Spotify on Wednesday confirmed it will remove Neil Young's music from its platform, after the singer demanded that the streaming giant take it down in response to vaccine misinformation being spread by Joe Rogan, a popular podcaster on the platform.
Why it matters: Young is the first high-profile artist to boycott Spotify because of content moderation issues.
Fox News host Dan Bongino was permanently banned from YouTube on Wednesday, following his suspension from the platform last week for violating its COVID-19 misinformation policy, a YouTube spokesperson told Axios.
Why it matters: The ban comes amid a push by right-wing media personalities, politicians and investors to create new social platforms that cater to conservatives. Some fringe conservatives, including Bongino, have alleged that social media platforms are biased against them.
UBS, a Swiss bank and one of the world's larger wealth managers, on Wednesday said it will buy U.S. robo-advisor Wealthfront for $1.4 billion in cash.
Why it matters: Big banks continue to buy fintech companies in order to expand their client offerings, although robo-advising has almost become table stakes at this point.
Self-checkout, self-service, autonomous stores, DIY: The retail world is prepping for a future with fewer human workers and more technology involved in selling us stuff.
Why it matters: While 72% of retail sales are still expected to take place in brick-and-mortar stores in 2024, merchants are busy installing interactive signage, smart price tags, and remote checkout systems that point to a very different customer experience.
Chris Lehane, a top Airbnb exec and former Clinton administration official, tells Axios Pro Fintech Deals he plans to join the leadership team of a crypto venture-capital fund next month.
Why it matters: The move by Lehane is a sign of the growing allure the crypto world holds for tech pioneers who have already amassed power and wealth but still want to scratch the "disruption" itch.
As part of its effort to fight deepfakes, a coalition of tech companies co-led by Adobe has finalized the details for a standard way to verify how a photo or video was captured and to document any subsequent edits.
Why it matters: It's increasingly easy to create a video or image that looks legitimate but has been altered to completely change its meaning.
After years of stagnation, the PC industry has seen its best growth in a decade as people buy new laptops and desktops. But while some pandemic-fueled changes may prove temporary, Microsoft product chief Panos Panay sees the industry's return to growth as durable.
"This pandemic has been a forcing function," Panay said in an exclusive interview on Tuesday, following the release of Microsoft's quarterly earnings report.
The House has introduced its own version of a sprawling $250 billion tech bill that the Biden administration is counting on to address supply chain and chip shortage problems and strengthen U.S. technology and research.
Why it matters: Having made little headway with other key initiatives like the Build Back Better plan, Democrats are looking to iron out differences over this technology spending measure and rake up a legislative win. But they have a long way to go.
Three major Star Wars games in development at EA underscore how big Disney is going with video games — without committing to making any big games of its own.
The big picture: Despite Disney’s struggles to make its own hit games and its divestment of internal development studios, it's been able to create a new era by connecting the industry’s top teams with its globally popular franchises.
A video game that copied the title, gameplay concept and design of 2021 indie hit Unpacking is no longer listed on Apple and Google’s mobile app stores, an apparent delisting a day after it topped the iOS charts.
Why it matters: For all of the talk of content curation by app giants like Apple, game developers regularly see clones rocket to app store success.
U.S. companies using key chips are down to a five-day supply, according to a Commerce Department report out Tuesday stressing the fragility of the semiconductor supply chain.
Why it matters: The global chip shortage has stymied production of electronics, vehicles and other items.
Google Tuesday said it's changing its plan for replacing the cookies that help advertisers target users to a new system called Topics, in which advertisers will place ads via a limited number of topics determined by users' browser activity.
Why it matters: The new Topics proposal replaces Google's previously-announced plan called FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), which was criticized by privacy advocates who worried the new ad-targeting solution would inadvertently make it easier for advertisers to gather user information.
Bitcoin has lost nearly half its value since its November peak, wiping away hundreds of billions — and any remaining suspicion that the cryptocurrency isn't correlated to risk assets like equities.
State of play: Bitcoin’s latest selloff parallels the recent stock market declines stemming from the Federal Reserve’s hawkish pivot (it even rode the same rollercoaster equities did Monday).
NewsGuard, a service that uses trained journalists to rate news and information sites, will become available to millions of public school students this week through a partnership with the American Federation of Teachers.
Why it matters: Kids increasingly turn to the internet when looking for homework help or doing research for school projects. But unlike books in a library or articles in a journal, online resources can be difficult to filter for quality and misinformation.
With many bellwether tech stocks down more than 10% since the year's start, the industry is once again debating whether it faces a "big one" — a financial earthquake that will end a two-decade run of spectacular growth.
The big picture: Whether January's downs prove a turning point or just a minor "correction," tech's giants know that, either way, they'll come out on top.
