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CNN contributor and former DHS COS Miles Taylor reveals he is Anonymous, the senior Trump admin official who wrote a NYT column in 2018 and book in 2019 — Mr. Taylor, whose criticisms of President Trump in a New York Times Op-Ed article and subsequent book, roiled Washington and infuriated Mr. Trump …
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Spotify comes under criticism after Joe Rogan interviewed Alex Jones in a three-hour episode of his podcast on Tuesday; Jones was banned from Spotify in 2018 — Jones was banned from Spotify, as well as Facebook, Apple and YouTube, in 2018 — Spotify is under fire after Joe Rogan invited …
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Profile of Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's head of legal, policy, trust & safety, who sources say led it to a tougher line on speech, including a ban on political ads — On a late fall day last year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sat down on a couch on the company's San Francisco roof deck and dug into a problem.
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Wall Street Journal, @nancyscola, @johnhendel, @twittercomms, @nancyscola, @nancyscola, @nancyscola and @politico, more at Techmeme »


Internal email: Spotify defends Joe Rogan interviewing Alex Jones, saying it won't “ban specific individuals from being guests on other people's shows” — In public, Spotify is staying quiet about an appearance by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones yesterday on its flagship podcast …
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Los Angeles Times, Business Insider, @janelytv, Variety, Media Matters for America, Bloomberg, The Wrap, @schoofsfeed, TechCrunch, JRE Library, @slpng_giants, The Hill, Forbes, @thedailybeast, @awallenstein, @buzzfeednews, @internetryan, @krisgoldsmith85, @nathantbernard and @markdistef, more at Techmeme »


Star Tribune abruptly shuts City Pages, a 40-year-old alt weekly in Minneapolis, citing the pandemic and without seeking a buyer — The alt weekly's key advertisers have been hit hard by pandemic. — Minneapolis-based Star Tribune Media Co. announced Wednesday morning that it was abruptly shutting …


Audible adds 100K free podcasts to its catalog, available through the app for all listeners with or without a subscription — It's adding 100,000 podcasts to its catalog — Audible is turning into more of a podcast app. The company announced today that its catalog now contains 100,000 free podcasts …
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@ashleyrcarman, RAIN News, Variety, @nwquah, @davewiner, @mattnavarra and TechCrunch


TikTok says it is working with AP to provide access to an interactive map showing live results for both US federal and state elections in its election guide — TikTok announced this morning it will expand the set of resources provided in its in-app election guide in the U.S. to include direct access …
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The Hill, CNET and blog.youtube, more at Techmeme »


Italy's antitrust authority to investigate Google for alleged abuse of its dominant position in the online display ad market, following a complaint by IAB Italy — ROME/MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's antitrust authority is investigating Alphabet's Google GOOGL.O for alleged abuse of its dominant position …
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Associated Press, TechCrunch and @jason_kint, more at Techmeme »


Former music and comedy executives launch Spoken Giants, a royalty administration agency that claims to be the first for spoken-word works including podcasters — Spoken Giants is a new royalty administration agency that claims to be the first of its kind for copyright holders …
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Deadline


Group Nine's NowThis says it has unionized with the Writers Guild of America East for its 90-person editorial staff — NowThis, a leading producer of video news for mobile use, said Tuesday it has unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. — The parent company, Ben Lerer's Group Nine …


RTL Group sells its stake in Canada-based digital media and tech company BroadbandTV for $120M, as BBTV launches an IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange — European media conglomerate RTL Group has sold its entire stake in BroadbandTV, the digital media and tech company, for $120 million.
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@xpangler


DoubleVerify, which provides ad analytics and fraud detection tools to advertisers and brands, raises $350M — Ad-based platforms can face a lot of heat from advertisers when they can't control how and where their ads run: just look back to the ad boycott against Facebook earlier this year …
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GlobeNewswire, AdExchanger, MarTech Series and Adweek