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Lauren Feiner / The Verge:
The US Senate passes the TikTok divestment bill by a margin of 79-18; the legislation now heads to President Biden, who has committed to sign the bill into law — A bill that would force China-based company Bytedance to sell TikTok — or else face a US ban of the platform …
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Casey Newton / Platformer:
Legal scholars discuss how the TikTok divestment bill could survive a First Amendment challenge and why the US will likely rely on a national security argument — The First Amendment is a major obstacle, scholars say — but it isn't insurmountable — On Tuesday, the Senate voted overwhelmingly …
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Alex Barinka / Bloomberg:
Biden signing the TikTok divestment bill starts a 270-day countdown for a sale or a US prohibition; sources say ByteDance sees divestiture as a last resort — - China's ByteDance faces deadline to sell app under US measure — Company braces for legal fight against divest-or-ban efforts
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Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
The FTC bans noncompete clauses that restrict job switching, potentially complicating hiring in Hollywood as firms try to protect trade secrets and other info — The FTC on Tuesday voted to prohibit noncompete provisions in contracts, which could usher in a sea change to worker mobility …
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Rolling Stone:
Ex-AMI CEO David Pecker testifies about agreeing to be Trump's “eyes and ears” and how the National Enquirer used Michael Cohen's prompts to bash Trump rivals — David Pecker testified about his efforts to help Trump win the White House, including by publishing bogus stories about rivals like Ted Cruz
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Seb Joseph / Digiday:
For the third time, Google delays the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome, pushing back its plans to early 2025, after the UK CMA expressed concerns — Google is delaying the end of third-party cookies in its Chrome browser — again. In other unsurprising developments, water remains wet.
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Chris Morris / Fortune:
Taylor Swift's new album smashed streaming records; Spotify says it had 300M+ streams on launch day and became 2024's most-streamed album within just 12 hours — Never bet against Swifties. — Taylor Swift's loyal fan base not only sent the singer's latest album, The Tortured Poets Department …
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Spotify, City A.M., SIDE-LINE, CNN and Music Business Worldwide
Max Goldbart / Deadline:
The UK's Channel 4 commits to make more shows outside England, after calls to increase its quota to make 9% of shows in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland — Channel 4 has bowed to pressure from producers and will slowly start making more shows outside of England, its boss Alex Mahon revealed today.
Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter:
NYT's David Marchese and Lulu Garcia-Navarro discuss The Interview, a new franchise launching on April 27 that will appear in the Magazine and in podcast form — A new franchise that will appear in the Magazine and in podcast form, ‘The Interview’ will see hosts David Marchese and Lulu speak with newsmaking guests.
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New York Times, The New York Times Company and Priya Mathew on LinkedIn
Amy Graff / SFGATE:
KQED, a Bay Area NPR and PBS affiliate, is initiating buyouts, and may have layoffs or a hiring freeze; in 2023, revenue hit $90.4M and expenses $100.9M — KQED is initiating staff buyouts, an effort to reduce costs in the face of a budget deficit, SFGATE has learned.
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Current and CalMatters
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Spotify Q1: revenue up 20% YoY to €3.6B, MAUs up 19% to 615M, vs. 617.9M est., subscribers up 14% to 239M, and a €168M operating income; SPOT closed up 11.41% — - Subscribers to paid Spotify tiers jumped 14% to 239 million — Swedish audio-streaming company posted record operating profit
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Fortune, Spotify, Billboard, @xpangler, @mukund, @lucas_shaw, @eldsjal, @thetranscript_, @spotifynews, Digital Music News, CNBC, Billboard, Fast Company, The Wrap, Music Business Worldwide, Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Agence France-Presse, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Music Ally and Reuters
James Warrington / Telegraph:
News Group Newspapers sues ITV and ITN over using a video released by The Sun of the Princess of Wales visiting a farm shop; ITV plans to “strongly resist” — Broadcaster says it will ‘strongly resist’ the copyright infringement claim — Rupert Murdoch is suing ITV and ITN …
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