Sara Fischer

Nearly 20% of the top 1000 websites in the world are blocking crawler bots that gather web data for artificial intelligence (AI) services, according to new data from 

Leading media organizations are issuing guidance on leveraging artificial intelligence in the newsroom at the same time they're making licensing deals to let AI firms use their content to train AI models.

A group of prominent media, tech and research executives have raised nearly $3 million to launch an independent policy research center focused on addressing global internet issues, such as disinformation, algorithmic accountability, and the economic health of the news industry. While the Center for News, Technology & Innovation (CNTI) is not designed to lobby or advocate on behalf of specific policy proposals, it does hope to influence future internet policy toward maintaining an open internet and an independent press.

Broadcast and cable usage fell below 50% of total TV usage in the US for the first time in July 2023, the lowest linear total to date, according to Nielsen's latest viewership data from its monthly survey, 

Users who once believed they were contributing their time and creativity are now being asked to pay up by cash-hungry platforms. Elon Musk tweeted that beginning April 15, 2023,

The country's biggest cable companies have been leaning into mobile plans as pay-TV subscriptions plummet and growth from broadband begins to plateau. This matters because cable operators are betting that mobile plans in their bundles will make it harder for consumers to quit their other services.

Google and Meta, known together in the ad industry as the "duopoly," are expected to bring in less than half of all US digital advertising this year for the first time since 2014.

Elon Musk is the latest patron for an alternative-media ecosystem — right-leaning but not conventionally Republican — that has emerged in the last two years. Feeding on resentment against mainstream media, new media players have established a power base via Substack newsletters, podcasts and other independent channels. Writers Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss and Glenn Greenwald are getting new attention with Musk's ownership of Twitter. And they're reigniting long-simmering debates about what constitutes journalism in the internet era.

Many election deniers on the ballot, particularly for the crucial secretary-of-state roles, lost their races. This is because platforms, governments, and the media took countermeasures that were at least partially effective, based on their lessons from 2016, 2018, and 2020.  Though misinformation remains present in large quantities, this time it had less reach, was more spread out, and was harder to find.

Many of the new, conservative apps haven't grown to the point where they can meaningfully rival companies like TikTok or Instagram, but collectively, they have begun to create a new environment for conservative voices. A new Pew Research Center study found that 15% of users of alternative social networks like Getty, Telegram, and Truth Social have been banned from at least one mainstream platform. In August 2022, following the FBI's execution of a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, downloads across 10 alternative apps hit nearly 1 million collectively.