Technology

Shoppers walk past a "Sale" sign outside a store at the Easton Town Center Mall in Columbus, Ohio, on Jan. 7.

National

Retail Spending Dips For 3rd Straight Month As Infections Surge

1:32pm January 15, 2021

by Alina Selyukh

Restaurants and bars are reeling from spikes of coronavirus cases in their communities. Earlier holiday sales meant online shopping and electronics sales dipped in December. Retail sales fell 0.7%.

Politics & Government

Parler Insists It Would Not Knowingly Tolerate Criminal Activity On Its Site

7:18am January 15, 2021

After big tech firms cut ties with Parler following the attack on the U.S. Capitol, NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Amy Peikoff, Parler's chief policy officer, about its role in promoting misinformation.

Queue Listen Now

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said on Wednesday that he believes tech companies that banned President Trump from various social media platforms was a move that sets a dangerous precedent for a free Internet.

Politics & Government

Twitter CEO Tweets About Banning Trump From Site

7:14am January 14, 2021

by Jaclyn Diaz

Twitter kicked President Donald Trump off of its site following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. CEO Jack Dorsey said major corporations have too much power and pose a risk to a "free" Internet.

Explore Nordic forests (okay, and some monsters) in Röki.

Arts

For The Kid In Your Life, 3 Video Games That Play Like Storybooks

7:00am January 14, 2021

by Ana Diaz

Explore alien worlds, Nordic forests, and European countrysides in these point-and-click games — which may not have been designed specifically for kids, but will definitely keep them entertained.

Parler remained unavailable on Wednesday morning. Its app was also blocked by Google and Apple

Amazon Says Parler Systematically Unwilling To Remove Violent Content

1:15pm January 13, 2021

by Alina Selyukh

Parler sued after Amazon Web Services booted it off the public Internet. The cloud service says the site has allowed threatening and hateful posts, even after last week's riot at the Capitol.

YouTube is the latest social media company to shut down President Trump's account following the riots at the U.S. Capitol.

Politics & Government

YouTube Joins Twitter, Facebook In Taking Down Trump's Account After Capitol Siege

11:06am January 13, 2021

by Jaclyn Diaz

The move, which suspends the president's account for a week, comes after the video platform said a livestream of his remarks on Tuesday violated YouTube's community standards.

British Tech Company Unveils Robotic Kitchen Assistant

5:56am January 13, 2021

Moley Robotics unveiled a kitchen robot that can cook 5,000 recipes from scratch. The robot has arms, hands, cameras, and sensors that enable it to prepare full meals. It even does the dishes.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is shown testifying at a Senate hearing on Capitol Hill last October. Facebook and Twitter announced new actions to curb the spread of misinformation.

National

Facebook Removes 'Stop The Steal' Content; Twitter Suspends QAnon Accounts

2:16pm January 12, 2021

by Brakkton Booker

Twitter has suspended more than 70,000 accounts spreading the QAnon conspiracy theory since Friday. Facebook is removing content with the phrase "stop the steal."

The American flag superimposed over a pile of U.S. dollar bank notes.

Tech Giants Join Corporate Reckoning Over Political Spending

9:28pm January 11, 2021

by Alina Selyukh

Money-in-politics groups have welcomed this unusually widespread — and self-initiated — reckoning by corporations over their own role in contributing to the nation's current political state.

Roy Austin Jr. has been named Facebook's vice president of civil rights, a new position within the company with the mandate to oversee its accountability on racial hatred and discrimination on its platform.

National

Facebook Taps Former Obama Official As Vice President Of Civil Rights

7:24pm January 11, 2021

by Brakkton Booker

Roy Austin Jr. will fill the new position, which was created by Facebook after a scathing audit released in July 2020 concluded the company's policies had caused "serious setbacks for civil rights."