Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The Mexican government’s press conference from the Palacio Nacional on Wednesday looked like it was part of a late-night comedy skit. Standing behind a podium with the government seal, an official proudly announced that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had been named the top streamer in Mexico in the first quarter of 2023. The announcement wasn’t a joke, though.How Does Gerard Pique’s New Twitch Indoor Soccer League Work?López Obrador shocked the streaming world this week when he suddenly popped up in sixth place on…

Photo: J. Scott Applewhite (AP)With calls for a national ban against TikTok growing more and more common by the week, particularly in Congress, it’s never been a tougher time to be a lawmaker publicly supporting the app. Still, a vocal minority of House and Senate Democrats—no Republicans—are defying those calls and doing so on the platform despite recent federal laws barring the app on government devices.The few politicians willing to stick their necks out on the short-form video app overwhelmingly come from one party.…

Today is the day: In an effort to boost transparency between the public and the social media platform, CEO Elon Musk has made Twitter’s recommendation algorithm open source...for some reason.How To Set Up Private Relay on iCloud+It would appear that Musk is true to his word and actually did release Twitter’s recommendation algorithm on GitHub, as well as a write-up from the Twitter Team describing what the code algorithm actually does on Twitter’s blog. Twitter claims that, at its core, the algorithm that recommends…

Self-described libertarian, Kentucky Senator, and messy yard dispute loser Rand Paul has broken with fellow Republicans and become possibly the sole GOP voice opposing a national TikTok ban. In his view, banning TikTok would violate Americans’ right to free speech and would make vindictive US lawmakers no different from their Chinese counterparts who’ve moved to ban US social media firms like Facebook and YouTube. Paul’s recent statements come just days after House lawmakers from both parties laid into TikTok CEO Shou Zi…

As a potential TikTok ban looms, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) gave her response in a unique way: by posting her first video on the social media platform. “This is not only my first TikTok, but it is a TikTok about TikTok,” Ocasio-Cortez said in her introduction, adding “Do I believe TikTok should be banned? No.” The New York Democrat said banning the popular video-sharing app would be an “unprecedented” move. “I think it’s important to discuss how unprecedented of a move this would be. The…

Image: Quinn Rooney (Getty Images)Amazon is pausing construction on its second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia on Friday. The company told Gizmodo the delays aren’t impacting phase one of construction, but only phase two, which is slated to be a building across the street.Zach Goldsztejn, an Amazon spokesperson, clarified in a phone call with Gizmodo that the phase two construction pause is not due to the company’s “role eliminations” earlier this year, but instead was because the phase one building created a large…

A protestor demonstrates outside of the U.S. Capitol Building ahead of Tuesday’s committee hearing on Live Nation Ticketmaster. Image: Drew Angerer (Getty Images)If there’s one thing the polarized body of the U.S. Congress can agree on, it’sthat Ticketmaster sucks. After a spectacular failure of Live Nation Ticketmaster’s sale systems during presale for Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour, the company was under the microscope of a Senate hearing today.In the hearing, cheekily titled “That’s the Ticket: Promoting Competition and…

Swift’s absence from touring following 2018's Reputation Stadium Tour likely helped fuel the increased demand for tickets, and Ticketmaster outages. Image: Mark Metcalfe (Getty Images)Taylor Swift’s hotly anticipated first tour in five years, called The Eras Tour, is set to kick off next year. Tickets went on sale yesterday to lucky Swifties who won a presale lottery—until all hell broke loose. Outages plagued Ticketmaster throughout the morning and afternoon as feral fans tried to secure their spot in stadiums across the…