Tag: Platform

TrumpRx is launched: How it works and what Democrats say about it

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WASHINGTON — The White House’s TrumpRx website went live Thursday with a promise to instantly deliver prescription drugs at “the lowest price anywhere in the world.”

“This launch represents the largest reduction in prescription drug prices in history by many, many times, and it’s not even close,” President Trump said at a news conference announcing the launch of the platform.

Drug policy experts say the jury is still out on whether the platform will provide the significant savings Trump promises, though it will probably help people who need drugs not commonly covered by insurance.

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, called the site a “vanity project” and questioned whether the program presents a possible conflict of interest involving the pharmaceutical industry and the Trump family.

What is TrumpRx, really?

The new platform, trumprx.gov, is designed to help uninsured Americans find discounted prices for high-cost, brand-name prescriptions, including fertility, obesity and diabetes treatments.

The site does not directly sell drugs. Instead, consumers browse a list of discounted medicines, and select one for purchase. From there, they either receive a coupon accepted at certain pharmacies or are routed directly to a drug manufacturer’s website to purchase the prescription.

The White House said the reduced prices are possible after the administration negotiated voluntary “most favored nation” agreements with 16 major drugmakers including Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.

Under these deals, manufacturers have agreed to set certain U.S. drug prices no higher than those paid in other wealthy nations in exchange for three-year tariff exemptions. However, the full legal and financial details of the deals have not been made public, leaving lawmakers to speculate how TrumpRx’s pricing model works.

What does it accomplish?

Though the White House has framed TrumpRx as a historic reset for prescription drug costs, economists said the platform offers limited new savings.

But it does move the needle on the issue of drug pricing transparency, away from the hidden mechanisms behind how prescription drugs are priced, rebated and distributed, according to Geoffrey Joyce, director of health policy at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.

“This has been a murky world, a terrible, obscure, opaque marketplace where drug prices have been inconsistently priced to different consumers,” Joyce said, “So this is a little step in the right direction, but it’s mostly performative from my perspective, which is kind of Trump in a nutshell.”

Still, for the uninsured or people seeking “lifestyle drugs” — like those for fertility or weight loss that insurers have historically declined to cover — TrumpRx could become a useful option, Joyce said.

“It’s kind of a win for Trump and a win for Pfizer,” Joyce said. “They get to say, ‘Look what we’re doing. We’re lowering prices. We’re keeping Trump happy, but it’s on our low-volume drugs, and drugs that we were discounting big time anyway.’”

Where does it fall short?

Early analyses by drug policy experts suggest many of the discounted medications listed on the TrumpRx site were already on offer through other drug databases before the platform launched.

For example, Pfizer’s Duavee menopause treatment is listed at $30.30 on TrumpRx, but it is also available for the same price at some pharmacies via GoodRx.

Weight management drug Wegovy starts at $199 on TrumpRx. Manufacturers were already selling the same discounted rates through its NovoCare Pharmacy program before the portal’s launch.

“[TrumpRx] uses data from GoodRx, an existing price-search database for prescription drugs,” said Darius N. Lakdawalla, a senior health policy researcher at USC. “It seems to provide prices that are essentially the same as the lowest price GoodRx reports on its website.”

Compared to GoodRx, TrumpRx covers a modest subset of drugs: 43 in all.

“Uninsured consumers, who do not use or know about GoodRx and need one of the specific drugs covered by the site, might benefit from TrumpRx. That seems like a very specific set of people,” Lakdawalla said.

Where do Democrats stand?

Democrats slammed the program this week, saying it would not provide substantial discounts for patients, and called for greater transparency around the administration’s dealings with drugmakers. To date, the administration has not disclosed the terms of the pricing agreements with manufacturers such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

In the lead-up to the TrumpRx launch, Democratic members of Congress questioned its usefulness and urged federal health regulators to delay its debut.

“This is just another Donald Trump pet project to rebrand something that already exists, take credit for it, and do nothing to actually lower healthcare prices,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said Friday. “Democrats will continue fighting to lower healthcare costs and push Republicans to stop giving handouts to billionaires at the expense of working-class Americans.”

Three other Democratic senators — Dick Durbin, Elizabeth Warren and Peter Welch — raised another concern in a Jan. 29 letter to Thomas March Bell, inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services.

The three senators pointed to potential conflicts of interest between TrumpRx and an online dispensing company, BlinkRx.

One of Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr., joined the BlinkRx Board of Directors in February 2025.

Months before, he became a partner at 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm that holds a significant stake in BlinkRx and led the startup’s $140-million funding round in 2024. After his appointment, BlinkRx launched a service to help pharmaceutical companies build direct-to-patient sales platforms quickly.

“The timing of the BlinkRx announcement so closely following the administration’s outreach to the largest drug companies, and the involvement of President Trump’s immediate family, raises questions about potential coordination, influence and self-dealing,” according to an October 2025 statement by Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Both BlinkRx and Donald Trump Jr. have denied any coordination.

What’s next?

The rollout of TrumpRx fits into a suite of White House programs designed to address rising costs, an area of vulnerability for Republicans ahead of the November midterms.

The White House issued a statement Friday urging support for the president’s healthcare initiative, dubbed “the great healthcare plan,” which it said will further reduce drug prices and lower insurance premiums.

For the roughly 8% of Americans without health insurance, TrumpRx’s website promises that more high-cost, brand-name drugs will be discounted on the platform in the future.

“It’s possible the benefits will become broader in the future,” Lakdawalla said. “I would say that the jury remains out on its long-run structure and its long-run pricing effects.”

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Gavin J. Quinton

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February 7, 2026
Is social media harmful for kids? Meta and YouTube face trial after TikTok settles suit

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TikTok has agreed to settle the first in a series of closely-watched product liability cases, bowing out on the eve of a landmark trial that could upend how social media giants engage their youngest users and leave tech titans on the hook for billions in damages.

The settlement was reached as jury selection was set to begin in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday and comes a week after Snap reached a deal with the same plaintiff, a Chico, Calif., woman who said she became addicted to social media starting in elementary school.

“This settlement should come as no surprise because that damning evidence is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, an industry watchdog. “This was only the first case — there are hundreds of parents and school districts in the social media addiction trials that start today, and sadly, new families every day who are speaking out and bringing Big Tech to court for its deliberately harmful products.”

TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Monday’s settlement.

“The Parties are pleased to have been able to resolve this matter in an amicable manner,” Snap spokeswoman Monique Bellamy said of the settlement.

The remaining defendants, Instagram’s parent company Meta and Google’s YouTube, still face claims that their products are “defective” and designed to keep children hooked to apps its makers know are harmful.

Those same arguments are at the heart of at least 2,500 cases currently pending together in state and federal courts. The Los Angeles trial is among a handful of bellwethers meant to clarify the uncharted legal terrain.

Social media companies are protected by the 1st Amendment and by Section 230, a decades-old law that shields internet companies from liability for what users produce and share on their platforms.

Attorneys for the Chico plaintiff, referred to in court documents as K.G.M., say the apps were built and refined to snare youngsters and keep them on the platforms without regard for dangers the companies knew lurked there, including sexual predation, bullying and promotion of self-harm and even suicide.

As the claims against Meta and YouTube head to trial, jurors will be asked to weigh whether those dangers are incidental or inherent, and if social media companies can be held responsible for the harm families say flowed from their children’s feeds.

Scores of potential jurors filled the beige terrazzo hallway outside Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl’s courtroom downtown Tuesday morning, most passing the time on social apps on their phones. Some watched short-form videos while others thumbed through their feeds, pausing every so often to tap a like on a post.

Roughly 450 Angelenos will be vetted this week for spots on the jury. The trial is expected to last through March.

Instagram is 15 years old, YouTube almost 21. Finding Angelenos unfamiliar with either is likely impossible. The trial comes at a moment when public opinion around social media has soured, with a growing sentiment among parents, mental health professionals, lawmakers and even children themselves that the apps do more harm than good.

The judge told prospective jurors that lawyers on the case could not review their online profiles. “We know many of you use defendants’ social media and video-sharing platforms, and you’re not being asked to stop, but until you’re excused, you should not change how you use social media and you should not investigate features you don’t usually use,” Kuhl said in court.

Phones are now banned in California public school classrooms. Many private schools impose strict rules around when and how social media can be used.

In study after study, pluralities of young users — among them the youngest of “Anxious Generation” Zoomers and the oldest Gen Alpha’s iPad kids — now say they spend too much time on the apps. A disputed but growing body of research suggests some portion are addicted.

According to a study last spring by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, roughly half of teens say social media is bad for people their age, that it interferes with their sleep and that it hurts their productivity. Almost a quarter say it has brought down their grades. And 1 in 5 say it has hurt their mental health.

Experts say social media has also helped drive the increase in suicides among teen girls, and a post-pandemic surge in eating disorders.

K.G.M., the first bellwether plaintiff, said she started watching YouTube at age 6, and was uploading content to the site by age 8.

Today, about 85% of children under 12 watch YouTube and half of those watch it daily, according to Pew.

At 9, according to K.G.M.’s lawsuit, she got her first iPhone and joined Instagram.

By the time she joined Snapchat at age 13, she was spending almost every waking hour scrolling, posting and agonizing over her engagement, despite bullying from peers, hate comments from strangers and sexually explicit overtures from adult men.

“When I was in middle school, I used to go and hide in the counselor’s office … just to go on my phone,” she said in a deposition last year.

Around that time, she said Instagram began serving her content about self-harm and restrictive eating.

“I believe that social media, her addiction to social media, has changed the way her brain works,” the plaintiff’s mother, Karen, said in a related filing. “She has no long-term memory. She can’t live without a phone. She is willing to go to battle if you were even to touch her phone.”

“There became a point where she was so addicted that I could not get the phone out of her hand,” she said.

K.G.M.’s sister was even more blunt.

“Whenever my mom would take her phone away … she would have a meltdown like someone had died,” the sister said. “She would have so many meltdowns anytime her phone was taken away, and it was because she wouldn’t be able to use Instagram.”

“I wish I never downloaded it,” the plaintiff later told her sister, according to the deposition. “I wish I never got it in the first place.”

Boosters of the litigation compare their quest to the fight against Big Tobacco and the opioid-maker Purdue.

“This is the beginning of the trial of our generation,” said Haworth, the tech industry watchdog.

But the gulf between public opinion and civil culpability is vast, attorneys for the platforms say. Social media addiction is not a formal clinical diagnosis, and proving that it exists, and that the companies bear responsibility for it, will be an uphill battle.

Lawyers for YouTube have sought to further complicate the picture by claiming their video-sharing site is not social media at all and cannot be lumped in with the likes of Instagram and TikTok.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs say such distinctions are ephemeral, pointing out that YouTube has by far the youngest group of users, many of whom say the platform was an on-ramp to the world of social media.

“I am equally shocked … by the internal documents that I have seen from all four of these defendants regarding their knowing decision to addict kids to a platform knowing it would be bad for them,” said attorney Matthew Bergman of the Social Media Victims Law Center. “To me they are all outrageous in their decision to elevate their profits over the safety of kids.”

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Sonja Sharp

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January 27, 2026
‘It’s time to investigate’: Newsom slams alleged suppression of anti-Trump TikTok content

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Newsom announced he is investigating reports that TikTok is suppressing anti-Trump content days after the platform averted a nationwide ban by finalizing a U.S. ownership deal backed by Trump.

“Following TikTok’s sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports — and independently confirmed instances — of suppressed content critical of President Trump,” the governor’s press office said in a Monday evening statement on X.

The announcement comes after a flurry of online complaints that videos criticizing Trump, such as those condemning ICE actions in Minnesota or speaking out against the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents, are either getting zero views or far lower view counts than normal.

The new U.S.-based company TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC has not publicly responded to the allegations of censorship. However, the company said in a Monday statement that it was grappling with a power outage at a U.S. data center that was causing a “cascading systems failure.”

Among the issues the platform advised creators to look out for were zero views or likes on videos, slower load times and timed-out requests. Thousands of user issues were being reported throughout the day Monday, according to outage tracker Downdetector.

Newsom’s press office said the governor was calling on the California Department of Justice to review whether the application violates state law by censoring content that is unfavorable to Trump. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“It’s time to investigate,” Newsom wrote on X while reposting a screenshot showing a TikTok user being prevented from sending a message saying “epstein.” The screenshot says, “This message may be in violation of our Community Guidelines, and has not been sent to protect our community.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson told the Washington Post that the White House “is not involved in, nor has it made requests related to, TikTok’s content moderation.”

Internet personality Preston Stewart, who makes informational videos about war and national security topics, said that two videos he posted Monday simply disappeared while another video received zero views despite him having 1.3 million followers.

“I’ve seen folks suggest this is targeted but from what I’m seeing it’s across platform affecting everyone,” Stewart wrote on X.

Nonetheless, frustration continued to spread online among creators, celebrities and elected officials who did feel like the view suppression was deliberate.

State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) stated that TikTok is “now state controlled media” in a Monday morning statement on X. He shared a screenshot showing that a video he posted about his legislative proposal to allow people to sue ICE agents received zero views compared to thousands of views on his regular content.

“TikTok is dead. Killed by the regime & the corrupt kleptocrats suckling at its teat,” he wrote in a Monday evening X post, reposting another screenshot, this time showing extremely low view counts on CNN’s recently shared videos.

TikTok finalized a deal Thursday to spin off its U.S. operations into a new majority-American joint venture with investors including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. The $14-billion deal puts Larry Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle and a longtime Trump supporter and donor, in a powerful position over the app’s operations in America.

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Clara Harter

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January 26, 2026
Warner Bros rejects takeover offer from Paramount, tells shareholders to stick with Netflix bid

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Warner Bros. again rejected Paramount’s latest takeover bid and told shareholders Wednesday to stick with a rival offer from Netflix.Warner’s leadership has repeatedly rebuffed Skydance-owned Paramount’s overtures — and urged shareholders just weeks ago to back the sale of its streaming and studio business to Netflix for $72 billion. Paramount, meanwhile, has sweetened its $77.9 billion offer for the entire company and gone straight to shareholders with a hostile bid.Warner Bros. Discovery said Wednesday that its board determined Paramount’s offer is not in the best interests of the company or its shareholders. It again recommended shareholders support the Netflix deal.Late last month Paramount announced an “irrevocable personal guarantee” from Oracle founder Larry Ellison — who is the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison — to back $40.4 billion in equity financing for the company’s offer. Paramount also increased its promised payout to shareholders to $5.8 billion if the deal is blocked by regulators, matching what Netflix already put on the table.The battle for Warner and the value of each offer grows complicated because Netflix and Paramount want different things. Netflix’s proposed acquisition includes only Warner’s studio and streaming business, including its legacy TV and movie production arms and platforms like HBO Max. But Paramount wants the entire company — which, beyond studio and streaming, includes networks like CNN and Discovery.If Netflix is successful, Warner’s news and cable operations would be spun off into their own company, under a previously-announced separation.A merger with either company will attract tremendous antitrust scrutiny. Due to its size and potential impact, it will almost certainly trigger a review by the U.S. Justice Department, which could sue to block the transaction or request changes. Other countries and regulators overseas may also challenge the merger.

NEW YORK —

Warner Bros. again rejected Paramount’s latest takeover bid and told shareholders Wednesday to stick with a rival offer from Netflix.

Warner’s leadership has repeatedly rebuffed Skydance-owned Paramount’s overtures — and urged shareholders just weeks ago to back the sale of its streaming and studio business to Netflix for $72 billion. Paramount, meanwhile, has sweetened its $77.9 billion offer for the entire company and gone straight to shareholders with a hostile bid.

Warner Bros. Discovery said Wednesday that its board determined Paramount’s offer is not in the best interests of the company or its shareholders. It again recommended shareholders support the Netflix deal.

Late last month Paramount announced an “irrevocable personal guarantee” from Oracle founder Larry Ellison — who is the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison — to back $40.4 billion in equity financing for the company’s offer. Paramount also increased its promised payout to shareholders to $5.8 billion if the deal is blocked by regulators, matching what Netflix already put on the table.

The battle for Warner and the value of each offer grows complicated because Netflix and Paramount want different things. Netflix’s proposed acquisition includes only Warner’s studio and streaming business, including its legacy TV and movie production arms and platforms like HBO Max. But Paramount wants the entire company — which, beyond studio and streaming, includes networks like CNN and Discovery.

If Netflix is successful, Warner’s news and cable operations would be spun off into their own company, under a previously-announced separation.

A merger with either company will attract tremendous antitrust scrutiny. Due to its size and potential impact, it will almost certainly trigger a review by the U.S. Justice Department, which could sue to block the transaction or request changes. Other countries and regulators overseas may also challenge the merger.

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January 7, 2026
Kooky Launches Its First Cross-Border Music Production Project

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Moon Sujin, ØZI, and Karencici Unite Korea and Taiwan’s R&B Scenes

LOS ANGELES, December 29, 2025 (Newswire.com)
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Kooky has launched its first cross-border music production project, releasing “Tight Rope (feat. ØZI & Karencici)“, performed by Korean R&B artist Moon Sujin in collaboration with Taiwan’s leading next-generation musicians ØZI and Karencici.

More than a standard feature collaboration, Tight Rope marks the first fully curated cross-border music project led by Kooky, a fan-centric, data-driven platform redefining how artists collaborate and expand globally. The project was strategically designed by Kooky using in-depth analysis of regional fan demand, market responsiveness, and artistic compatibility-bridging Korea and Taiwan’s contemporary R&B scenes through intentional creative alignment.

Following its release, the single debuted at No. 3 on the KKBOX Top 10 Debut Singles chart in Taiwan, validating Kooky’s data-driven artist-matching approach and highlighting the project’s strong local market impact.

The collaboration expanded into cross-border live performances. Moon Sujin joined ØZI and Karencici on stage in Taiwan, engaging directly with local audiences, before continuing performances in Korea. Through this expansion, the release moved beyond a digital collaboration into a shared fan experience, demonstrating the practical scalability of Kooky-led global music projects, supported by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA).

Looking ahead, Kooky plans to continue developing and scaling cross-border music production and live collaboration projects.

“Kooky is not just a K-POP platform-it’s a data-driven ecosystem that analyzes real fan demand and creates growth opportunities for artists worldwide,” said Hami Kim, CEO of Kooky Inc.

About Kooky

Kooky is a global K-POP platform active in over 180 countries, connecting fans and artists through creative participation. With more than 2.5 million users worldwide, Kooky enables fans to take part in real projects-from voting for concert cities to supporting cross-border artist collaborations-turning fandom activity into actionable insights that bridge fan culture and the global entertainment industry.

Contact
Hami Kim
CEO, Kooky Inc.
hami@kooky.io

SOURCE: KOOKY INC

Source: KOOKY INC

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December 29, 2025
Roblox sued by Southern California families alleging children met predators on its platform

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Video gaming platform Roblox is facing more lawsuits from parents who allege the San Mateo, Calif., company isn’t doing enough to safeguard children from sexual predators.

A Los Angeles County mother, whose identity wasn’t revealed in a November lawsuit, alleges that her daughter met a predator on Roblox who persuaded her child to send sexually explicit photos of herself over the social media platform Discord. The woman is suing both Roblox and the San Francisco company Discord.

When her daughter signed up for the gaming platform last year at 12 years old, the woman thought Roblox was safe because it was marketed for children and as educational, according to the lawsuit filed in a Los Angeles County Superior Court.

But then her daughter befriended a person on Roblox known as “Precious” who claimed to be 15 years old and told her child that she had been abused at home and had no friends, the lawsuit said. Her daughter, accompanied by a friend’s parents, met up with the Roblox user at a beach and the person appeared older and attempted to introduce her to a group of older men.

After they met, the predator tried to persuade the girl to visit her apartment alone in Fullerton and tried to alienate her from her family. The child suffered from psychological trauma, depression and other emotional distress because of her experiences on Roblox and Discord, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit accuses Roblox and Discord of prioritizing profits over safety, creating a “digital” and “real-life nightmare” for children. It also alleges the companies’ failures are systematic and other children have also suffered harm from encountering predators on the platforms.

“Her innocence has been snatched from her and her life will never be the same,” the lawsuit said.

Roblox said in a statement it’s “deeply troubled by any incident that endangers any user” and prioritizes online safety.

“We also understand that no system is perfect and that is why we are constantly working to further improve our safety tools and platform restrictions to ensure parents can trust us to help keep their children safe online, launching 145 new initiatives this year alone,” the statement said.

Discord said it’s committed to safety and requires users to be at least 13 years old to use its platform.

“We maintain strong systems to prevent the spread of sexual exploitation and grooming on our platform and also work with other technology companies and safety organizations to improve online safety across the internet,” the company said in a statement.

The lawsuit is the latest scrutiny facing Roblox, a platform popular among young people. More than 151 million people use it daily. Earlier this year, the platform faced a wave of lawsuits from people in various states who allege that predators are posing as kids on the platform and sexually exploiting children.

NBC4 News, which reported earlier on the lawsuit, also reported that Roblox is facing another lawsuit from a California family in Riverside who allege their child was sexually assaulted by a man the child met on Roblox. That man was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Roblox has been taking new steps this year to address mounting child-safety concerns. In November, the company said it would require users to verify their age to chat with other players. Roblox users would provide an ID or take a video selfie to verify their age. The verification feature estimates a person’s age, allowing the company to limit conversations between children and adults.

The lawsuit by the Los Angeles County woman called safety changes made in 2024 by Roblox “woefully inadequate” and said they were made “too late.”

“These changes could all have been implemented years ago,” the lawsuit said. “None of them involve any new or groundbreaking technology. Roblox only moved forward when its stock was threatened.”

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Queenie Wong

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December 11, 2025
Teen Zuza Beine, who inspired millions on social media, dies after long cancer battle

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GRATEFUL. A WAUKESHA TEEN INSPIRING MILLIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA PASSED AWAY FROM CANCER THIS WEEK. ZUZA BINEY BATTLED FOR 11 OF HER 14 YEARS OF HER LIFE AND AS 12 NEWS REPORTS, SHE DID IT WITH A GRACE AND COMPASSION THAT REALLY GAVE PEOPLE HOPE. SWEET HONEY BEE AND IF I WAS A TREE GROWING ZOZIBINI. LIKE MANY 14 YEAR OLD GIRLS, LOVED CLOTHES. LOVE SKINCARE. THESE ARE LITERALLY LIKE MY FAVORITE SKINCARE PRODUCT EVER. LOVED TAYLOR SWIFT. SWIFT. I LOVE YOU, BUT SPEND A FEW SECONDS SCROLLING THE WAUKESHA TEENS SOCIAL MEDIA. GET READY WITH ME WHILE I TELL YOU MY CANCER JOURNEY AND YOU’LL SEE THE STRUGGLE SHE SO BRAVELY SHARED WITH THE WORLD. AT JUST THREE YEARS OLD, ZUZA WAS DIAGNOSED WITH ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIA, WHICH IS A BLOOD CANCER THAT IS MOST COMMONLY FOUND IN OLDER PEOPLE. YOU’RE NOT ABLE TO GO AND HAVE PLAYDATES, AND YOU’RE NOT ABLE TO GO TO THE MALL. THIS PLATFORM IN HER REACH FILLED THAT FOR HER. HER GODMOTHER, ELLEN MENEFEE, WATCHED AS ZUZA, IN SPITE OF HER ILLNESS, GREW RESILIENT AND STRONG. HER FOLLOWING GREW TO WITH MILLIONS OF SUPPORTERS ON TIKTOK AND INSTAGRAM. I DIDN’T DO MUCH TODAY BESIDES GO TO THE HOSPITAL FOR CHEMO. HER FAMILY’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF SOUSA’S PASSING TUESDAY HEARTBREAKING FOR THE ONLINE COMMUNITY THAT CALLED HER A FRIEND. SHE TOOK HER FOLLOWERS ON THAT JOURNEY. AND SHE SHARED THE INCREDIBLE MOMENTS OF TRIUMPH. AND SHE SHARED THE RAW MOMENTS. HOW RARE IS THAT COURAGE AT SOMEONE HER AGE NOW? I. I DON’T I DON’T KNOW, I DON’T KNOW ANOTHER 14 YEAR OLD LIKE ZUZA, I NEVER WILL. THE LESSONS THAT SHE TAUGHT US AND TAUGHT ADULTS TAUGHT HER FOLLOWERS HER PLATFORM, THEY’RE LESSONS THAT EVEN, YOU KNOW, MANY OF US DON’T. WE HAVEN’T FIGURED OUT OURSELVES. HER FAMILY FORCED TO FIGURE OUT THIS NEW WORLD WITHOUT ZUZA, LOOKS BACK ON THE DOZENS OF VIDEOS WHERE SHE’S LAUGHING, SMILING AND LIVING. THAT’S THE LESSON. PERHAPS ZUZA LEFT BEHIND. SHE NEVER FOCUSED ON HER DYING. SHE WAS WAY TOO BUSY LIVING, AND SUPPORTERS HAVE STARTED A GOFUNDME TO HELP THE FAMILY PAY FOR THE MANY MEDICAL BILLS AND FUNERAL COSTS. WE’LL HAVE THAT LINKED ON THE 12 NEWS APP. AND I ASKED ELLEN WHAT LESSONS ZUZA WOULD WANT PEOPLE TO TAKE AWAY FROM HER SOCIAL MEDIA. SHE SAYS ABOVE ALL, BE KIND AND BE GRATEFUL FOR ALL THE HARDSHIPS ENDURED. ELLEN SAYS THAT SHE WAS GRATEFUL FOR THE LIFE SHE HAD. JUST SUCH A POWERFU

Teen Zuza Beine, who inspired millions on social media, dies after long cancer battle

Zuza Beine, a 14-year-old from Wisconsin, bravely shared her cancer journey on TikTok and Instagram to millions of followers

Updated: 10:07 AM PDT Sep 26, 2025

Editorial Standards ⓘ

Zuza Beine, a 14-year-old from Waukesha, Wisconsin, who inspired millions by sharing her cancer journey on social media, passed away this week after battling the disease for most of her life.Zuza, like many 14-year-old girls, loved clothes, skincare, and Taylor Swift. But spend a few seconds scrolling through her social media, and you’ll see the struggle she bravely shared with the world. Zuza was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at just 3 years old. AML is a blood cancer, more commonly found in adults. Her TikTok account, with 2.8 million followers, has videos that range from her trying new skincare products to viral “get ready with me” videos where she dives into explaining her cancer journey. “You’re not able to go have play dates. You’re not able to go to the mall,” said Ellen Menefee, Zuza’s godmother. “This platform and her reach filled that for her.”Menefee said Zuza’s online presence and friends online often filled the void left by her illness. Despite her illness, Zuza grew resilient and strong, amassing millions of supporters on TikTok and Instagram. Her family’s announcement of her passing on Tuesday was heartbreaking for the online community that considered her a friend.”She took her followers on that journey. And she shared the incredible moments of triumph, and she shared the raw moments,” Menefee said.Zuza’s followers cheered her on through her many treatments and multiple bone marrow transplants. But Menefee said Zuza did have to build a thick skin against the unkind parts of social media, too.”I don’t, don’t know another 14-year-old like Zuza. I never will,” she said. “The lessons that she taught us. Taught adults, taught her followers, her platform — they’re lessons that many of us haven’t figured out ourselves.”Zuza’s family is now cherishing the videos where she is laughing, smiling, and living. “She never focused on her dying. She was way too busy living,” Menefee said. Supporters have started a GoFundMe to help with medical bills and funeral costs.

Zuza Beine, a 14-year-old from Waukesha, Wisconsin, who inspired millions by sharing her cancer journey on social media, passed away this week after battling the disease for most of her life.

Zuza, like many 14-year-old girls, loved clothes, skincare, and Taylor Swift. But spend a few seconds scrolling through her social media, and you’ll see the struggle she bravely shared with the world.

Zuza was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at just 3 years old. AML is a blood cancer, more commonly found in adults. Her TikTok account, with 2.8 million followers, has videos that range from her trying new skincare products to viral “get ready with me” videos where she dives into explaining her cancer journey.

“You’re not able to go have play dates. You’re not able to go to the mall,” said Ellen Menefee, Zuza’s godmother. “This platform and her reach filled that for her.”

Menefee said Zuza’s online presence and friends online often filled the void left by her illness. Despite her illness, Zuza grew resilient and strong, amassing millions of supporters on TikTok and Instagram. Her family’s announcement of her passing on Tuesday was heartbreaking for the online community that considered her a friend.

“She took her followers on that journey. And she shared the incredible moments of triumph, and she shared the raw moments,” Menefee said.

Zuza’s followers cheered her on through her many treatments and multiple bone marrow transplants. But Menefee said Zuza did have to build a thick skin against the unkind parts of social media, too.

“I don’t, don’t know another 14-year-old like Zuza. I never will,” she said. “The lessons that she taught us. Taught adults, taught her followers, her platform — they’re lessons that many of us haven’t figured out ourselves.”

Zuza’s family is now cherishing the videos where she is laughing, smiling, and living.

“She never focused on her dying. She was way too busy living,” Menefee said.

Supporters have started a GoFundMe to help with medical bills and funeral costs.

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September 26, 2025
GOP threatens clampdown on social media after Charlie Kirk suspect allegedly confessed on Discord

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Just before Tyler Robinson turned himself in for the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, authorities say he appeared to leave a trail of incriminating messages on the online gaming platform Discord.

At first, his messages were playful. When a friend on a group chat noticed his likeness to the skinny white man in the grainy photos released by the FBI of the Utah Valley University shooting suspect — asking Robinson “wya,” an abbreviation of “where you at?” — Robinson was quick to joke: “My doppelganger is trying to get me in trouble.”

But in a later Discord chat, Robinson appeared to confess.

“Hey guys, I have bad news for you all,” Robinson said before he went to a police station the next day to surrender: “It was me at UVU yesterday.”

Discord, the gaming messaging platform used by more than 200 million people, now finds itself at the center of the Kirk murder investigation and a roiling, heavily politicized national discussion about the internet’s role in fomenting violent extremism. Some lawmakers are threatening to impose more aggressive regulations and oversight on social media platforms.

After federal agents served Discord with a search warrant, FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday at a Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing that agents are investigating “anyone and everyone” who interacted with Robinson on the platform. Asked if they were investigating more than 20 Discord users, Patel said, “It’s a lot more than that.”

“We’re running them all down,” Patel said.

But as prosecutors say they will pursue the death penalty — bringing seven charges including aggravated murder — Discord is only one part of the evidence investigators say they have against Robinson. They have cited DNA from the scene, text messages with his roommate and partner, and testimony from his family about statements at the dinner table about Kirk being full of hate.

So far, officials have provided no evidence that Robinson planned the shooting on Discord or that any of his contacts on the platform knew of a plan to target Kirk .

A Discord spokesperson said last week that an internal investigation has “not found or received any evidence that the suspect planned this incident on Discord or promoted violence on Discord.” Messages “about weapon retrieval and planning details,” the spokesperson stressed, “were not Discord messages, and likely took place on a phone-number based messaging platform.”

That did not stop Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, from sending letters Wednesday to the chief executive officers of Discord — and other online gaming and social platforms Steam, Twitch and Reddit — requesting them to testify at an Oct. 8. committee hearing on online radicalization.

“In the wake of this tragedy, and amid other acts of politically motivated violence, Congress has a duty to oversee the online platforms that radicals have used to advance political violence,” Comer said in a statement. He called on the CEOs of Discord and other networks to “explain what actions they will take to ensure their platforms are not exploited for nefarious purposes.”

This is not the first time Discord, a network developed a decade ago for video gamers to chat directly by text, video or voice calls as they play games, has been accused of being a platform for extremists.

In 2017, two years after Discord was founded, white supremacists used the site to plan the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va.

The platform, which allows users to connect with other players, find teammates, get game updates and participate in community discussions, then took steps to prioritize content moderation. Over the next four years, it said in 2021, its trust and safety team swelled from one person to about 60 people, split between responding to user complaints and “proactively finding and removing servers and users engaging in high-harm activity like violent extremist organizing.”

But in 2022, Discord made the news again: Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old white supremacist who killed 10 people in a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket, used the platform for more than a year and a half to plan his attack.

While Discord is a platform extremists use to communicate, it is not the only one and extremists do not make up the bulk of its users, said Brian Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and professor emeritus at California State University, San Bernardino.

Rather than scrutinize Discord and other social platforms, Levin said, Congress would be better served examining the evolving nature of extremism.

“Discord is just the latest device, much like the cell phone,” Levin said. “If you target a platform, young people and extremists will find a new place to go.”

After the Kirk shooting, about 20 Discord users had been questioned, a law enforcement source told The Times. Not all of the people questioned were in the same chats.

Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and current president of West Coast Trial Lawyers in Los Angeles, said the texts and Discord conversations can be effectively used by prosecutors as a confession if they can be determined to come from Robinson.

“To the extent that those are his words, then absolutely,” Rahmani said. “They will be used against him.”

But Rahmani said there doesn’t seem to be any criminal liability for members of the Discord chat group where Robinson appeared to have to confessed to the shooting, unless any of them took steps to help Robinson commit the crime or hide evidence.

Merely being part of the chat group, he said, did not mean they were criminally responsible.

“A normal civilian, you and me, you have no legal duty to stop or report it,” Rahmani said.

Members of the chat would also not be required to stop or report anything to police, even if the killing was planned on the platform, he said. Unless someone in the chat was a mandated reporter, like a psychiatrist or therapist, they have no legal requirement to reach out to authorities.

“By not reporting, that’s not enough to be obstructing an investigation,” he said.

But that could change if someone in the chat tried to hide the text messages, or delete the conversations, Rahmani said.

“That’s an affirmative act,” he said. “That’s destroying evidence, and that’s very different.”

The platforms would have the same responsibility, Rahmani said, and although many of them take steps to monitor and report suspicious activity, not detecting or reporting it would not make them criminally liable.

In 1996, Congress passed Section 230, a law to protect the evolving world of online communication. “No provider or user of an interactive computer service,” it says, “shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

Catherine Crump, a clinical professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, said messaging and social media platforms have a virtual “ironclad immunity” from the content made by its users under Sec. 230. She noted that the law has long been viewed as out of date — artificial intelligence and algorithms to monitor speech or content, she noted, did not exist when it was passed — but the platforms are protected from their own content until an act of Congress makes changes.

“We’re dependent on Congress to act here,” Crump said. “And Congress has not been effective on doing that under any kind of administration.”

Focusing on Discord as an online source of political radicalization in this case, some argue, does not make sense: Evidence has yet to emerge that Robinson engaged politically on the site or discussed any plan to target Kirk ahead of the shooting.

According to officials, Robinson sent some of his most incriminating messages via text message.

After the shooting, court documents indicate, Robinson texted his partner to say: “Drop what you’re doing, look under my keyboard.” The roommate found a message that read: “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.”

“What?????????????? You’re joking, right????” the roommate responded.

“You weren’t the one who did it right????” his roommate asked.

“I am,” Robinson responded. “I’m sorry.”

During the conversation, court documents show, Robinson told his partner he left a rifle wrapped in a towel in a bush and needed to retrieve it from a drop point. He also appeared to provide a motive:

“Why?” his partner texted Robinson.

“Why did I do it?” Robinson responded.

“Yeah,” the roommate replied.

“I had enough of his hatred,” Robinson replied. “Some hate can’t be negotiated.”

During Tuesday’s hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called for the repeal of Sec. 230 and accused social media platforms of radicalizing users. “These companies are taking content that makes you sick, that could get you killed, get you poisoned, “ he said, “and there’s nothing we can do about it under our law … because of Section 230. “

It appeared to be a sentiment Patel agreed with.

“Do you believe that social media is one of the instruments radicalizing America and inciting violence?” Graham asked Patel.

“The data shows that social media is wildly out of control when it comes to radicalizing,” Patel said.

Graham then asked the FBI director if he would support a repeal of Sec. 230.

“I’ve advocated that for years,” Patel said.

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Jenny Jarvie, Salvador Hernandez, Richard Winton

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September 18, 2025
Kirk killing suspect feared being shot by police and agreed to surrender if peaceful, sheriff says

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Tyler Robinson, the Utah man charged with assassinating Charlie Kirk, was afraid of being shot by police and agreed to surrender as long as it was done peacefully, a sheriff involved with taking him into custody said Wednesday.Robinson appeared quiet and somber when he turned himself in with his parents last Thursday at the Washington County Sheriff’s office, a day after Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University, said Sheriff Nate Brooksby.”He didn’t want a big SWAT team at his parent’s house or his apartment,” said the sheriff, who was only involved with the surrender and not the broader investigation. “He was truly fearful about being shot by law enforcement.”On Tuesday, prosecutors charged the 22-year-old Robinson with capital murder and announced they will seek the death penalty while revealing a series of incriminating messages and DNA evidence that they say connect Robinson to the killing of Kirk, a prominent conservative activist and confidant of President Donald Trump.Utah Valley University students returning to campus Wednesday clustered silently, staring down at the barricaded courtyard where an assassin struck down conservative activist Charlie Kirk in an attack that upended the nation.Care stations offering stuffed animals, candy and connections to counseling dotted the campus on the first day of classes since the shooting more than a week ago.Matthew Caldwell, 24, said his classmates were quieter and seemed more genuine about being in class, even with sadness still in the air.”The way that we treat each other in our words can ultimately lead to things like this,” he said. “And I think everybody sort of understands that a little bit better now.”Since the shooting, the Republican president has threatened to crack down on what he calls the “radical left” and has classified some groups as domestic terrorists. Former Democratic President Barack Obama said this week that Trump has further divided the country rather than working to bring people together.On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee called on the chief executives of Discord, Steam, Twitch and Reddit to testify on how they are regulating their platforms to prevent violence.”Congress has a duty to oversee the online platforms that radicals have used to advance political violence,” said GOP Rep. James Comer, the committee chair, signaling a shift for congressional Republicans, who had previously scrutinized online platforms for policing free speech.Video below: Students at Utah Valley University returned to campus after Kirk’s killingHidden note in suspect’s apartmentInvestigators say that sometime after Robinson fired a single fatal shot from the rooftop of a campus building overlooking where Kirk was speaking on Sept. 10, he texted his romantic partner and said to look under a keyboard.There was a note, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it,” according to court documents.After expressing shock, his partner who lived with Robinson in southwestern Utah, asked Robinson if he was the shooter. Robinson responded, “I am, I’m sorry.”Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said DNA on the trigger of the rifle used to kill Kirk matched Robinson, who faced his first hearing in the case Tuesday. A judge read the charges and said he would appoint an attorney to represent him. A message was left Wednesday with the county’s public defender office.Robinson’s family has declined to comment to The Associated Press since his arrest.Investigators looking at whether Robinson had helpLaw enforcement officials say they are looking at whether others knew about Robinson’s plans or helped, but they have not said if his partner is among those being investigated, only expressing appreciation for the partner sharing information.The partner apparently never went to law enforcement after receiving the texts. Robinson remained on the run for more than a day until his parents recognized him in a photo released by authorities.Also getting a closer look is the security on the day of the attack. Utah Valley is conducting a review, university President Astrid S. Tuminez said Wednesday.Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox met with students and campus leaders near the shooting scene, saying he understands they might still be haunted and angry over what happened. “What you do with that anger, that’s what determines where we go from here,” he said.Was Charlie Kirk targeted over anti-transgender views?Authorities have not revealed a clear motive in the shooting, but Gray said that Robinson wrote in a text about Kirk to his partner: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”Kirk, a 31-year-old father of two, was credited with energizing the Republican youth movement and helping Trump win back the White House in 2024. His political organization, Arizona-based Turning Point USA, brought young, evangelical Christians into politics through social media, his podcast and campus events.While court documents said Robinson wrote in one text that planned the attack for more than a week, authorities have not said what they believe that entailed.Gray declined to answer whether Robinson targeted Kirk for his anti-transgender views. Kirk was shot while taking a question that touched on mass shootings and transgender people.Robinson was involved in a romantic relationship with his roommate, who investigators say is transgender.Parents said their son became more politicalRobinson’s mother told investigators that their son had turned hard left politically in the last year and became more supportive of gay and transgender rights, Gray said.She recognized him when authorities released a picture of the suspect and his parents confronted him, at which time Robinson said he wanted to kill himself, Gray said.The family persuaded him to meet with a family friend who is a retired sheriff’s deputy. That person was able to get Robinson to turn himself in, the prosecutor said.Robinson detailed movements after the shootingIn a text exchange with his partner released by authorities, Robinson wrote about planning to get his rifle from his “drop point,” but that the area was “locked down.”The texts, which Robinson later told his partner to delete, did not include timestamps, leaving it unclear how long after the shooting Robinson sent the messages.”To be honest I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you,” Robinson wrote.___Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.

OREM, Utah —

Tyler Robinson, the Utah man charged with assassinating Charlie Kirk, was afraid of being shot by police and agreed to surrender as long as it was done peacefully, a sheriff involved with taking him into custody said Wednesday.

Robinson appeared quiet and somber when he turned himself in with his parents last Thursday at the Washington County Sheriff’s office, a day after Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University, said Sheriff Nate Brooksby.

“He didn’t want a big SWAT team at his parent’s house or his apartment,” said the sheriff, who was only involved with the surrender and not the broader investigation. “He was truly fearful about being shot by law enforcement.”

On Tuesday, prosecutors charged the 22-year-old Robinson with capital murder and announced they will seek the death penalty while revealing a series of incriminating messages and DNA evidence that they say connect Robinson to the killing of Kirk, a prominent conservative activist and confidant of President Donald Trump.

Utah Valley University students returning to campus Wednesday clustered silently, staring down at the barricaded courtyard where an assassin struck down conservative activist Charlie Kirk in an attack that upended the nation.

Care stations offering stuffed animals, candy and connections to counseling dotted the campus on the first day of classes since the shooting more than a week ago.

Matthew Caldwell, 24, said his classmates were quieter and seemed more genuine about being in class, even with sadness still in the air.

“The way that we treat each other in our words can ultimately lead to things like this,” he said. “And I think everybody sort of understands that a little bit better now.”

Since the shooting, the Republican president has threatened to crack down on what he calls the “radical left” and has classified some groups as domestic terrorists. Former Democratic President Barack Obama said this week that Trump has further divided the country rather than working to bring people together.

On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee called on the chief executives of Discord, Steam, Twitch and Reddit to testify on how they are regulating their platforms to prevent violence.

“Congress has a duty to oversee the online platforms that radicals have used to advance political violence,” said GOP Rep. James Comer, the committee chair, signaling a shift for congressional Republicans, who had previously scrutinized online platforms for policing free speech.

Video below: Students at Utah Valley University returned to campus after Kirk’s killing

Hidden note in suspect’s apartment

Investigators say that sometime after Robinson fired a single fatal shot from the rooftop of a campus building overlooking where Kirk was speaking on Sept. 10, he texted his romantic partner and said to look under a keyboard.

There was a note, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it,” according to court documents.

After expressing shock, his partner who lived with Robinson in southwestern Utah, asked Robinson if he was the shooter. Robinson responded, “I am, I’m sorry.”

Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said DNA on the trigger of the rifle used to kill Kirk matched Robinson, who faced his first hearing in the case Tuesday. A judge read the charges and said he would appoint an attorney to represent him. A message was left Wednesday with the county’s public defender office.

Robinson’s family has declined to comment to The Associated Press since his arrest.

Investigators looking at whether Robinson had help

Law enforcement officials say they are looking at whether others knew about Robinson’s plans or helped, but they have not said if his partner is among those being investigated, only expressing appreciation for the partner sharing information.

The partner apparently never went to law enforcement after receiving the texts. Robinson remained on the run for more than a day until his parents recognized him in a photo released by authorities.

Also getting a closer look is the security on the day of the attack. Utah Valley is conducting a review, university President Astrid S. Tuminez said Wednesday.

Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox met with students and campus leaders near the shooting scene, saying he understands they might still be haunted and angry over what happened. “What you do with that anger, that’s what determines where we go from here,” he said.

Was Charlie Kirk targeted over anti-transgender views?

Authorities have not revealed a clear motive in the shooting, but Gray said that Robinson wrote in a text about Kirk to his partner: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”

Kirk, a 31-year-old father of two, was credited with energizing the Republican youth movement and helping Trump win back the White House in 2024. His political organization, Arizona-based Turning Point USA, brought young, evangelical Christians into politics through social media, his podcast and campus events.

While court documents said Robinson wrote in one text that planned the attack for more than a week, authorities have not said what they believe that entailed.

Gray declined to answer whether Robinson targeted Kirk for his anti-transgender views. Kirk was shot while taking a question that touched on mass shootings and transgender people.

Robinson was involved in a romantic relationship with his roommate, who investigators say is transgender.

Parents said their son became more political

Robinson’s mother told investigators that their son had turned hard left politically in the last year and became more supportive of gay and transgender rights, Gray said.

She recognized him when authorities released a picture of the suspect and his parents confronted him, at which time Robinson said he wanted to kill himself, Gray said.

The family persuaded him to meet with a family friend who is a retired sheriff’s deputy. That person was able to get Robinson to turn himself in, the prosecutor said.

Robinson detailed movements after the shooting

In a text exchange with his partner released by authorities, Robinson wrote about planning to get his rifle from his “drop point,” but that the area was “locked down.”

The texts, which Robinson later told his partner to delete, did not include timestamps, leaving it unclear how long after the shooting Robinson sent the messages.

“To be honest I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you,” Robinson wrote.

___

Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.

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September 17, 2025
Newsom to sign California bill to limit ‘addictive’ social media feeds for kids

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California will take a major step in its fight to protect children from the ills of social media with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature on a bill to limit the ability of companies to provide “addictive feeds” to minors.

The governor’s office said Newsom on Friday will sign Senate Bill 976, named the Protecting Our Kids From Social Media Addiction Act and introduced by state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley). The bill was supported by state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and groups such as the Assn. of California School Administrators, Common Sense Media and the California chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Newsom’s wife, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, is also outspoken about the links between social media consumption and low self-esteem, depression and anxiety among youth.

The legislation attracted an unusual collection of opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union of California, Equality California and associations representing giants in the industry that own TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. The California Chamber of Commerce argued that the legislation “unconstitutionally burdens” access to lawful content, setting up the potential for another lawsuit in an ongoing court battle between the state and social media companies over use of the platforms by children.

“Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night,” Newsom said. “With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits.”

The bill, which will take effect Jan. 1, 2027, with Newsom’s signature, prohibits internet service and applications from providing “addictive feeds,” defined as media curated based on information gathered on or provided by the user, to minors without parental consent. SB 976 also bans companies from sending notifications to users identified as minors between midnight and 6 a.m. or during the school day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. unless parents give the OK.

The bill will effectively require companies to make posts from people children know and follow appear in chronological order on their social media feeds instead of in an arrangement to maximize engagement. Proponents of the bill point to warnings from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and others about a mental health crisis among youths, which studies show is exacerbated by the use of social media.

“As a mother, I’m proud of California’s continued leadership in holding technology companies accountable for their products and ensuring those products are not harmful to children. Thank you to the Governor and Senator Skinner for taking a critical step in protecting children and ensuring their safety is prioritized over companies’ profits,” Siebel Newsom said.

The industry has argued that it’s false to assume that feeds curated by an algorithm are harmful but that a chronological feed is safe. The ACLU also argued that age verification creates potential privacy concerns because it could require the collection of additional user data that could be at risk in a security breach and because it could threaten the 1st Amendment rights of people who cannot verify their age.

Several groups advocating for LGBTQ+ youths suggested the bill could limit youths’ ability to engage on platforms that offer emotional support for their identities, particularly for kids who live in communities that might be hostile to their identity. Giving more control to parents could also potentially result in parents choosing settings that share sensitive information about the child, the groups said.

The bill marks the latest action in a battle between state government and social media companies taking place in the California Legislature and the court system over the use of platforms by children.

In October, Bonta’s office filed a lawsuit with 32 other states against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, alleging that the company designed apps specifically to addict young users while misleading the public about the adverse effects.

A bill that failed last year in the California Legislature would have made social media companies liable for up to $250,000 in damages if they knowingly promoted features that could harm children. Portions of a 2022 law that sought to require companies to provide privacy protections for children have also been held up in court.

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Taryn Luna

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September 20, 2024
Project 2025, GOP platform blast California, teeing up critiques of Biden stand-ins

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At the start of Project 2025’s conservative playbook for a second Trump presidency, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts took aim at leaders who he said wield power to “serve themselves first and everyone else a distant second.”

He mentioned North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un comfortably ruling over an impoverished nation, “billionaire climate activists” flying on private jets while criticizing carbon-emitting cars, and two “COVID-19 shutdown politicians” in California who were seen out and about — at a hair salon and a fancy restaurant — while calling on their constituents to stay home.

Name-dropping U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Gov. Gavin Newsom in the conservative right’s blueprint for the White House was a way for Roberts to tie them, and California, to the idea that out-of-touch coastal elites are ruining the country.

That notion — well worn in American politics — appears throughout the Project 2025 plan, a wonky, 900-plus-page manifesto released last year by conservative thought leaders and Trump acolytes.

The idea is also evoked more subtly in the much snappier, 16-page Republican Party platform spearheaded by Trump and adopted by party officials last week, which criticizes American politicians who “insulated themselves from criticism and the consequences of their own bad actions” while average Americans suffered.

Roberts and other Heritage Foundation officials were not available for comment. A Heritage Foundation spokesperson said Project 2025 is a product of more than 100 conservative organizations and “does not speak for any candidate or campaign.”

According to political experts, the conservative strategy of criticizing “woke” liberal ideas, many of which got traction in California, has become particularly useful in the current election cycle, as Trump’s base has proved especially receptive to conservative virtue signaling on issues such as abortion, climate change, guns, immigration and LGBTQ+ rights.

That strategy will only grow, the experts said, if President Biden comes off the Democratic ticket and is replaced with a California politician such as Newsom or Vice President Kamala Harris, a former senator.

“This is a vital angle to be hitting,” said Jon Michaels, a constitutional law professor at UCLA with a forthcoming book on right-wing authoritarianism. “California becomes a convenient foil, and the excesses of California are what Republicans can run against.”

Issues at play

Conservatives have long cast California — sometimes fairly, other times not — as a failing state crumbling under the weight of out-of-control regulation, crime and homelessness, and the 2024 race has intensified those lines of attack.

“Instances of California really going in a different direction from what the Republican Party wants is all over the [Project 2025] report — everything from diversity, equity and inclusion, to connections to China, to high tech [companies] to homelessness,” said Bruce Cain, a political science professor at Stanford University. The aim is to portray a state in disorder, an “undemocratic, patronizing state controlled by the high-tech elites completely out of touch with where the rest of America is.”

Both Project 2025 and the GOP platform envision a second Trump presidency where federal bureaucrats use the powers of the executive branch to beat back an array of California policies — including protections for undocumented immigrants, the environment, unionized workers, those seeking abortions and transgender youth.

In its phrasing, the GOP platform is at times bombastic — just like Trump, who helped draft it — and lays out a relatively clear framework for how he intends to govern in sharp contrast to California leaders.

“California becomes a convenient foil, and the excesses of California are what Republicans can run against.”

— Jon Michaels, constitutional law professor at UCLA

For example, Los Angeles and other major California cities decline to use their police forces or city personnel to enforce immigration laws. Trump’s platform promises to “cut federal funding” to such jurisdictions.

California is in the process of reining in oil drilling in the state, with leaders raising concerns about the environmental and health impacts. The platform calls on the nation to “DRILL, BABY, DRILL.”

California requires LGBTQ+-inclusive curricula in schools and the Democrat-controlled state Legislature just passed a law barring school officials from informing parents of kids who identify as transgender at school if the kids don’t want that information shared. The platform says Republicans support “parental rights” and will “defund schools that engage in inappropriate political indoctrination of our children” or push “radical gender ideology.”

The Project 2025 plan is even more ardent in its rebuke of California policies.

Roberts, in his foreword of Project 2025, speaks much of American liberty, but defines it squarely within a Christian nationalist framework, saying the Constitution gives each American the liberty to “live as his Creator ordained” — to “do not what we want, but what we ought.”

The plan calls on Trump, if elected, to “make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors” — a process that it says should start with deleting all references to queer identities, “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” abortion or “reproductive health” from federal legislation and rules.

Calling California and other liberal states “sanctuaries for abortion tourism,” the plan says the Trump administration should “push as hard as possible to protect the unborn in every jurisdiction in America,” work with Congress to enact antiabortion laws, and mandate state reporting of abortion data to the federal government — including patients’ state of residence and “reason” for receiving a procedure.

Critics say such actions would empower conservative states that ban abortions to identify and punish women who go to liberal states such as California to have those procedures.

The party platform does not call for a national abortion ban, which rankled some on the right, but does back state policies restricting it and says Republicans “proudly stand for families and Life.”

Both plans criticize the nation’s shift to electric vehicles, and Project 2025 says the federal government should rescind a waiver allowing California to set its own clean air standards around fuel economy, which underpins the state’s goal of shifting exclusively to zero-emissions vehicles by 2035.

The fight ahead

Although Project 2025 is authored in large part by prominent advisors and former appointees of Trump, he has recently sought to distance himself from the plan.

In an online post July 5, Trump wrote that he knew “nothing about it,” but also that “some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” Even so, he wished those behind the plan “luck.”

“This isn’t Alabama or Mississippi. You are taking on a very powerful state with a lot of resources — and a will to resist.”

— Bruce Cain, political science professor at Stanford University

Trump’s campaign referred questions about Project 2025 and the GOP platform, and their relation to California policies, to the Republican National Committee.

Anna Kelly, a committee spokesperson, said the party platform “contains commonsense policies like cutting taxes, securing the border, ending absurd [electric vehicle] mandates, securing our elections, defending our constitutional rights, and keeping men out of women’s sports” — with the last being an apparent reference to transgender women.

“If reporters find those principles contradictory to values pushed by California leaders,” Kelly wrote, “maybe it’s time for Democrats to evaluate how their state is run.”

Democrats, including Biden, have repeatedly tied Trump to Project 2025, saying his claims of distance from it are absurd given how many people in his orbit are leading it. On Tuesday, Harris called out Project 2025 at a campaign event in Las Vegas, noting that it calls for the dissolution of the U.S. Department of Education, cuts to Social Security and a nationwide abortion ban.

“If implemented, this plan would be the latest attack in Donald Trump’s full-on assault on reproductive freedom,” she said.

Experts said that if Biden is replaced by Harris or Newsom — who are considered leading candidates amid a swirl of doubt about Biden’s age and ability to defeat Trump — conservative derision about California and its liberal policies will increase, and find a receptive audience in many parts of the country.

A Times survey earlier this year found that 50% of U.S. adults believe California is in decline, with 48% of Republicans saying it is “not really American.”

If Trump wins, California is expected to lead the liberal resistance to Trump’s agenda, just as it did during his first term, experts said. Such efforts will be hampered by California’s budget woes and the conservative-leaning Supreme Court, they said, but not undone completely.

“California will fight back, and it has the means to fight back,” Cain said. “This isn’t Alabama or Mississippi. You are taking on a very powerful state with a lot of resources — and a will to resist.”

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Kevin Rector

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July 14, 2024
Struggling to Become a Twitch Partner? Even the CEO Faces Rejection!

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Difficult to become a Twitch Partner, for everyone…even the big boss!

The world of streaming on Twitch is more competitive than ever and even the CEO of the platform, Daniel Clancy, experienced it first hand. The CEO of Twitch, who streams on the platform in his spare time, revealed on Twitter/X that he had submitted a secret application to the Twitch Partner Program, but it was rejected. To be admitted to the Twitch Partner Program, streamers must meet several strict criteria, including an average of around 75 viewers per broadcast, excluding views from hosting, raids, first page or integrations. Clancy’s candidacy was rightly rejected because the attendance of his streams was too fluctuating.

A Partner Program too difficult to reach?

This rejection recalls the challenges many streamers face when aspiring to become Partners on Twitch. Streamers who are not CEO of a multinational, and often have more need of the income that could result from it. Even though we can regularly hear criticism on this subject, the Partner Program is still quite strict. And for good reason, it offers Streamer-exclusive benefits, such as monetization opportunities, channel customization, expanded VOD storage, and priority support. The requirement for a constant and high attendance makes accessing the Partner Program difficult, even for established streamers. This is, among other things, what pushes a very large number of them to stream every day of the year or almost.

It’s not humans who decide?

It’s neat that you tested out the process for yourself! Feels very “Undercover Boss”

— MADkurious (@MADkurious) October 21, 2023

not a human response confirmed?

— Taco Existential (@TacoExistential) October 21, 2023

The rejection of the CEO’s candidacy sparked amused reactions from many Internet users, because it is funny to say the least. We also saw some encouraging reactions to push Dan Clancy to persevere, because one day, he will have his partnership! Above all, for some, it may have proven one thing. One thing Twitch – like most social platforms – wouldn’t easily admit: that many things, and in particular the Partner Program, are not managed by humans, but robots. Indeed, a robot does not differentiate between Dan Clancy or another streamer, but judges them all the same way. A human on the other hand… One wonders if a Twitch employee had had to evaluate Dan Clancy’s Partner Program application, would he have validated it? even if it did not completely meet the required criteria?

Find our guide to choosing the best streaming hardware if you want to get started on Twitch or another platform.

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Alice Zampa

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October 25, 2023
‘The Top Hat Club’ Review – I Would Not Join Any Club That Will Take Me As A Member – TouchArcade

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The Top Hat Club ($0.99) is a nostalgic little game in some ways. It’s a platformer with (mostly) single-screen stages that have light puzzle elements. It’s adapted from a browser game. It gives you the whole game for an affordable, simple up-front price. It carries no grand message, and uses a clean but distinct visual style. Oh, and you have to use touch controls. It feels like something that we would have seen pop up ten years ago and taken for granted, but perhaps here and now it is something we can appreciate more.

So yes, The Top Hat Club. A fancy place. Too fancy for the likes of you and me. But our little protagonist has a dream, and that dream is to sidle up to that fancy bar and sip some fancy wine with some fancy gentlemen. The problem is that you can’t even set foot in the door without meeting the dress code, and that means you’ve got to have a top hat. It’s right in the name and everything. Fortunately, top hats seem to just be laying around. All you have to do is don the hat and head for the door. So long as you have the hat, they have to let you go inside… right?

Well, anyway. The goal in most of the game’s thirty-plus stages is to pick up the hat from wherever in the stage it’s located and then make your way to the door. It sounds easy, and sometimes it is. The trick is that if you hit your head or otherwise disturb the hat, it will fall off. And wouldn’t you know it, the stages often have obstacles that will knock that hat clean off your head if you don’t approach things carefully. So you need to make sure you’ve planned a route that will take you to the exit without dropping the hat. You really do have to plan too, as many of the stages include disappearing platforms or other temporary elements that make it so that you can only have one crack at it.

You have unlimited lives, of course. It would be gauche these days if you did not. Annoyingly, whenever you die, lose your hat, or fail the stage for any other reason, a Game Over menu will pop up. You’ll have to manually hit that restart option each time, which is a design choice that runs against the current grain in a way I don’t really care for. I haven’t mentioned it yet, but each stage also has five coins to try to collect. Getting to the exit in most of the stages is a relatively simple affair, but getting the coins requires a good eye for the route you should take and precise execution. You will probably fail a lot, and having to hammer that restart instead of instantly respawning gets agitating.

My other bones to pick with this game come from the controls. First of all, you have to use the touch controls. No controller support right now and I see no indications of it being planned. That isn’t the end of the world, but if you’re going to have a mobile platformer that uses touch controls with virtual buttons as the only means of input, you have to make dead certain those controls are spot-on. Regrettably, I found these ones to be a bit lacking. The game would sometimes miss inputs on the virtual buttons, and that proved to be lethal in some stages. The combination of this issue and the lack of an automatic restart had me crawling the walls at times.

I suppose it speaks to the quality of the game itself that I was willing to persevere through these issues no matter how furious I got. The level designs here are quite good, with a nice balance of puzzles and platforming challenges to keep you on your toes. It seeds in some new gimmicks along the way to freshen things up, and there are some unexpected twists in certain levels that force you to apply the skills you’ve learned in new ways. It’s not a terribly long game on the whole, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome by even a minute. Getting all the coins is a good game extender, and there are a few little secrets to round things out nicely. You get a good buck’s worth out of it, to be sure.

The Top Hat Club feels like it fell out of a different era of the App Store, for better or worse. Mostly better, but I sure do wish that “worse” wasn’t there. It’s a fun platformer with clever stage designs and a fair bit of charm, and while it won’t last a long time it will absorb your attention well until the end. Some touch control issues and minor UI scrapes kept it from knocking my socks off completely, but given the highly reasonable price and everything else it has going for it, I think I can recommend this to mobile platformer fans.

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Shaun Musgrave

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September 18, 2023
BrainGu Secures $125 Million Contract to Revolutionize U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., July 20, 2023 (Newswire.com)
–
BrainGu, a technology company driving innovation through platforms that deliver resilience, scalability, reliability, and security, has been awarded a transformative five-year sole-source IDIQ with a contract ceiling of $125 million to provide cutting-edge Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) capabilities to support the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS).

The IDIQ is a Small Business Innovation Research Phase III award that includes the deployment of a cloud-based command and control environment, bolstering the ABMS capabilities for enhanced operational effectiveness. BrainGu will leverage its expertise in DevSecOps and cloud-native software through its DevSecOps platform Structsure^TM, on-premises, in the cloud, and at the edge, across various security classification levels.

As part of this landmark contract, BrainGu will provide a comprehensive suite of products, and support services, including Structsure with Platform One Big Bang at its core, Mission Application Development, DevSecOps Advisory, and Special Projects, all productized and offered through firm fixed-price items. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center has initially awarded a task order worth $25 million in research, development, test, and evaluation funds for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, underscoring the strategic significance of this partnership for JADC2 initiatives.

“America faces a unique, global challenge as it works to stand up a vast and complex network to connect users in the field with mission-critical data from sensors on the other side of the world,” said BrainGu CEO John “Spence” Spencer-Taylor. “The Small Business Innovation Research Phase III contract signals a clear desire by DoD to establish an innovative platform where new information and leading-edge technologies can be rapidly integrated and utilized. BrainGu’s work in support of Platform One and WIDOW did just that by showcasing how our Structsure platform can transform performance, security, and usability challenges into opportunities. I’m thrilled with the partnership that the Air Force has developed with BrainGu through AFWERX and ABMS. I’m really excited to see how we can take this to the next level by getting these capabilities into the hands of more teams in both government and industry as the JADC2 ecosystem continues to evolve.”

BrainGu continues to establish itself as an industry leader in software innovation, driving further commercialization of key rugged technologies for DevSecOps in mission-critical environments. The company’s unwavering commitment to bringing innovation to regulation-heavy industries and its proven track record have positioned BrainGu as a trusted partner for government and commercial entities alike.

About BrainGu:

BrainGu is a technology company specializing in developer-centric DevSecOps platforms and operator-driven mission applications. We solve complex challenges by taking a human approach to incubating and scaling technologies that solve real-world problems in the hands of operators and mission owners. BrainGu’s platforms deliver resilient, scalable, repeatable, and secure solutions at the speed of relevance. We deliver results in weeks, not years.

Source: BrainGu

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July 20, 2023
TD Bank uses 80% rule to evaluate platform upgrades | Bank Automation News

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TD Bank’s small business ops look to speed of operations, reusability, ability to update and cost to upgrade when determining when it’s time to modernize. If a bank platform is achieving at least 80% of what TD wants it to do, it probably isn’t time to replace the system, Alyson Karow, head of small business […]

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Whitney McDonald

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June 5, 2023
‘Top Hunter Roddy & Cathy’ Review – This One’s a Bit of a Stretch – TouchArcade

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The NEOGEO is generally characterized by, with only a few notable exceptions, fighting games and Metal Slug. Within a couple of years of its launch, the vast majority of the output on the console seemed to be mining (quite successfully) a few particular types of games. To be fair, such was the state of arcades by the mid-1990s. If you weren’t making a fighting game, a licensed beat-em-up, a shoot-em-up, or a puzzle game, you were rowing against the current.

That makes the existence of Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy ($3.99) a bit of a rarity. Developed internally at SNK by ex-IREM staffers, the game arrived in the summer of 1994 alongside The King of Fighters ’94. One of those games became near-legendary, carving its legacy into the very platform in an indelible way. The other was Top Hunter. A quirky little platformer/beat-em-up hybrid for one or two players, one could generously say that it paved the way for Metal Slug in some small way.

While there is no significant shared staff between Top Hunter and Metal Slug, there are some common elements. The visual style has that same sort of silly-but-gritty feel to it, and there are plenty of amusing enemy animations. You can find vehicles to ride on, and you’ll sometimes get your hands on a gun. Platforming is largely perfunctory, with jumping mostly being used to avoid attacks rather than navigating harrowing platforms. Stages are capped off with a boss fight, usually against some kind of large opponent. That’s about all of the shared aspects.

There are two key mechanics to Top Hunter. The first is your stretchy arms, which allow you to grab a variety of objects and either smash them or toss them. You can also use them to work various machines, switches, and so on. You’ll generally defeat foes by smacking them or throwing something at them, but you can make use of some traps and some special moves for a little variety. The other gimmick is that every stage has two planes, and you can hop between them as needed or desired. Sometimes traps or power-ups need to be accessed from the opposite plane, encouraging you to swap regularly.

I’ll be frank: there were a few platformers in this era that tried this kind of thing, and I don’t feel like any of them were substantially better for it. Probably the best of the bunch was Wario Land for the Virtual Boy, and there’s a reason for that. The 3D effect of the console helped solve a problem that seems to be inherent to this kind of design. Namely, it can be difficult at times to tell which plane a given object is on. In this game, it can make it hard to line up throws and even occasionally result in taking a hit you didn’t think was going to hit you. The art style here makes things a bit worse as little is done to distinguish the planes visually.

Well, it’s not a huge deal. A bigger problem with Top Hunter is that it too frequently lacks tension. This is an unusually easy game for an arcade platformer, and once you’ve got the hang of things you can go ridiculously far on each credit. The enemies just don’t pose much of a threat to your extremely versatile and powerful character. There also aren’t enough enemy types, so you’ll start seeing the same faces again and again. It’s amusing to mess around with everything and try defeating enemies in different ways, but ultimately Top Hunter is a little boring.

This boredom can be alleviated somewhat by bringing a friend along for some good old-fashioned co-op mayhem, but this is of course an ACA NEOGEO release for mobile. That means you’ll only be able to play multiplayer if you have some external controllers and don’t mind huddling around your mobile device of choice. I’d imagine for most people, that’s not going to be the typical play experience with this game. You’re most likely going to be playing solo, and that’s the less fun way to go about experiencing Top Hunter.

It does however benefit from the fact that we don’t get too many high-quality, premium games of this kind on mobile. I’d say it takes to touch controls even better than the Metal Slug games do since you don’t have to worry about precise aiming as much. I suppose as a solo experience, it takes to mobile better than some NEOGEO games do. And I do want to stress that the game isn’t a half-effort by any means. It’s quite gorgeous in that way NEOGEO games tended to be, and each of the four worlds have a distinct look to them. You get three levels in each world, plus a rather climactic final stage. If you play the included Japanese version, there are even some secret endings to find. It may not be thrills every minute, but it certainly brings the value.

As this is part of the ACA NEOGEO line, the expected extras and options are all here. You can play with an external controller, you get both regional versions of the game, there are extra modes with their own online leaderboards, and you’ve got more options than you can shake a stick at. The emulation quality is good, and my only gripes about Hamster’s part in all of this are my usual ones about not having online multiplayer or the MVS version as an option. It’s a great package, and it’s a bit luxurious that I’m pretty much used to this level of quality in such a low-cost release.

I’m not the biggest fan of Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy, but it’s a decent enough romp that clearly had a lot of care put into it. A little too easy and repetitive at times, and I’m not sure its dual-plane system works as well as it should, but for a few bucks you’ll get your fun out of it. Add in the usual suite of features that comes with Hamster’s ACA NEOGEO line, and you have a pleasant distraction for a lazy weekend afternoon.

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Shaun Musgrave

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November 28, 2022
Salesforce To Integrate With TikTok And New NFT Platform

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – DECEMBER 01: The Salesforce logo is seen at Salesforce Tower on December 1, 2020 … [+] in San Francisco, California. The cloud-based enterprise software company announced on Tuesday that it will purchase the popular workplace-chat app Slack for $27.7 billion. (Photo by Stephen Lam/Getty Images)

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Salesforce, the cloud-based software company that specializes in customer relationship management (CRM), is set to introduce new features to its offering including NFT Cloud and the social media platform TikTok.

Salesforce NFT Cloud, a new non-fungible token marketplace, will allow users to mint, manage, and sell NFTs, whilst being a no-code platform.

Also, in a pilot that began in July and had a September release, Commerce Cloud users will start to be able to sell through TikTok by actively switching on the site as a usable sales channel within Commerce Cloud’s social media channels which include Instagram and Snapchat. Users will also have features introduced that are associated with the platform, including measuring ad performance and segmenting audiences for ad retargeting.

“We’re making it much easier for merchants to engage in channels on all social channels like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat [and create] relevant offers for their customers through automated feeds and curation,” said Scot Gillespie, executive vice president and general manager of Salesforce Commerce Cloud. “Payments, speed and flexibility continue to be critical for our customers.”

PARIS, FRANCE – OCTOBER 08: In this photo illustration, the social medias applications logos, … [+] Twitter, Google, Google+, Gmail, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are displayed on the screen of an Apple iPhone on October 08, 2018 in Paris, France. Google has decided to close its Google+ social network after discovering a security vulnerability that has affected the data of at least 500,000 users. (Photo Illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images)

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To support sustainability, Salesforce NFT Cloud will exclusively support transactions on more energy-efficient blockchains, this comes after a group letter signed by 400 Salesforce employees listed concerns about security, the unregulated nature of the concept, and the potentially unsustainable byproduct of using mass amounts of energy on – currently – less sustainable blockchain platforms like Ethereum
ETH
.

Talking to TechTarget
TTGT
, John Hughes, an NFT technology consultant and CEO of NearMintNFT said, “I’ve heard them all, [but] if you have legitimate responses to calm the fears, people respond,”

“Every artist I’ve approached has said the same thing to me: ‘Oh, these things are a rip-off, and they’re bad for the environment.’”

“Once a company proves it’s an ethical NFT broker that takes security and sustainability into account — and makes that a team effort in conjunction with marketing staff — it’s possible to build success with an NFT program,” Hughes said.

Talking about the new additions to the Salesforce structure, Matt Meyers, who has been working in the ecosystem for 15 years, runs cybersecurity company Adaptus – the owner of EzProtect that extends the capabilities of Salesforce and other SaaS platforms – and holds the highest certification of Certified Technical Architect said, “I have worked my way up in Salesforce over the years to now having the distinction of being a Certified Technical Architect, which only 400 people in the world hold. I’ve seen a lot.”

BARGTEHEIDE, GERMANY – MAY 03: (BILD ZEITUNG OUT) In this photo illustration, a TikTok App in the … [+] IOS App Store on May 03, 2021 in Bargteheide, Germany. (Photo by Katja Knupper/Die Fotowerft/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

DeFodi Images via Getty Images

“With security and trust being Salesforce’s core values, they have always focused on ensuring their customers’ information is secure. I think with the new additions that are being piloted, TikTok and NFT Cloud, they can overall of course be positive and allow new streams of capability. I think there has to be caution in regards to security however, it’s the one area where there could be vulnerabilities and it’s important Salesforce properly takes that in during the pilot.”

“Coming from a middle-class family that was not wealthy it’s very upsetting to see people losing large swathes of money on crypto and NFTs. Sometimes being people’s retirement money or savings. The Federal Trade Commission indicated this recently with a detailed report, cybersecurity in crypto is paramount and a sector I am also honing in on.” He said.

Through his company, Meyers is also writing a Salesforce security short-form book that is geared at helping to educate companies on how to avoid leaking data in their Salesforce Public Sites and Communities. He is also starting an Instagram channel to help those who are on their journey to grow their career.

Matt Meyers – Salesforce To Integrate With TikTok And New NFT Platform.

Adapts

Meyers added, “I had dedicated my life and career to Salesforce and finally it had paid over. I continued to work my way up until finally I reached a director level and led all of Salesforce’s program architects in the public sector. It was at this time that I realized again that I wanted more. I decided that I wanted to be more independent and run my own company.”

“So I left Salesforce and made a relationship with a major Salesforce consulting firm and while working independently for them partnered with someone and started to grow my own company.”

He continued, “I found that I met many new and younger people wanting to join the journey just as I had years before. I saw their struggles so I decided to start to help them to succeed and taught them as I wished I was taught.”

“Even as I grew my company I still wanted to help others on their journey as well. So I realized that the best way to do this was to look to social media as that is the best way to connect with people.”

Meyers insisted that Salesforce will continue to introduce new – and perhaps daunting – features as time goes on but it’s key for the company to remain at the forefront of technology and user experience, otherwise it could lose its spot as arguably the most renowned SaaS platform in the world.

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Josh Wilson, Contributor

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October 28, 2022