New York I n October 2022, Elon Musk paid $44 billion to buy Twitter — almost certainly an overpayment — and he promptly made significant changes that plunged the company into chaos and sent its ad business and valuation into a tailspin. Two and a half years later, Musk appears close to pulling off a minor miracle: The company, now called X, may once again be worth about what he paid for it. Bloomberg on Wednesday reported that X is in talks to raise money that would value the company at $44 billion. The anonymous sources Bloomberg cited acknowledged that the ongoing talks could break down, and it’s not clear whether X will actually fetch that valuation. But the report coincides with a sudden turn in fortunes for X. Big advertisers, who had largely abandoned X after hate speech surged on the platform and ads were seen running alongside pro-Nazi content, have begun to return. (X made several pro-Nazi accounts ineligible for ads following advertiser departures.) Am...
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TikTok goes dark in the US ahead of ban
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TikTok stopped working in the US late on Saturday, shortly before a federal ban on the Chinese-owned short-video app was due to take effect.
The app was no longer available on Apple’s iOS App Store or Google’s Play Store. The US Congress passed a law in April mandating that parent company ByteDance either sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or face a total shutdown. It chose the latter.
TikTok said that divestment “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally”. The company held that line until the very end.
The app’s disappearance has been five years in the making. Donald Trump first proposed a ban on TikTok in mid-2020 via executive order, which did not succeed. Various members of Congress proposed measures that would do the same, only one passed. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act became law, mandating TikTok be sold or be banned.
A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned,” a message to users attempting to use the app said.
TikTok’s attorney told the supreme court that the app would “go dark” on 19 January. After TikTok disappears from app stores, preventing new downloads and updates, it will gradually obsolesce while the ban remains in place. Without regular maintenance, the app’s smooth functionality will suffer glitches and may become vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
TikTok fought the act tooth and nail in court, arguing that blocking an app beloved by so many would violate their free speech rights, a losing argument. It seemed the bill might disappear before enacted, as a similar provision did in Montana, which banned TikTok within its borders in 2023, the first in the US to do so. The state’s law was overturned before it took effect.
Two days before the deadline for ByteDance to sell the popular app, used by 170 million Americans, the US supreme court ruled that the law was constitutional and that its provisions should stand. Biden said he will leave enforcement of the bill up to Trump. The White House said in a statement on Friday that TikTok “should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership”.
In response to the ruling, TikTok chief Shou Chew angled for the president-elect to save his app. “On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States,” he said in a video posted to TikTok.
Trump tried to intervene on TikTok’s behalf in its supreme court case at the 11th hour, though he himself is the father of the ban. He took a shine to the app during his 2024 presidential campaign after finding a large audience there. He will be inaugurated on Monday and may order the justice department not to enforce the bill, though he said the supreme court decision should be “ respected”. It is unclear whether he can totally circumvent a TikTok ban.
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As we entered 2025, we were excited about new features coming to WhatsApp. By the end of January, some long awaited beta features were released to everyone, and a few fresh changes were introduced. Here’s a quick roundup of the WhatsApp features added in January 2025. New WhatsApp features for all users These features are now available to all WhatsApp users, whether you’re using Android, iPhone, or the desktop version. If you haven’t received them yet, make sure to update your app to the latest version. WhatsApp has introduced an AI Studio feature for both Android and iPhone users. It allows you to chat with various AI personalities, ranging from cultural icons to pop-culture characters. It’s perfect when you’re looking for something fun to chat about, like asking a talking dog for advice. For iPhone users, a built-in dial pad is now available. This allows you to directly dial a number from the Calls tab without saving it to your contacts first, making it easier to make calls. ...
In January, for instance, Ripple stashed away roughly 300 million XRP for distribution . Ripple released a significant 1 billion XRP tokens from its escrow accounts, valued at around $3.10 billion at current prices, by its monthly release policy. According to recent reports, these tokens have never been released from accounts categorized as Ripple (26) and ‘Ripple (27). Ripple has unlocked 500 million XRP tokens from Ripple (27) and another 500 million XRP from Ripple (26) in two separate transactions of 400 million and 100 million. As is customary with these unlocks, the company is not flooding the market with all of the tokens all at once. Ripple instead intends to set aside only 20-25% of the unlocked XRP for market sales, strategic partnerships, and transactions with institutional purchasers and to re-lock the remainder back in escrow to be used in the future. This release has garnered the market’s immediate attention. In the last 24 hours, XRP price was down by more th...
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