Social Networks

🔦 Spotlight Hello Los Angeles! In a week where everyone was already arguing about what “the future of entertainment” is supposed to look like, Netflix decided to skip the debate and buy a giant piece of the past and, possibly, the future. Netflix announced a definitive agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s Studios and Streaming business, including Warner Bros. film and television studios plus HBO and HBO Max. This is not just another media merger. It is a power transfer, from the studio era where the gatekeepers were greenlight committees to the platform era where the gatekeepers are subscriber relationships, home screens, and retention math. Here are the bones of the deal. WBD shareholders would receive $27.75 per share, made up of $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in Netflix stock, with the stock portion subject to a symmetrical collar. Netflix puts the transaction at roughly $72 billion in equity value and $82.7 billion in enterprise value, and expects it to close in 12 to 18 months, but only after WBD completes its planned separation of its Global Networks business into Discovery Global, now expected in Q3 2026. Now zoom in on why this matters in Los Angeles specifically. LA’s creative

Back in 2023, Fallen Leaf, Black Drakkar Games, and Dear Villagers released a sci-fi horror adventure game that took PlayStation and PC players to Mars. Today, Feardemic is bringing Xbox players to Fort Solis . Fort Solis  puts you in the boots of Jack and Jessica, two engineers working on Mars, when an alert comes over their coms from Fort Solis, an antiquated base. After arriving to investigate, Jack soon finds the base to be completely abandoned…or is it? Now, onto the game itself! When it comes to controls, it’s minimal; just be prepared to notice that the characters will continue to move a step or two after you stop on the controller. The one major bummer is that there’s no “Run” button, but I’ll get to that later. Sond design and soundtrack, they nailed it. The voice talent of the game’s three main characters, played by Roger Clark, Julia Brown, and the legendary VO actor Troy Baker. All gave great performances that added to their characters, including the other members of the voice cast. When it comes to the game’s graphics and art, that was the selling point for me; the graphics are amazing, but one issue I’ve noticed

The company signed the deal to ensure the platform can continue operating in the United States. The Chinese social media app Tiktok is opened on a smartphone. Jens Kalaene/picture alliance vi Trending on Billboard TikTok has signed a deal to sell its U.S. business to three American investors — Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX — ensuring the popular social video platform can continue operating in the United States. The deal is expected to close on Jan. 22, according to an internal memo seen by The Associated Press. CEO Shou Zi Chew told employees in the memo that ByteDance and TikTok have signed binding agreements with the three investors. Related Half of the new TikTok U.S. joint venture will be owned by a consortium of investors — among them Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX will each hold a 15% share. Another 30.1% will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors and 19.9% will be retained by the China-based ByteDance, according to the memo. The U.S. venture will have a new, seven-member majority-American board of directors, the memo said. It will also be subject to terms that “protect Americans’ data and U.S. national security.” U.S. user data will be stored locally in a

'Landman' Star's Spicy Instagram Photos Have Internet On Edge Paulina Chavez stars as Ariana in the hit series "Landman." Published December 19, 2025 4:00 AM EST • Updated December 18, 2025 10:07 PM EST Paulina Chavez is cooking on social media as "Landman" season two rolls on. Chavez plays Ariana in Taylor Sheridan's hit series about the oil business in Texas, and her character has drawn a variety of reactions. Some fans love Ariana's relationship with Cooper Norris. Others absolutely despise her character and presence in the show. Either way, there's no doubt Chavez's performance as Cooper's love interest is 100% moving the needle. Paulina Chavez stars as Ariana in the hit series "Landman." Her character is one of the most polarizing on the show. (Photo by Bryan Steffy/Getty Images) Paulina Chavez puts Instagram skills on display. Seeing as how I'm a Big J journalist, I never leave a stone unturned when researching a story. Seeing as how it's clear Chavez is going to be a major part of "Landman" moving forward, I decided to see what kind of following she's building on Instagram. The answer? An impressive one. She's racked up 346,000 followers with content that regularly goes viral.

Listen to the latest episode of Mixed Signals here . Adam Mosseri joins Mixed Signals to talk about what Instagram actually is in 2025, and what it isn’t. Max and Ben ask about the platform’s new move onto TV screens, the dominance of Reels and DMs, and whether “everything is becoming television.” Mosseri also explains how the company is competing with TikTok and YouTube, and whether “AI slop” is a legitimate concern for social media feeds Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter: https://www.semafor.com/newsletters/media For more from Think with Google, check out ThinkwithGoogle.com. Find us on X: @semaforben, @maxwelltani If you have a tip or a comment, please email us mixedsignals@semafor.com

AI tools under the antitrust spotlight, as Commission opens abuse of dominance cases into both Meta and Google 19 December 2025 The European Commission has opened twin investigations into Meta and Google’s conduct in relation to generative AI assistants and related services. Whilst both cases are at a very early stage, they indicate a broadening of the scope of the potential competition concerns the Commission is likely to examine in AI markets – which the Digital Markets Act’s (DMA) static rulebook appears ill-equipped to address. What the Commission is investigating The investigations into each of Meta and Google are entirely separate and self-standing. Nevertheless, the proximity of their announcements was striking, with the Commission’s  announcement of the Meta investigation coming on 4 December 2025, and the  announcement in relation to Google following only five days later, on 9 December. This proximity appears more than co-incidental.  Meta: access for AI providers to WhatsApp The Commission’s investigation into Meta’s conduct concerns a new policy, announced in October 2025, prohibiting businesses whose primary service is a general-purpose AI assistant from using the WhatsApp Business Solution (WBS – a tool that allows businesses to integrate with WhatsApp in order to communicate with their customers). Where

LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky is the master of careers, leading a platform that enables over one billion people worldwide to connect over jobs and business tips, but this doesn’t mean that he agrees with every piece of advice users share. That includes five-year career plans. Although a five-year plan may help people set their goals and stay on track with where they want to be, Ryan believes that the approach is “outdated” considering the fast pace of today’s job market. Speaking on a recent ‘No One Knows What They’re Doing’ podcast , hosted by content creator Erin McGoff on YouTube, the CEO said: “You’ll hear people frequently say, ‘hey, you have a five-year plan, like, chart out what the next five years of your life are going to look like, and then follow the path and follow that plan. “And in reality, when you know technology and the labour market and everything is moving beneath you, I think having a five-year plan is a little bit foolish.” Erin McGoff, host of the 'No One Knows What They're Doing' podcast Instead, he advised that it’s best for people to focus on what they want to learn and the experiences they want

A viral reel by a job hunt coach has exposed a new LinkedIn interview scam, warning candidates to watch out for fake recruiter emails, suspicious links and requests to turn off security settings. 'I just got scammed': A woman in a viral video exposed a new LinkedIn scam(Instagram/vin_thejobhunt) A new LinkedIn recruitment scam is doing the rounds, and job hunt coach Vini has warned jobseekers to stay alert after she narrowly escaped a fake interview process that looked legitimate at every step. In a viral Instagram reel, Vini shared how she applied for a role that appeared credible and professional, received a formal email response, and was sent what looked like a genuine interview link. Believing the opportunity was real, she spent hours preparing for the interview. The first red flag emerged when the Zoom interview link worked only on Android and Windows devices and failed on iPhones and Macs. The link then prompted her to turn off her VPN — a request she says no legitimate recruiter would ever make. A closer look at the sender’s email ID revealed a suspicious domain, confirming her fears. “That’s when it hit me — I had been scammed,” Vini said in the

(Image credit: Meta) A new WhatsApp scam called 'GhostPairing' has been discovered This tricks users into giving a criminal access to their account The attacker can then commit identity theft and scam others There’s no shortage of ways that hackers and other criminals will attempt to gain access to online accounts, but now another has just been discovered, and this specifically relates to WhatsApp. Gen Digital (via Bleeping Computer) has discovered a WhatsApp account takeover approach that it’s dubbing ‘GhostPairing’ – and when a criminal successfully carries this out, it gives them full access to your WhatsApp account, potentially without you even realizing. So it’s worth knowing what to look out for. The attempt starts by the victim being sent a message from one of their contacts, generally saying something like “Hey, I just found your photo”, followed by a link. That link will appear with a Facebook-like preview, as you can see in the image below, but the link itself won’t actually take you to Facebook. A GhostPairing WhatsApp scam message (Image credit: Gen Digital) Instead, it will take you to a page hosted by the criminals that’s designed to look like Facebook, and will ask you to log

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