BARBARA ORTUTAY

Technology writer covering social media and the internet

(AP Illustration/Jenni Sohn)

Insider Q&A: Trust and safety exec talks about AI and content moderation

Alex Popken was a trust and safety executive at Twitter, leaving in 2023 after a decade at the social media company focusing on content moderation.

Pages from the CyberTipline website are seen on a computer in New York on Friday, April 19, 2024. A tipline set up 26 years ago to combat online child exploitation is “enormously valuable” but hasn't lived up to its potential. That’s what a new report from the Stanford Internet Observatory released on Monday, April 22, 2024 has found. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)

Report urges fixes to online child exploitation CyberTipline before AI makes it worse

A tipline set up 26 years ago to combat online child exploitation is “enormously valuable” but hasn’t lived up to its potential.

FILE - Elon Musk appears at an event in London, on Nov. 2, 2023. A crusading Brazilian Supreme Court justice included Musk as a target in an ongoing investigation over the dissemination of fake news and opened a separate investigation late Sunday, April 7, 2024, into the executive for alleged obstruction. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool, File)

What to know about Elon Musk’s ‘free speech’ feud with a Brazilian judge

Elon Musk is clashing with a bald, athletically built Supreme Court justice in Brazil over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation on X.

FILE - Workers install lighting on an "X" sign atop the company headquarters, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, July 28, 2023. A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by Elon Musk's X Corp. against the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate, which has documented the increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased by the Tesla owner. On Monday, March 25, 2024 U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer dismissed the suit, writing in his order that it was “unabashedly and vociferously about one thing" — punishing the nonprofit for its speech. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

Judge dismisses lawsuit by Musk’s X against nonprofit researchers tracking hate speech on platform

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s X Corp. against the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate, which has documented the increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased by the Tesla owner.

FILE- In this March 13, 2019, file photo Facebook, Messenger and Instagram apps are are displayed on an iPhone in New York. A group of 40 state attorneys general sent a letter to Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta expressing concern over what they say is dramatic uptick of consumer complaints about account takeovers and lockouts. The AGs called on Meta to do a better job preventing account takeovers. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

Most teens report feeling happy or peaceful when they go without smartphones, Pew survey finds

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. teens say they feel happy or peaceful when they don’t have their phones with them, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.

FILE - Computer monitors and a laptop display the X, formerly known as Twitter, sign-in page, July 24, 2023, in Belgrade, Serbia. Former senior executives of Twitter filed suit against Elon Musk and X Corp. on Monday, March 4, saying they are entitled to more than $128 million total in unpaid severance payments. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)

Former Twitter executives sue Elon Musk over firings, seek more than $128 million in severance

Former senior executives of Twitter are suing Elon Musk and X Corp., saying they are entitled to a total of more than $128 million in unpaid severance payments.

FILE - Computer monitors and a laptop display the X, formerly known as Twitter, sign-in page, July 24, 2023, in Belgrade, Serbia. Attorneys for X Corp. and a research organization that studies online hate speech traded arguments in court Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, after the social media platform sued the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate for documenting the recent increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased by Elon Musk. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)

Musk’s X asks judge to penalize nonprofit researchers tracking rise of hate speech on platform

Attorneys for X Corp. and a research organization that studies online hate speech have traded arguments in court in a legal battle over the organization’s reports on the increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased by Elon Musk in 2022.

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Feb. 27, 2024, in Washington. Biden on Feb. 28 is signing an executive order aiming to better protect Americans' personal data on everything from biometrics and health records to finances and geolocation from foreign adversaries like China and Russia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Biden acts to better protect Americans’ personal data such as health records and finances

President Joe Biden is signing an executive order aiming to better protect Americans’ personal data on everything from biometrics and health records to finances and geolocation from foreign adversaries like China and Russia.

FILE - The icon for the dating app Tinder appears on a device, July 28, 2020, in New York. Tinder, Hinge and other dating apps are designed with addictive features that encourage “compulsive” use, a proposed class action lawsuit against parent company Match Group claims. The lawsuit filed Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024, says Match intentionally designs its dating platforms with game-like features that “lock users into a perpetual pay-to-play loop” prioritizing profit over promises to help users find relationships. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison, File)

How dating apps turn love seekers into addicts, according to a new lawsuit

Tinder, Hinge and other dating apps are designed with addictive features that encourage compulsive use.

FILE - This Sept. 20, 2017, file photo shows a sign at the Disney store on the Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris, France. Disney reports earnings on Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

Disney posts solid Q1 results thanks to its theme parks and cost cuts

Disney has reported stronger-than-expected earnings in the final three months of 2023. The results for its fiscal quarter were boosted by cost cuts and growing revenue from its theme-parks business.

File - People show photos of their loved ones before the start of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with the heads of social media platforms on Capitol Hill in Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, to discuss child safety. The CEOs got grilled by Senate lawmakers in an emotional and often heated hearing about the dangers their platforms pose to children. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

What parents need to know to keep their kids safe on social media

Social media CEOs got grilled by Senate lawmakers this week in an emotional and often heated hearing about the dangers their platforms pose to children — sexual predators, videos encouraging suicide and glorifying eating disorders, bullying and addictive features, just to name a few.

FILE - A person stands in front of a Meta sign outside of the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., March 7, 2023. Meta releases results on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Meta posts sharp profit, revenue increase in Q4 thanks to cost cuts and advertising rebound

Meta Platforms Inc. tripled its profit and posted sharply higher revenue in the final quarter of 2023, boosted by a rebound in digital advertising as well cost cutting and layoffs in what CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the “year of efficiency.”

With people holding photos of their loved ones in the audience, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, to discuss child safety. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Meta, TikTok and other social media CEOs testify in heated Senate hearing on child exploitation

The CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X and other social media companies are testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday about child safety on their platforms.

Court documents underscore Meta’s ‘historical reluctance’ to protect children on Instagram

Newly unredacted documents from New Mexico’s lawsuit against Meta underscore the company’s historical reluctance to keep children safe on its platforms.

Meta to hide posts about suicide, eating disorders from teens’ Instagram and Facebook feeds

Meta says it will start hiding inappropriate content from teenagers’ accounts on Instagram and Facebook.

FILE - This combination of photos shows logos of X, formerly known as Twitter, top left; Snapchat, top right; Facebook, bottom left; and TikTok, bottom right. Social media companies collectively made over $11 billion in U.S. advertising revenue from minors last year, according to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health released Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023. (AP Photo, File)

Social media companies made $11 billion in US ad revenue from minors, Harvard study finds

A study from Harvard says social media companies collectively made over $11 billion in U.S. advertising revenue from minors last year.

File - Characters removed from a sign on the Twitter headquarters building are piled on a street in San Francisco on July 24, 2023. A little more than a year ago, Elon Musk walked into Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, fired its CEO and other top executives and began transforming the social media platform into what's now known as X. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)

The year of social media soul-searching: Twitter dies, X and Threads are born and AI gets personal

We lost Twitter and got X. We tried out Bluesky and Mastodon (well, some of us did). We fretted about AI bots and teen mental health.

FILE - A sign stands outside the Federal Trade Commission building, Jan. 28, 2015, in Washington. The FTC is proposing sweeping changes to a decades-old law that regulates how online companies can track and advertise to children, including turning off targeted ads to kids under 13 by default and limiting push notifications. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FTC proposes strengthening children’s online privacy rules to address tracking, push notifications

The Federal Trade Commission is proposing sweeping changes to a decades-old law that regulates how companies can track and advertise to children, including turning off targeted ads to kids under 13 by default.

FILE - A sign encouraging customers to order grocery items online and pick them up at a store is displayed at a WalMart Neighborhood Market in Bentonville, Ark., Thursday, June 4, 2015. Walmart is the latest company to join the growing flock of major advertisers to pull spending from X, Elon Musk’s beleaguered social media company, amid concerns about hate speech — as well as reaching a sizeable audience on the platform. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston, File)

X says Walmart pulled ads in October, weeks before Media Matters hate speech report and Musk rant

Walmart is the latest company to publicly join the growing flock of major advertisers to pull spending from X, Elon Musk’s beleaguered social media company, amid concerns about hate speech — as well as reaching a sizeable audience on the platform.

OpenAI’s unusual nonprofit structure led to dramatic ouster of sought-after CEO

Unlike Google, Facebook and countless other tech giants, the company behind ChatGPT was not created to be a business.

FILE - An "X" sign rests atop the company headquarters in downtown San Francisco, on July 28, 2023. Elon Musk's social media company, formerly known as Twitter, has filed a lawsuit against liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America. X says Media Matters manufactured a report to show advertisers' posts alongside neo-Nazi and white nationalist posts in order to "drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.” (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

Musk’s X sues liberal advocacy group Media Matters over its report on ads next to hate groups’ posts

Elon Musk’s social media company X has filed a lawsuit against liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America.

FILE - Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., takes his seat for a markup business meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023, in Washington. A Senate committee has issued bipartisan subpoenas to the CEOs of Discord, Snap and X, demanding that the heads of the three companies testify at a December hearing on protecting children online. Durbin and Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., announced Monday, Nov. 20, that they had issued the subpoenas to Discord CEO Jason Citron, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, formerly known as Twitter. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Senate panel subpoenas CEOs of Discord, Snap and X to testify about children’s safety online

A Senate committee has issued bipartisan subpoenas to the CEOs of Discord, Snap and X, demanding that the heads of the three companies testify at a December hearing on protecting children online.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, takes part in a discussion entitled "Innovation That Empowers" during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Corporate, global leaders peer into a future expected to be reshaped by AI, for better or worse

President Joe Biden and other global leaders have spent the past few days melding minds with Silicon Valley titans in San Francisco.

Arturo Bejar, former Facebook employee and consultant for Instagram, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law during a hearing to examine social media and the teen mental health crisis, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

A Meta engineer saw his own child face harassment on Instagram. Now, he’s testifying before Congress

On the same day whistleblower Frances Haugen was testifying before Congress about the harms of Facebook and Instagram to children in the fall of 2021, Arturo Béjar, then a contractor at the social media giant, sent an email to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the same topic.

Sam Altman, left, CEO of OpenAI, appears onstage with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at OpenAI DevDay, OpenAI's first developer conference, on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023 in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Barbara Ortutay)

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI hosts its first big tech showcase as the AI startup faces growing competition

Less than a year into its meteoric rise, the company behind ChatGPT has unveiled the future it has in mind for its artificial intelligence technology.

FILE - Twitter's blue bird is seen on its headquarters building in San Francisco, July 24, 2023. One year ago, Elon Musk began transforming the social media platform into what is now known as X. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)

A year after Musk takeover, X struggles with usage decline and misinformation

One year ago, billionaire Elon Musk walked into Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters with a white bathroom sink and a grin, fired its CEO and other top executives and began transforming the social media platform into what is now known as X.

Facebook parent Meta posts sharply higher profit in 3Q thanks to increase in ad revenue

Facebook parent Meta has posted sharply higher earnings for the third quarter, boosted by an increase in advertising revenue and lower expenses after it laid off thousands of workers.

States sue Meta claiming its social platforms are addictive and harm children’s mental health

Dozens of U.S. states, including California, New York, Arizona and Indiana are suing Meta Platforms Inc. for harming young people’s mental health and contributing the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to the platforms.

States sue Meta claiming its social platforms are addictive and harm children’s mental health

Dozens of US states, including California, New York, Arizona and Indiana are suing Meta Platforms Inc. for harming young people’s mental health and contributing the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to the platforms.

(AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin)

Insider Q&A: AbleGamers founder Mark Barlet on the importance of making gaming accessible

Mark Barlet founded AbleGamers in 2004. It’s a nonprofit that works to combat social isolation among people with disabilities using “the power of video games.”