Timbaland and Swizz Beatz strike a distribution deal with X for their music series Verzuz, which they sold to Triller in 2021 but have since reacquired (Jem Aswad/Variety)

Mediagazer: Timbaland and Swizz Beatz strike a distribution deal with X for their music series Verzuz, which they sold to Triller in 2021 but have since reacquired (Jem Aswad/Variety)

Top News:

Bloomberg:

Elon Musk tried to repair his often strained relationship with the ad industry through an appearance at the Cannes Lions, after Twitter skipped 2023's event— Elon Musk attempted to repair his often strained relationship with the advertising industry with an appearance at the Cannes Lions conference in France on Wednesday.
Discussion: Axios, Ad Age, CNBC, The Wrap, MediaPost, Adweek, Page Six, Wall Street Journal, The Drum, @kerrymflynn, @benatipsos, @dimazeniuk, @megancgraham, Deadline, Financial Times and The Media Leader

Discussion:

Jenni Reid /
CNBC: Advertising is now a ‘meritocracy’ in the wake of social media, Resy co-founder Gary Vaynerchuk says

Liza Foreman /
The Wrap: Elon Musk Rebuffs Advertisers Who Fled X, Touts Free Speech on Platform: 'It's Better to Be Real'

Brittaney Kiefer /
Adweek: Elon Musk's Advertiser Apology Tour Begins at Cannes

Megan Graham /
Wall Street Journal: Elon Musk Pitches Advertisers on a Return to X, Months After Telling Some to ‘F’ Themselves

Kendra Barnett /
The Drum: Elon Musk on why he told advertisers to ‘go fuck yourself’ - and why he wants them back

Kerry Flynn /
@kerrymflynn: My dispatch from @elonmusk's appearance at @Cannes_Lions “What is not cool is insisting that there can be no content they disagree with on the platform,” Elon Musk told advertisers at Cannes https://www.axios.com/...

Ben Page /
@benatipsos: Elon here in Cannes “I do shoot myself in the foot from time to time but at least you knownit is genuine, not from the pr dept” #musk @elonmusk [image]

Dima Zeniuk /
@dimazeniuk: WPP CEO Mark Read at Cannes Lions conference: “In November, you told us to go f*ck ourselves.... Why did you say that, and what did you mean?” “It wasn't to advertisers as a whole; it was with respect to freedom of speech.” - Elon Musk [image]

Meg Graham /
@megancgraham: At @Cannes_Lions, WPP's Mark Read asks Elon Musk: “In November, you told us to go fuck ourselves.... Why did you say that and what did you mean?” Musk: “it wasn't to advertisers as a whole, it was with respect to freedom of speech...” [image]

Caroline Frost /
Deadline: Elon Musk Forecasts A “10%-20% Chance” Of AI-Related Global Disaster & Doubles Down On Free Speech Over Advertisers' Ask For Censorship — Cannes Lions

Wired:

Analysis: Perplexity seems to scrape sites using surreptitious methods, ignoring robots.txt, with a Perplexity-tied machine doing so on Wired and other sites— A WIRED investigation shows that the AI-powered search startup Forbes has accused of stealing its content is surreptitiously scraping—and making things up out of thin air.

Discussion:

Christopher Mims /
@technicallymims@threads.net: perplexity is ignoring robots.txt prohibitions against scraping content

Benedict Evans /
@benedictevans@threads.net: Probably not a good thing that Perplexity appears to be breaking robots.txt and lying about it. I hope it's not the new Stability. https://www.wired.com/...

John Koetsier /
@johnkoetsier@threads.net: Whoa Looks like Perplexity AI is scraping content behind robots.txt barriers from hidden IP addresses not publicly acknowledged by the company. So ... Unethically ripping off content , but also doing it in an unethical way. https://www.wired.com/...

Noah Shachtman /
@noahshachtman@threads.net: .@perplexity.ai is using a secret server to steal journalists' work, often without credit https://www.wired.com/...

Bernie Michalik /
@bernie_michalik@threads.net: If you still think Perplexity is good and you should use it after this, idk (via @technicallymims ) @LeftistLawyer@kolektiva.social: The hits are coming hard and fast now. With good reason, nobody trusts the tech sector anymore. Nvidia is now the most *valuable* company in the world. Is anyone seeing a pattern? The bubble will explode soon. — https://www.wired.com/...

Katie Drummond /
@katiedrumm: A @wired investigation found that Perplexity is ignoring robots.txt — despite vowing to honor block requests. Perplexity has published a list of IP addresses its crawlers use. The company seems to be scraping sites using an IP address *not* on that list. https://www.wired.com/...

Oli Franklin-Wallis /
@olifranklin: Incredible @WIRED investigation shows Perplexity, the much-hyped, AI-powered Google search alternative funded by Bezos and others, is intentionally ripping off publishers' copyrighted work - and reveals exactly how they're doing it. https://www.wired.com/... [image]

Dhruv Mehrotra /
@dmehro: NEW: Perplexity is ignoring the Robots Exclusion Protocol (robots.txt), using a secret server to regurgitate news articles and investigations that take reporters years to create, often without giving us credit. W/ @timmarchman https://www.wired.com/...

Patrick Howell O'Neill /
@howelloneill@infosec.exchange: The fact that there hasn't been stronger legal action from publications against AI-branded plagiarists is wild to me. You have to protect your work when it's being stolen. https://www.axios.com/...

Tim Marchman /
@timmarchman.bsky.social: New from me and @dmehro.bsky.social: Despite claiming it isn't, Perplexity, the billion dollar AI search startup Forbes has accused of plagiarism, is scraping websites, including WIRED, from which developers have tried to block its crawlers.

RELATED:

Axios:
Forbes' lawyer demands that Perplexity AI remove articles sourced from Forbes, seeks assurances that Perplexity AI won't infringe on Forbes copyrights, and more

Discussion:
@johnvoelcker and Talking Biz News

Discussion:
@johnvoelcker: An AI-generated story using @Forbes' original reporting without appropriate credit led to an AI-generated podcast ... and an AI-generated YouTube video that “outranks all Forbes content on this topic within Google search.” Buy popcorn. Or weep. No, both. https://www.axios.com/...

Chris Roush /
Talking Biz News: Forbes threatens legal action against Perplexity

O'Reilly Media:

How generative AI model providers can create business models that reward copyright holders and content creators, much like what has happened on the web— Last month, The New York Times claimed that tech giants OpenAI and Google have waded into a copyright gray area by transcribing …

Discussion:
@ainemacdermot.bsky.social and Tim O'Reilly on LinkedIn

Discussion:

Áine /
@ainemacdermot.bsky.social: Like Elon rewarding fascists for shit posting, ignoring people who had been contributing real content for 17 years kinds of rewards? You tech bro fuckers are laughable. [embedded post]

Variety:

Timbaland and Swizz Beatz strike a distribution deal with X for their music series Verzuz, which they sold to Triller in 2021 but have since reacquired— Earlier in the year, Swizz and Timbaland reacquired Verzuz from their previous partner Triller and now own 100% of the platform …

Discussion:
Billboard, WTOP News and Rolling Stone

Discussion:

Gail Mitchell /
Billboard: Verzuz Co-Founders Swizz Beatz, Timbaland Secure Distribution Deal With Elon Musk's X WTOP News: ‘Verzuz’ will return after Swizz Beatz, Timbaland lock in new distribution partnership with X

Larisha Paul /
Rolling Stone: Timbaland and Swizz Beatz Are Bringing Verzuz Back on X

Wired:

A look at Rebind, a mysterious startup that turns Margaret Atwood and other authors' voices into AI reading companions, and an interview with CEO John Dubuque— Margaret Atwood, Marlon James, Lena Dunham, Roxane Gay: We've all agreed to be turned into AI reading companions by a mysterious company called Rebind.

Discussion:
Rebind AI, more at Techmeme »

Variety:

A look at Paramount's failed merger talks with Skydance and how Shari Redstone's unilateral decision to call off the talks shows her unusual power— For Shari Redstone, it was nothing personal. But the longer the negotiations went on, the more Redstone fell out of love with the idea …

Discussion:
@xpangler, @asharma, @xpangler, @carlquintanilla, The Hollywood Reporter and @xpangler

Discussion:

Todd Spangler /
@xpangler: With Paramount Global's M&A negotiations playing out publicly for the past six months, a level of fatigue and resignation has set in across the company. Insiders say they have been bracing for job cuts — no matter what sale scenario might have unfolded https://variety.com/...

Amol Sharma /
@asharma: “Redstone's ability to make such a unilateral decision to call off the talks is a testament to her unusual power, even with her empire's diminished state.” https://variety.com/...

Todd Spangler /
@xpangler: Ultimately, Shari Redstone didn't feel that Skydance was bringing enough to the table to make it worth her while to make a deal that would likely be challenged in court by other Paramount shareholders https://variety.com/...

Todd Spangler /
@xpangler: How did Paramount end up in such a vulnerable position? In short, under Bakish, the company made the ill-fated decision to go for broke on streaming — right when traditional TV advertising and cable TV affiliate revenue took a turn for the worse https://variety.com/...

Carl Quintanilla /
@carlquintanilla: “.. two minutes before the June 11 meeting's scheduled start time, the Skydance CEO and others received a bombshell via email. .. expletives flew as they processed the news.” @Variety @Variety_Cynthia $PARA https://variety.com/... [image]

Alex Weprin /
The Hollywood Reporter: Shari Redstone Goes for Broke: Can Paramount Pick Up the Pieces?

Press Gazette:

Telegraph Media Group reports a record £244.6M loss in 2023 due to £277.6M of previously unidentified debt, despite operating profit rising 35.2% YoY to £54.2M— Telegraph Media Group has reported a record £244.6m loss in 2023, despite a 35% rise in operating profit.

Discussion:
Telegraph, The Guardian, @pressgazette, @ljon.bsky.social and @josiahmortimer

Discussion:

Christopher Williams /
Telegraph: Telegraph reveals Barclay family left £278m black hole

Jane Croft /
The Guardian: Telegraph falls to loss of £240m as a result of loans to Barclay family ‘unlikely to be repaid’ @pressgazette: Mystery Barclay loans drive Telegraph to record £245m loss despite underlying profitability Telegraph Media Group said the loss was the result “of a provision of £277.6m being recognised against amounts due from TMG's parent undertaking”: https://pressgazette.co.uk/...

Harmonious Bosch /
@ljon.bsky.social: Who among us hasn't suddenly found a quarter of a billion pounds in debt which hadn't been previously noticed? [embedded post]

Josiah Mortimer /
@josiahmortimer: Trouble brewing at Telegraph towers... Telegraph Media Group has reported a record £244.6m loss in 2023, despite a 35% rise in operating profit, Press Gazette reports... The Telegraph Media Group says that a “detailed historic review” of TMG, carried out as part of the

Mediaite:

X removes some of journalist Pablo Manriquez's viral posts on Senator Ted Cruz's donor info; X claims the posts violated its rules but did not give details— A series of viral social media posts revealing the contents of a folder on Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) donors were removed by Elon Musk's platform X on Tuesday.

Discussion:
@pabloreports, @will_bunch, @jaywillis, @ok_post_guy, @prem_thakker, @ericmgarcia, @prem_thakker, @tommyg.bsky.social, @jkarsh, @erratarob and @justinconley

Discussion:

Pablo Manríquez /
@pabloreports: NEW. Someone, presumably a staffer, left a folder full of briefing documents on TED CRUZ donors in the Senate Refectory. A THREAD 🧵

Will Bunch /
@will_bunch: Ted Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas — the state where Juneteenth was founded by the joy of emancipated Black people — is honoring the holiday by spending the day in NYC begging for $$$ from billionaires

Jay Willis /
@jaywillis: Would love to hear the Twitter/X justification for taking down a thread of Ted Cruz's donor lists??? [image]

Prem Thakker /
@prem_thakker: This thread of documents includes tidbits like instructions for Ted Cruz to ask former U.S. Ambassadors to each give him $119,200 [image]

Eric Michael Garcia /
@ericmgarcia: Absolutely absurd that Elon Musk calls Twitter a “public square” for free speech and now this app is censoring Pablo's tweets showing the donors that Ted Cruz is wining and dining in DC and in New York.

Prem Thakker /
@prem_thakker: Interesting. Pablo tweeted documents he found at the Capitol that showed Ted Cruz's schedule to wine and dine with big donors — including former U.S. ambassadors — and Musk's Twitter forced the tweets down. A home address was in one tweet, but most tweets didn't have such info. [image]

Tommy /
@tommyg.bsky.social: X has a very strict policy of doing whatever the hell E**n wants during his current bender

Jason Karsh /
@jkarsh: Absolutely hilarious that Twitter pulled these pics. You have to wonder what Elmo would have done were they Democratic donors.

Robert Graham /
@erratarob: Musk bought Twitter to defend “free-speech”, such as how the old Twitter censored the Hunter Laptop content. But of course, when it's Republicans, the situation is the opposite: [image]

The Canadian Press:

Canadian officials won't say whether or how the new Online News Act should apply to AI companies using Canadian news for training or providing chatbot answers— AI bots using news, regulation remains uncertain — OTTAWA - The federal government is dodging questions about whether artificial …

Discussion:
@tara_deschamps, @nationalpost and MobileSyrup

Discussion:

Tara Deschamps /
@tara_deschamps: The federal government is dodging questions about whether companies should be paying Canadian news publishers for content their AI chatbots are openly using. https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/ ... by @MickeyDjuric $GOOG $META @nationalpost: Federal government won't say if AI chatbots should be paying for using Canadian news https://nationalpost.com/... [image]

Karandeep Oberoi /
MobileSyrup: AI chatbots using Canadian news is an Online News Act grey area

The Register:

A look at Mozilla's acquisition of Anonym, which offers “privacy-preserving” ad tools, and how Anonym might interact with a user base that tends to block ads— Is such a thing possible for an industry that never respected people's wishes? — ANALYSIS Mozilla this week …

Discussion:

Karl Emil Nikka /
@karlemilnikka: Mozilla (@mozilla) acquires “privacy preserving” advertising company Anonym. I don't understand why. There's a simple way to run privacy preserving ads: match the ads against website content, not the website visitor. https://blog.mozilla.org/... #Mozilla #Privacy #Anonym @checkmyadshq: “The data that is ‘securely shared’ by platforms and advertisers to enable ad targeting and measurement have to come from somewhere - and there's more to privacy than not leaking user IDs.” — Arielle Garcia https://www.theregister.com/ ...

Justin Hunter /
@polluterofminds: I've always liked Mozilla even if most of the things they do don't feel practical. This acquisition probably doesn't practically move the needle but symbolically lines up. https://blog.mozilla.org/... @mozilla: We're at the forefront of a pivotal shift in advertising, and it's evident that current data practices are excessive and unsustainable. We're excited to welcome Anonym to the Mozilla team, so together we can raise the bar for this industry. 1/2 https://blog.mozilla.org/...

Trevor Flowers /
@trevorflowers@widerweb.org: At this point it's flogging a dead horse but dang, Mozilla has fallen. — https://www.theregister.com/ ... @funnymonkey@freeradical.zone: Firefox is too important to trust Mozilla to get it right. — https://www.theregister.com/ ...

Laura Chambers /
The Mozilla Blog: Introducing Anonym: Raising the bar for privacy-preserving digital advertising

Tim Chambers /
@tchambers@indieweb.social: Hmmmm. Not sure. Maybe. But never seen it done well to date. Ever. — “It's all about 'privacy-centric advertising... Is such a thing possible for an industry that never respected people's wishes? https://www.theregister.com/ ...

The Seattle Times:

Carpenter Media told a Sound Publishing union that it plans to lay off 62 people, including over half the unionized newsroom at The Daily Herald of Everett, WA— The other shoe has fallen after Carpenter Media Group's huge push into the Northwest. — Carpenter, a Southern newspaper chain …

Discussion:
@ogvanniphoto

Reuters:

The US FTC says it has referred a complaint to the DOJ against TikTok and ByteDance over potential violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act— The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday it had referred a complaint against the social media platform TikTok …

Discussion:
@linakhanftc, @swiftstories, @linakhanftc, LAW.com, Engadget, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Yahoo Finance, Barron's Online, Financial Times, The Record, Bloomberg Law, Sherwood News, @kevincolliernbc@threads.net, CNBC, Semafor, Politico, MediaPost, Gizmodo, The Hollywood Reporter, The Information, Music Business Worldwide, Variety, Digital Music News, TechCrunch, Federal Trade Commission and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Lina Khan /
@linakhanftc: 1. Today @FTC referred its case against TikTok to the Civil Division at @TheJusticeDept. Our investigation found reason to believe that TikTok is violating or about to violate the FTC Act and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). https://www.ftc.gov/...

Mike Swift /
@swiftstories: Some huge @FTC news as the enforcer says @tiktok_us has joined @Meta on claims that it violated an existing #privacy consent order. As @facebook $5 billion settlement in 2020 showed, that can be very costly indeed for a big platform. #socialmedia #childprivacy

Lina Khan /
@linakhanftc: 2. @FTC will continue to use all its tools to enforce the law without fear or favor and protect the American public from corporate lawbreaking. We look forward to our continued partnership with @TheJusticeDept as we advance these shared goals.

Maria Dinzeo /
LAW.com: FTC Suspects TikTok of Violating Children's Privacy Again, Refers Matter to DOJ

Karissa Bell /
Engadget: The FTC has referred its child privacy case against TikTok to the Justice Department

Lauren Feiner /
The Verge: TikTok might soon face another legal headache.

Haleluya Hadero /
Yahoo Finance: Federal Trade Commission refers complaint about TikTok's adherence to child privacy law to the DOJ

Eric J. Savitz /
Barron's Online: FTC Sends TikTok Complaint to Justice Department Over Child Safety Issues

Hannah Murphy /
Financial Times: TikTok complaint referred to US justice department

Suzanne Smalley /
The Record: FTC files complaint against TikTok for alleged data privacy practices

Emily Birnbaum /
Bloomberg Law: TikTok Child Privacy Case Referred to Justice Department

Matt Phillips /
Sherwood News: FTC says TikTok is “violating or are about to violate” child privacy laws

Kevin Collier /
@kevincolliernbc@threads.net: Unusual and intriguing: FTC recommends charges against Tiktok and Bytedance for violating privacy of US children under 13. Few specifics but “The investigation uncovered reason to believe named defendants are violating or are about to violate the law.” https://www.ftc.gov/...

Jennifer Elias /
CNBC: FTC refers TikTok complaint to Justice Department

Diego Mendoza /
Semafor: FTC refers TikTok complaint to Justice Department

Oscar Gonzalez /
Gizmodo: TikTok Is in Some Minority Report-Style Legal Trouble

Winston Cho /
The Hollywood Reporter: TikTok Threatened With New Lawsuit As National Ban Fight Intensifies

Murray Stassen /
Music Business Worldwide: TikTok is forming an investment team to acquire music content and companies

Todd Spangler /
Variety: FTC Refers TikTok Child Privacy Complaint to Justice Department

Dylan Smith /