Once Senate leaders opened the door to moving on a China competitiveness bill over the weekend, a bipartisan group of senators knew exactly what it had to do: use the slimmed-down package as a shell to stuff in as many priorities as possible.
Why it matters: The emerging legislation goes far beyond the narrow $52 billion bill to shore up domestic semiconductor manufacturing that even the Biden administration was willing to settle for this month.
Shares for Snap Inc. were down more than 26% in after-hours trading Thursday after the company said revenue growth would meaningfully slow in the months ahead.
Why it matters: In May, Snap warned investors it would miss its second quarter guidance. Wall Street's response to Snap's earnings report today, despite that mid-quarter warning, shows how spooked investors are by the severity of Snap's revenue headwinds.
The video game industry’s biggest trade group is weathering a revenue shortfall, even as it continues to shape public policy around games.
Driving the news: Revenue for the Entertainment Software Association dropped more than $10 million, or 25%, in the 12 months ending March 31, 2021, due to the lack of its E3 trade show in recent years, according to an Axios review of its tax filings.
YouTube will begin removing and labeling certain abortion-related content on the video-sharing platform, the company said Thursday.
Why it matters: As states pass new laws and rhetoric continues to heat up, tech platforms are grappling with how to treat online information about abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Evgeny Gaevoy is one of the original cowboys, building a shop that enables digital assets trading in the midst of the 2017 crypto winter. Wintermute is now among the largest crypto market makers, providing liquidity on 65 exchanges.
Driving the news: Gaevoy, in an interview with Axios at an Ethereum conference in Paris, is stoic in the face of the current bear market and the mess left behind by the firms that loaned billions of dollars to the now-defunct Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
Meta announced major changes Thursday to the Facebook app that will transform its experience into a more TikTok-like selection of algorithmically chosen videos — and shunt off content posted by family, friends and groups into a separate side feed.
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.
Hopes for a congressional vote this summer on a major tech antitrust bill have all but fizzled out as the August recess quickly approaches.
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.
Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg and its departing COO Sheryl Sandberg will testify in a privacy lawsuit against the company that alleges Facebook illegally shared user data with analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, Bloomberg reports.
Why it matters: Meta could lose millions of dollars if it does not win the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of consumers after it was revealed in 2018 that Cambridge Analytica obtained data on as many as 87 million users from a third party and used it to target voters with highly specific ads for former President Trump's 2016 campaign.
The chair of the House Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), is working on legislation with Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) that would create a legal framework for stablecoins, cryptocurrencies that function just like others, but without the price volatility.
Driving the news: This stablecoin legislation is likely to receive a vote in Waters' committee next week, putting it before Speaker Nancy Pelosi ahead of the House going on recess at the week's end, a source familiar with the matter tells Axios.
