Casey Newton
@caseynewton.bsky.social
Email salesman at Platformer.news and podcast co-host at Hard Fork.
Deploying my Manus agent on Instagram with strict instructions to keep scrolling until it has an eating disorder
Meta says it will continue to operate and sell the Manus service, and Manus' talent will join Meta to deliver agents across Meta products, including Meta AI (Meta)
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December 29, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Deploying my Manus agent on Instagram with strict instructions to keep scrolling until it has an eating disorder
Gang please don't use ChatGPT to write your acquisition announcement manus.im/blog/manus-j...
December 29, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Gang please don't use ChatGPT to write your acquisition announcement manus.im/blog/manus-j...
Everyone at SFO: please don’t
Me: 🎶 WHOA-OH! Living on a prayer 🎶
Me: 🎶 WHOA-OH! Living on a prayer 🎶
December 29, 2025 at 3:22 AM
Everyone at SFO: please don’t
Me: 🎶 WHOA-OH! Living on a prayer 🎶
Me: 🎶 WHOA-OH! Living on a prayer 🎶
I bring a kind of “no thanks, just take me online” vibe to airport WiFi capture portals that Boingo really doesn’t like
December 29, 2025 at 12:24 AM
I bring a kind of “no thanks, just take me online” vibe to airport WiFi capture portals that Boingo really doesn’t like
The US just banned a guy from the country (Imran Ahmed) for pointing out that X is full of hate speech
The US is imposing visa restrictions on five Europeans, including Thierry Breton, accusing them of pressuring US tech companies to censor certain US viewpoints (Fatima Hussein/Associated Press)
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December 23, 2025 at 10:24 PM
The US just banned a guy from the country (Imran Ahmed) for pointing out that X is full of hate speech
What I got most wrong in my 2025 predictions, plus 11 new predictions for 2026 www.platformer.news/2026-tech-pr...
December 19, 2025 at 1:52 AM
What I got most wrong in my 2025 predictions, plus 11 new predictions for 2026 www.platformer.news/2026-tech-pr...
Reposted by Casey Newton
*smashes the buzzer so hard it shatters into a million pieces* WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU’D SAY IN BED
December 18, 2025 at 4:21 PM
*smashes the buzzer so hard it shatters into a million pieces* WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU’D SAY IN BED
Sauron releases a nine-pillar hobbit policy framework for Middle-earth
a16z releases a nine-pillar AI policy framework for Congress, including restricting AI use for under-13s without parental consent and keeping a role for states (Punchbowl News)
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December 17, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Sauron releases a nine-pillar hobbit policy framework for Middle-earth
I wrote about the great Reuters investigation into rampant Chinese scams on Meta's platforms and the class-action case that has the company worried www.platformer.news/meta-scams-c...
December 16, 2025 at 1:39 AM
I wrote about the great Reuters investigation into rampant Chinese scams on Meta's platforms and the class-action case that has the company worried www.platformer.news/meta-scams-c...
xAI's lack of experience in selling to big businesses is really showing in the company's inability to sell MechaHitler to the enterprise
Sources: xAI has created an enterprise AI sales group, but xAI's lack of experience in selling to big businesses is holding potential customers back (Theo Wayt/The Information)
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December 15, 2025 at 6:42 PM
xAI's lack of experience in selling to big businesses is really showing in the company's inability to sell MechaHitler to the enterprise
Reposted by Casey Newton
The system Meta has built tolerates scams on an unbelievable scale. Beijing Tengze was one of Meta’s top 200 worldwide advertisers last year, alongside brands such as BMW and Chanel.
The company mostly advertised scams. We visited its supposed HQ: a fake address in a mountain farming town.
The company mostly advertised scams. We visited its supposed HQ: a fake address in a mountain farming town.
December 15, 2025 at 1:48 PM
The system Meta has built tolerates scams on an unbelievable scale. Beijing Tengze was one of Meta’s top 200 worldwide advertisers last year, alongside brands such as BMW and Chanel.
The company mostly advertised scams. We visited its supposed HQ: a fake address in a mountain farming town.
The company mostly advertised scams. We visited its supposed HQ: a fake address in a mountain farming town.
The amount of money Meta made from Chinese scam ads last year is more than double Reddit's entire business. Have fun on Instagram today!
Internal documents: Meta earned $18B+ in annual ad sales from China in 2024, making up 10%+ of its global revenue, with $3B+ linked to fraudulent ads like scams (Reuters)
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December 15, 2025 at 3:57 PM
The amount of money Meta made from Chinese scam ads last year is more than double Reddit's entire business. Have fun on Instagram today!
It’s easy to laugh at this but I actually rely on automated Fallout recaps to provide me with accurate medical advice
Amazon Prime Video pulls its AI recaps, which it began testing in November, for Fallout, Bosch, and other shows after users noticed errors in the Fallout recaps (Emma Roth/The Verge)
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December 12, 2025 at 7:57 PM
It’s easy to laugh at this but I actually rely on automated Fallout recaps to provide me with accurate medical advice
We have reached the “begging us to come back” stage of X’s decline
An interview with Nikita Bier, who wants to lure journalists back to X with a rebuilt recommendation algorithm with no keyword suppression or manual downranking (Alex Heath/Sources)
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December 12, 2025 at 7:03 AM
We have reached the “begging us to come back” stage of X’s decline
When OpenAI was founded, it was most afraid of causing catastrophe. Today it seems more afraid that users will churn. I wrote about the company at 10: www.platformer.news/openai-10-no...
December 12, 2025 at 2:15 AM
When OpenAI was founded, it was most afraid of causing catastrophe. Today it seems more afraid that users will churn. I wrote about the company at 10: www.platformer.news/openai-10-no...
Preserving America's leadership in open source AI by releasing a closed-source model ripped off from Alibaba
Sources: Meta's new AI model, codenamed Avocado, may launch in spring 2026 as a "closed" model, and was trained using Google's Gemma, OpenAI's gpt-oss, and Qwen (Bloomberg)
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December 10, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Preserving America's leadership in open source AI by releasing a closed-source model ripped off from Alibaba
Australia's ban on under-16s on social media is well on its way to becoming the global norm. I wrote about how platforms lost the argument www.platformer.news/australia-so...
December 10, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Australia's ban on under-16s on social media is well on its way to becoming the global norm. I wrote about how platforms lost the argument www.platformer.news/australia-so...
Every online space is now a casino that has been rigged against you
Study: ~200 Instacart shoppers in four US cities were shown different prices for the same 20 grocery items; Instacart confirms it is running short term "tests" (Ben Casselman/New York Times)
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December 10, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Every online space is now a casino that has been rigged against you
Substack is being very tentative to start, but I'd be shocked if this doesn't end in mandatory programmatic ads attached to all free Substack posts
Hamish McKenzie says Substack is starting to test native sponsorships with some writers but won't take a cut for now (Emily Sundberg/Feed Me)
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December 9, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Substack is being very tentative to start, but I'd be shocked if this doesn't end in mandatory programmatic ads attached to all free Substack posts
Reposted by Casey Newton
snort. "This marked perhaps the first time that X has been described as a successful tech company." www.platformer.news/x-eu-fine-ac... by @caseynewton.bsky.social
How X made the EU's case for it
By banning an ad account on a flimsy pretext, X demonstrated the exact behavior that led the European Union to fine it. PLUS: The state AI law moratorium is back, and the Paramount-Netflix fight
www.platformer.news
December 9, 2025 at 6:41 PM
snort. "This marked perhaps the first time that X has been described as a successful tech company." www.platformer.news/x-eu-fine-ac... by @caseynewton.bsky.social
When X banned the European Commission's ad account in retaliation for a fine, it demonstrated the exact sort of capricious behavior the DSA is designed to stop www.platformer.news/x-eu-fine-ac...
December 9, 2025 at 1:40 AM
When X banned the European Commission's ad account in retaliation for a fine, it demonstrated the exact sort of capricious behavior the DSA is designed to stop www.platformer.news/x-eu-fine-ac...
Reposted by Casey Newton
ok kudos to the team. i thought this was pretty streamlined
December 8, 2025 at 9:21 PM
ok kudos to the team. i thought this was pretty streamlined
This "process" is going to end with Trump being awarded the 2025 Netflix Peace Prize
President Trump says Netflix's planned acquisition of WBD will have "to go through a process", as it would create an entity with "a lot of market share" (Bloomberg)
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December 8, 2025 at 12:02 AM
This "process" is going to end with Trump being awarded the 2025 Netflix Peace Prize
Reposted by Casey Newton
Here's the CEO of Nvidia calling Trump a "genius" for "saying what's on his mind" when he called a reporter piggy. Just total cowardice and moral bankruptcy from people who know better.
Jensen is having no part of the “Quiet, Piggy” chat.
$NVDA
$NVDA
December 4, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Here's the CEO of Nvidia calling Trump a "genius" for "saying what's on his mind" when he called a reporter piggy. Just total cowardice and moral bankruptcy from people who know better.
A cool thing about the DSA is that it requires platforms to share data with researchers so you can study their failures. And if you don't then they charge you lots of money
And here it is: the EU’s first big fine against X under the Digital Services Act www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/t...
Elon Musk’s X Hit With $140 Million Fine in Europe
www.nytimes.com
December 5, 2025 at 3:40 PM
A cool thing about the DSA is that it requires platforms to share data with researchers so you can study their failures. And if you don't then they charge you lots of money