Taylor Hatmaker
Senior Reporter
The Latest from Taylor Hatmaker
Alex Jones and Infowars finally face the music for sowing Sandy Hook conspiracies
Infowars founder Alex Jones took the stand today in a trial that will determine what he owes to the parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook mass shooting. Last year, Jones was found liable in a se
Discord says Android users won’t be left hanging anymore
Discord announced new measures to bring its Android app into parity with its iOS counterpart today. The changes will improve the app’s experience for Android, which has historically lagged behin
Study of Facebook friendships explores how economic mobility works in the US
A large-scale study of Facebook data sheds new light on the ties between Americans — and how those relationships in turn shape economic outcomes. A research team led by Harvard economist Raj Chetty
Twitch builds toward a ‘layered’ safety approach with new moderator tools
Moderating an online community is hard, often thankless work — and it’s even harder when it happens in a silo. On Twitch, interconnected channels already informally share information on users
Roblox is getting a major visual makeover (but don’t freak out)
A social network of virtual pocket worlds with a daily user base roughly the size of Spain’s population, Roblox is ubiquitous among kids 13 and under and mostly mystifying to adults, who can’t gen
Discord’s new Xbox integration will let you send voice chats to your console
Xbox is adding support for Discord voice chat, bringing a reliable, well-loved universal chat app to Microsoft’s gaming console, albeit in a sort of roundabout way. The new integration is availa
Twitch is adding a ‘charity mode’ that simplifies streaming for a good cause
Streaming to raise money for a good cause is a big deal on Twitch, but the platform has always pointed creators elsewhere to manage the logistics of raising cash and getting it where it needs to go. N
Amazon sues admins from 10,000 Facebook groups over fake reviews
If the reviews of the last completely necessary and not at all superfluous thing you bought on Amazon looked like so much copypasta, there’s a good reason: Fake reviews abound and people are get
Elon Musk pushes for the Twitter trial to start next year
With Twitter pressing for a quick trial, Elon Musk’s lawyers are making a case to slow things down. In the lawsuit Twitter filed against its would-be owner, the company argued that it would only
Sony officially owns Bungie now
The ink is dry on Sony’s acquisition of Bungie, the gaming company that created sci-fi hits Halo and Destiny. Both companies announced the news on Twitter Friday, confirming that the $3.6 billio
Reddit brings GIF comments to the masses
After setting aside the feature as a paid perk, Reddit will now let just about everybody reply with a GIF. Starting today, any safe-for-work and non-quarantined subreddit can opt into enabling GIFs in
Twitter sues Elon Musk to force him to seal the deal
Twitter followed through on its promise to force Elon Musk to buy the company, suing the SpaceX and Tesla CEO in a Delaware court on Tuesday. The company’s board doubled down last week after Mus
Lawmakers ask Facebook and Instagram to explain why they removed abortion posts
In a letter to Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren expressed alarm that abortion-related content is receiving strange treatment on
Elon Musk tells Twitter he is killing the deal
Elon Musk is formally trying to end his bid to buy Twitter. After hinting heavily that he no longer wanted the company in tweets attacking Twitter over its bot calculations and an ominous story in The
Congress probes period tracking apps and data brokers over abortion privacy concerns
The U.S. House Oversight Committee is probing a collection of period tracking apps and data brokers in light of emerging concerns about how private health data might be weaponized in the dawning post-
It sounds like Elon Musk is still trying to get out of his own Twitter deal
According to a new report from The Washington Post that relies heavily on anonymous sources, the world’s richest man is still looking for a way out of a $44 billion deal of his own making. The P
Google will start erasing location data for abortion clinic visits
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to strip federal abortion rights in the U.S., many people are questioning how the apps they use every day might suddenly be turned against them.
Twitch’s new Guest Star mode will let anyone turn their stream into a talk show
Twitch wants to make it easier for creators to pull guests into their livestreams, talk show-style — and everybody gets to be a creator. The company is announcing Guest Star, a new feature that will
YouTube will disable hidden subscriber counts to fight comment spam
Spam isn’t a new problem for social media, but everyone seems to agree that it’s gotten a lot worse lately. YouTube is chipping away at its own spam woes with a few feature changes designe
Facebook and Instagram are removing posts offering to mail abortion pills
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, some Facebook and Instagram users planning to help distribute legal abortion pills are finding themselves censored. Acco