Facebook announced on Wednesday that it’s launching “Creator Fast Track,” a new program designed to help creators grow on Facebook with guaranteed pay and increased content reach. The social network also shared that it paid creators nearly $3 billion through its monetization programs in 2025, a 35% increase from the …

In recent years, people have been increasingly looking for new ways to form platonic connections, as loneliness and social isolation have become more prevalent. Surgeon General went so far as to label this issue a public health crisis. Remote workers, who miss the everyday interactions found in an office, and …

Meta is considering major layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company’s workforce, according to Reuters. These layoffs could help the Facebook parent company offset its aggressive spending on AI infrastructure, as well as AI-related acquisitions and hiring. Meta employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31, according …

After widespread complaints that Facebook has become an “AI slop hellscape,” Meta on Friday announced new tools to detect impersonation, as well as updated creator guidelines that better define what Facebook considers to be “original content. ” Last year, the company announced a crackdown on spammy and unoriginal content — …

Digg — Kevin Rose’s reboot of his once-popular link-sharing site — is laying off a sizable portion of its staff, the company announced on Friday. The startup is not closing, however, Digg CEO Justin Mezzell said. Instead, Rose will return to work on Digg full-time as the company tries to …

Dating app maker Bumble is venturing into generative AI. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, Bumble introduced a new AI assistant it’s calling “Bee,” designed to become a personal matchmaker that learns users’ “values, relationship goals, communication style, lifestyle, and dating intentions” through private chats. It then uses those …

Tinder held its inaugural product keynote on Thursday, unveiling an ambitious slate of updates designed to reinvigorate its product, bolster safety, and harness AI. This comes on the heels of Match Group’s $50 million investment in product development, announced last August, as the parent company looks to re-engage its user …

AltStore PAL, an alternative app store for iOS, made possible by new regulations in markets like the EU and Japan, is integrating with the open social web. The company on Wednesday announced support for the fediverse, the open social web that runs on ActivityPub, which underpins apps like Mastodon, Flipboard, …

Meta acquired Moltbook, the Reddit-like “social network” where AI agents using OpenClaw can communicate with one another. The news was first reported by Axios and later confirmed to TechCrunch. Moltbook is joining Meta Superintelligence Labs, a Meta spokesperson told us. Moltbook creators Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr will join the …

The Berlin-based startup Periwinkle is offering a new avenue for those wanting to leave centralized social media operated by Big Tech companies. Instead of joining a decentralized, open social networking app like Mastodon or Bluesky, Periwinkle allows anyone to set up a social media account on their own domain, under …