Why it matters: Trump was banned from several social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, after the Jan. 6 insurrection. He said he is now working to set up a meeting to discuss his reinstatement with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The founder of Bitzlato, a Hong Kong-registered crypto exchange that has allegedly processed more than $700 million worth of illicit funds, was arrested in Miami Tuesday night, part of a sweeping, international effort to crack down on darknet markets.
Driving the news: The Department of Justice during a press conference on Wednesday announced charges against Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian national. French authorities and the U.S. Treasury department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) are taking concurrent enforcement action.
Deal-making in the video game industry reached $127 billion last year, across more than 1,250 investments, acquisitions and mergers, according to a new report by Drake Star Partners.
Why it matters: Both tallies were up from 2021, demonstrating continued, intense financial interest in the sector.
There's a fresh FTX conflict — one about its bankruptcy lawyers Sullivan & Cromwell and whether the firm's legal guidance of the crypto exchange prior to its unwinding could pose a potential conflict of interest.
Why it matters: FTX's accounting shenanigans conjures up comparisons to Enron, which ended up in a battle with its own lawyers. The large, prestigious Houston law firm Vinson & Elkins drew scrutiny for its role in Enron's collapse, for not blowing the whistle, and ended up settling with the energy company.
Microsoft notified employees on Wednesday it will cut 10,000 workers, or less than 5% of its workforce, as it joins other large tech firms in paring staff after years of growth.
Why it matters: Each of these big tech workforce reductions, themselves a response to a softening economy, puts further pressure on the rest of the industry to cut costs.
As Elon Musk has thrown himself into running Twitter day-to-day and rebuilding the platform in his vision, his other companies have struggled with challenges of their own.
Why it matters: Musk's acquisition of Twitter could mark a major milestone in his career — the moment his cross-industry empire became too big and too complicated for him to run every company.
Tech's downturn is shining a spotlight on the industry's vulnerability to fast-moving trends and conflicts beyond its own boundaries.
Why it matters: Silicon Valley leaders and thinkers paint their companies and products as magical innovations that emerge from the inner logic of tech's disruptive dynamics. But the industry's cycles are usually driven by external forces.
Elon Musk will try to defend himself against claims of securities fraud over 2018 tweets saying he had secured funding to take Tesla private in a trial that began this week in a San Francisco federal court.
The big picture: The trial comes at a perilous time for Musk and Tesla, whichmissed its goal of achieving 50% growth year-over-year in 2022 and has recently drastically cut vehicle prices. It also comes after Musk's chaotic first few months as CEO of Twitter, which he acquired for $44 billion.
Twitter is planning to run content sponsorship deals with more than three dozen news outlets, media companies and sports leagues in the first half of this year, according to a schedule of events shared with ad partners and seen by Axios.
Why it matters:Elon Musk's leadership style has caused many advertisers to flee, but media companies, newsrooms and sports leagues are reaping too much revenue and marketing advantage to quit the platform.
A week after the U.K.'s Royal Mail experienced a "cyber incident," the company says it is still experiencing "severe service disruption" to its outgoing international postal operations, with no clear end in sight.
Why it matters: The problems have prevented a large portion of mail from leaving the U.K., leaving businesses there who rely on the service scrambling, and leading to delays for recipients around the world, according to the BBC.
CircleCI, a company that develops testing and deployment tools for software engineers, has shared more details about how hackers broke into its systems last month and compromised customer data.
Driving the news: In a blog post published Friday, CircleCI chief technology officer Rob Zuber said hackers gained access to its networks after infecting an employee's laptop with malware.
Russian hackers allegedly targeted a Ukrainian organization earlier today shortly before it hosted a press briefing about the ongoing cyberattacks in the country — a clear example of the near-constant digital warfare Ukrainians are facing during Russia's war in Ukraine.
Driving the news: Media Center Ukraine, a collective of media organizations covering the war on the ground, claimed that a cyberattack delayed their broadcast with Ukraine's cyber chief.
Prepare to hear a lot of debate throughout Washington about whether a secretive government surveillance power should continue to exist beyond 2023.
The big picture: Congress is faced with deciding whether to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — which allows intelligence agencies to conduct warrantless surveillance of non-American citizens outside the U.S. — before it expires at the end of the year.
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