A group of editorial employees at gaming outlet IGN is calling for corporate management to restore a deleted article that had urged support for the Palestinians.
Why it matters: The controversy over an unexpected public plea for Palestinian relief from the world's biggest video game media outlet has now become a dispute over the limits of editorial freedom.
Zach Perret, the CEO of payments infrastructure company Plaid, is raising $30 million for a venture capital fund called Mischief, according to an SEC filing. His partner is Lauren Farleigh, founder of defunct Gen Z shopping app Dote and an angel investor in such companies as Faire and Modern Fertility.
Why it matters: Plaid is now valued at $13.4 billion, after federal antitrust regulators blocked a proposed $5.3 billion acquisition by Visa.
Parler, the controversial social media app popular among conservatives, is back on the Apple App Store after being booted for its content moderation policies.
Context: Parler was kicked off the App Store after Apple deemed its content moderation policies inadequate in the wake of the January 6 Capitol riot.
Twitch is rolling out new localized subscription pricing abroad, its VP of monetization, Mike Minton, told Axios. Every new subscription price will be lower than the current $4.99 fee, which will remain in the U.S.
Why it matters: "We heard around world that price point not attainable," Minton told Axios. "In Latin America, for example, 80% can’t support streamers in the same way as people can in the U.S. because of the price." Minton said Twitch's subscription price hadn't changed in seven years.
If you run a hospital, a bank, a utility or a city, chances are you'll be hit with a ransomware attack. Given the choice between losing your precious data or paying up, chances are you'll pay.
Why it matters: Paying the hackers is the clear short-term answer for most organizations hit with these devastating attacks, but it's a long-term societal disaster, encouraging hackers to continue their lucrative extortion schemes.
Representatives for Bill Gates pushed back on claims Sunday that he left Microsoft's board because of an earlier sexual relationship and against two other reports detailing more extensive ties with Jeffrey Epstein than had previously been reported.
Driving the news: Microsoft said in an emailed statement to Axios that it "received a concern" in 2019 that its co-founder "sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000," but denied a Wall Street Journal report that its board members thought Gates should resign over the matter.
Cameo CEO Steven Galanis doesn't want the app he built to be used explicitly for politics, but said he would allow former President Trump on the platform.
"Trump has done nothing on our platform to violate our terms of service," Galanis says in an interview with "Axios on HBO" that aired Sunday.
Why it matters: Cameo's approach is different than some of its Big Tech peers.
IGN, the biggest video game media outlet in North America, this weekend published an article urging its more than 92 million readers to donate to charities to help Palestinians civilians. By Sunday afternoon, the article was deleted.
The big picture: Games media weighs in on politics more than outsiders might expect, but the mainstream and often more restrained IGN publishing the piece made this turn of events unusual even to gaming insiders.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Saturday called on Big Tech to focus on the "ethical use of algorithms" to prevent social media users from becoming radicalized into extremist behavior.
Why it matters: Last year's official inquiry into New Zealand's deadliest modern mass shooting at two Christchurch mosques in March 2019 found the terrorist had become radicalized while viewing white supremacist content on YouTube and other online sources.
