TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: TechCrunch

🤳First Amendment fight: The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this morning regarding the bill that forces TikTok's parent company, China's ByteDance, to divest its U.S. operations or face a ban in the country. The next nine days are going to be interesting. Read more

☹️Meta divests from diversity: Meta is getting rid of its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that include: trying to hire a diverse workforce and sourcing from diverse-owned vendors. It's also eliminating its DEI department. Yikes. Read more

🚫Ask and you shall receive: Yesterday we told you that Google searches regarding how to delete accounts on Meta platforms were skyrocketing. If you're one of the people who want to delete your Facebook, we're here to help. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Sean O'Kane

🔎Zoomin in a Zoox: At CES this week, Kirsten Korosec took a few rides in Zoox robotaxis, which are expected to start rolling out in a few cities this year. She reports that the car came across numerous obstacles and overall, the robotaxi reacted safely and with ease. Read more

👑Data is king: In a saturated AI market, how do startups stand out to potential investors? We asked some of them, and the majority said that having proprietary, or otherwise hard to source, data gives AI companies an edge. Read more

🎙️CES chit chat: On today's episode of Equity, the hosts talked about all the tech triumphs and misses from CES 2025. They also talked about Meta's content moderation changes, startup news, and more. Listen here

🤗Hug a friend: AI developer platform Hugging Face settled its lawsuit against Korean AI startup FriendliAI today. The lawsuit was initially filed two years ago, with Hugging Face accusing FriendliAI of breaching a patent regarding "batching with iteration-level scheduling." Read more

😦Hacked! A Chinese hacking group has apparently repeatedly hacked the U.S.'s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. department, which reviews foreign investments and transactions that could affect national security. Read more

Around the web

💻A computer celebration: The world's most powerful supercomputer, El Capitan, was officially dedicated in California yesterday and will now work on an array of classified tasks related to nuclear weapons. When I get home, I'm dedicating my computer to The Sims 3. Read more

🛍️Buy before you try: It's a bad day to be an Amazon influencer. The company announced today that it will end its "Prime Try Before You Buy" program on January 31. The program allowed people to order and try on clothes and shoes and only pay for what they wanted to keep. Read more