Entertainment

With a seemingly bottomless feed of goof-offs, dance-offs and good-natured pranks, TikTok bills itself as the happiest place on the internet.Fueling its success: an exacting management style and demanding internal culture that belie its buoyant public image, say employees at its U.S. offices. The employees, many of them veterans of other major tech companies, say TikTok emphasizes relentless productivity and secrecy to a degree uncommon in the industry. As TikTok continues its torrid growth, those conditions…

Last year when Facebook FB -6.77% blocked news in Australia in response to potential legislation making platforms pay publishers for content, it also took down the pages of Australian hospitals, emergency services and charities. It publicly called the resulting chaos “inadvertent.”Internally, the pre-emptive strike was hailed as a strategic masterstroke. Facebook documents and testimony filed to U.S. and Australian authorities by whistleblowers allege that…

Roku Inc. ROKU 5.83% has teamed with private-equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc. APO 3.73% to bid for a minority stake in the pay-TV and streaming service Starz, which is known for series like “Outlander” and “Power,” according to people familiar with the situation. In November, movie and television production company Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.…

Elon Musk isn’t the only entrepreneur with big ideas about how to fix social media.A growing number of startups are emerging to challenge the status quo. Many of them are rooted in their founders’ experiences within the industry’s leading giant, Facebook’s parent company, now known as Meta Platforms Inc. FB 5.37% Nearly a decade ago, then-WhatsApp executive Neeraj Arora helped negotiate the $22 billion sale…

At least 15 advertising-technology companies had sufficient information to detect that publisher Gannett Co. GCI 3.19% provided inaccurate data to advertisers for more than nine months, but the firms failed to connect the dots and alert their clients, according to researchers who studied the incident.Gannett, owner of USA Today and news outlets in 46 U.S. states, said it unintentionally provided the wrong information in online ad auctions, due to an error that affected…

Bill Gates said that he isn’t sure of Elon Musk’s motives in buying Twitter Inc. TWTR 0.39% and that social media must play a role in curbing the spread of misinformation.“He actually could make it worse,” Mr. Gates said of Mr. Musk’s potential impact on the platform, speaking Wednesday at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit. But, he said, “That’s not his track record.” “How does he feel about…

Facebook parent Meta Platforms on Wednesday announced a sharp slowdown in hiring, ending an extended period in which the tech giant added thousands of jobs a year.“We regularly re-evaluate our talent pipeline according to our business needs and in light of the expense guidance given for this earnings period, we are slowing its growth accordingly,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “However, we will continue to grow our workforce to ensure we focus on long term impact.” Facebook parent Meta Platformson Wednesday…

CEO of Apple Tim Cook attends the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party following the 94th Oscars at the The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California on March 27, 2022.Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty ImagesEurope's antitrust regulator accused Apple of restricting rivals' access to its payment technology, a move that could potentially compel it to change how the company's system works and open it up to a large fine.The European Commission said in a press release Monday that it had "informed Apple…

Paramount Global PARA -1.29% said its main streaming platform, Paramount+, added 6.8 million subscribers during the first quarter, as the service benefited from original content including “Halo” and a “Star Trek” series, as well as National Football League games.…

Facebook FB 0.43% parent Meta Platforms Inc. FB 0.43% developed e-commerce services in 2020 as people shopped more from home and the company faced a changing digital ad market. Two years later, employees, former executives and retailers say the division remains a work in progress.Some retailers say they are frustrated by Meta’s e-commerce rollout, noting that the service is missing basic…