Pranshu Verma / Washington Post: Trump eliminating the USAGM cut the budget of the Open Technology Fund, launched in 2012 to let 24M+ people living under repressive regimes access the internet  —  The demise of the Open Technology Fund could put millions at risk of being targeted by authoritarian governments for their internet activity. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Wayne Ma / The Information: Sources: Apple TV+ is losing $1B+ annually even as its subscriptions grew to ~45M in 2024; source: Apple has spent $5B+ per year on content since its 2019 debut  —  Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook had questions about several pricey movie deals executives of Apple TV+, the company’s video-streaming service … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: Discord plans to roll out third-party ads on its mobile apps, starting with a mobile pilot for Video Quests, video ads that let users earn rewards, in June 2025  —  Video Quests will start rolling out to mobile users in June. … Discord is bringing third-party ads to its mobile platform. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Fortune: Walrus Foundation, which is building an on-chain storage network, raised $140M from Standard Crypto, a16z, and others in a sale of its cryptocurrency, $WAL  —  Blockchain networks that host files aren’t new.  Filecoin, Arweave, and a handful of others promise a Google Cloud-like product … Lees verder op Tech Meme