Stories, Facebook's Snapchat-like ephemeral content feature, from the Home screen.

Additionally, users will begin to see a new Feeds tab on their shortcut bar within the app.

• The chronological Feeds tab will include the most recent posts from users' friends as well as from the Pages they follow and the groups they have joined.
• The Feeds tab can be filtered to show all posts from a user's community, or to only show posts from a user's friends, groups, Pages or favorites.

Between the lines: The main feed is no longer being called the News Feed now that Facebook is de-emphasizing its investment in news content.

• On Tuesday, Meta's VP of media partnerships Campbell Brown told staffers the company was shifting resources away from its news products, including its separate News tab and its Bulletin newsletter platform, to be able to support more creators broadly.
• Sources say Meta doesn't plan to renew the news licensing deals that it struck with publishers over the past three years that were worth roughly $90 million, but the company has yet to officially announce such a pullback.

The big picture: By filtering content from personal connections out of the primary Home screen, Facebook's experience will begin to look and feel much more like a content and product discovery engine than a social networking site.

• That shift will help Facebook lean more heavily into shopping and intent-based search advertising, which is less vulnerable to privacy regulation.

Our thought bubble: Facebook spent years building the world's biggest social graph across nearly three billion users globally. But that data, which used to be considered Facebook's biggest asset, has become a liability amid global privacy crackdowns.

What's next: The changes to Facebook's mobile apps will roll out to some users beginning Thursday, and will be introduced globally over the next week. They will come to desktop and browser versions of the platform later this year.

Hopes for a congressional vote this summer on a major tech antitrust bill have all but fizzled out as the August recess quickly approaches, as Axios' Ashley Gold reports.

The big picture: It's more likely than ever that this Congress will push efforts to pass Big Tech competition rules into the fall, where they will face slim chances with lawmakers distracted by midterm elections.

• If an autumn push fails, competition regulation will have to wait for the new Congress — and if the GOP takes back congressional control, it's unlikely to be a top priority.

Catch up quick: The American Innovation and Competition Online Act, co-sponsored by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), would ban Big Tech companies from favoring their own services in an anticompetitive way.

• For example, Apple would have to allow third party payment systems and Google could not surface its reviews over others in search results.
• The Senate bill is a companion to a similar House bill approved by the House Judiciary Committee last summer.

Driving the news: The American Innovation and Competition Online Act has bipartisan support. But floor time is dwindling as a list of Democratic priorities, including budget reconciliation and protecting same-sex marriage, take precedence.

• The Senate is only in session until Aug. 5, and Congress' main tech priority is to pass a narrow version of a chips bill meant to bolster American tech manufacturing.
• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he was aiming for a summer antitrust vote if the bill had 60 backers, Axios previously reported. A count from the Washington Post found that fewer than 60 senators publicly back the bill.

What they're saying: Supporters are grappling with the idea that their bill may not see floor time until after the August recess, per conversations with sources from advocacy groups and companies pushing for a vote.

• One Hill aide told Axios the bill's backers see the fall, often a dead zone for bipartisan legislation before midterm elections, as a "viable option" because of the legislation's range of support.
• "I am working with Sen. Klobuchar. I support these bills. I want to bring them to the floor. We have to see if we have 60 votes," Schumer said at a news conference Wednesday.

Yes, but: Advocates tell Axios that if the bill hits the floor at any point before a new Congress is sworn in, it will pass with at least 60 votes.

1. Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg will testify under oath as part of a lawsuit related to the company's dealings with Cambridge Analytica.

• Zuckerberg agreed to a deposition that could last up to six hours, and Sandberg agreed to sit for up to five hours, according to a Tuesday filing in San Francisco federal court.

2. Big tech companies continue to slow their hiring plans. Google, which had already said it would reduce its headcount growth, has instituted a two-week hiring freeze, according to The Information. Microsoft, meanwhile, is eliminating a number of open positions but will continue to hire for critical roles, Bloomberg reported.

• Our thought bubble: Companies large and small are revisiting their hiring plans and layoffs could be a next step for some.

3. In previewing the launch of new foldable smartphones next month, a Samsung executive said Wednesday that the company sold nearly 10 million Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Flip devices last year.

• Why it matters: The 10 million milestone, though arbitrary, shows that foldables have at least found a solid niche.
• Yes, but: Samsung had a faster hit with the Galaxy Note, which sold 10 million in less than a year after its October 2011 launch.

On Tap

• Snapchat parent Snap is set to release quarterly earnings after the markets close.

Trading Places

• No-code development platform Webflow has hired Linda Tong as chief operating officer. Tong was previously general manger of Cisco's AppDynamics.
• Rene Ritchie, former editor of tech blog iMore and a current YouTube content creator, is joining the Google-owned video site as a creator liaison.
• Airbnb Co-founder and Chairman of Airbnb.org Joe Gebbia announced his plans to step back from a full-time operating role, though will continue to serve on the boards of Airbnb and Airbnb.org.

ICYMI

• Minecraft plans to ban most NFTs in its digital world, saying the manufactured scarcity "does not align with Minecraft values of creative inclusion and playing together." (Minecraft)
• Samsung is weighing building up to 11 new chipmaking facilities in Texas. (The Austin American Statesman)

The Onion has had some awesome tech skewers of late, including this one poking fun at increasingly fussy Airbnb hosts.